NATCHEZ — Joint city-county recreation plans are huddled in a time out as officials from both sides decide the next play.

Attorneys for city and county boards are meeting with members of the Natchez-Adams Recreation Commission seeking to draft a letter of intent that city aldermen and county supervisors can agree upon. The goal is to eliminate any further back-and-forth discussions between the city and county boards.

The meeting came at the request of Alderman Mark Fortenbery, who is the city’s recreation committee chair.

During last week’s board of aldermen meeting, Fortenbery said he hoped the work would help get the ball rolling on a plan both the city and county could approve.

City Attorney Hyde Carby said the initial meeting last week was to create a letter of intent that met both entities’ requirements and could result in forward progress.

County Attorney Scott Slover said the meeting was beneficial to help members of the commission understand exactly what language and details need to be included in a letter of intent.

“It’s basically Hyde and I telling them the things that they can expect in a letter of intent and be in the realm of possibility of getting it to the boards,” Slover said. “But neither Hyde (nor) I have the authority to say, ‘This is what the parties will agree upon.’”

The individual city and county boards need to make those decisions, Slover said.

Natchez-Adams Recreation Commission chair Tate Hobdy said Monday he was pleased with the progress and was hopeful  a final draft of the letter would be ready for the commission to review before taking it to the city and county.

“Hyde and Scott dealt with all the legal aspects of this deal, so we’re hoping if we can get this to the boards, they won’t then have to turn around and seek legal counsel,” Hobdy said. “Hopefully, this is a good way to go about it.”

Hobdy declined to mention any particular things in the letter, but said hiring a director for the recreation program is still the top priority.

“If one of the boards wants something to make that happen, we’re going to try and make that happen,” Hobdy said. “We just want to make sure we get a director to make sure we can do what we need to do.”

The last mention of recreation by the city board of aldermen came in early June when city leaders said they didn’t believe the contribution from the county to pay the director’s salary plus benefits — roughly $50,000 — was significant enough to equal the $1.4 million recreation budget the city manages.

The city would need to turn over its budget, Hobdy said, to help recruit a director to the area by offering that person control over a larger operation instead of just city or county recreation.

City leaders requested at the time a revision to a previous letter of intent drafted by the county supervisors that would include a specific dollar amount the county was willing to invest in recreation.

Without mentioning specifics, Hobdy said he was confident the letter would address the majority of the issues recently presented.

“We’ve changed a couple of things that won’t really change the grand idea of everything, but are more logistics and things like that,” Hobdy said. “I think it’s been very, very productive.”

Carby said he hoped to have the letter finished and ready to present to the board during its first August meeting.