NATCHEZ — The proposed, Rentech development recently got a boost when the county gave the St. Catherine’s Creek Utility Authority a $100,000 loan.

The money will help pay for general maintenance of the site and demolition of the International Paper building once Rentech construction begins. Rentech plans to turn coal into liquid fuel.

“We’ve got to have somebody to cut the grass, mind the fences — just general maintenance,” Economic Development Authority Chairman Woody Allen said.

The money was given to the EDA but was then passed straight through to the Utility Authority, which is a separate entity but is comprised of the same board members.

“The Utility Authority is there to promote economic development,” Allen said.

The creation of the authority was key to bringing in Rentech, Allen said.

“You have all the start-up costs that you have anywhere else and you have to have some way to fund this,” Allen said. “Had this not been done, we wouldn’t have closed the Rentech deal.”

When construction begins, the money will also be used to help with demolition and landfill costs for the old International Paper building, on which Rentech plans to build.

However, construction is nine to 12 months away and Rentech is still in the planning phases, Allen said.

“This is not something cookie cutter, that (Rentech) can go copy somewhere else,” he said.

In other news, Ken Herring, general manager of Adams County Water Authority, replaced Vidal Davis on the EDA board.

In late April, Davis quit the board citing mismanagement by the EDA’s Executive Director Jefferson Rowell.