The Community Alliance will continue to work with the Natchez Trails Project to raise needed funds for the project.

The trails project was one of a list of local projects the Alliance agreed to assist this year. The group met Wednesday to map out the coming year.

As a charitable organizaton with tax-exempt 501(c3) status, the Alliance can serve as the umbrella organization under which designated groups such as the Natchez Trails Project may solicit tax-exempt donations.

The Natchez Trails Project will continue to receive the support of the Alliance in its efforts to raise nearly $500,000 to match grants from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, and the Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative. Committee chairperson David Gardner reported nearly $100,000 has been pledged toward the match.

Gardner also said Lane Company, developers of the casino to be established at the base of Roth Hill, has agreed to donate the services of its landscape architects to design the landscaping for the entire trails project.

Gardner said the trails project is also planning to extend the trails to include the Forks of the Road.

The Alliance also elected to finish improvements to the Veterans Memorial in Memorial Park.

Committee chairperson Mark LaFrancis presented a check for $6,000 to the Community Alliance from the Natchez United Daughters of the Confederacy. LaFrancis said that the Daughters of the Confederacy wanted the money to be used to replace the bent and worn brass railing surrounding the memorial with a cast iron post and chain.

In addition, LaFrancis said the funds from the UDC are to be used to pay for the design and construction of an arbor leading to the memorial. Mimi Miller, co-director of the Historic Natchez Foundation, agreed to assist in the design of the arbor to make sure that it conforms to historic preservation standards.

The Alliance also voted to serve as a support organization in the efforts of the Friends of the Forks of the Road to obtain the remaining parcels necessary to complete the acquisition of the entire site of the Franklin and Armfield enslavement market.

“The Forks of the Road is everybody’s heritage,” Ser Seshs Ab Heter-C.M. Boxley said.

“If you own an antebellum home in Natchez, at one time enslaved persons purchased at the Forks probably worked in it. A collective effort to acquire the remaining properties still in private hands is in everyone’s interest.”

LaFrancis also called for the formation of an exploratory committee to consider an appropriate commemoration of the life and work of Natchez born author, Richard Wright. The theme of the 2008 Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration is to be a celebration of Wright’s 100th birthday.

“There is a groundswell of international interest in Richard Wright, yet all we have in Natchez to commemorate him is a couple of markers,” LaFrancis said.

The Alliance will also serve as the umbrella organization for the Natchez Council for Arts and Culture, enabling that organization to solicit tax-free donations in its stated mission of developing and promoting the essential value and unique artistic heritage of Natchez and Southern arts and culture.

The Community Alliance meets at the Natchez Convention Center on the last Wednesday of each month, in the Vicksburg Room at 4:30 p.m. The public is encouraged to come and participate in the exchange of information and ideas that will enhance the culture and quality of life in Natchez.