Lobbyists representing Natchez and Adams County said they continue to work hard finding more state and federal funds for local projects, such as upgrading Morgantown Road and further developing the Forks of the Road national historic site.
“Keeping Natchez and Adams County at the forefront” in pursuing specially earmarked money is their goal, said Gregg Harper, a former U.S. congressman hired last year by city and county boards to lobby state and federal governments.
Harper and fellow lobbyist Manning McPhillips met Monday with the Adams County Board of Supervisors along with Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson and, in a separate meeting, with the Natchez Board of Aldermen.
Harper noted about $2.4 million for Morgantown Road is contained in a U.S. Senate bill now pending in the House of Representatives for road projects throughout the country. Natchez-Adams County officials have struggled for years to find funds to repave and widen the dangerous, flood-prone thoroughfare.
Morgantown Road is not earmarked in the infrastructure bill President Biden signed into law Monday to provide $1 trillion to upgrade roads, bridges and water systems nationally. As local officials await the outcome of the separate road appropriation bill, McPhillips said they’ll be “turning over every rock” to find money for Morgantown.
For the Forks of the Road — which is part of the Natchez National Historical Park — about $600,000 is being sought from the U.S. Congress to preserve and further develop the site of the former slave market by St. Catherine Street and Devereaux Drive. It’s considered by the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service a high priority to tell the history of enslavement.
About $400,000 in federal funds has been allocated to buy property where the slave market was located, McPhillips said. Another $538,000 is in federal appropriations.
Congress passed a law in 2017 authorizing the establishment of Forks of the Road historic site for preservation, commemoration and interpretation by Natchez National Historical Park within an 18.5-acre boundary.
For the Mississippi Legislature that begins its 2022 session in January, local legislation will include a bill to authorize the Natchez and Adams County boards to fund Natchez Inc., the local economic development agency. Funding authority for this expired in September.
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