NATCHEZ — To help promote the railroad and port, the Natchez Inc. director plans to have some new guests at board meetings.

Natchez Railway and the Natchez-Adams County Port Commission will each have a representative invited to the Natchez Inc. Board of Directors meetings, executive director Chandler Russ said. The representatives would not have votes.

Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell said when he was on the county board one of the biggest problems he faced was lack of communication between Natchez Inc., the port and Natchez Railway. Grennell said he hopes this move will bridge the gap and satisfy all parties.

“I think that is wonderful,” Grennell said. “You will have representatives from those entities be a part of Natchez Inc., so they can all work together in order to recruit and effectively bring industry to Adams County.”

Board of Supervisors President Mike Lazarus had said last month the port, rail and Natchez Inc. have not always had an effective channel of communication. So Lazarus and other community leaders sought a meeting between the parties to work something out.

Lazarus said the community just needed to brainstorm more ideas to recruit industry to Natchez.

“We just all agreed we need to push to have more traffic on the railroad and at the port,” Lazarus said. “When you have a prospect and there are questions about the rail or the port, this would be good because they would be right there to answer the question.”

Russ said he and the board looked forward to the port and rail being at the meetings as well as establishing more regular standing working meetings in order to ensure the sharing of information.

“After all, we all have a common interest in seeing the growth of the port and rail,” Russ said. “Any increase in the flow of goods by those two major assets is important to long-term success of our region. We look forward to continuing as partners.”

Russ and some others with Natchez Inc. met earlier this month with Grennell, Lazarus, Supervisor Calvin Butler and representatives from the port and Natchez Railway. The meeting did not have a quorum of any of the boards present, Russ said.

Russ said to his understanding, the Natchez Inc. Board is OK with inviting port and rail representatives, as long as a bylaw change is not required.

“They are invited to come to our meetings as guests, and participate and everything along those lines, but they would not have a vote,” Russ said. “If they had a vote, it would take a bylaw change. I would not say the (Natchez Inc.) board is opposed.”

Russ said this, along with planning to have additional monthly and bimonthly meetings with the port, rail and Natchez Inc., is just about pooling resources.

“This will ensure we promote the port and rail, as we have been, but collectively share that information and ultimately assets,” Russ said. “We will all be pulling in the same direction. I think that is the goal of this.”