Adams County officials have three bidding to be airport director

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Three people are vying to be the new Natchez-Adams County Airport director.

An advisory committee is considering who to recommend for Adams County supervisors to decide whether to appoint, said county Administrator Mitzi Conn. Former county aviation director Richard Nelson resigned in July after working seven years in that post.

Conn said Tuesday she couldn’t publicly reveal the names of the three candidates being reviewed as Nelson’s replacement.

His resignation came three months after the Board of Supervisors decided to dissolve the five-member commission that’s been governing the county-owned airport for years. County supervisors took over the oversight duties with an aviation director and Conn handling day-to-day management.

Conn was an airport commission member before county supervisors made her the county’s chief administrative officer in April.

The change in the airport’s governance and management comes as Natchez-Adams County leaders continue trying to reestablish commercial air service here.

After about 30 years without, city and county officials since 2021 have been aggressively recruiting without success a passenger airline to serve the community on a regular basis. State and federal grants have been provided to subsidize airline services and improve airport infrastructure.