NATCHEZ—Mayor Dan Gibson’s administration is asking Natchez merchants and citizens for help sprucing up the city, particularly the downtown area, before a plethora of events kick off during the fall season.

Gibson held a Fall in Love with Natchez press conference on Monday to seek that help from citizens, telling them the city is doing all it can with its limited budget.

“We have worked hard to balance these budgets and in doing so, we have managed to renovate all of our parks, repurpose so many of our buildings, and in fact, we are in the middle of a major renovation of our convention center and city auditorium, City Hall, the police department and the fire department and we are doing all of this including resurfacing your streets — 55 streets so far — without raising taxes. But tax dollars only go so far,” Gibson said.

“We are here today to ask for your buy-in on a clean-up campaign throughout Natchez and also throughout our downtown,” Gibson said. “This Fall in Love with Natchez campaign is designed for us to build community pride, pride in a city that’s already so storied, so historic, so beautiful. It has a natural beauty like no other. Imagine how much more beautiful it can be if we can partner with homeowners, shop owners, building owners downtown, and anyone willing to pitch in. Imagine what we all can do together.”

Gibson and Tracy McCartney, who is the director of the Keep Natchez Beautiful group, shared plans to offer discounts to those who want to spruce up their downtown buildings and storefronts.

Gibson said it would be a good time, too, to freshen up the exteriors of buildings but reminded that those changes, like paint color, in the historic district must be approved first by the city’s preservation commission, which is charged with protecting the district’s integrity.

“Let’s spruce up Natchez, but let’s be mindful to do it the right way,” Gibson said.

Keep Natchez Beautiful, which is part of Keep Mississippi Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful, aims to beautify, control litter, and recycle.

“This is a very joint effort between lots of groups, including the Downtown Natchez Alliance, the City of Natchez, the Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce, and others,” McCartney said. “I want to thank all of you who are already doing so much of what we are talking about today. We support those efforts and want to encourage those efforts.”

Part of the support for those efforts is that McCartney has negotiated a discount for downtown businesses on plantings appropriate for tree wells, other areas around buildings, and containers.

Creative Exteriors is offering discounted plants. They include:

Border plants — Aztec Grass, Variegated Liriope, Creeping Phlox, Creeping Jenny.

Seasonal color — Snap Dragons, Ornamental Cabbage, Pansies and Crotons.

“When you see a shop is pretty and the sidewalks are clean and the windows are clean and it’s planted and you have flowers blooming, you are much more likely to go into that shop rather than the one that’s beside it and has dead plants if they have plants at all,” McCartney said.

“This is going to benefit every one of our shop owners. It’s proven that people will come in and shop and spend more if it’s attractive and inviting.

Those interested in participating should contact Lyn Jenkins, CEO of the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce, who is collecting orders for the discounted plants.

Three different “Fall in Love with Natchez” Cleanup Days have been set.

The first is the Keep Natchez Beautiful and City of Natchez Cleanup Day on Sept. 16.

BlackNatchez.org is holding an MLK Street Community Cleanup Day on Sept. 21.

Lastly, the Project Cleanup – Natchez Facebook Group plans to gather participants and clean up Natchez on the weekends of Oct. 4 and 11 before the Natchez Balloon Festival.