Natchez-Adams County recreation agreement remains unresolved

NATCHEZ, Miss. –Adams County supervisors are planning to meet with Natchez aldermen and the mayor to continue discussing details of the recreation agreement they’ve been toiling to downsize for several months to only include the community pool operations.

City and county officials have been exchanging proposals to revamp the six-year-old joint recreation program since Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson and aldermen decided to do their own parks improvement initiative without the county involved.

County supervisors say the latest draft agreement doesn’t specify how much money they must annually allocate for the pool’s operations as they share expenses with city officials. They also noted more details are needed on who’ll manage the swimming pool’s day-to-day operations.

Supervisors agreed Tuesday to arrange a joint meeting with the mayor and aldermen to iron out a new recreation agreement.

The city and county boards in 2015 combined funds to jointly operate a community recreation program run by the Jackson-based YMCA with the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission’s oversight. However, the YMCA pulled out in 2019, leaving the city-county recreation program in disarray not living up to expectations for enhancing recreational offerings.

While the city-county’s consolidated effort did result in building the swimming pool that opened in 2018, much is left to do.

Since Gibson became mayor in July 2020, the Board of Aldermen decided to borrow about $2 million to upgrade city parks.Thepark projects include spending $500,000 for restoring the deteriorating Duncan Park Golf Course clubhouse and $365,000 for the dilapidated North Natchez Youth Center. New tennis courts, playground equipment and splash pads are also in the works.

As city and county officials do away with their joint comprehensive recreation program, county supervisors are envisioning their own park enhancements. They discussed on Tuesday contracting a designer to plan renovations for Liberty Park’s Chester Willis baseball venue.