LUY-Development

Category: Local News

  • Adams County board seeks federal funds for new road to Emerald Mound

    By John Mott Coffey
    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Adams County Board of Supervisors is seeking federal funds for a road it wants built for visitors driving to Emerald Mound near the Natchez Trace. The plan also calls for a second new road around the historic Indian site for area residents.
    The proposed access road has been on the drawing board for more than a decade, said Natchez attorney Walter Brown, who’s handling the project for the board. He noted land for the roads have been acquired by the government after county supervisors reached an agreement in 2008 with the National Park Service to move forward on the project.
    “We’ve been working on this for awhile….It’s definitely needed,” said Adams County board President Calvin Butler, whose supervisor district includes the Natchez Trace Parkway.
    The proposed roads would give visitors a more direct route to the historic site and provide people who live in the rural area a better road to get to their homes. The existing road to Emerald Mound is in bad shape.
    While money for the land purchases has been provided, funds for the access roads have not yet been awarded by the federal government. Adams County supervisors have applied for funds in the past, most recently in 2017, but have been turned down, Brown said.
    The county board on Monday approved again applying for the federal funds. While roadbuilding costs are uncertain, it could be about $8 million for the roads and other related infrastructure, said Brown, who’s been working for several years on the project for the county and the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
    The long-discussed plans are to build an entrance road from the Natchez Trace straight to the front of the Indian mound and another that loops behind the national historic site. The current road meanders from the Trace to the side of the mound.
    The federal government sets aside funds for transportation projects that provide access to federal lands. MDOT has purchased about $1 million worth of land needed for the new Emerald Mound entrance road.
    Located about 10 miles north of Natchez, Emerald Mound is the second-largest Indian temple mound in the United States, according to the National Park Service. It was built and used between the years 1250 and 1600 by the forerunners of the Natchez Indians.
    In an effort to preserve it, the NPS’ Natchez Trace Parkway in 2017 removed the stairs that led to the top of one of its secondary mounds sitting on the larger one. This was prompted by Native American tribes wanting to prevent public access to the top because of the sacred nature of the site, according to a 2017 NPS report. The area beneath the stairs also constantly eroded and had the potential to destroy the mound’s integrity.
    Actually located in Jefferson County near the Trace, the eight-acre, 35-foot high Emerald Mound has two secondary mounds on top of the primary mound, bringing the total height to about 60 feet, according to the National Park Service.

  • 3 State Child Protection Workers Fired After Child’s Death

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services has fired two case workers and a supervisor after an investigation into the death of a 4-year-old child in Natchez.

    The department announced the terminations Friday. It says its review of a month-long internal investigation into the case involving Armani Hill is completed. The girl was pronounced dead June 5 after being beaten so severely that she could not walk. Natchez Coroner James Lee said an autopsy shows the child died from blunt force trauma.

    The girl’s 3-year-old sister, Lailah, was also critically hospitalized, but was treated and released.

    The children’s mother, 25-year-old Lakeisha Jones, faces two counts of child deprivation.

    Jones’ boyfriend, 24-year-old James Anderson, faces two counts of felony child abuse. Police say he was babysitting when the abuse occurred.

  • Merit Health Natchez Names New CFO

    NATCHEZ, Miss. — Merit Health Natchez has named Amelia Conner as the new Chief Financial Officer.
    “Amelia comes to us with 15 years of healthcare finance experience, and our hospital proudly welcomes her to our leadership team. We look forward to the contributions and guidance she will provide in finance, operations and strategy,” said Lance Boyd, CEO of Merit Health Natchez.
    A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Amelia is a native of Lucedale, Mississippi. Prior to joining Merit Health Natchez, Amelia served as the Assistant Chief Financial Officer of Merit Health River Region in Vicksburg, MS. She is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
    “I enjoy working in healthcare and being a part of this important, critical service that our hospital provides for the community. Healthcare is also ever-changing, fast-paced and filled with challenges and opportunities,” said Amelia. Amelia is joined in Natchez by her husband, Brandon, twin sons Brandon Crews and John Cain and their daughter, Callie Amelia. “We have already fallen in love with Natchez, with all its character, old architecture, history and great shops and restaurants. I look forward to being a part of the community and fulfilling the mission of Merit Health Natchez to provide a safe and patient focused environment for the delivery of compassionate, quality healthcare to the Miss-Lou region,” concluded Amelia.

