Category: Local News

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — A new trucking and equipment facility coming to a south Mississippi city is expected to bring about 22 jobs to the area.

Stribling Equipment is partnering with Empire Trucks to expand their facility in Natchez, officials for Natchez Inc. announced on Monday. The new, 36,000-square-foot (3,345-square-meter) building will include sales, parts and service for equipment companies such as John Deere and Hitachi as well as trucking companies Freightliner and Western Star, company officials said.

The facility will be the first in the region to have a climate controlled mechanic shop allowing for more comfortable employee work conditions, Stribling officials said.

Stribling Equipment purchased their first Natchez facility in 1983, making it one of the oldest operating stores in the Stribling franchise, The Natchez Democrat reported. The company also has locations in Arkansas and West Tennessee.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The mayor and aldermen will be negotiating with a group led by movie director Tate Taylor to complete the restoration of Natchez’ old railroad depot on Broadway Street and turn it into a restaurant.

The group’s plans call for converting the 109-year-old building into “a world-class bar and café” alongside an outdoor live-music venue overlooking the Mississippi River. It also envisions using it as a party place for actors, production crews and others involved with Taylor’s nearby movie studio.

The Natchez Board of Aldermen on Tuesday selected the partnership – known as Church Hill Variety – that includes Taylor and renowned chef Nick Wallace. Their plans for the city-owned depot bested a proposition offered by hotelier Warren Reuther’s company.

Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell said he and aldermen will meet in January to finalize details of a lease with Church Hill Variety that’s to include its financial terms and abilities for bringing the old train depot back to life. City leaders’ plans call for the developers to take advantage of the site’s “spectacular river and sunset views” and make it “a prime destination for locals and tourists from sun up to sun down, especially on weekends.”

According to Church Hill Variety’s proposal submitted to city officials last month, the eatery will serve breakfast in the morning and remain open into the night to focus on serving “classic cocktails, small plates and capturing the majesty and romance of the river views.”

Also noted in the plans is the Broadway Street depot’s close walking distance to Crooked Letter Studio, the former beer distributorship on High Street that Taylor is using for making movies.

Taylor this past summer in Natchez directed the filming of “Breaking News in Yuba County.” His earlier movies include “The Help.”  Taylor – who lives in the Church Hill community near Natchez – is joined by chef Wallace, movie producers John Norris and Thor Juell in the train depot’s development.

Taylor, Norris and Juell are also involved with another newly formed group – Film Natchez – working to get more movies produced here.

While the old depot’s exterior was renovated in 2016 by the city, it has remained a vacant unfinished shell as the Board of Aldermen 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 leased the building to Natchez Grand Hotel and Monmouth owner Reuther. He began restoring the building’s interior, but the contract was nullified by aldermen amid protests that city officials didn’t seek proposals from others.

After the bidding process opened earlier this year for more offers, Reuther’s company – New Orleans Hotel Consultants – and Church Hill Variety were the only two submitting proposals by the Nov. 1 deadline.

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

The train depot was built around 1910 by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad and later owned by Illinois Central Railroad. Passenger-rail service to Natchez terminated in the 1940s when World War II ended. The building became a restaurant in the mid-1970s.

Natchez Police Chief Walter Armstrong said social media embellishment is responsible for a false report of men in a van on Thursday afternoon attempting to abduct a young woman in Natchez.

“There is no truth to it,” Armstrong said.

He said a young woman who was in her car, parked in the lot of a dollar store on U.S. 61 South, became hysterical when a white van pulled up near her and a man got out and tapped on her driver’s side window.

“At that point, she became hysterical. She didn’t roll down the window. She never heard the man say anything. She immediately called us,” Armstrong said.

Police officers responded immediately and were able to find the van in question and officers searched the van and the two men in it.

“It was two men from Kentucky who were passing through this area in a van that was absolutely filled with scrap iron,” Armstrong said. “They couldn’t have gotten another person in that van if they had wanted to.”

He said the men were detained and told officers they were seeking information about where to purchase marijuana here.

“We did find evidence that they had been smoking marijuana in the van and had run out,” Armstrong said.

“The young woman did the right thing in calling us. She did the right thing in being aware of her surroundings. But she told us she never heard them say anything to her at all or attempt to open her window or door. She simply reacted and called us, which is exactly what she should have done.”

Social media has been rife with false reports of men in vans at various locations trying to abduct young men and women.

