NATCHEZ &045; Efforts continue to attract another buyer for the mill and draw more federal assistance for both recruitment efforts and to assist those laid off from International Paper.

That is according to Michael Ferdinand, executive director of the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce, who gave a report of the trip at Tuesday’s Adams County Board of Supervisors meeting.

IP announced Jan. 23 that it would close its 52-year-old Natchez mill by the middle of the year, leaving 640 people out of work, due to a poor market for the chemical cellulose it produces.

In Washington, Ferdinand and county officials talked with the area’s congressional delegation and with IP Executive Vice President Robert Amen, who pledged IP’s support in marketing the facility to prospective buyers.

Local officials had the chance during the meeting to tell Amen of various federal and state incentives that could be available to entice someone to the site.

Entergy and the University of Southern Mississippi are among other partners that are working to help market the facility.

Hopefully, a plan of how USM’s Polymer Science Department can help market the facility &uot;will be completed in a couple of weeks,&uot; Ferdinand said.

While in Washington, local officials found out that a grant application sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

is still alive.

That grant would fund a study of how the area can best market its strengths to prospective industries.

Funds are also available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies to fund infrastructure and development of new industrial properties, Ferdinand said.

Officials also talked with the congressional delegation about the possibility of getting a secondary Enterprise Community/ Empowerment Zone designation for the whole Miss-Lou area.

As it now stands, such zones &045; in which businesses can get special federal tax credits per employee that lives inside the zone &045; exist on both sides of the river.

But businesses in Adams County can’t get credit for employing people from another zone, even nearby Concordia Parish, or vice versa, without the secondary designation, Ferdinand said.

Others who made the trip included supervisors president Lynwood Easterling and Vice President Darryl Grennell, Chancery Clerk Tommy O’Beirne and County Attorney Marion Smith.