  • MLK and State Streets Intersection Becoming Three-Way Stop

    By John Mott Coffey
    NATCHEZ, Miss. – A busy, accident-prone downtown intersection will become an all-three-way stop to help prevent the many crashes that have occurred in recent years with the traffic lights there for decades.
    The intersection of Martin Luther King and State streets has had 16 accidents the past couple of years, according to statistics presented Tuesday to the Natchez Board of Aldermen. The board voted to replace the rotating red-yellow-green lights with all-stop signals.
    MLK Street is a two-lane boulevard for traffic going north and south while State Street is one way going east. Their crossing is among the most accident-ridden in the city, said Natchez Public Works Department director Justin Dollar. He noted eight crashes took place there in 2017 and eight in 2018 with the stop-and-go lights. Most accidents last year were eastbound vehicles on State ramming into southbound vehicles on MLK, he said.
    Residents living at the intersection have raised concerns about the high accident rate and even posted their own advanced-warning signs telling motorists of a stop ahead.
    While agreeing to convert the intersection to a three-way stop, city officials said either red stop lights or simply stop signs could be used.

  • Vidalia Company made Inc 5000 list

    VIDALIA, La. Inc. magazine today revealed that Southern Designs is No. 835 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment —its independent small businesses. Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

    This is Southern Designs’ third year making the list, a testament to the consistent growth and success of the company.

    “We are thrilled to receive this honor for a third year in a row as only 1 in 8 companies that make the Inc. 5000 are able to do it three times. This honor is a testament to our skilled and dedicated staff and their efforts to achieve the goals we’ve laid out at Southern Designs,” says Tance Hughes, CEO Southern Designs.

    Southern Designs has grown substantially over the past year, expanding to include two new brands, Cut Maps (cutmaps.com) and Carter+ Main. (carterandmain.com) Cut Maps manufactures and sells custom maps while Carter + Main sells unique
    peel-and-stick wallpaper.

    “The Hughes family is thankful for our dedicated team members and continued support from our community as a whole. We are humbled to see how much support we continually receive from so many different people,” says Hughes.

    Not only have the companies on the 2019 Inc. 5000 (which are listed online at Inc.com, with the top 500 companies featured in the September issue of Inc., available on newsstands August 20) been very competitive within their markets, but the list as a whole shows staggering growth compared with prior lists. The 2019 Inc. 5000 achieved an astounding three-year average growth of 454 percent, and a median rate of 157 percent. The Inc. 5000’s aggregate revenue was $237.7 billion in 2018, accounting for 1,216,308 jobs over the past three years.

  • Adams County board closes public out to discuss E-911 dispatchers. industrial development, lawsuit against sheriff

    By John Mott Coffey

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors closed the public out of their meeting Monday with Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell to discuss the performance of emergency telephone dispatchers employed by the city and county to take E-911 calls.

    The county board’s closed-door session was also to discuss what can be done to ensure CoreCivic keeps open the prison it owns near Natchez, said Scott Slover, the supervisors’ attorney. Supervisors also barred the public from talks Monday about an unnamed business’ interest in acquiring about 146 acres of land owned by the county for industrial development.

    Prior to the meeting, Slover said supervisors were likely to discuss a federal lawsuit Vidalia Alderman Triand McCoy filed against Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten alleging reserve deputy Stephen Guido unjustly assaulted him earlier this year.

    State law allows government boards to bar the public out of meetings to discuss litigation, business development and personnel.

    City and county officials fund a consolidated emergency dispatch service that takes calls for the Natchez Police Department and Adams County Sheriff’s Office along with the Natchez Fire Department and AMR ambulance service.

    CoreCivic recently lost a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons it’s had since the Adams County prison’s 2009 opening to hold immigrants convicted of crimes before being deported. However, on a contingency basis, the prison has been taking detainees of the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. They include undocumented immigrants arrested earlier this month while working at Mississippi chicken-processing plants.

