Author: Imported Author 1890002

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The city and county will pay for tearing down the old A&P grocery store with public-works crews as part of local and state governments’ efforts to accommodate a business promising to bring 200 new jobs to downtown Natchez.

Loss Prevention Services plans to put its corporate headquarters in the former Regions bank building at the corner of Franklin and Pearl streets.

Natchez and Adams County officials have agreed to use city-county workers and their equipment to demolish the long-vacant A&P building on Franklin Street adjacent to the former bank, said Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson. The former grocery will be cleared so LPS can expand and enhance the current parking lot that’s been there.

This is the local governments’ contribution to an incentive to get LPS to expand in Natchez. The state is providing money for infrastructure and parking-lot improvements from the Mississippi Development Authority. MDA is allocating $260,000.

LPS is an information-technology company that helps banks and other lenders find and repossess automobiles from delinquent-paying borrowers throughout the country. It currently has offices in Natchez and Michigan.

LPS announced Sept. 21 that it will put its corporate headquarters in the former Regions building and gradually expand its staff with 200 additional jobs by summer 2022. The 45,000-square-foot downtown building will accommodate about 300 employees for LPS’ operations, which will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to those involved in the business plans.

LPS envisions investing about $3 million on its new Natchez location, which includes the old bank and A&P properties.

Loss Prevention Services – with company Chairman Sterling Gay of Natchez joined by several other Natchezians on its leadership team – describes itself as “a technologically enabled information management company” with the “knowledge and experience needed to successfully reduce delinquent auto portfolios for clients nationwide” and to provide banks with “locate, repossession, and transport services.”

Natchez ended its fiscal year Wednesday with a surplus of nearly $3 million. However, that’s mostly state or federal funds left over for specific projects.

The Natchez Board of Aldermen revised the budget to account for the unspent funds. Mayor Dan Gibson noted the city ended the 12-month budget period without a deficit despite lagging sales tax collections caused by the COVID-induced recession. The downturn began six months ago, when economic activities nationally were stymied and “things were looking so scary,” Gibson said.

Despite that, city officials were able to manage revenues and expenditures to ensure there were no layoffs of municipal employees or a tax increase, he said.

The city began fiscal 2020 a year ago budgeting $37 million in revenues and $36 million in spending. The city wound up Wednesday with $2.9 million in unspent funds, but Gibson said that’s mostly funds from outside grants dedicated for specific projects. That’s not leftover money “to blow and go” on discretionary expenditures, Gibson said.

For the fiscal year that begins today, (Oct. 1), the Board of Aldermen has budgeted about $33 million in revenues and $32 million in spending for the next 12 months.

Indicating the local economy may be rebounding after last spring’s COVID shutdown, sales tax collections for Natchez in June exceeded what the city received a year ago. After four months of declines, the city got about $429,000 — nearly $20,000 more than in June 2019 – according to the state Department of Revenue’s most recent sales tax statistics.

The moderating rate of recent COVID cases locally has Natchez and Adams County officials convinced that the required wearing of masks is effective.

“Things are so much better right now than prior to the mask ordinance,” said Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson.  

Adams County has seen weekly declines this month in new cases compared to surges reported in  July and August, according to the state Department of Health.

The Natchez and Adams County boards have adopted their budgets for local government in the coming year uncertain how COVID will continue to impact overall revenues, but city and county residents will be paying more property taxes for building a new high school.

As they approach the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the Natchez Board of Aldermen and Adams County Board of Supervisors are moving forward with budgets that total about $33 million each in revenues for the next 12 months.

That does not include revenues being generated by the property tax increase the county board set at the request of the Natchez-Adams County School District’s Board of Trustees.

Adams County Administrator Joe Murray has estimated the 2.03 mill increase tax increase will generate about $445,000 for the NASD’s school-construction plans. This means ad valorem taxes will increase next year on homes, automobiles, businesses and equipment by amounts depending on their value.

NASD officials say they’re planning to soon start constructing the new school by the current Natchez High School. When the upper-grade students move into the new facility on Seargent Prentiss Drive, the old campus – built in 1961 — will be renovated for middle-grade students.

Adams County supervisors approved a $33 million budget for county operations after holding a public hearing on the tax and spending plans Tuesday. The county budget is separate from the school system’s budget, but school taxes are officially levied by the county board as requested by the school board.

The county budget calls for spending about $3.7 million more than the fiscal year that’s about to end. Much of the extra funds are from federal funds ($1.3 million) for land-erosion repairs and money ($936,000)  recovered from resolving the former county-owned hospital’s bankruptcy case. The Board of Supervisors sold Natchez Regional Medical Center in 2014 after it went bankrupt, but litigation continued into this year as funds were collected to pay NRMC’s creditors. The now-private hospital operates as Merit Health Natchez.

Another revenue increase being budgeted is $365,000 from taxes the state collects from out-of-state Internet businesses that sell to Mississippi residents. The state Legislature in 2018 enacted a law to share these revenues with counties and cities. Funds from this new revenue source is being used to improve Adams County roads or bridges.

While the county is planning for such revenue increases,  Murray noted the COVID pandemic makes the economic future uncertain. He stressed that county departments must be careful in how they spend money for basic operations.

Murray is nearing the end of his 10-year stint as county administrator. Angie King will take over Oct. 1 as the county’s chief appointed officer.

