NATCHEZ — Once the upcoming city election cycle is over, the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission would like to approach the aldermen and discuss a step toward a unified recreation program that doesn’t need any new funding, Commission Chairman Tate Hobdy said.

Because the elections could change the makeup of the board of aldermen — and has already guaranteed a new mayor — the commission has “kind of held the brakes until after the elections,” Hobdy said.

“The only thing we have discussed recently was the inter-local agreement (that forms the commission),” he said. “There hasn’t been any funding discussion.”

Once the elections have ended, however, Hobdy said the commission has some ideas it would like to see move forward, with or without funding.

The key element is for Natchez to hire a recreation director. Since former Recreation Director Ralph Tedder retired in late 2010, Assistant Director Selena Edwards has acted in that role in an interim capacity.

“The city needs to fill that position either with somebody internally or somebody externally who is qualified for it,” Hobdy said.

“We need a good director who knows how to raise money and has good contacts within the recreation industry; that would be ideal.”

The funding for the position does not need to be found because the City of Natchez already has a line item for a recreation director’s salary in its budget, Hobdy said.

“It is really time to fill that position,” he said.

“My board is a completely voluntary board, and in order for us to really move forward with anything, we need somebody who is full-time and is working with us and on the same page.”

The NACRC is formed by an inter-local agreement between the Natchez Board of Aldermen, the Adams County Board of Supervisors and the Natchez-Adams County School District.

The commission has nine appointed members, with the NASD, Natchez aldermen and Adams County supervisors appointing three members each. Each board also appoints one of its own members as an ex officio member of the commission for communication purposes.

The three boards recently renewed the inter-local agreement that formed the commission in 2008. The agreement is currently under review by the Mississippi attorney general’s office, and will be effective until June 30, 2017, when approved.

Hobdy said the agreement is essentially the same as the 2008 agreement, except that a requirement for a non-binding referendum to gauge county support for a unified recreation program has been stricken from the language.

The non-binding referendum was passed in 2009, with approximately 78.5 percent of voters supporting the idea of construction of a city-county recreation complex with construction costs capped at $5.4 million.

“I would have hoped that the inter-local agreement would have been entirely different because we had a funding schedule involved,” Hobdy said.

In January, the commission met with all of the members of the three boards to discuss what needed to be done to make the complex happen, and the boards asked commission members to provide them with marketing information to support the complex.

Hobdy said the commission has had a marketing study done, and at the next meeting he will ask the members for permission to have the study printed so it can be distributed to the three boards.