NATCHEZ — The YMCA is looking to kick off a pair of programs this fall, as well as start the dirt work on the pool project in the near future.

Metropolitan YMCAs of Mississippi Natchez liaison Casey Custer delivered an update to the Adams County Board of Supervisors this past week. Custer said he is aware not much activity is apparent at the site of a new pool recently, as the Y has been in a waiting phase.

Recreation Commission Chair Tate Hobdy said activity is about to kick into gear. He said the approximately $79,000 dirt contract on the community pool and multi-purpose fields was recently executed by the commission. Hobdy said the plan is to have the pool operational by summer 2017.

“Things are starting to happen now,” Hobdy said. “The Y is the glue that brings it all together. We ask everyone to be supportive and look for opportunities to participate in the near future.”

Though the multi-purpose fields are not built yet, Custer said the YMCA hopes to kick off a soccer league for 3-, 4- and 5-year-old youth in the month of October. Custer said organizers have been reaching out to preschools and churches to try to get a beginning soccer program started, which he anticipated would be hosted at the field near McLaurin Elementary School.

Custer said the YMCA is also continuing to work with the Natchez-Adams School District officials to start an afterschool program for elementary and middle school students. Custer said the organization is waiting on the green light from the board of trustees.

The program would be on the Morgantown, McLaurin and Frazier campuses.

The Y has also partnered with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office to have children be coached by deputies at the Dominique Wilkins Basketball Court, which will be built around the same time as the pool.

“We would like to use programs like this to get youth used to working with law enforcement on a peer-to-peer basis and not in a superior to inferior position,” he said.

Custer said changes are also happening at Duncan Park, where they will start instituting a point of sale system to attempt to better service the community.

One concern Supervisor Ricky Gray had was the YMCA’s fee structure. Gray said Mississippi has a poverty rate of 22 percent, and Adams County is in even worse shape at 33 percent of residents living below the poverty line.

Since the Adams County Supervisors are footing the bill for the YMCA to have a presence in Natchez, Gray wondered why the organization has to charge.

“Since we are putting up the money for The Y, you don’t have to raise money,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with a fee structure, I just want you to realize a majority of the kids here eat free. I don’t want the kids kept out.”

Custer said a fee structure like all YMCA facilities will exist to help pay for programming, but he said it would not be the same as a Y membership is in Jackson.

“In Jackson, you have a facility where people come in and work out,” he said. “There will be a small membership fee families will pay to be a part of The Y. Through that, we will be able to control and provide good quality.”

Custer did not provide specifics on what the membership fees might be.

However, he said the YMCA would not shut the door on children.

Hobdy said Custer has been speaking with businesses and at community meetings including Rotary and Kiwanis.

“In every instance we have done that, local businesses and banks have come and said they are willing to help,” Hobdy said. “One of the ideas we have kicked around is scholarships. We will not turn anyone down if they can’t afford it.”

Supervisor David Carter said he’d like to see the commission provide more regular reports. He said the problem with recreation in Adams County has often been that progress begins but somewhere along the way the ball gets dropped beyond making plans. When it’s time to show what’s been done, the community learns there has been no progress, Carter said.

“I agree with that,” Hobdy said. “After our meetings, we will start sending out updates to all three boards.”