LUY-Development

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  • Adams County Courthouse leaks prompts judge to move out

    Adams County Courthouse leaks prompts judge to move out

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Adams County Courthouse’s leaky roof prompted a judge to order county supervisors to pay the costs of moving her judicial office elsewhere.

    Adams County Circuit Judge Debra Blackwell last month ordered them to pay the $400-a-month rent for space at a lawyer’s office across the street from the courthouse, said county board attorney Scott Slover. Maintenance workers have been doing piecemeal roof repairs to curb the rain dribble, but it continues unabated into the courthouse.

    They “are trying to do something to fix it….It’s not being ignored,” said county Supervisor David Carter.

     

    Adams County supervisors have questioned the propriety of Blackwell’s October court order making them pay the office rent expenses, but they’re not challenging her decision.

     

    They are seeking funds to reroof the 19th century-built courthouse. A grant is being sought from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which administers the state Community Heritage Preservation Grant program. It’s funded by the state Legislature to help preserve or restore local courthouses, schools and other official Mississippi landmarks.

     

    A Mississippi landmark, the Adams County Courthouse was built around 1820 and extensively remodeled in the 1920s, according to MDAH.

     

    The state Archives and History board will decide in December how the historic preservation funds will be divvied out throughout the state.

     

    Natchez’ City Hall is also suffering roof leaks for which the city Board of Aldermen is seeking funds from MDAH. Located next to the county courthouse, City Hall was built in 1924 and is also a state-designated Mississippi landmark.

     

    Counties, cities and other applicants throughout Mississippi had a September deadline to submit requests for the historic preservation funds. A local cash match of at least 20 percent is required.

     

    The Adams County Board of Supervisors discussed the courthouse’s leaky-roof problems at their Monday meeting.

     

    The board on Monday also joined Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission leaders in formally accepting a $5,000 donation from Planet Fitness, which recently opened an exercise center in Natchez.

     

    The Recreation Commission operates the public swimming pool, ballfields and parks in Natchez and Adams County. Planet Fitness’ donation comes as the city-county recreation program’s finances and management are in disarray. Questions have arisen about how money the commission gets from the county and city is being handled.

     

    The Board of Supervisors decided earlier this month to hire accountants to audit the commission’s finances.

     

    The nine-seat Recreation Commission – appointed by city aldermen and county supervisors – has struggled in recent months to function, according to supervisors. The commission – with at least three vacancies from recent resignations – has failed on some occasions to have enough members to officially meet and has not adequately accounted for funds received from Natchez and Adams County.

     

    The $5,000 Planet Fitness donation is from United PF Partners, the franchise group that has Planet Fitness clubs in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia.

     

    The YMCA was managing Natchez-Adams County’s recreation programs, but the contract with the suburban Jackson-based organization expired in March in a cloud of uncertainty.

  • Natchez board receives two proposals for old railroad depot

    Natchez board receives two proposals for old railroad depot

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Board of Aldermen has received two proposals from a local hotelier and a group of movie producers wanting to complete the restoration of Natchez’ old Broadway Street railroad depot.

    A committee will review the plans and make recommendations on the best one for Natchez aldermen to approve in December. They want to turn the former train station into a dining/entertainment venue. One proposal for leasing the city-owned building is from Natchez Grand Hotel owner Warren Reuther. The other is from movie producers Tate Taylor, John Norris and Thor Juell.

    Reuther’s company – New Orleans Hotel Consultants – and the moviemakers’ – Church Hill Variety – were the only two submitting bids by the Nov. 1 deadline.

    As envisioned by Mayor Darryl Grennell and the Board of Aldermen in their request for proposals, private developers are to restore the 109-year-old former train station into a “food, beverage and entertainment venue.” Ideas presented in the past include offering outdoor dining for patrons to enjoy the view overlooking the Mississippi River as the centerpiece of an entertainment district in the city’s bluff area.

    In accepting the two proposals at their Tuesday meeting, the mayor and aldermen did not publicly present details of the plans offered by Reuther and the movie producers.

