NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Board of Aldermen agreed today to hire more workers for the Natchez Public Works Department, which has a manpower shortage that’s “almost paralyzed” the city’s ability to cut grass and maintain streets.
While the city is suffering a decline in tax revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, aldermen voted to allocate at least $16,400 to hire four maintenance employees for the next two months.
Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell said evidence of the Public Works Department’s depleted work crew is glaringly apparent. “I’ve driven around the city and it is in bad shape. . . .We’re in the worst shape we’ve been in a long time,” said Grennell, who’s in his final days as mayor.
The Public Works Department is below 50 percent of the number of employees it should have, said Alderman Dan Dillard, who noted the department’s depleted workforce could have it “almost paralyzed.”
The department has lost several workers in recent months for various reasons, but the Board of Aldermen had imposed a hiring freeze as city revenues slumped because of the economic slowdown.
The Public Works Department currently averages 10 or less workers a day in the field, said department head Justin Dollar
“The city is going down the drain if we don’t get any new employees,” said Alderman Billie Frazier.
The board voted 3-1 to hire more public works employees. Alderman Sarah Carter Smith was the lone dissenter. Unconvinced of a dire need for more public works employees, Smith said she doesn’t “know if we have the money for this.”
Other aldermen indicated money could be squeezed out of other municipal departments and from funds the board had earlier set aside for summer youth workers who wound up not turning out.
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The National Park Service’s takeover of the Natchez Visitor Reception Center is expected to be a done deal next week. Natchez gave the facility to the federal government with plans for much-needed upgrades the city can’t afford.
The visitors center will become part of the Natchez National Historical Park and continue to be the central place for tourists to get information about Natchez and purchase tickets for various attractions.
Park Superintendent Kathleen Bond said all official paperwork could be formally executed July 23 to make the visitors center officially owned by the National Park Service. She said the NPS will be working out leases for future visitor center tenants.
Natchez National Historical Park administrators, Visit Natchez tourism bureau staffers, Mississippi Welcome Center workers, and Natchez Pilgrimage Tours employees have occupied the building in recent years. Bond said NPT will no longer be a visitors center tenant, but the park service will be seeking proposals from other tourism-related commercial ventures interested in occupying the now federally owned building.
Located by the Mississippi River bridges, the visitors center was constructed in 1997 with about $8 million in mostly federal funds as the city-owned hub of Natchez tourism. It’s only had piecemeal repairs in past years. A report presented to the Board of Aldermen four years ago estimated more than $600,000 worth of work is needed for the 25,000-square-foot structure. The board decided in 2017 to donate the property to the state or federal government.
The National Park Service is also assuming ownership of the city’s historic Forks of the Road — once the site of a large slave market. However, Bond said more property-acquisition work remains before the NPS officially gets the land, which covers several acres by St. Catherine Street, D’Evereaux Drive, and Concord Avenue.
The National Park Service plans to develop the area into a historic site commemorating what was from 1833 to 1863 the second-largest slave market in the South, according to the state Department of Archives and History. Slaves were bought and sold there. When Union troops during the Civil War took control of Natchez in 1863 and freed slaves, hundreds of them took refuge at the old market site.
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Today’s meeting was the last regular session of the Board of Aldermen with Grennell as mayor. He opted not to run for re-election for a second term. Today’s election between Dan Gibson and Phillip West determines who replaces Grennell when the new administration takes over July 24. Grennell is Natchez’s fifth mayor in a row since 2000 to serve just one four-year term.
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The Board of Aldermen agreed to let the Adams County Circuit Court use City Auditorium for jury trials. With the social-distancing practices now imposed due to the coronavirus contagion, the Adams County Courthouse isn’t large enough to accommodate the crowds that trials attract. That’s especially the case as prospective jurors are called to pack a courtroom as a 12-member jury is selected prior to trial. Adams County Circuit Court is scheduled to hold trials in August.
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