Convention center project comes to nearly $12 million

Published 12:00 am Monday, December 9, 2002

NATCHEZ &045; The bill is in for the Natchez Convention Center, the community center and city auditorium renovations &045; to the tune of $12,984,132.

In 1999, the city issued $12 million in bonds for the projects. The rest of the amount reflects interest and proceeds from the sale of the old Liberty Road convention center.

Of that amount:

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4$8,374,536 was spent on construction of the convention center. That amount includes some minor warranty items that must still be fixed, City Engineer David Gardner has said.

4$2,472,820 has been spent on equipment, furniture and fixtures.

4$1,004,069 was spent to renovate the city auditorium.

4$596,316 was spent on the community center &045; what was the old Service Motor Co. building.

4$380,781 on what City Clerk Donnie Holloway referred to as &uot;general expenditures.&uot;

That includes paying off loans with Britton & Koontz First National Bank and Deposit Guaranty National Bank for the old convention center.

The remaining $155,610 will be spent on further equipment, furniture and fixtures for the convention center.

Those items will include audio-visual equipment; computers and other hardware and software for event planning; landscaping; and janitorial equipment, said Tourism Director Walter Tipton.

&uot;I’m also leaving contingency money for things like large historic Natchez pictures for the walls, because those can get quite expensive,&uot; Tipton said.