Natchez aldermen adopted a budget Friday that projects about $33 million in total revenues and $32 million in spending for the coming year. That’s a decrease from the $37 million the city board had budgeted last year for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. These amounts include local tax revenues and special funds from state and federal sources.

For the general fund – which pays for basic municipal operations – about $15.4 million is expected for the next 12 months. That’s down from the $15.7 million of the past year.

Natchez sales tax revenues have been falling below what the city had been receiving before the global coronavirus outbreak began crippling the economy early this year.

Mayor Dan Gibson has noted that the city will get by without raising property taxes or laying off municipal employees. He also noted the city will be spending less on city employees’ health insurance because of a new plan adopted by aldermen.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – City and county leaders have agreed to jointly apply for federal funds to assess the extent of contaminated sites in Natchez. The areas they want evaluated include the historic downtown district area extending from the Mississippi River bluffs to Martin Luther King Street and the old Armstrong tire plant.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Adams County Board of Supervisors Tuesday extended the mask mandate until Oct. 31 for Natchez and Adams County as the coronavirus continues to spread but at a slower pace.

People are required to wear face coverings inside public places and at outside venues where crowds gather. The local ordinance has been in place since July 3 in to help curb the spread of the highly contagious virus that’s plagued the world since early this year.

In Adams County, at least 828 people have been infected by COVID-19 since March, when the Mississippi Department of Health began reporting confirmed cases. At least 32 Adams County residents have died from the respiratory disease, according to the department’s most recent tally.

The number of Adams County deaths is up from the 25 reported four weeks. The number of people infected is up by 196 from the 632 reported Aug.11. However, state, county and city officials on Tuesday said the number of new cases is waning.

“Mississippi has truly turned the corner, … (but) things can change very, very quickly,”Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday during his COVID update for the state. “We could see numbers go back up, … (but) the numbers are heading in the right direction.”

The governor also has a mask-wearing mandate imposed statewide, but it’s not extended through October like what the Adams County Board of Supervisors enacted Tuesday for the county.

Adams County Supervisor Wes Middleton expressed qualms about keeping the requirement in place for nearly eight weeks. However, county board President Ricky Gray pointed to the need to “be proactive instead of trying to be reactive.”

There are concerns that social gatherings of this past Labor Day weekend, students congregating in classrooms and fans attending football games could spike the infection rate as the flu season and cooler temperatures approach.

The Natchez Board of Aldermen has previously adopted an order for city residents to follow what the county board enacts for wearing masks. “There obviously is a lot of controversy about this, but the medical experts (say wearing masks, socially distancing and washing hands) is very important to maintain safety,” said Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson.

The mayor and aldermen convened Tuesday in a telemeeting instead of the in-person sessions they’ve been holding since July. Gibson has been quarantined at home the past couple of weeks after being exposed to someone with the coronavirus. He said he was awaiting a test result Tuesday to show whether he had the virus. Alderman Valencia Hall has been sickened by it, but she said Tuesday she’s feeling better.

According to the previously adopted local mask ordinance, people caught by police in Adams County without the required face covering can be ticketed and fined $50. Businesses allowing customers inside without masks could be fined $100 and also lose their city business licenses for repeat violations.

People must wear some type of covering over their mouth and nose inside and outside of public places where person-to-person contact could occur.

NATCHEZ, Miss. — The budget being prepared for Natchez aldermen doesn’t include a property tax increase as they continue to worry how much COVID will weaken tax revenues.

Revenues are falling below what the city had been receiving before the global coronavirus outbreak began crippling the economy early this year. Mayor Dan Gibson said Natchez will get by without raising taxes or laying off city employees, but “there are so many needs in this city we aren’t going to be able to do at this time.”

For the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the mayor and Board of Aldermen have a tentative budget with a total of about $33 million in revenues. That’s down significantly from the $37 million the city has annually budgeted in the two previous years.

However, the reduction in the city’s new general fund — where sales and property tax revenues are directed for the city’s basic operations — does not appear as deep compared to fiscal 2019 and 2020, when they each totaled about $15.6 million.  A preliminary budget for the upcoming year puts that amount at $5.2 million, but more work is needed in finalizing the amount before the board adopts the budget by Sept. 15.

Gibson and the Board of Aldermen held a public hearing Tuesday for Natchez residents via teleconference to discuss the budget. As COVID continues to plague the country, they didn’t hold the meeting as originally planned at the Natchez Convention Center. Alderman Valencia Hall and Gibson are quarantined at home. Hall has COVID and Gibson has been exposed to someone else who’s been infected.

The hearing didn’t detail the $4 million reduction in total revenues as it relates to city services and projects of the two previous years’ $37 million budgets. While the board Tuesday adopted next year’s tax levies — which will remain unchanged – it’ll wait until later this month to adopt the new budget detailing how the money will be spent.

Gibson, who took office as mayor in July, did say he expects “major savings” in health insurance costs for city employees. A new city health insurance plan will be finalized later this month, he said.

While the city general fund’s $15 million comes from tax revenues, federal, state and special funds fuel the rest of the budget to total $33 million. Gibson did say the city will be working harder to get grants from the state and federal governments with the help of newly hired lobbyist Gregg Harper, the former U.S. congressman.

Special taxes the city gets from the Magnolia Bluffs Casino, hotels and restaurants are expected to fall short about $200,000 because of COVID. With these funds being a source of money to pay bonds that financed the construction of the Natchez Convention Center, the board is having to dip into the city’s general fund to help cover the debts.