    While the depot’s exterior was renovated in 2016 by the city, it remains a vacant unfinished shell as city officials held up plans for completing the interior’s restoration.

    About $900,000 was spent in city and federal funds to restore the exterior. The board in 2016 did lease the building to Reuther — who began restoring its interior – but the contract was nullified amid protests about city officials not seeking proposals from others.

    Taylor and Norris – who live in the Church Hill community near Natchez – filmed Breaking News in Yuba County this past summer in Natchez. They’re also leading with Juell a new group – Film Natchez – working to get more movies produced here.

    The depot was vacated in 2013 when a restaurant and souvenir shop were evicted so the building could be renovated.

    —

    The Board of Aldermen on Tuesday met four new Natchez cops who Police Chief Walter Armstrong said will be among the ways the city is reducing crime. The police department in recent years has suffered a shortage of police officers, but pay raises appear to have helped attract more recruits. Other measures, including about 150 outside surveillance cameras, have also proved effective, Armstrong said. “There is a combination of a number of things we believe has made our city safer,” Armstrong said.

    —

    The Board of Aldermen accepted about $214,000 from Entergy to reimburse the city for overpaying the utility company in past years for maintaining city street lights. Part of that money – nearly $119,000 — will be used to buy communication radios for the Natchez Fire Department.

    —

    Tuesday’s meeting had the mayor and aldermen discussing how to add names to Natchez’ new monument honoring civil-rights activists unjustly jailed 54 years ago by city officials. Alderman Felicia Irving said her brother and others were left off. The granite monument is already completed with more than 400 names engraved on it, but Mayor Darryl Grennell said steps might be possible to add more names if needed.

    The mayor led efforts to have the monument constructed on the grounds of City Auditorium with municipal, state and private funds to honor black demonstrators arrested in Natchez and imprisoned after advocating for their civil and voting rights in 1965. The “Proud to Take a Stand” monument was dedicated last month.

    —

    With new City Clerk Servia Fortenberry beginning her job Nov. 1, the mayor formally swore her in Tuesday as Natchez’  fifth chief financial officer since 2016. Fortenberry was formerly McComb’s city clerk. Natchez has had five city clerks – not including at least two interim clerks — in the three years since aldermen converted the post to an appointed rather than elected position, as it had been the past century.

  • Adams County board wants audit done of Recreation Commission

    Adams County board wants audit done of Recreation Commission

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Adams County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to get an financial audit done of the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission’s operations.
     
    Questions have arisen about how money the commission gets from the county and city is being managed. “We need to know where it’s going,” said Supervisor Mike Lazarus.
     
    The Recreation Commission has told county and city officials that funds are in disarray and payments have not been received. “Somebody somewhere is not paying somebody,” Lazarus said as he urged the four other supervisors to support hiring an accountant to review the commission’s finances.
     
    The nine-seat Recreation Commission – appointed by city aldermen and county supervisors – has struggled in recent months to function, according to supervisors. Rec commission members have failed to show up for meetings and they haven’t properly handled the money received from Natchez and Adams County. 
     
    The YMCA was managing the city-county recreation programs, but the contract with the suburban Jackson-based organization expired in March without it being renewed in a cloud of uncertainty. The Y was being paid about $100,000 a year.
     
    In consolidating their recreation efforts in 2015, the Adams County Board of Supervisors and Natchez Board of Aldermen each pledged to put up $100,000 annually for recreation construction. The most visible new recreation structure is the Natchez-Adams County pool that was built last year at Liberty Park
     
    However, county supervisors in recent months have expressed disappointment in the lack of progress upgrading other recreation facilities at the city-owned Duncan Park and county-owned Liberty Park..
     
    In addition to the $100,000 each pledged annually for infrastructure, the county board yearly allocates $334,000 to combine with $550,000 from the city board for the recreation commission to use.
     
    —
     
    The Adams County Board of Supervisors is being urged to help pay off a $12,000 debt left for Natchez’ new civil-rights monument and plaza. However, supervisors aren’t legally allowed to do this, said county board attorney Scott Slover. “We are limited in what we can donate to,” he said Monday.
     
