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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.

By John Mott Coffey

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Board of Aldermen approved funds Tuesday to hire a former city planning director to help “jumpstart” downtown Natchez’ redevelopment.

The $50,000 allocated by the city board will be used to begin implementing the downtown master plan aldermen approved in May 2018. This brings Phil Walker back to Natchez to be interim director of a newly formed Downtown Natchez Association.

Walker and other consultants formulated the master plan for the city early last year with FOR Natchez, a private group led by Chesney Doyle that hired the professional planners. After more than a year of struggles to get the initiative moving forward with sufficient public funds, Natchez aldermen heeded Doyle’s request Tuesday to appropriate the $50,000.

This, she said, will show Natchez residents that “visible progress” is being made to “jumpstart” the downtown association with “a dedicated professional” like Walker. “We must get organized,” Doyle told the board and Mayor Darryl Grennell.

Walker was Natchez’ planning director from 1991 to 1993. He began his Nashville-based urban planning firm in 2002.

The money to begin implementing the new downtown master plan is from community development funds Natchez gets from leasing city-owned land to Magnolia Bluffs Casino by the Mississippi River. The $50,000 is leftover funds in the city budget for the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The board is preparing to set the budget for the next fiscal year on Thursday.

The new master plan conceived in 2018 envisioned the quick establishment of a downtown group with a full-time executive director. They’re tasked with spearheading the implementation of comprehensive strategies to revitalize buildings and businesses in the city’s core area, which spans from the river bluff area on Broadway Street on the west to the Triangle area where Martin Luther King and St. Catherine streets intersect on the east.

The master plan includes resurrecting the city-owned Broadway Street railroad depot whose restoration has been on hold since 2016 and getting the federal government to move the U.S. Post Office on Canal Street to Martin Luther King Street to bring more bustle to that area.

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Natchez aldermen are seeking state historic preservation funds to reroof the century-old City Hall at an estimated cost of more than $220,000.

The city board voted Tuesday to apply for a grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to help replace what’s described as an “extremely worn, patched and leaky roof.”

The state money, if granted, would be augmented with city funds totaling about $77,000, according to Natchez Community Development Director James Johnston.

A state-designated Mississippi landmark, City Hall on Pearl Street was built in 1924.

MDAH administers the Community Heritage Preservation Grant program funded by the state Legislature to help preserve or restore local courthouses, schools and other official Mississippi landmarks.

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

The Adams County Board of Supervisors is also applying for MDAH preservation funds for fixing roof leaks at the county courthouse. Officially declared a Mississippi landmark, the Adams County Courthouse was built around 1820 and extensively remodeled in the 1920s, according to MDAH.

By John Mott Coffey

NATCHEZ, Miss. – City aldermen approved funding two soil erosion-control projects for Natchez in split votes Tuesday, but the mayor broke a tie and scratched out work on Learned’s Mill Road to reduce costs.

The federal government had agreed to provide $1.6 million for five Natchez projects, but this required the city to come up with about $432,000. Mayor Darryl Grennell and aldermen decided they could only afford two projects: a site on Martin Luther King Street near Robert Lewis School and land on Gloucester Court off Lower Woodville Road near Longwood antebellum mansion.

This reduced the local match to what the board was told it had available for such projects: $117,000.

The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program distributes money to local governments for combating damage caused by eroding land that threaten homes and streets.

The Board of Aldermen initially deadlocked 3-3 on a list of that included three EWP projects: MLK Street, Gloucester Court and Learned’s Mill Road going to the Magnolia Vale estate by the Mississippi River. Grennell broke the tie to vote against funding the three. He said the city couldn’t afford it. “I don’t want to adopt an unbalanced budget,” he said.

In subsequent votes, the board went 5-1 for funding the Gloucester Court work and then 4-2 for the MLK soil-erosion project.

