By Megan Ashley fink

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — Natchez may soon see electronic billboards with digital displays lighting up the night.

Headrick Outdoor Media presented its interest in digital billboard development to the Natchez Board of Aldermen at the board’s Nov. 10 meeting.

Headrick representative Terrell Wood said the company owns several conventional boards in Natchez, but would like to place digital ones on John R. Junkin Drive, where thecompany doesn’t currenyly have any billboards.

Wood said no language exists in city’s sign code that prevents or allows billboards on John R. Junkin Drive.

Wood requested the board direct new language to be added to the sign code to guide the specific plans for new advertisements.

“We want to be in compliance,” Wood said. “We don’t want to blind you going down the road. We’ve all seen those mismanaged units.”

Natchez Interim City Planner Riccardo Giani said new language in the development code would need to be written to regulate the boards.

”With electronic billboards, (the code must regulate) how frequently the advertisements change and how bright they are,” Giani said.

Amendments to city code must be voted on by the board of aldermen to become part of the code.

Mayor Butch Brown said he would not oppose digital signage as long as it complied with certain guidelines.

“I’m not in favor of any billboards in the historic district … but (Wood’s) interest lies in the commercial corridors, and I’m in support of that,” he said.

Brown said the city could arrange with the company to allow emergency weather notices, Natchez Tricentennial information and other public announcements to be displayed on the boards. He said this could be done remotely and quickly through computers.

Brown said when the digital signs first became common in the state, the Mississippi Department of Transportation asked the companies to replace conventional boards with the electronic ones, rather than add the digital signage to already heavily advertised roads.

“If you take two down, you can put one up,” said Brown, who is a former MDOT director. “(A digital sign) does the work of six to eight billboards. We were always eliminating boards.”

The Headrick Outdoor Media website only lists four billboards in the Natchez area, which Brown said may prevent the two-for-one replacement proposal.

“We’re going to have to have further discussion about that,” he said. “If they don’t have any to take down, we’re not eliminating anything. We’re just adding to the clutter.”