    Natchez had the monument constructed on the grounds of City Auditorium with municipal, state and private funds to honor more than 400 black marchers who were unjustly arrested in Natchez and imprisoned in 1965. The “Proud to Take a Stand” monument was dedicated last month.
     
    The Board of Supervisors has rebuffed past pleas to help fund the project, which was originally budgeted to cost about $115,000.
     
    In asking the county board again Monday for money, monument commission chairman Robert Pernell said the project is about $12,000 “in the hole.” Funding is needed for the costs of landscaping and plaques at the black granite monument and plaza located on the corner of Jefferson and Canal streets on the Natchez City Auditorium grounds.
     
    Slover said the state Legislature could pass a law specifically allowing the Adams County board to give money for the monument. “If we can find a way legally, we need to do it,” said county Supervisor Ricky Gray. 
     
    The Legislature begins its annual session in January.

  • Dedication “Proud To Take A Stand” Monument

    For the Natchez civil rights monument commemorating black marchers’ “Parchman Ordeal” 54 years ago, $38,300 was included last March in a bill that earmarks money for a variety of local projects around the state.
    Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell has been leading the efforts to build the monument that will memorialize the plight more than 150 blacks endured in 1965 when arrested and jailed by Natchez law-enforcement officers as the marchers were protesting for civil rights.
    With a total cost earlier estimated at about $115,000, the black granite monument and accompanying plaza is located at the corner of Jefferson and Canal streets on the Natchez City Auditorium grounds.
    The state funds for this can be combined with the $38,300 the city Board of Aldermen has allocated along with more than $15,000 the mayor has said has been raised in private funds for the monument’s construction.
    It’ll commemorate the “Parchman Ordeal” when blacks protesting segregation and obstruction of their voting rights were arrested. They were thrown into the city and county jails or corralled into City Auditorium.  According to historical accounts, many marchers wound up being bused to the state prison at Parchman, stripped naked in cold weather and inhumanely packed into cells in unsanitary conditions. They were released a few days later.
    Grennell has said the monument is “to memorialize those who were part of this horrific event,”
    City funds were provided by money it gets from the Magnolia Bluffs Casino in Natchez. The casino pays rent for leasing the city-owned land it occupies.
    Plans for the “Proud to Take a Stand” monument called for it to be a six-foot-tall, 12-foot-long semicircle monument. It’s to be accompanied by a sitting wall and small plaza with a written narrative of the event and names of those arrested. It’ll also take note of the official contrition expressed in 2015 by the Natchez Board of Aldermen in a resolution apologizing to blacks “who suffered these injustices.”
    From the Parchman Ordeal GoFundMe page:
    Our mission is to memorialize and commemorate those who were unjustly arrested in Natchez, MS. October 2-5, 1965 by establishing a monument in honor of those wronged for taking a stand against racism and injustices against blacks in Natchez.
    About this project
    The Story
    The south is no stranger to racial division. Natchez, MS.  in the early 1960s was heir to segregation, oppression, and a local tourism economy built on a promotion of white antebellum culture and the motto “Where the Old South Still Lives.” Now, 53 years later, after hundreds of black Natchez citizens faced unjust, harsh imprisonment at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, the city plans to memorialize those involved in the infamous ordeal by remembering those who took a stand against injustice with a monument.
    Background
    KKK violence, public marches in Natchez streets, and harassment in retaliation for earl voter registration activities led to a climate of unrest in Natchez by early 1960s. The assassination of Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers in Jackson and the powerful stand by Rosa Parks in Montgomery were inspirational events to young local activists in Natchez.
    With tension on the rise, a list of 12 demands were presented to the Natchez government, with a threat of marches to follow if they were not met. The list included:
    1. For the mayor and board of aldermen to denounce the KKK publicly.
    2. Equal employment opportunities for blacks, including positions on the police force.
    3. To desegregate all public accommodations in compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
    To provide equal public services to residents in Negro sections of Natchez.
    5. To desegregate Natchez schools and appoint blacks to the school board.
    The Mayor and Board rejected the demands. On Saturday, October 2nd, more than 300 people lined up to march in defiance of the injunction; another 150 planned to march Sunday. Though these marches were to begin from two baptist churches downtown, the participants were picked up immediately on the sidewalks in front of the churches before the marches could proceed and taken to the Natchez City Auditorium for holding.
    All were arrested on charges of parading without a permit, and with the local jail filled, those over 12 years of age were sent to Parchman Penitentiary, more than 200 miles away. At Parchman everyone was stripped of their clothing. Men and boys were kept naked and housed and placed in cells that was only intended for 2, but with more than 10, with fans blowing and windows left open to the cold air at night. Women and girls were hosed down but allowed to keep their underwear on. All were given laxatives and allowed only minimal toilet paper. They were left to find their own way back to Natchez, with most being back within 5 days. The KKK harassed and threaded those who drive north to assist or check on them.
    More than 100 marchers were arrested on October 4th, bringing the total number of those arrested in Natchez to more than 500.

