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NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson expressed confidence Tuesday that Natchez Under-the-Hill will be floodproof in 2022 when work is finished to raise part of Silver Street and protect it from the Mississippi River’s high waters.

The plan is in conjunction with three docks being blueprinted to accommodate river cruise boats that bring passengers to tour Natchez. “The project is going forward,” Gibson said at a meeting of the Natchez Board of Aldermen.

While he didn’t detail how this will be fully funded, the mayor said one of the boat companies has pledged to pay for constructing one dock and as well as part of the costs for elevating the section of Silver Street past Magnolia Grill. American Cruise Line plans to anchor its boats at the ramp where the Isle of Capri floating casino was formerly berthed, according to Gibson.

Viking Cruises plans to build a riverside dock past the end of Silver Street on city-owned property.  The American Queen Steamboat Co. plans to dock its boats by the ramp in front of The Camp and Under-the-Hill Saloon.

While cruises have been halted since March because of the COVID pandemic, ACL and AQ plan resume their river runs next year when deemed safe from the contagious coronavirus. Viking plans to inaugurate its Mississippi River cruises in 2022.

Gibson said an engineering firm will draw up plans for the Under-the-Hill development. He said the rebuilt street will be atop a levee-like formation at Silver Street’s lower section before it converges into D.A. Biglane Street leading up to Canal Street. The section would be built up enough to avert the river’s high rises to the record height it reached in 2011, Gibson said. The river has flooded more frequently in recent years to make accessibility for Under the Hill businesses and riverboats more difficult.

The city in recent years has tried unsuccessfully to get state and federal funds for a riverboat docking facility.

In other business Tuesday, the Board of Aldermen voted to hire an architect to study the costs of renovating the Duncan Park golf course clubhouse. A former Navy Reserve center and college branch built in the 1900s, the building has been used for several years as the city-owned golf course’s clubhouse at Duncan Park.

Gibson said the building is in “deplorable” condition but worthy of renovating.  However, Alderman Billie Joe Frazier said it’s “not worth saving” and should be torn down. He was the lone alderman voting against hiring architect Belinda Stewart, who specializes in historic-preservation projects. She’ll be paid $4,800 to assess the building’s condition and costs for restoring it.

Gibson said a renovated clubhouse could attract more golfers and tourists to Natchez.

The board also agreed to allow the city’s tourism commission develop a virtual reality app for the city’s Proud To Take A Stand monument on the grounds of City Auditorium. It will provide visitors additional information about the “Parchman Ordeal,” when black Natchez civil-rights demonstrators in the 1960s were unjustly arrested and temporarily imprisoned at the state penitentiary.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors expressed alarm Monday about the excessive amount of trash being blown out of garbage trucks on U.S. 61 to Waste Management’s landfill south of Natchez. They said they’ll urge the company to take measures to stop the littering.

“Somebody needs to be held responsible,” said Supervisor Wes Middleton, who noted he has video of truck-hauled trash spewing out on a stretch of highway between Roux 61 restaurant and WM’s garbage dump near Sibley.  “It’s plumb embarrassing,” he said of the trashy thoroughfare many visitors use to enter Natchez.

Waste Management does not pick up residential trash in Adams County but operates the landfill about 15 miles from Natchez for other customers. The county’s trash collector is Metro Service Group. Arrow Disposal Service picks up trash for residents inside Natchez. Both take their garbage to the Riverbend landfill north of Natchez on U.S. 61.

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Adams County is getting nearly $40,000 for its courts thanks to funds distributed by the state in response to COVID. County officials said the money could be used for technology to allow remote video court hearings so people won’t need to gather in courtrooms and risk getting infected by the contagious coronavirus.

The Mississippi Legislature earlier this year allocated more than $1 billion in federal CARES Act money for a wide variety of COVID-related expenses ranging from health care to tourism needs.

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County board President Ricky Gray said city and county leaders need to decide soon if they’re “all in or all out” for their joint efforts to operate and upgrade Natchez-Adams County’s recreation programs.

Gray expressed concerns Monday about their consolidated efforts “going so slow” since  Natchez aldermen and county supervisors formed their compact in 2015 to enhance community parks and recreation offerings The city and county officials appointed a commission to oversee recreation with the YMCA contracted to manage it, but it’s been in disarray since the YMCA pulled out in 2019.

Gray said city and county officials need to set a deadline to decide whether to continue their consolidated recreation program or sever ties.

Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson said in October that negotiations had begun on redoing the city-county recreation compact and build a new sports-and-wellness center at Liberty Park. The county and city boards did get a pool built there in 2018 for about $1.3 million, but various snags and changes have stalled other upgrades local leaders envisioned when they formed the compact.

The consolidated recreation agreement formed five years ago called for the county board to annually allocate $334,000 to combine with $550,000 from the city board for the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission to appropriate for operating recreation programs and build new facilities. A new city-county compact could dissolve the commission.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Adams County Board of Supervisors has extended the local mask mandate through January as the number of people here infected with COVID continues to rise.