    Located about 12 miles east of Natchez on U.S. 84/98, CoreCivic’s prison is one of Adams County’s largest employers with about 380 working at the 2,232-bed facility.

    Built at a cost of $128 million, the prison in 2018 generated $60.9 million in revenues for CoreCivic, according to the company.

    Prior to Monday’s closed-door meeting, Slover said supervisors were to discuss the possibility of an industry locating on what was the site of the International Paper mill that closed in 2003. The county board bought the 478-acre site off Lower Woodville Road in 2013 for $9 million with hopes new industries will come. A couple have acquired portions, but more acreage is available for development.

    The lawsuit against the Adams County sheriff, Slover noted, was recently filed by McCoy, who alleges Guido pulled an assault rifle on the Vidalia alderman without justification while he was parked on Broadway Street overlooking the Mississippi River. Guido is white. McCoy is black.

  • Natchez board approves funds to get downtown development group started

    By John Mott Coffey
    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Board of Aldermen allocated $5,000 Tuesday to help get a long-planned Natchez downtown development association organized more than a year after it was recommended by a group trying revitalize the city.
    The money is to be funneled to FOR Natchez, which is forming an alliance and hire a director to coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive plan aldermen approved in May 2018 to enhance downtown Natchez’s appearance and its commercial and cultural offerings.
    FOR Natchez leader Chesney Doyle has said the new downtown Natchez association would take the “Main Street Approach,” which gets downtown stakeholders to collaborate in promoting commerce, enhancing buildings and expanding the town’s overall economic base.
    With a suggested annual budget of $100,000 or so, Mayor Darryl Grennell said a year ago the new downtown association should be funded by the Board of Aldermen, the Adams County Board of Supervisors and Natchez Inc., the city-county’s economic development agency.
    However, a year later, Doyle told the board Tuesday it’s been a struggle to get the initiative moving forward without sufficient funds from the local governments. Later during the meeting, at Grennell’s request, aldermen approved allocating $5,000 for the paperwork needed to officially organize the downtown association. The money will be funneled to FOR Natchez through the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce.
    The city board in 2018 approved FOR Natchez’ master plan conceived by a Nashville consulting group. Implementing the concepts will require money spent over time by local governments, business entrepreneurs and historic preservationists. FOR Natchez, a private group led by Doyle, spearheaded the drafting of the plan.
    Representatives of a Birmingham-based retail recruitment firm met Tuesday with the mayor and aldermen to discuss it being hired to attract businesses to Natchez, but no action was taken by the board.
    Beyond forming a downtown association, a key element of FOR Natchez’ master plan is to convert the old Broadway Street railroad depot into a dining and drinking establishment. The board is seeking proposals from private developers for the city-owned former train station on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Final proposals are to be submitted in November.
    Another major vision in the city’s development plan has the U.S. Post Office on Canal Street relocated to Martin Luther King Street on the block between Main and Franklin streets. The old mail facility is considered an impediment to the bluff area’s regeneration. One concept has it being torn down and replaced by “Ellicott’s Hill Plaza and Farmers Market” in front of the historic house built there in 1798. Relocating the post office to MLK Street could help spawn economic growth for that section of town.

  • Natchez tourism bureau pursues more visitors

    By John Mott Coffey

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – The city’s tourism agency has experienced “an exciting year of new growth” in its efforts to make people aware of Natchez as a travel destination, said its executive director.

    In a report presented this week to Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell and the Board of Aldermen, Jennifer Ogden Combs pointed to Visit Natchez’ new emphasis on digital and social-media marketing as a key to more travelers coming to the historic city.

    She cited statistics showing the Visit Natchez website has had more than 81,000 clicks since October 2018. Its Facebook page has grown to more than 34,600 followers.

    Combs administers the daily operations of Visit Natchez, the city’s tourism bureau, for the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission, which is appointed by the mayor and Board of Aldermen to oversee the city’s tourism programs. At Tuesday’s board meeting, Combs presented Visit Natchez’ proposed budget of $1.6 million for the fiscal year that starts in October.

