by DAVID HAMILTON

NATCHEZ —Natchez aldermen asked Natchez City Clerk Megan Edmonds Tuesday to look into an apparent $100,000 discrepancy in the city’s swimming pool construction fund.

Although the city had reportedly allocated $500,000 to constructing a pool, Edmonds confirmed at Tuesday’s meeting that only $400,000 is currently in the fund.

Edmonds said that figure has remained constant since she took over as Interim City Clerk in January.

Ward 1 alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said discovering the discrepancy sent up a “red flag,” and that the board was under the impression the fund contained $500,000 during Monday’s special call recreation meeting with Adams County Board of Supervisors.

“We can’t meet with the county and not know that the $500,000 is in here.” Arceneaux-Mathis said.

Subsequently, Arceneaux-Mathis inquired if the remaining funds from the Community Development Fund for the current fiscal year, which she said totaled approximately $96,000, could be a solution to the missing pool funds. The community development fund receives $225,000 annually from the city’s lease agreement with Magnolia Bluffs Casino, which sits on city-owned riverfront property.

When asked, Community Development Director James Johnston told Arceneaux-Mathis those funds were not currently dedicated to any projects to his knowledge.

Arceneaux-Mathis requested that those funds be frozen and dedicated to the pool, but Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell granted Edmonds time to “do research and find out what happened to the $100,000.”

Although the board took no action regarding the matter, Arceneaux-Mathis believes a motion would eventually carry to consolidate the remaining funds in the Community Develop Fund and the pool fund to make up for the missing $100,000.

The ongoing debate over the pool dates back to the beginning of 2015, when the City of Natchez and Adams County agreed to each spend $500,000 for the pool, which they anticipated would cover the projected $1,000,000 cost of the project.

Earlier this year, bids came in for the pool that far exceeded the project cost, with an original bid of $1.7 million.

After seeking separate bids for the pool construction and the support structures, the current lowest combined figure of the bids stands at a approximately $1.43 million. The shortfall phase of funding would like fall within the next fiscal year, 2017-2018, for city and county. Both the aldermen and supervisors are considering ways to allocate the necessary funding to begin construction.

Project architect Johnny Waycaster said Monday, before the pool fund issue had been discovered, that construction on the pool could begin as early as Aug., 1 depending on what happens at the next aldermen meeting July 11.