NATCHEZ — The attorney general’s office has cleared the way for the Natchez-Adams School District to contribute money to the recreation effort.

Now the school board just has to decide whether or not it wants to play.

School board attorney Bruce Kuehnle and recreation commission attorney Walter Brown sent a letter to Attorney General Jim Hood in early November asking whether or not it would be legal for the school district to contribute funds to a recreation complex that wasn’t on school property.

The reply from Hood’s office, dated Nov. 29, was simple — “Yes.”

Recreation Commission Chairman Tate Hobdy said the official opinion has removed yet another roadblock in the process.

“When dealing with the board of supervisors and the board of aldermen, we kept saying the school board will be able to do this,” Hobdy said. “And now we have a piece of paper that says they in fact can. It’s moving along.”

The City of Natchez recently learned that the National Park Service has removed an existing 60-day termination clause previously included in the memorandum of understanding allowing the land known as the “bean field” to be used for the recreation complex.

Now, the recreation commission has clear permission to use the park service-owned land.

The city and the county have committed $11,000 each to the planning and development stage of the recreation complex.

The school board was asked to contribute the same.

School board chairman Wayne Barnett said the issue will have to come before the board for a vote now that the attorney general has cleared the way.

The school board’s regular monthly meeting is at 4 p.m. Thursday at Braden School.

Barnett said the recreation topic wasn’t currently on the agenda, but could be added either this month or next.

“We’ve got to go back and decide whether we want to (participate) or not and whether we can financially,” he said. “Every time you turn around you are getting a cut, and it’s kind of hard to say ‘yes,’ we will participate.

“Everybody’s for recreation, and I am too, but do we have the money?”

In the meantime, contributions from the city and county were enough to get the ball rolling, Hobdy said.

A landscape architect has been hired to draw preliminary plans and is working.

The commission is working to finalize a timeline and will meet with the architect soon.

After that, the commission will host a public forum, inviting the public to give feedback on the design of the complex, Hobdy said.

Then, the commission will work with the National Park Service for approval on what goes where at the site.

“Once we think we’ve got all those boxes checked, then we’ll end up having a joint meeting with all three (city, county school) boards,” Hobdy said.