    Much of the funds for this comes from tourism taxes the city imposes at hotels, restaurants and bars. An indicator of how many patrons they’ve been getting the past year shows a decline, according to statistics from the Mississippi Department of Revenue.

    In the 12-month period that ended this past June, collections of the city’s special sales tax on hotels, restaurants and bars amounted to $1.29 million. That’s down from the $1.36 million of the previous 12 months going back to 2017, the state tax-collection agency reports.

    A separate local tax charged at Natchez hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast inns totaled about $376,600 in the most recent yearly reporting period. That’s down from the $385,700 collected in the previous 12 months.

    At Tuesday’s meeting of the city board and mayor, Alderman Dan Dillard noted the revenues are “trending down” based on tourism-related business. “How are we going to turn that around?” he said.

    For its efforts to “sell Natchez as a premier destination for business and leisure travelers,” Combs told Grennell and the board that her agency has contracted a national digital-marketing firm – Advance Travel and Tourism — to reach new travel audiences. She provided stats showing the Visit Natchez website’s traffic is up by 48 percent with more than 182,600 visits since October.

    She also noted Visit Natchez has a public relations/social media firm – Lou Hammond Group – that has spurred “extraordinary growth,” such as the addition of more than 7,000 Facebook followers since October.

    As it tries to attract more tourists, Visit Natchez is “developing a more diverse and complete story of Natchez and tourism,” Combs said. This entails concentrating more on Natchez’ 19th century history of slavery. Visit Natchez is sponsoring “heritage tourism” seminars to help those involved in Natchez tourism know more about how to convey the history of blacks enslaved in Natchez-Adams County before the Civil War. One seminar was held in May and another is scheduled Sept. 6.

    Combs said Visit Natchez is working to strengthen its partnerships with those who actually operate what attracts tourists – the historic sites, antebellum houses, hotels, restaurants, shops and other attractions. The city tourism office serves as a resource for them and helps market what they have to offer to visitors. Visit Natchez is holding its annual tourism summit Oct. 1 at the Natchez Convention Center.

  • New federal contract adds more jobs at Adams County prison

    By John Mott Coffey

    NATCHEZ, Miss. – A new prison contract to incarcerate immigrants detained by the federal government is bringing more jobs to Adams County.

    CoreCivic announced Tuesday it has remade a contract to hold immigrants illegally in the country at the company’s Adams County prison, which had faced an uncertain future of remaining open since losing a previous contract.

    As one of Adams County’s largest employers with about 400 workers, CoreCivic will continue operating the prison with even more employees, said Chandler Russ, Natchez-Adams County’s chief industrial recruiter. This is through an arrangement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to house ICE detainees at the 2,232-bed facility.

    “We’ll end up with 50 net new jobs out of this deal,” Russ said. “By far, this is the best-case scenario we could have hoped for.”

    Russ is executive director of Natchez Inc., the partnership funded by city, county and private funds to lure and retain business and jobs for the community.

    The new ICE contract replaces one CoreCivic had with the Federal Bureau of Prisons since 2009 to hold undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes before being deported.

    Since that contract expired, CoreCivic has been trying to find another government agency in need of the private prison. The Adams County Correctional Center has in recent months on a contingency basis been taking ICE detainees, including undocumented immigrants arrested in August while working at Mississippi chicken-processing plants.

    Located about 12 miles east of Natchez on U.S. 84/98, the prison has been incarcerating about 600 ICE detainees, according to the company, which expects more to be sent there to fill the prison space with the new contract that took effect last Thursday as the old contract fully expired.

    “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is facing a critical, emergent need for detention capacity,” said CoreCivic Public Affairs Manager Brandon Bissell.

    The Tennessee-based prison corporation said it entered into the new contract under an intergovernmental agreement between Adams County and ICE. Russ said the Adams County Board of Supervisors is functioning merely as a governmental conduit for CoreCivic to imprison ICE detainees. The board has been meeting in sessions closed to the public this past month to discuss how to keep the prison operating.

    About 390 workers have been operating the private prison since it opened in 2009, Russ said, and CoreCivic will need about 35 more while ICE will additionally employ about 25 there.