  • Election signs clutter county roadways

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors complained Monday that the election season has sprung a flurry of campaign signs unlawfully placed along public roadways that need to be removed.

    Signs littering roadsides especially make it difficult for county mowing crews. “The main thing is when we get ready to cut grass,” said District 1 Supervisor Mike Lazarus.

    While county regulations prohibit political signs being stuck on public right-of-ways, it’s difficult to enforce the ban. During the county Board of Supervisors meeting Monday, it was pointed out that county workers could pull the signs up. However, District 4 Supervisor Ricky Gray expressed concerns about county workers spending so much time removing the placards.

    The party primaries are in August. Candidates on the ballots include those running for governor, lieutenant governor, district attorney, county supervisor, circuit clerk and other offices. Winners of the August primaries go on the general election ballot in November.

  • Natchez railroad upgrades progressing toward completion

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – Bridge upgrades to ensure Natchez’ railroad connection remains viable are projected to be completed later this year paid mostly by federal funds.
    The city of Natchez, which received $10 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation three years ago, joined with Natchez Railway Inc. for the railroad rehabilitation project.
     “The whole concept was to save the rail, … to keep the rail service going,” said Natchez Alderman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis.
    She and other city aldermen met with Natchez Railway officials Tuesday to get updated on work being done on the rail line that connects Natchez with Canadian National Railway tracks at Brookhaven 65 miles away.
    Natchez’ only rail line was threatened with abandonment a few years ago because its substandard bridges could not accommodate heavy train cars. However, with $10 million in federal funds combined with $3.3 million from Natchez Railway, five truss bridges and 25 timber bridges are being rehabilitated, according to the report presented to the Natchez Board of Aldermen and Mayor Darryl Grennell.
    An agreement between the city and railway company ensures the tracks will not be abandoned for 20 years.
    The main commodities hauled on the Natchez-to-Brookhaven railroad include forestry products, crude oil and empty train cars for a repair facility at Bude, according to Natchez Railway. Genesis Energy in Natchez is a large user of the railroad, an essential transportation link to the Natchez-Adams County port on the Mississippi River.
    The train bridges being refurbished between Natchez and Brookhaven include those crossing the Homochitto River, St. Catherine Creek and McCall Creek. The bridge work is expected to be completed this coming October.
    The $13.3 million project also includes equipping 28 railroad grade crossings with new signs, flashing lights and markings for highway drivers.

  • Natchez aldermen working on new animal-control regulations

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Board of Aldermen is working on a new animal-control ordinance imposing tougher regulations and penalties to make sure Natchez pet owners spay and neuter their pets and also ensure they don’t inhumanely treat them. 

     
    The Natchez-Adams County Humane Society on Tuesday presented the board and Mayor Darryl Grennell with various proposals that will be further reviewed for aldermen to decide what to enact for dog and cat owners. They include making them get licenses and pay kennel fees to the city if they have three dogs and five cats. 
     
    Noting the city’s current animal-control ordinance does need to be “upgraded,” Grennell said he and aldermen will meet later to comb through the Humane Society’s proposals before deciding what to adopt.
     
