A portion of the property has been leased to Halcon, a player in the TMS development, and another company — which has yet to be officially named — has an option on the property. “It is always important to remember that we purchased IP for a couple of reasons, because of the void of industrial property and the enormous asset of the wastewater treatment facility, and that always needs to be part of the discussion,” Russ said. “If we don’t sell an acre of property at IP, the wastewater treatment facility — from a public investment standpoint — is worth the investment.” The county has a $4.7 million grant approved and rewarded by the Mississippi Development Authority for the refurbishment of the wastewater treatment facility in connection with the Elevance project. Officials have said in the past the ability to treat high volumes of industrial wastewater is a key economic recruiting factor. “We are wanting to time the completion of the facility with the completion schedules of Elevance,” Russ said. “Their heavy construction should start at the end of this calendar year and will last 14-18 months, so we feel like the construction schedule on the waste water treatment plant and the liquid loading dock is probably a 12-month period, so once they get started in their construction, you will see us start to begin the process of bringing that public infrastructure back into play.” Johns Manville and Titan Tire While IP and Belwood are the two obvious sells for the county, two shuttered industrial sites — Johns Manville and Titan Tire — sit disused. The 185-acre Johns Manville site has been out of use since 2001, when the insulation products company closed its doors. Russ said Natchez Inc. has had numerous conversations about the possible demolition of the site and turning it over to the county with the company, but it hasn’t moved forward significantly. “The main building there is a hard sell simply because it is an older facility,” Russ said. “We brought in demolition contractors to look at it but have not been able to get it moved from where the state it is in now to a redevelopable property at this time.” Associate General Counsel for Johns Manville Roger Twisselman said the company has no plans for demolition at the site and has not listed it with a broker. “We have one individual who worked at the plant for many years and still maintains some of the systems that are there at the factory,” he said. “There are no plans for us to do anything on the property.”