I, like many of the citizens of Natchez, have had to leave town on occasion in order to secure work. My last tour out of town turned into basically being gone a year and a half. The lack of industry and jobs is the very reason there are 200 plus houses on the market. Nothing is going to fix this problem except industry and jobs. As we have seen in the past, not everyone who leaves comes back. 

Since returning home, I’ve seen and read some things, which are quite honestly hard to believe. Let’s start at the top. After a long (and controversial) bid process, Arrow Disposal is awarded the garbage disposal contract for the city.

Arrow, trying to be a good corporate neighbor, enters into negotiations to lease the Armstrong/Titan Tire Plant for maintenance, parking, etc. Not to store garbage.

What would this lease do for our fair city? It would save the city $84,000 a year for securing an empty plant, and, Arrow would add $15,000 in rent. So anyway you look at the figure, it’s a $100,000 windfall per year. So if the length of this contract is five years, Natchez has just gained a half million dollars of much needed funds.

Unfortunately for us, a small handful of Natchezians (I’m, guessing they never knew that big building was a plant) threatened to picket this lease.

Let me repeat, no one ever stood outside the plant with a sign in their hands they merely threatened to do so. Arrow, rightfully so, runs for the hills, and with it goes our half million dollars up in smoke.

You can do a lot of things with $500,000, fix a few of the worst streets, expand the new pool facilities, replace some of the lights on the bridge or even better, put it up for a rainy day, you could even put a down payment on the purchase of a riverfront lot the city so foolishly all but gave away 30 some odd years ago (This one is still unbelievable).

Unfortunately, the only one of the above scenarios I foresee happening is the city buying back the parking lot. Don’t know where the funds are coming from, certainly not the Arrow lease. But I do wonder? What’s going to happen if a small handful of citizens threaten to picket said purchase?

Richard Prescott,

Natchez