    —
     
    In other matters at Tuesday’s meeting of the mayor and aldermen, they discussed allocating city funds to help get more movies and TV shows filmed in Natchez. Aldermen voted to get their attorney to look into the legalities of getting money now dedicated to the city’s economic development agency diverted specifically to attracting more filmmakers to Natchez. A new group – Film Natchez – is working to get more movies produced here. Film Natchez leaders include movie director Tate Taylor and producer John Norris, who this summer filmed Breaking News in Yuba County in Natchez.
     
    Film Natchez has asked the Board of Aldermen to help fund its efforts. Alderman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis urged the city board to consider transferring funds currently earmarked for Natchez Inc. — the city’s business-recruitment agency — to promoting efforts to attract more filmmakers to Natchez. State law dictates how local funds for Natchez Inc. are to be used.
     
    —
     
    Arceneaux-Mathis also got the board Tuesday to seek a meeting with the owner of the now-closed Kmart building on John R. Junkin Drive. She said she wants to know who actually owns the large structure by the Natchez Market and if there are plans for using the vacant property. “It could possibly bring some jobs here if we do the right thing,” she said.
     
    —
     
    City attorney Bob Latham said a court appeal has been filed challenging Natchez officials’ prohibition of a proposed mental health facility in the old Elks Club that neighbors don’t want near their homes in the Lower Woodville Road area.
     
    The Board of Aldermen earlier this month voted against rezoning the property to allow mentally ill patients to be institutionalized there. The board’s denial of a psychiatric unit being located at the Lower Woodville Road site affirmed a Natchez Planning Commission decision made last month.
     
    Latham said the city officials’ decision has been challenged in Adams County Circuit Court by mental-health advocates. Converting the now-closed Natchez Elks Club building into a psychiatric facility is being pushed by Southwest Mississippi Behavioral Health, a nonprofit, public service agency.
     
    Aldermen cited concerns about emotionally unstable people being held in a building without security in a residential area. Concerns were also expressed about it bringing more traffic to Lower Woodville Road.
     
    In turning down pleas from mental health-care professionals and advocates, aldermen said the proposed crisis-stabilization unit could provide much-needed intensive psychiatric care but should be elsewhere in Natchez.

  • High turnover rate produces Natchez’ fifth city clerk in three years

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – A new city clerk will begin work Nov. 1 to replace Charles Crump, who abruptly quit last month. Servia Fortenberry was hired last week and will come to Natchez from McComb, where she’s been city clerk and chief financial officer, said Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell.
    Crump resigned last month after only seven months on the job as the fourth city clerk Natchez has had since the mayor and aldermen began their current four-year term in 2016.
    Crump failed to fulfill his duties as the city’s chief financial officer, said Alderman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis. He “made no suggestions to the board on financial matters during his tenure in office,” she said in a statement read at Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting.
    Arceneaux-Mathis,  Natchez’ mayor-pro tempore, said Grennell and the board hired Crump knowing he had no experience as a city clerk. However, they were assured he would get training in municipal finances and work with Wallace Collins, the certified public accountant already contracted to help clean up the city’s financial records long in disarray and backlogged. Crump failed to follow through, she said.
    “Once the Board of Aldermen attempted to correct this situation, we discovered that Mr. Crump did not want the city clerk staff to interact with (Collins),” said Arceneaux-Mathis, the board’s longest-serving alderman.
    With Crump lagging in preparing a budget, she said, the mayor and Board of Aldermen had to bring in Collins to supervise the city budgeting process for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Crump resigned his City Hall post in late September after the $37  million budget was adopted by the Board of Aldermen.
    In resigning, Crump reportedly said aldermen meddled too much in his office operations. Arceneaux-Mathis said they needed to. “Since the Board of Aldermen is ultimately responsible for all financial transactions of the city, adopts the budget and the audit, we have to be totally involved in the process,” she said.
    Fortenberry takes the job as Natchez’ fifth city clerk – not including at least two interim clerks — in the three years since aldermen converted the post to an appointed job rather than elected, as it had been the past century. The posted salary for the city clerk’s job had a range of $75,000 to $85,000 a year prior to Crump’s hiring in February.
    The mayor and Board of Aldermen on Tuesday closed the public out of discussions about personnel in the city clerk’s office.
    Among other actions taken Tuesday, aldermen increased the health insurance rate city employees pay for medical coverage. It goes from $8 a month to $32 for each employee. Employees pay more to cover their spouses and children. The city has about 190 employees. While this is four times higher than the old rate, it’s less than what the board originally considered.

