NATCHEZ &045;&045; A local committee has agreed to ask the General Missionary Baptist State Convention to renovate the Natchez College facility as a site for youth programs and ministerial retreats.

That’s according to Mayor Phillip West, who met with the committee Wednesday to discuss its proposal.

&uot;They agreed in principle to present the proposal to the Missionary Baptist Convention&uot; at its July meeting, West said.

That proposal will include using the site for youth programs and for Missionary Baptist meetings and retreats.

That would be good news for supporters of the old college. The cluster of seven buildings on North Union Street operated as a historically black two-year college from 1885 until it closed in the early 1990s, touching the lives of many black Natchezians.

West said the committee isn’t asking the city for any type of support.

Instead, he said he attended the meeting simply to give input on how the facility could be used in the best interest of the convention and the community.

He referred further questions to the Rev. John Scott, pastor of Christian Hope Baptist Church, who chairs the local committee proposing uses for the Natchez College site. Scott could be reached for comment prior to press time.

Plans to use the site in the past have met roadblocks.

The convention was planning to demolish all the buildings and use the site as the location of its new retreat center. Plans forwarded to the city showed a chapel, amphitheater, conference center, lodging, a pavilion, athletic areas and a children’s camp.

However, the Historic Preservation Commission voted in September 2003 to deny the convention permission to demolish the old college, citing the historic nature of the buildings.

Then, in December, the college’s Owens Administration Building was destroyed by fire.