NATCHEZ &045; Several Natchez business and industry leaders said they would contribute financially to local economic development efforts if asked.

Competition for industry is tough, making it necessary to have the extra edge, said Fred Callon, president of Callon Petroleum.

&uot;Private funding is just one more way to help us be more competitive. It would be an excellent economic development tool to have. It needs to be explored,&uot; Callon said.

Sammy Porter, president of United Mississippi Bank, said he supports the creation of a private incentive fund to help persuade companies that might locate in Natchez.

&uot;I’m certainly not against it if you have someone to make a deal with. I’m not for the ‘build it and they will come’ approach, though,&uot; Porter said.

Area businesses are key to the future of economic development in the Natchez-Adams area, Porter said. &uot;I’ve been involved in economic development here for 15 years now, and I definitely think the business community should be involved,&uot; he said.

Private funding incentives have helped land jobs in Starkville, Brookhaven and Tupelo.

Those communities have raised funds through capital campaigns, asking businesses and industries to pledge a certain amount over five years or so.

Todd Carpenter

, president of Natchez Newspapers Inc., said he would be among the first to pledge when fund-raising starts.

&uot;It is apparent that communities with economic development success are using funds raised from the private sector successfully in recruitment,&uot; Carpenter said.

&uot;Access to private funding appears to be a necessary tool, many times key to landing a prospect. In other cases it becomes an important factor in infrastructure improvement, as it was in development of a second industrial park in Brookhaven.

&uot;I would support creation of a private economic development incentive fund administered by a board of those who contribute to the fund and made available to the EDA via request and approval by that board.&uot;

The idea of using private funding is becoming popular with local government leaders as well.

&uot;It’s a great thing to do. There are a lot of things you can do with private funding that you can’t use public funding for,&uot; Adams County Board of Supervisors President Lynwood Easterling said.

Easterling and Natchez Mayor F.L. &uot;Hank&uot; Smith both said the idea has been discussed at recent meetings with business leaders.

&uot;It’s probably going to take something like that Š the communities that are having some success have been able to offer a little more,&uot; Smith said.

&uot;We could use private money to buy land or build spec buildings for companies that want to locate here. These are things that government can’t do,&uot; Smith said.

&uot;I’ve not been approached about it, but I’d be interested,&uot; Allen Tyra, administrator of Natchez Community Hospital, said of an incentive fund.

But Tyra pointed out that not all contributions businesses can make to recruit new industries are financial.

For example, Natchez Community might be able to provide health care-related incentives for an industry’s employees.

Bob Flurry, chairman of Natchez Regional Medical Center’s Board of Trustees, said that having an incentive fund wouldn’t hurt when recruiting new industries.

However, he would want to see progress made in addressing other barriers to landing businesses before pitching in.

&uot;If you’re going to locate a business here, you want to know about the school system, the medical system, race relations, the quality of the labor market,&uot; Flurry said.

He pointed out, for example, that the number of admitting doctors at Regional has declined in recent years, that many public school teachers have retired in that same time, and that race relations could stand improving.

&uot;Before we put money (into an incentive fund), tell me what we’re going to do about those things,&uot; Flurry said.

&uot;We need good political leadership to make it work. Š Also, Natchez has to take stock of itself and what it wants its identity to be. Rather than having divided interests competing against each other, let’s get our act together.&uot;