NATCHEZ — Construction of a new community pool is expected to begin within a 20-day window, county officials said this week. Adams County Supervisors Board Attorney Scott Slover said including a preconstruction meeting, the pool has a 220-day build out. Slover said once construction begins, the build out is 200 days on the pool.

“We are talking about breaking ground in 20 days and finishing in 200 good weather days,” Slover said. “Emphasis on all good weather days. For every day of bad weather, it will extend the build out by a day.”

If all goes to schedule, the pool would be complete in approximately May.

The city and county, which took over the pool building and bidding process from the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission, received bids over the summer for the pool. The initial bid was $1.7 million, or approximately $700,000 higher than the initial budget.

Despite the rebidding process the pool is still approximately $430,000 over the initial budget.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said she is just ready to see some progress because the public pool would be a plus for the community. Children knowing how to swim is also a life-saving tool, she said.

“I imagine all of the schools would offer swimming,” Arceneaux-Mathis said. “We want to try to get our children swimming at an early age.”

Mayor Darryl Grennell said the goal has been to have the pool open by next summer, but he would rather accept more delays than have a substandard pool built. Grennell said voids under the pool at Duncan Park were what ultimately sunk the city’s public pool.

“One of the reasons why it closed is there were gigantic voids under that pool,” Grennell said. “We were afraid people could be sucked under.”

Grennell said his goal is to make sure the construction is done under the proper specifications of the Johnny Waycaster design.

“I don’t want to rush the job,” Grennell said. “I don’t want anything rushed where errors will be made and so forth.”

Board of Supervisors President Mike Lazarus said with the pool contracts executed, he would like to see the community move forward on the rest of the recreation package.

“If we start now, we could have a new ballfield ready by spring time,” he said. “It needs to be done in the winter while kids aren’t playing on it.

“We’ve got $2 million to work with. I don’t know why we can’t do something simultaneously.”

Of the $2 million, Lazarus was referring to a pot created by the county and the Community Development Fund board devoting $100,000 per year for 10 years to recreation. The board oversees annual payments Magnolia Bluffs Casino makes to the city for community development purposes as part of the casino’s lease agreement with the city

The Natchez YMCA is supposed to oversee the pool, but is currently in the process of revamping the interlocal agreement. The YMCA leadership in Jackson have said the group may pull out of Natchez by Nov. 1 over confusion with the agreement.

The agreement is the basis of YMCA Natchez Director Alice Agner’s contract, and the city has not complied with a few points, including turning over employees to Agner’s management. The city’s refusal, Agner and others with the YMCA have said is preventing her from being able to fulfill her contract.

Both Arceneaux-Mathis and Grennell said they want Agner to run the pool.

Arceneaux-Mathis said the YMCA does not run any parks, such as the city’s playgrounds, in cities around the state. She said the city has also been working with City Attorney Bob Latham on what could be done legally.

Latham is drafting a new version of the ILA.Agner said the YMCA is working on a management agreement for the pool, and Arceneaux-Mathis said she did not think that would be a problem.

“The Y was always supposed to be involved with the pool,” Arceneaux-Mathis said. “One of the main factors we knew if the Y came in they would develop a swimming program. They can work that program in with the schools.”

The contractor hired to construct the pool was Rotelo Consultants of Slidell, La. Wilmar Construction of Vidalia was hired to construct the support building.