NATCHEZ &045; Later this week, Historic Natchez Foundation personnel hope hundreds of boxes and volumes of county records will be moved to their temporary home.

County Administrator Charlie Brown has found storage space in a freezer at Harold Miller, with moving to be done by Brothers Moving. Figures on how much that will cost the county were not available as of Monday afternoon.

&uot;We may not be able to store them all there, but we’ll keep moving them until we run out of space,&uot; said Mimi Miller, director of preservation and education for the foundation.

What’s the rush?

The foundation hopes to install an elevator and new restrooms, repair outdoor fixtures damaged by a 1998 tornado and install modern floors in the basement storage rooms at its Commerce Street building &045; and to have the work done by the end of December.

As it now stands, documents stored in the basement are kept in cardboard boxes two deep in the basement.

Foundation officials have also been trying to persuade supervisors to purchase shelving for the records, many of which Miller said were moved to the building in 1992 without foundation officials’ knowledge.

Miller has not yet gotten a response from supervisors on that request.

The first place of renovation on the old school building, which dates back to 1901, is being done with a $160,000 state Archives and History grant matched with foundation funds &045; about $500,000 in all.

While such plans include the current renovations, they also include, at some time in the future, renovating the first floor of building to serve as exhibit space for a Natchez history museum. The first floor now houses offices and meeting space.

Each room would be devoted to a different aspect of the area’s history, such as transportation, education, manufacturing, decorative arts and the like, Miller has said.

The second floor will eventually be used for offices, a conference room and a large meeting room.

The basement will be renovated for use as archival space for records, complete with climate control, a sprinkler system and a water pump.