Natchez’ Board of Aldermen is meeting to discuss multiple matters, including the city’s budget. The city is projected to run a surplus for the current fiscal year, but projections for the next year differ. Officials said they will need to identify about $2 million in cuts to department requests to make the budget numbers balance.
In other regional economic news, Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in central Louisiana announced plans to expand and modernize its warehouse in Alexandria. The company said it is investing more than $100 million. Louisiana Central President and CEO Chris Massingale said the project will help preserve more than 2,000 jobs and add additional positions, including 75 new jobs in the area, for a total of 134 new job opportunities across central Louisiana.
Mississippi lawmakers are also working on legislative and congressional district map considerations. Supporters of redrawing the maps said they are aiming to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that race cannot be the main factor in drawing districts. Critics have called for the joint redistricting committee to be fair and transparent.
The state’s prior maps were drawn in 2022 using 2020 census data. Those maps were challenged in court, and a judge ordered a redraw last year, which led to special elections. The change followed those elections and was described as contributing to Republicans losing a supermajority in the Mississippi Senate.
Ten years after one of Louisiana’s most destructive floods, the anniversary of a severe storm is being marked this week. Officials described the event as beginning with normal rainfall that developed into catastrophic flooding after a slow-moving storm system dropped more than a foot of rain across southwest Louisiana through the North Shore. The broadcast noted that rainfall totals exceeded two feet in Livingston Parish and that Denham Springs was flooded.
The news update also cited the Mississippi River in the Natchez Valley at 18.17 feet and falling.
