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NATCHEZ — The results of a study of traffic downtown are in, but Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson said he is not getting “a real warm and fuzzy feeling about moving forward” with the study’s recommendations.

The results of the study were shared with Downtown Natchez Alliance leaders in October 2024 but have not been presented publicly. However, the study has been presented to the mayor, individually to aldermen, and at a meeting of the Downtown Merchants Association.

The traffic study recommends radical changes to downtown traffic, including removing traffic lights, replacing them with all-way stops, and moving from one-way to two-way traffic on Main and Franklin streets.

Ward 4 Felicia Bridgewater Irving asked for an update on the traffic study at Tuesday evening’s Mayor and Board of Aldermen meeting.

In February 2024, aldermen approved paying Volkert Engineering consultants approximately $39,000 to conduct the traffic study. Later, the traffic study consultant contract was approved with TSW Designs.

“Some who looked at the study have indicated some concern with some of the recommendations,” Gibson said. “Change is a hard thing … I received a lot of calls from members of our community and I am not getting a real warm and fuzzy feeling about moving forward.”

Ward 2 Alderman Billie Joe Frazier recommended the city hold a town hall meeting to present the study to the public.

Downtown Natchez Alliance Board Member Chesney Doyle was in the audience at the Tuesday meeting, and Gibson asked her to arrange for Bert Kuyrkendall, the senior associate with TSW Design, who oversaw the study, or someone else from that firm to present the study at an upcoming public meeting.

“The reason we were very interested in this traffic study is because we were planning to microseal downtown streets, but that microseal project has been delayed, so the actual urgency of doing anything with traffic downtown is no longer there. We have no repainting of streets that need to be done,” Gibson said. “We have so many other items we are dealing with now that this traffic study is very low on the totem pole for me.”

The downtown microseal project was delayed because of its cost, which was far higher than what was estimated when the bid was done.