BELHAVEN — The Town of Belhaven has agreed to pay half of a legal bill related to the Save the Hospital campaign.

At a Board of Aldermen meeting on Monday, the board voted 4-1 to pay about $3,750 of a $7,498.15 bill from law firm Ward and Smith, P.A.

Alderman Ricky Credle was the sole dissenting vote, and Mayor Adam O’Neal was absent from the meeting.

Per O’Neal, Pungo Medical Center, the nonprofit created to run the hospital upon its reopening, has agreed to cover the other half, town Manager Woody Jarvis said at the meeting.

Jarvis said he tried to negotiate the bill to a lower total, but after trying all avenues, the total looks solid.

“I don’t think it’s going to go away,” Jarvis told the board. “I don’t think we’ll have any luck with them cutting their bill down.”

“I have exhausted all of my capabilities of negotiating any part of the bill,” he added.

Alderman Amos Wilson made the motion to accept the terms, and said he wants people to know the town will stand tall and pay its debts.

“This is our bill. I like to pay my bills,” Wilson said.

Jarvis said Ward and Smith assisted the town with strategies related to reopening the hospital over the course of 2015. He said the firm did not have any part in the court claims the Town brought against Vidant Health and Pantego Creek LLC, which owns the hospital property.

“There have been several different sets of attorneys consulted,” Jarvis said, adding that the $3,750 amount will be taken out of the $15,000 budgeted for the hospital campaign in the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

The Town of Belhaven and some of its residents began efforts to reopen the hospital after the closure of Vidant Pungo Hospital in 2014 due to operating on a deficit. Over the past two years, efforts have included walks to Raleigh and Washington, D.C., trips to federal and state courts, an eminent domain claim attempt on the property, and most recently, a plan to partner with Strategic Health Care LLC to provide veterans care at the reopened facility.

Jarvis said there is no deadline for the Ward and Smith bill, but the sooner it is paid the better.