“I read one post about how we found blood dripping out of the van,” and how it was boarded up and couldn’t be opened from the inside, he said. “None of that is true. That van was filled to the brim with scrap and things that could be sold.

“The young lady did the right thing in calling the police. We were fortunate enough to find the van in question, but there is no evidence they were trying to abduct anyone,” Armstrong said

Information from: The Natchez Democrat

By Jan Griffey

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Adams Board of Supervisors held its final meeting of the four-year term Monday – the last for three members rejected by voters in the recent elections.

Supervisors Calvin Butler, Mike Lazarus and David Carter will be replaced next month by three freshmen: a former county road department employee, the son of a former Natchez mayor and the only Republican holding office in Adams County government.

New supervisors Warren Gaines, Wes Middleton and Kevin Wilson in January will be joining current board members Angela Hutchins and Ricky Gray to lead Adams County’s operations for the next four years.

Lazarus, the county board’s longest-serving member and most loquacious, leaves his District 1 post after 12 years there. “It’s been fun,” said Lazarus, whose sentiments were echoed by Butler and Carter as they spoke at their last scheduled meeting Monday.

Lazarus did say the job comes with challenges. “Every day you’ve got to make decisions. I hope I’ve made the right decisions.”

He noted decisions by county supervisors can have long-lasting impact, such as setting a multimillion-dollar-a-year budget, maintaining county roads and luring new jobs-producing industries to Adams County. “When you cast those votes, it’s there forever,” Lazarus said.

Lazarus lost the August Democratic primary to Middleton, the son of former Natchez mayor Jake Middleton who helps operate his family-owned janitorial supply business.

Butler, who’s been president of the county board the past four years, represents District 5. First elected in 2011, he was defeated in the August primary by Gaines, who worked for the Adams County road department in recent years.

Wilson beat Carter in last month’s general election for the District 2 supervisory position. Wilson is the only Republican holding an Adams County office — with the exception of Robert Greene, a Republican elected in November to the obscure county post of county surveyor.

Wilson is the first GOP supervisor since Sammy Cauthen served on the county board before losing his re-election in 2007. Carter — a rarity in local government as an independent unaffiliated with a political party — served two terms.

Wilson, owner of oil-, timber- and commercial real estate-related businesses, has been an outspoken critic of the Natchez-Adams County school board. He filed a a 2017 lawsuit set to be heard Dec. 11 at the Mississippi Supreme Court challenging the school board’s plans for financing campus building improvements.

Gray, who begins his second term in 2020, said the two county board veterans and three new supervisors will have disagreements, but they ultimately must be “all about moving Adams County forward.”

The supervisors will take their oaths of office at the turn of the new year and hold their first regular meeting Jan. 6.

Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell announced Friday evening during the annual tree lighting ceremony that he would not be seeking re-election in 2020.

“This will be my last Christmas tree lighting I will attend as mayor of this city,” Grennell said, implying that he would not run for re-election in 2020.

Grennell later, after the tree lighting ceremony, confirmed his intent not to run, describing the close end to his mayoral term as bittersweet.

FOR Natchez executive director Chesney Doyle said she worked with Grennell during his 2016 campaign in which he won 92% of the vote.

“Because of Darryl Grennell’s quiet, dignified leadership, the bar has been set higher and the course of our history has been changed for the better,” Doyle said.

By Sabrina Robertson

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NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Board of Aldermen plans to ask the state Legislature next year to allow city funds to be allocated to help get more movies and TV shows filmed in Natchez.

Aldermen on Tuesday endorsed legislation to let the city’s economic development agency divert money to a new group – Film Natchez – that’s working to get more cinematic productions here. Film Natchez leaders include movie director Tate Taylor and producer John Norris, who this summer filmed Breaking News in Yuba County in Natchez.

Current state law dictates how local funds are used for Natchez Inc., the business-recruitment agency for the city and Adams County. A bill can be filed to allow Natchez Inc. to act as a conduit for city funds to be specifically used to attract more filmmakers to Natchez, said city attorney Bob Latham.

The Mississippi Legislature begins its annual session in January

Among other matter at Tuesday’s city board meeting, aldermen agreed to let the state’s environmental protection agency have more underground water tests done at city-owned property that once was a tire plant.

As Mayor Darryl Grennell and the Board of Aldermen try to rid themselves of the old Titan tire property on Kelly Avenue, the state Department of Environmental Quality continues to monitor the site for contamination

City leaders have been entangled in a legal dispute against Titan, the property’s former tenant that ended its lease of the long-dormant tire plant in 2017.