The count has been “spiking in the last three weeks,” said Adams County Emergency Management Director Brad Bradford.

More than 160 new cases in Adams County have been confirmed by the Mississippi Department of Health since Oct. 24. All total, at least 1,250 Adams County residents have contracted the respiratory disease and 47 have died since the state agency began collecting data in March.

“We anticipate that number going up,” said Bradford, who’s coordinating the county’s response to the public-health crisis. As of Sunday, he said, there were 88 active cases of people with the contagious disease.

At Bradford’s request Monday, the Board of Supervisors extended the requirement for people to wear face coverings inside public places until Jan. 31, or until the number of active cases falls below 25. The mandate covers all of Adams County to include Natchez and places outside the city.

City and county officials initiated the mask mandate July 3. “I know it’s inconvenient for some people,” said county board President Ricky Gray. “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to keep our community safe.”

Covering mouths and noses is the key way to protect people from the airborne spread of the coronavirus.

The five-member county board Monday unanimously approved extending its mask-wearing order through January. It was set to expire Nov. 30. County Supervisor Wes Middleton questioned why the order should be stretched out so far into the new year, but he voted for the extension, as did Supervisor Kevin Wilson. They voted against extending the mandate last month, when the board pushed it forward through November.

In recommending the mandate stay in place for another two months, Bradford noted families and crowds are expected to congregate in Natchez for the holiday season.

When the local mask ordinance was first put in effect July 3, the order required people to wear some type of face covering inside and outside of public places where social distancing is not possible. This includes all businesses and outdoor venues where crowds gather.

The mask order has caught violators being cited by police and fined $50. Businesses allowing customers without face coverings could be fined $100.

Mississippi does not have a mask-wearing requirement statewide, but Gov. Tate Reeves has imposed such a mandate on 22 of the state’s 82 counties.

“We can slow the spread and bridge the gap between now and when this vaccine becomes readily available and protect the integrity of our healthcare system” the governor said Monday in announcing more counties had been added to the list. Adams is not one of them.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The mayor and aldermen are being asked by the Mississippi Tobacco-free Coalition to ban smoking inside Natchez businesses. Mayor Dan Gibson noted many Mississippi towns have such ordinances. While most Natchez businesses already have smoking bans, the Board of Aldermen remains undecided on whether to enact a citywide prohibition. Aldermen took no action at Tuesday’s board meeting on the requested tobacco-free ordinance.

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Natchez aldermen and the mayor are reviewing Armstrong Library’s funding shortage caused by falling municipal tax collections. This could be compounded if the Mississippi Library Commission rescinds state funds because the city is not maintaining enough support for its public library, said library Director Pam Plummer. She told the mayor and aldermen Tuesday that the library stands to lose about $74,000.

While the city library has a dedicated tax mill set for it each year, a decline in local property tax collections has caused revenue shortfalls, Gibson said. He told Plummer options will be considered that could ease Armstrong Library’s funding woes. “We will do all we can,” the mayor said.

COVID has forced the library to reduce the hours it’s open and limit the number of patrons inside, Plummer said. She noted the Natchez library is one of only 29 in Mississippi that have kept doors open during the pandemic.

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The annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration next year will be a mostly virtual event via the Internet because the COVID pandemic makes it unsafe to gather in large crowds. NLCC Director Emily Williams got the Board of Aldermen Tuesday to release the $5,000 it already budgeted to help fund the Feb. 22-27 event.

Panels of speakers and their audiences won’t be in the Natchez Convention Center as in past years, she said, but there are tentative plans to have smaller venues for people together to watch the online speakers and discuss their subjects. The NLCC’s 2021 theme is “Southern Environments.” While a schedule has not yet been firmed up, Williams said speakers will include former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey and Richard Grant, author of the recent book about Natchez: “The Deepest South of All.”

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Traffic counts on Auburn Avenue make it unqualified for more speed-abatement measures requested by residents concerned about drivers going too fast on the city thoroughfare, according to a report presented Tuesday to the mayor and Board of Aldermen. Traffic gauges show most motorists drove close to the 30 mph speed limit at two Auburn Avenue intersections: 29 mph at Winchester Road and 32 mph at Ashburn Street. Auburn Avenue is classified as the main driving thoroughfare where speed bumps are not allowed to be placed.

NATCHEZ, Miss. — Adams County remains in a board-declared state of emergency through November as COVID cases continue to rise.

The number of confirmed cases since March has surpassed 1,130 — which includes 45 deaths — according to the state Department of Health’s most recent report Monday.

The recent count showed 42 new cases in Adams County reported within a seven-day period. The weekly new-case counts in October were 24, 26, 45 and 34.

Residents recently confirmed to be infected haven’t reached the summer surges that were as high as 78 new cases within a week. However, the numbers are “still high,” said Adams County Emergency Management Director Brad Bradford.  He said Monday there were 72 “active” cases of Adams County residents infected by the coronavirus.