  • Natchez board blocks plans for old Elks Club becoming a psychiatric facility

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to ban a proposed mental health facility in the old Elks Club that neighbors don’t want near their homes in the Lower Woodville Road area.
     
    Natchez aldermen acknowledged the community needs such a center to treat people with mental illnesses, but they followed residents’ urging not to rezone the property to allow mentally ill patients institutionalized near them. “We simply don’t want it in our neighborhood,” Joe Stedman told the board.
     
    Aldermen turned down pleas from mental health-care professionals and advocates, who said the proposed crisis stabilization unit could provide much-needed intensive psychiatric care for eventually up to 15 people at a time. 
     
    “These people are in our neighborhoods and they need help,” one advocate told the city board Tuesday.
    Converting the now-closed Natchez Elks Club building into a psychiatric facility is being advocated by Southwest Mississippi Behavioral Health, a nonprofit, public service agency. It receives government and private funds to extend a variety of services for people with mental illnesses.
     
    Federal law actually mandates the city to allow the unit’s location, said attorney Scott Slover, speaking on behalf of the mental health agency at the Board of Aldermen meeting. “Legally, this is required,” he said, pointing to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA federal law prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and requires various accommodations for them.
     
     
    It’s uncertain if the Board of Aldermen’s action against the crisis stabilization unit’s location will be challenged in court. This comes a month after a federal judge ruled that Mississippi provides inadequate community-based services for people with mental illnesses. This has resulted in many emotionally disturbed people to be warehoused in psychiatric hospitals or unnecessarily jailed due to lack of space elsewhere for them to be treated. 
     
    In voting Tuesday 6-0 to deny the psychiatric unit being located at the Lower Woodville Road site, the board affirmed a Natchez Planning Commission decision made last month. Aldermen cited concerns about emotionally unstable people being held in a building without security in a residential area. Concerns were also expressed about it bringing more traffic to Lower Woodville Road.
     
    Aldermen did acknowledge such a facility is needed in Natchez and agreed to discuss alternative sites for it at a meeting Thursday with the Adams County Board of Supervisors. 
     
    The formerly named Southwest Mississippi Mental Health Complex is now officially A Clear Path of Southwest Mississippi Behavioral Health, a public-private agency that relies on government grants, Medicaid and private dollars. The Adams County Board of Supervisors does annually give the agency about $77,000. 

  • Natchez board moves forward on Canal Street bridge project

    NATCHEZ, Miss. — Work will begin soon to upgrade the bridge on the much-traveled Canal Street near the Natchez Visitor Reception Center.
     
    The Natchez Board of Aldermen on Tuesday voted to contract a Madison-based company to do the $312,000 bridge-rehabilitation project. Most of the work will be paid for by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. The board agreed to fulfill the shortfall with funds it’ll borrow. About $12,000 is budgeted for this.
     
    The extra amount needed for the bridgework will be included in a $450,000 loan the board agreed Tuesday to take for completing a long-running multimillion-dollar project to alleviate drainage problems in north Natchez. That extensive infrastructure project has been funded largely by federal funds but needs more for add-ons approved by the board.
     
    Among other actions at Tuesday’s meeting, the Board of Aldermen voted to allow Ronald Fry to establish another bed-and-breakfast inn next to his current one on North Union Street. This reverses a previous Natchez Planning Commission decision denying him the permit to operate another lodging business in a residential neighborhood.
     
    Aldermen apparently were swayed by arguments that Fry is enhancing the 709 North Union Street house that’s been in disrepair and fulfilling a demand for bed-and-breakfast inns in Natchez. Opponents of Fry’s plan expressed concerns about more commercialization and parking congestion in the neighborhood.