NATCHEZ, Miss. (Oct. 25) – The city, county and school boards have agreed to seek a Natchez-Adams County workforce development director to coordinate efforts for enhancing the local labor force and the community’s ability to lure more businesses.
Someone to fill this newly created position is to be appointed by Nov. 30, according to the timetable adopted today at a joint meeting of the Natchez Board of Aldermen, Adams County Board of Supervisors and the Natchez-Adams School District Board of Trustees.
Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson has been the leading proponent of creating a city-county workforce development program. The first step is to hire a director who knows what job skills local businesses demand and how to get state and federal grants for meeting those needs.
“The sooner we get this person in place, then the sooner we can get to work on getting these grant funds,” Gibson said. “We certainly don’t want to miss out on this amazing opportunity that’s been presented.”
The mayor said few other Mississippi cities and counties have a workforce development coordinator, and what’s being established in Natchez-Adams County could “be a model for others to follow our lead.”
The director’s salary is to be $65,000 a year for managing a workforce development program with a $100,000 annual budget funded by the three boards in equal shares.
Gibson said last month the funds for this could come from the federal American Rescue Plan, which has appropriated money to cities and counties to help recover from the economic setbacks caused by the COVID pandemic.
Much of the discussions today between the three boards focused on who’ll be on the search advisory committee for selecting the director. The committee will interview applicants next month for the city, county and school boards to ratify by the end of November.
The search committee will be representatives from the city, county and school governing authorities along with the two local business-promotion agencies: Natchez Inc. and the Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce.
The director is to work at Natchez Inc., the chief industrial recruiter for the community funded by public and private funds
Gibson in September said he wants Tuwanna Higgins-Williams to be hired for this new position. She has experience in workforce development at the state Department of Employment Security and Copiah-Lincoln Community College. However, the three boards opted to allow others to also apply for the job.
As initially outlined by Gibson last month, the new Natchez-Adams County workforce development program could involve a multimillion-dollar conversion of the old city convention center into a job-training facility.
He said federal funds could be used to refurbish the Steckler building on the Natchez High School campus. It was built as the Natchez Convention Center and later transferred to the school system.
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