Thank you to the board of aldermen for taking the proactive step of transferring the $50,000 earmarked in the 2019 fiscal year budget for the Downtown Master Plan (the plan) to FOR Natchez for the purpose of jumpstarting the plan’s key priorities.

By this action the city has enabled FOR Natchez to engage the lead consultant and main author of the master plan, Phil Walker, as interim director to expedite the downtown revitalization process.

One of several objectives assigned to Walker is to establish a downtown development entity spearheaded by a fulltime, professional economic development director.

The mission of the downtown organization is “to implement the official Downtown Master Plan and to create a vibrant downtown that is the economic, social and cultural centerpiece of Adams County and the Miss-Lou region.”

In order to successfully recruit this professional, several critical steps must first be accomplished. Walker will help to accomplish these.

1. The downtown organization must be legally created with suitable bylaws, vision and mission statements, etc.

2. A board of directors must be created. This will need to involve developing qualifications and job descriptions for board members and committee chairs and ultimately development and training of these individuals in their roles.

3. At least three years of sustainable funding must be secured from public, private and philanthropic sectors before a professional director can be recruited.    

Concurrently, Walker will also be working with the city, this newly created downtown board, and other key organizations in our community to include the Natchez Adams County Chamber of Commerce, Visit Natchez, Natchez, Inc., Historic Natchez Foundation, NAPAC, Zion Chapel AME Church, National Park Service, and the Natchez Business and Civic League to expedite projects that are already in progress and to launch other projects that have not yet gotten off the ground. Key projects are summarized in the master plan. These projects may include:

Initiating a Way-finding Signage program

Facilitating the Plan’s recommendation for Depot and Bluff development

Facilitating the Revels Plaza at the Triangle

Coordinating owners on the 200 block of MLK to activate those buildings

Working with stakeholders to further the Arts District on Commerce Street

Working with the City on new ordinances

Working with the City on fiscal incentives for investors

Initiating a traffic study for downtown (per the plan)

Maintaining/updating the Downtown properties inventory created via the plan

Recruiting retail and businesses utilizing the Plan’s market analysis strategy

Creating a website presence with information on available downtown properties

These objectives are not the work of volunteers alone.

Volunteers are much needed and there is strong indication that stakeholders throughout our community are eager to serve as board and committee members in this effort. However, if passionate volunteers were the only ingredient necessary to revitalize downtown, then it would have already happened.

The truth is that economic revitalization is a professional pursuit. City staff and downtown volunteers have expended untold amounts of effort and time toward plan implementation and they have made progress, but the fact that downtown needs a dedicated professional at the helm to spearhead the work is self-evident.

This work requires an experienced and knowledgeable professional who can align our local strengths under professional guidance to deliver to our city the results the downtown requires in order to move forward and to flourish once again.

It is important to note that Mr. Walker’s services might not be required for the entire 6 months that the funding may make available. The hope is that with focus and hard work all the things that have been outlined above can be accomplished in a shorter timeframe so that a skilled fulltime, permanent professional can be engaged  sooner than later to carry on.

Natchez has a rich and wonderful history and much is made of that. It is what sustains us today through our tourism that brings many wonderful individuals from all over our world to our doorsteps.  It is time to hold onto that history with one hand and reach out with the other to make history.

Thank you Natchez and Board of Aldermen for bringing us one-step closer to making a new and bright history.

William A. Thames is a resident of downtown Natchez.