    While being among Adams County’s largest employers, CoreCivic is one of the biggest taxpayers, generating about $2 million a year in revenues for the county and school district, Russ said.

    As “a bonus,” Russ said, the county will also receive a share of the revenues CoreCivic gets from the federal government for housing immigrants. That could amount to about $400,000 annually.

    The new contract is expected to generate a total of $50 million to $60 million a year in revenues, according to the company. Built at a cost of $128 million in 2009, the prison in 2018 generated $60.9 million in revenues for CoreCivic.

    “We continue to be uniquely positioned to assist our government partners at ICE, through our flexible real estate solutions and services, as they work to address critical national and international challenges,” CoreCivic President Damon Hininger said in a press release announcing the new contract. “Our sole job is to help government solve problems in ways it can’t do alone, and we have worked in this same capacity for ICE throughout our 35 year partnership.”

    Bissell said the ACCC’s current employees are prepared for the change. “Our experienced, professional workforce at Adams County has already met rigorous federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) screening standards, and they are being cross-trained to meet federal ICE detention standards,” he said.

    The new contract is initially for five years with unlimited extension options upon mutual agreement by the company and federal government.

    “This agreement is a strong example of the flexibility we can provide. As needs change over time, our government partners can easily alter their use of our facilities,” Bissell said.

  • Natchez, Inc. selects VisionFirst Advisors to develop Regional Economic Development Strategic Assessment

    Press Release:

    NATCHEZ, MS – Today, Natchez, Inc.’s executive director Chandler Russ announced the selection of VisionFirst Advisors to develop an Economic Development Strategic Assessment to create a community strategy with a corresponding action plan for implementation.

    “Natchez, Vidalia and Adams County are at a point of great opportunity to recognize and leverage our key assets to better define where we to go in the future. Globally, the competition for jobs and private capital has become increasingly more demanding and complicated. This is why we selected VisionFirst Advisors to help us plan new strategies to increase our competitiveness.”

    – CHANDLER RUSS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATCHEZ, INC.

    To kick-off the planning process, VisionFirst will conduct interviews with local stakeholders and will launch an online survey to gather input from the community. In addition to gathering local feedback, VisionFirst will utilize demographic research to benchmark the region against the state and the nation while outlining best practices in economic development activities. In addition, VisionFirst will work with community leaders to develop a comprehensive approach to connect and direct the efforts of the key stakeholders as each implements its part of a collaborative economic development program of work to achieve measurable goals.

    The plan will identify how the broader community defines economic development success, and will provide recommendations to improve the organization’s structure, operations and goals to guide Natchez, Inc. over the next five years. The overarching goals will build upon the existing resources and infrastructure to strategically grow jobs, support businesses and build a collaborative network to grow the economy.

    “The Natchez community has made bold steps in recruiting new jobs and investment to the region and is constantly striving for improvement. A competitive stance is critical to sustainable economic growth,” said Gray Swoope, President and CEO of VisionFirst Advisors and former executive director of Mississippi Development Authority and Florida Secretary of Commerce. “We are pleased to be chosen to serve as the catalyst to align the resources and stakeholders to drive a program of work which clearly articulates the value proposition to the end user.”

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    About Natchez Inc. »

    Natchez, Inc. is Natchez, Vidalia and Adams County’s lead economic and community development agency.  Our staff is engaged in providing services to businesses, communities and workers in the region.  Our mission is to serve existing and new business and industry – all with the goal of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of area residents. To learn more about Natchez, Inc. visit natchezinc.com.

     

    About VisionFirst Advisors »

    After 30 years of leading public and private economic development organizations in three different states, Gray Swoope helped launch VisionFirst Advisors, LLC, an economic development consulting company focused on location advisory services, economic development strategy, organizational management and result-driven marketing and communications. VisionFirst is a wholly owned subsidiary of Butler Snow LLP with nearly 400 attorneys in 17 U.S. cities as well as international offices in London, Hong Kong and Singapore. This unique structure allows VisionFirst to utilize the strength of the Butler Snow network, combined with the staff’s experience, knowledge and business connections to deliver results. To learn more about VisionFirst visit visionfirstadvisors.com.