NATCHEZ &045; A meeting of a newly appointed countywide recreation commission will meet as soon as possible &045; now that the school board has appointed the final three members, said Mayor F.L. &uot;Hank&uot; Smith.

&uot;The meeting will be set as soon as we can get them together,&uot; Smith said late Thursday afternoon. &uot;If it could be done tomorrow, that would be fine with me.&uot;

With little comment on the matter, the Natchez-Adams School Board in its Thursday meeting appointed Tammy Whittington, Dr. Harold Barnett and the Rev. Leroy White to the commission.

In recent weeks, the city’s Board of Aldermen appointed Joe Eidt, Paul Bacon and Willie Woods to the commission, while the county’s Board of Supervisors appointed Jeannie Peabody, Ray Brown and Buddy Wade.

&uot;The members that have been appointed are committed. They know what they’re faced with and are ready to get started,&uot; Smith said.

Now that the commission’s members are appointed, they must be sworn in and bonded in order to set down on paper the details of a countywide recreation program and how it would be funded, said City Attorney Walter Brown.

They don’t have much time to get those tasks completed, however. The commission must get information on the proposal and its funding to the Secretary of State’s Office by early September.

That must be done in order to get the proposal on the ballot for the November elections. At least 60 percent of those voting would need to cast ballots for the proposal for it to pass.

The Board of Supervisors will be responsible for getting a bond issue of about $2 million to $3 million on the ballot to fund the project.

Ballfields, walking trails and picnic pavilions at a bean field site just north of Natchez High, improvements at Liberty and Duncan parks, a horse arena and a pool are just some facilities that could be included in the plan.