In the initial 3-3 vote, Aldermen Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis, Billie Joe Frazier and Felicia Irving favored funding all three projects while Sarah Carter Smith, Ben Davis and Dan Dillard were against.

In a second vote — going 5-1 – all except Smith favored funding only the Gloucester Court project.

In a third vote – going 4-2 – Arceneaux-Mathis, Frazier, Irving and Davis approved adding the MLK Street EWP project while Smith and Dillard were against.

Smith pointed to how hurriedly city officials reviewed the details, which she said prevented “making informed decisions” about the EWP projects.

In other action Tuesday, the aldermen heard residents’ complaints about a Main Street-St. Charles Avenue house that’s been divided into four apartments for more than 30 years but in a neighborhood where such units aren’t normally allowed.

While 1116 Main Street had been “grandfathered” in to continue as a four-plex, neighbors complained it’s been a nuisance — mainly causing street parking congestion on Main and St. Charles. Owner Richard Wilbourn requested the city officially allow the apartment house to continue as a special exception within a neighborhood where only one- or two-family dwellings are allowed. Without this exception, he can’t sell the house for it to remain apartments as he wants, according to his attorney.

However, the Board of Aldermen affirmed a previous Natchez Planning Commission decision that denied his request.

The mayor and aldermen, as they routinely do, also on Tuesday closed the public out of discussions on issues they don’t want openly aired, such as personnel, litigation and the transfer of properties as allowed by state law. They spent more than an hour behind closed doors.

NATCHEZ, Miss. — Early on Monday, September 16, 2019 Adams County Sheriff’s Office was notified that a 2016 Caterpillar backhoe parked next to the Dollar General in Sibley was found to be missing when the construction company came to pick up a paving machine.

The construction company’s equipment manager said the backhoe was equipped with a tracker which they had already activated. Deputies found the backhoe parked on Hutchins Landing Rd. near Applewood Rd. in Sibley.

The backhoe is owned by T. L. Wallace Construction out of Columbia, MS and is valued at approximately $150,000.

By John Mott Coffey

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Plans are underway for enhancing ballparks at Duncan and Liberty parks in Natchez.

The Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission has blueprinted various options to present in the near future, said county Supervisor Mike Lazarus. He displayed drafted depictions Monday of what could be in the offing. The Recreation Commission has what Lazarus said are “basic, silver and gold” propositions for improving the park facilities.

“They will give you a lot of options,” he told the other county supervisors at their Monday meeting.

In consolidating their recreation efforts in 2015, the 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

Adams 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. Lazarus showed drawings Monday that included layouts of a new baseball field at Duncan Park’s back side and an improved baseball venue where Natchez and Cathedral high schools play at Liberty Park. A girls softball venue is also in the redevelopment mix for Liberty Park.

The city-county governments could borrow money through a bond issue, Lazarus said, to pay for the construction and repay the money in annual installments with the funds already committed by the recreation compact formed by Natchez-Adams County officials in 2015.

In addition to the $100,000 each pledged annually for infrastructure, the county board each year is to allocate $334,000 to combine with $550,000 from the city board for the recreation commission to appropriate.

The county and city boards last week approved their budgets for operating all programs and services for Adams County and Natchez during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. County supervisors budgeted to spend about $29.3 million, down about $384,000 from the fiscal year fiscal nearing its end Sept. 30. City aldermen budgeted to spend about $36.6 million for the coming year, a reduction from the $37.4 million in expenditures budgeted this current year.

The YMCA was being paid about $100,000 a year to manage recreation programs for Natchez and Adams County, but the city-county contract with the suburban Jackson-based organization expired in March without it being renewed. There were concerns expressed about the lack of accountability of what it was doing for recreation.

The Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission is the actual agency that operates rec programs funded by the county and city boards. However, the nine-member commission earlier this year struggled to get enough members to show up for meetings and was slow in getting bills paid, according to county officials. Commission members are appointed by Adams county supervisors and Natchez aldermen.