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NATCHEZ — Improvements are finally coming to Morgantown Road – it’s time! But it’s going to take some time.  After many years of waiting, the several thousand Natchez and Adams County residents who traverse this important road daily are about to see their road repaired and resurfaced. But it’s not going to happen overnight. Residents will see dirt work begin soon on major drainage infrastructure improvements, primarily in the area just past the city limits – expensive, messy and time-consuming work necessary before any repaving can take place. It will take time. It will be dirty and inconvenient. And we ask for everyone’s patience. 

During the past year and a half, the city paved 50 streets – and the county paved many miles of roads, including a portion of Morgantown Road. But the worst part of the road, running from Hwy. 61 past the city limits to near Red Loop Road, remained undone, not because we didn’t want to pave it, but because of the complex drainage issues that have baffled area leaders now for over twenty years. 

Experts have said paving the road without addressing the drainage problems would be a waste of time and money – the new pavement would not last and would actually make the situation worse. And since 2020, the overall price tag for the project has doubled, all thanks to post-covid inflation. Multiple attempts to bid the project have come up short. We’ve had to rebid, redesign, and bid again, all in an effort to get the cost to what we could afford. And still it’s going to cost way more than we expected, almost as much as what we just spent paving twenty-five city streets. But we’re getting it done. The road has been unsafe for years. Lives have been lost. It’s time – past time – to get this project done. 

To get here has taken teamwork. And it has also meant making some hard decisions. For the money to work, the city and county, working together, have committed major dollars to match with state and federal grants we have received. And we have had to put another major project on the back burner: the raising of Silver Street. It came down to a difficult choice. And we had to choose Morgantown Road. 

The past few months have been financially challenging. In December we received bad news resulting in what is about to be an un-budgeted repair of the Canal Street bridge over the Natchez Railroad costing a few hundred thousand dollars. We were hopeful that state assistance would come to help pay for these repairs, but assistance did not come – these repairs are going to be a temporary fix. The bridge will eventually have to be replaced. Earlier this year, we had to scrap the old plans for Morgantown Road, redesign, and rebid yet again. And by late Spring, after the last rebidding, we still ended up over budget. And then we found ourselves over budget with Silver Street while at the same time working hard to finalize contracts to make the project happen. In just a few months, we faced hundreds of thousands of un-budgeted challenges, in a city bound legally to stay within a balanced budget and determined to not raise taxes. This Mayor hasn’t raised taxes. And I don’t intend to. 

Morgantown Road is happening. But not Silver Street. At least not now. This doesn’t mean we’re giving up on our plans to raise this important and historic street. But financial constraints have resulted in these tough decisions. We must be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars – and taxpayer trust.

So the good news is Morgantown Road is finally going to be renewed – a major goal of our Natchez Renewal. The not-so good news is Silver Street will have to wait its turn. But the best news is we are making progress, without raising taxes and by working together. Because Natchez Deserves More. 

Dan M. Gibson is mayor of Natchez.