By Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson
I am excited to announce that our city made an important forward step Tuesday night. Our long awaited vision for new life to come to the old, abandoned Titan tire plant is now closer than ever to becoming reality.
When I ran to be your mayor in 2020, I pledged to address this scourge on Natchez and the citizens living near (the city-owned facility). At first we thought it could be a location for a workforce development program, but early in our first year of office we began talking to an industry that expressed interest in locating a business there. Those discussions are now finally bearing fruit.
Tuesday night, our Board of Aldermen unanimously approved moving forward with an agreement with a green industry to finalize contracts and other legal documents with the approval of our City Attorney and environmental engineers and final approval of our board.
This industry is a cutting-edge employer specializing in FDA-approved health products known as nutraceuticals and adaptogens. In laymen’s terms, they will produce health-giving foods containing medicinal benefits.
Our proposed agreement will require the creation of a minimum of 50 jobs and the investment of at least $1 million into the facility. We also are requiring that any environmental concerns be addressed while offering to work with the new industry in improving the streetscape along Kelly Avenue to include a 10-foot privacy fence and some landscaping. This renovated facility will be returned to the tax rolls, and should it at any time in the future fail to operate as expected, it will return to the city at no cost to the city.
Once approved, it is our hope that this will be a win-win for the community around the plant and for the city at large. It definitely beats the current plan requiring the city to spend thousands of dollars each year on security. And anyone who thinks tearing down this massive building is an option should consider what such an endeavor would cost – not to mention the potential health hazards that would be inflicted upon citizens having to breathe in airborne contamination as a result.
More information will be shared once an agreement is reached, including drawings of the proposed improved facility. In the meantime, please know I am very interested in hearing from residents who live near this site and are most affected by what goes on there. Feel free to private message me – that is probably the fastest way to share your opinion with me.
Many thanks to all who are working to make this happen- and especially Chandler Russ and Natchez, Inc. They have been doing the heavy lifting for a while, and for this we are very grateful!
The north Natchez tire factory on Kelly Avenue was constructed for Armstrong Rubber Co. in 1939 with state financing. The property was deeded to the city. The Natchez tire manufacturer once had more than 1,000 employees. After Armstrong left, the property was used by successor tire-making tenants Fidelity, Condere and Titan. Titan took over in 1998 but shuttered the factory in 2001. It continued to lease the dormant buildings and land from the city until 2017.
During the past two decades, the site has been monitored by the state Department of Environmental Quality for pollution caused by gasoline and cleaning solvents seeping into groundwater from the old factory. City and county officials received federal funds to further analyze the pollution and determine what the cleanup costs would be for the property’s rehabilitation for industrial use.
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