NATCHEZ — The Miss-Lou may look back on the last year of the decade as the beginning of the future.

The ball started rolling in 2009 on multiple fronts.

Corrections Corporation of America, the first major employer in at least a decade to open in the area, finished construction, took more than 6,000 applications and opened its Adams County Correctional Facility on U.S. 84. A few weeks later the first inmates came.

The prison employs 400-plus people and claimed a $32 million post-construction investment in the community in October.

Property taxes for the facility will generate $2.1 million a year, and CCA’s utility bills are projected to total $1.8 million. The construction cost more than $100 million.

The prison houses low-security criminal aliens, and represents 27 countries, though most are from Latin America.

Recreation also topped the headlines this year, with talk turning into a vote of approval.

Adams County Supervisor Mike Lazarus and a committee of a few other supporters led the charge and proposed putting the issue of recreation up to a public vote.

The group received local government approval and the justice department’s OK before putting the matter on the November ballot.

Nearly 80 percent of registered voters said “yes” to the idea of building a multi-million dollar recreation complex in Adams County.

With the public’s voice heard, recreation supporters said seeing the complex become a reality will mark the coming years.

This year was also the year the snowballing city financial woes came to a head.

Repeated loans of up to $500,000 just to keep the city operational came to an end, at least for now, when aldermen realized the mess of the budget.

But the city nearly hit rock bottom first. A July payday sucked the general fund balance down to $7,000.

At the August meeting, the majority of aldermen voted to cut their own salaries as well as that of the mayor, city clerk and city judge, by 10 percent.

In September five employees including several department heads were fired.

In December, the board voted to privatize grass cutting as a cost-cutting measure.

The mayor announced a three-year plan to right the budget.

And a January 2009 move by the Adams County Board of Supervisors to cut funding to the Economic Development Authority started a yearlong discussion that will carry right in to the weeks and months to come.

Though the county later restored funding to the EDA after learning that their initial move was illegal, both the city and county boards agreed that the group’s economic efforts needed attention.

In December a paid consultant revealed a new structure for local development projects that includes a loud voice from the private sector.

A group of business leaders is meeting to develop the new economic agency and their work will continue throughout the year to come.

Natchez Regional Medical Center started the year in financial turmoil, filing for bankruptcy in February, but ended on solid ground and with a newly named interim CEO.

In March the hospital board announced that a long talked about deal to sell the hospital would not occur and had never been as firm as the public had been led to believe.

In December NRMC got out of bankruptcy and named Lana Morgan interim chief.

Also in December, green fuel maker Rentech announced they were in talks with 13 airlines who might want to buy fuel made at the planned Adams County plant.

Rentech officials said a non-binding agreement the airlines signed means construction of the proposed Natchez facility may start in the next year.

But 2009 wasn’t without its losses.

In March sitting sheriff Ronny Brown died of a heart attack.

His wife Angie stepped into his role as interim sheriff, serving for nine months.

Chuck Mayfield won a special election in November, taking office in December.