Bradford got the Adams County Board of Supervisors to extend its emergency declaration for another month, the same extension of the public mask-wearing mandate the county board has had in place since July for county residents living in and outside Natchez.

This comes amid reports Monday that Cathedral School in Natchez has had a COVID outbreak, forcing students to be quarantined at home for two weeks and do classwork remotely via the Internet.

Bradford said Adams County officials gave away 4,000 face coverings and 1,000 face shields Saturday at a drive-through distribution.

As Adams County continues to struggle with the virus pandemic, it’s recovering from Hurricane Delta, whose strong winds blasted through Oct. 9.

While damage here wasn’t enough to qualify for federal-state funds for the county’s clean-up efforts, there are grants available to assist homeowners impacted by the storm, Bradford said. He’s reported about $200,000 could be provided to help residents without insurance whose homes were hit hard by Delta: 19 homes receiving minor damage, seven with major damage and four destroyed.

Adams County crews are continuing to pick up limbs and other storm debris. More than 200 trees were blown down by Delta, according to county officials.

NATCHEZ, Miss. — Nepotism concerns are being raised about the newly established Adams County office of public defenders, where two attorneys are related to Circuit Court Judge Lillie Blackmon Sanders.

Adams County supervisors are seeking legal and ethical guidance from state officials on whether Aisha Sanders and Lydia Blackmon can serve in the public defenders office, which is headed by an attorney appointed by Judge Sanders.

At Sanders’ request, the Adams County Board of Supervisors in September agreed to create the public defenders office to replace the previous practice of retaining nine private attorneys the court randomly calls on to represent criminal defendants who can’t afford their own lawyers.

Meeting with supervisors Monday, Natchez attorney Kevin Colbert argued that the judge’s daughter and sister can’t legally serve as public defenders in the new office. If not unlawful, it presents an “appearance of impropriety” and “doesn’t pass the smell test,” Colbert said.

He had been representing indigent clients for about 20 years but was not among the four attorneys new Adams County Chief Public Defender Jeffrey Harness selected last month to work in the new office.

Harness did say in October that Blackmon and Sanders will not be representing clients in cases being heard by Judge Sanders. However, the county board is seeking legal opinions from the state Attorney General’s Office and the state Ethics Commission on whether Sanders and Blackmon can legally serve as public defenders. This is being done “to make sure everything is legal and being done like it is supposed to,” said county board attorney Scott Slover.

In addition to Sanders and Blackmon, Harness selected Natchez attorneys Tim Blalock and Zach Jex to staff the public defenders office.

As the circuit court’s senior judge, Sanders appointed Harness as the county’s chief public defense attorney. Circuit Court Judge Debra Blackwell also hears criminal cases in Adams County. Public defenders also represent indigents in Adams County’s lower courts (county court and justice court).

Colbert said the county’s criminal caseload doesn’t justify the establishment of an office of five attorneys to represent indigent clients. He recommended a system much like previously used, with six attorneys being on call for judges to select when needed for defendants without the money to pay their own lawyers.

He said this would be cheaper than the costs of paying the five attorneys and other administrative expenses that’s projected at about $300,000 or so a year.

The new office of attorneys is considered a better way to ensure accused criminals’ rights to effective legal representation are secured. County board President Ricky Gray said Adams County indigents “were not being (adequately) defended” with the old method of having a list of lawyers to call on.

While they await the attorney general’s opinion, Gray said supervisors are “going in the right direction to get some accountability in this office.”

NATCHEZ, Miss. – City officials and workers are struggling to pick up debris left from the hurricane-produced storms that swept through Natchez the past couple of months.

City public works crews are short-handed, Mayor Dan Gibson said Tuesday as he and aldermen discussed the need and costs of gathering the fallen trees, limbs and other storm debris left from Hurricane Delta, which came through Oct. 9. The winds of another storm – Laura – took a similar path through Natchez Aug. 27.

Gibson said the city has not been deemed to be hit hard enough to qualify for federal disaster-relief funds to help pay for storm-recovery costs. He said a private company assessed the city’s Duncan Park area and estimated clean-up costs for that part of town alone to be about $250,000.

The Board of Aldermen earlier this month did declare Natchez in a state of emergency to help make the city potentially eligible for state or federal disaster-relief funds.

Gibson noted the city has applied for reimbursements for COVID-related expenses that total about $370,000. He awaits details on the provision of those funds and how they can be spent. State and federal governments earlier this year earmarked disaster funds funneled through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency for cities and counties impacted by the pandemic.

Gibson expressed hopes Tuesday that Natchez dodges the winds of Hurricane Zeta, which hit Louisiana and Mississippi on Wednesday.

Natchez residents since the previous storms have piled yard rubbish on curbsides for the city’s contracted  trash collectors to haul away, but they will not if too large to easily grab by hand.