Few details about the lawsuit have been publicly brought up by city officials in the past couple of years as they discuss it in closed-door sessions. The city sued Titan for damages it allegedly caused to the property. Grennell and Latham have said they ultimately want the Illinois-based company to take ownership of the sprawling facility. The land and its deteriorating buildings are a financial and legal albatross for the city.

The lawsuit did find its way to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which earlier this year denied Titan’s appeal to halt trial-court proceedings in Adams County Circuit Court.

The old tire factory abuts Kelly and South Concord avenues and has been the source of pollution. Gasoline and cleaning solvents have seeped into groundwater. It’s been monitored by DEQ for several years.

The tire plant was constructed for Armstrong Rubber Co. in 1939 with state financing. The property was deeded to the city. The Natchez tire manufacturer once had more than 1,000 employees. After Armstrong left, the property was used by successor tire-making tenants Fidelity, Condere and Titan. Titan took over in 1998 but shuttered the factory in 2001. It continued to lease the vacant property from the city until 2017. Titan removed factory equipment that belongs to the city, which is a point of contention in the city’s legal dispute with Titan.

The 80-year-old tire plant is about a half-mile from Martin Luther King Street between MLK and D’Evereaux Drive in north Natchez.

Natchez and Adams County government leaders have discussed applying for a federal grant to pay for further assessing the extent of the pollution and how much clean-up costs would be. The federal government provides money to rehabilitate polluted industrial properties that could be redeveloped. The so-called Brownfields program enables states, communities and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, clean up and reuse polluted properties.

NATCHEZ — One of New Orleans’ largest hotel owners announced it has purchased the historic Natchez mansion Dunleith.

The J Collection announced the purchase of the Natchez landmark in a news release Monday afternoon.

“We are honored to become the new stewards of Dunleith,” J Collection Principal Joe Jaeger said. “This property has important historical significance to the community of Natchez, and we look forward to being a part of the historic community.”

Natchez-based United Mississippi Bank has owned Dunleith since it foreclosed on the property after the former owner filed for bankruptcy.

UMB CEO Adrian Sandel said Monday’s sale to Jaeger is good news for the community and expressed confidence in the new owners.

“It will be a great thing for Natchez,” Sandel said. “It will be first-class.”

Sandel said being able to announce the sale is a “big relief.”

“We never wanted to be in the situation of owning the property. We were simply trying to maintain the property the best we could until we found the right owner,” Sandel.

The J Collection represents 18 locally-owned and operated hotels in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana. J Collection properties include Bourbon Orleans Hotel, Dauphine Orleans, The Whitney Hotel, Hotel Mazarin, Hotel Le Marias, New Orleans Courtyard and the Crowne Plaza at the New Orleans Airport.

Nottoway Plantation and Resort joined the collection in 2019 as the largest operating antebellum mansion in the South.

Jaeger is also constructing a 200-room Sheraton Refuge Resort and Conference Center in Flowood, renovating a 60-room hotel in Covington, Louisiana, and developing a 40-room boutique hotel on Canal Street in New Orleans. All three properties are expected to open in 2020.

J Collection plans to reopen Dunleith as an inn, restaurant, event venue and conference center, following restoration and repair of certain elements of the property. An official reopening date has not been determined, but an announcement is planned for the near future.

Jaeger’s long-term friends and associates, Mike Blattner and Randy Waesche, are partners in the project. Blattner owns and resides at the historic house Cherokee on High Street.

“Having Mike, a resident of Natchez as a partner will help ensure the property is operated under the standard of quality and hospitality that is expected of a J Collection property,” Jaeger said.

United Mississippi Bank took possession of the historic mansion and restaurant after it foreclosed on the property in 2019, one year after Louisiana businessman Michael Allen Worley filed personal bankruptcy in January 2018, citing more than $107 million in debt, with just more than $80 million in assets.

In April 2019, UMB announced the property was under contract with Louisiana film producer Jake Seal. Three months later, Seal backed out of the deal citing health-related issues with the family.

UMB presented the project to J Collection based on the brand’s commitment to preserving historic properties and its experience in real estate, hospitality and community relations, the news release said.

J Collection said employees at the time of the closure in 2019 will have the first opportunity to apply for positions before the company opens jobs to the public.

Unfilled positions will be posted for a community job fair with dates still be determined.

Information from: The Natchez Democrat

By Ben Hillyer

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