NATCHEZ, Miss – The Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to increase the fine for littering as Natchez officials express alarm about so much trash being strewn around town.
“It’s a problem,” said Mayor Dan Gibson, who got the board to approve a $500 fine on litterbugs caught by police. “We need to have an amount that will get people’s attention.”
“There are some areas of the community that are inundated with garbage,” said Alderman Dan Dillard.
While the fine is being raised, it can only be imposed if police officers witness someone littering, said Natchez Police Chief Joseph Daughtry. The mayor said those caught could get off with just a warning.
Gibson said 20 new signs will be posted throughout the city notifying the public that littering is illegal and that those caught doing it can be fined $500. The old fine was $150.
As city officials attempt to crack down on litterers, the mayor asked residents to withhold complaints about the city’s slow process of picking up debris left from February’s ice storm. “We ask people to just please be patient,” Gibson said.
He noted the city Public Works Department’s “skeletal crew” continues to work hard hauling away the piles of broken trees and other storm rubbish. While a company was hired to do this, that contract has run its course and another is being sought.
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The Board of Aldermen has appointed Robbie Cade-Furdge to the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission, which governs the city’s tourism operations.
The church pastor was selected Tuesday after aldermen interviewed her and two other candidates: Adams County Emergency Management liaison Neifa Hardy and Natchez Pilgrimage Garden Club President Eugenie Cates.
Cade-Furdge fills the vacant seat on the six-member NCPC, whichis an autonomous municipal agency that hires the city’s tourism director and staff at Visit Natchez and also controls how the city’s tourism tax revenues are spent to attract visitors. That amounts to about $1.6 million a year.
Cade-Furdge is associate pastor of the Word of Faith Ambassadors Worship Center in Natchez, a business owner and member of the Natchez Tourism Marketing Advisory Committee.
She “will be a tremendous asset to the NCPC board and Visit Natchez,” said Mayor Dan Gibson.
The mayor and aldermen closed the public out of the interviews with the NCPC candidates. Gibson said “matters of a personal nature” would be discussed. State law allows government boards to meet behind closed doors for personnel matters, but the Natchez Board of Aldermen in 2016 did conduct open-session interviews of NCPC candidates when Darryl Grennell was mayor.
According to the Mississippi Ethics Commission – which polices government boards’ adherence to the state’s open meetings law — the Mississippi Supreme Court “has explained that the words ‘personnel matters’ are restricted to matters dealing with employees hired and supervised by the board, not those employees of some other (public) official, and not other (public) officials themselves.”
The board approved Cade-Furdge’s appointment to the NCPC on a 4-2 vote. Aldermen in favor were Valencia Hall, Sarah Carter Smith, Ben Davis and Dan Dillard. Voting against were aldermen Billie Joe Frazier and Felicia Irving, who wanted the board to consider another candidate.
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