Editor’s note: This is the fifth part of a series of articles looking at the issues that shaped the Miss-Lou in the first decade of the 21st century.

NATCHEZ — For Natchez, nothing has put the E, D and A in “headache” like the city’s Economic Development Authority structure for the past decade.

But after recent inspection and communication between the City of Natchez, Adams County and members of the private sector, a new plan and a stronger EDA might be on the horizon.

But this year’s hard look into the effectiveness of the EDA has been a gradual process.

In 2000, the first round of EDA talks began.

With a 15-member board made up of local businessmen chosen by the city and the county, and no director since January of 1999, both governmental entities began seeing telltale signs their way or doing things was not working.

So, with the onset of the new millennium, the city and county decided to revamp the EDA from a 15-person board to a five-person board.

By the end of 2000, the board of supervisors appointed three of the five members and the city appointed two to be its representatives.

By 2001, the EDA hired Mike Ferdinand to be director.

It was during Ferdinand’s time with the EDA that policy changes were made.

“Prior to 2002, the city and county government had more of a check on the administration,” former Natchez city attorney Walter Brown said. “That is probably one of the reasons why it didn’t work as efficiently as it should, because it was involved in the political process.”

In 2002, the change was made to create a more efficient body for the EDA and give it more independence from governmental meddling.

When Ferdinand resigned from his position as director in 2005, the EDA found and hired Jeff Rowell, who led economic development efforts for the city and county for three years until resigning in 2008, leaving the EDA without a director.

For most of this time, Brown said the government stayed out of the EDA and their operations, but in recent years, that has changed.

“For the most part (the new system) has worked, but in the past two years there has been more involvement of the county government,” Brown said.

Former Natchez Mayor Hank Smith said one such governmental move made by the county that set the EDA back in its efforts was a decision made in February 2009 by the board of supervisors.

“(Government) came back into the EDA when the supervisors pulled that foolish move they pulled threatening to pull their funding,” Smith said. “That’s the No. 1 stupid move that has been done in 10 years simply because of the message that it sends to the entire rest of the world.

“This constant bickering between the city and the county and the county doing what they did last year is going to make it almost impossible to find someone to come into that type of scenario of the caliber we need (to lead the EDA. I don’t know why these people don’t understand that is the type of message they are sending.”

However, Supervisor Henry Watts, who was at the center of the push to cut funding, said he feels the actions of the board of supervisors were needed to make the county and city take a closer look at an ineffective system.

“The EDA would be exactly where it was if it weren’t for the supervisors,” Watts said.

“It obviously was broken because the consultant came up with a brand new structure for the EDA (this year) and a brand new method of appointing board members,” Watts said.

Former EDA Director Brad Chism, who served as the city and county’s first EDA director, said blame should not be placed on any one group or person when it comes to economic development.

“There is no one size fits all,” said Chism, who is now president of a Washington, D.C., advocacy agency.

When it comes down to it, Chism said some things cannot be planned for or controlled, such as the world-wide collapse of commodity prices that affected International Paper.

According to Chism, Adams County has obstacles to overcome such as its geographical location, lack of rail service and lack of an interstate.

This year, the local economic development efforts are rounding out the decade with plans for a new name and a new outlook.

Current plans show a seven-member board that will either be known as Natchez Economic Development Corporation or Natchez Inc.

The $380,000 per year enterprise will focus on marketing the area and will be funded by the county, city and private investors.

Brown and Smith said they agree the new system looks like it will be stronger than those in years past, but the strength of the EDA will be determined by the private sector and small businesses as well as large businesses.

“It’s going to take an effort of downtown business people with all those kinds of businesses to make this thing work,” Brown said. “You have to be aggressive about economic development.”