The first day of school, a host of people enjoying good food all weekend and encouraging words about the paper mill’s future were just a few of the good news items from the past week.

While consultants working to establish an employee stock option plan at the now-closed International Paper mill are cautious, they are continuing the steps it would take to buy out the mill and reopen it.

The ESOP group, which is fine-tuning a business plan for the project, still needs a letter of intent from IP to negotiate over the deal.

But the project also needs financing &045; which requires selling that business plan to outside lenders.

While the project is far from a done deal, it is giving IP workers hope and giving the community some momentum as we try to recover from our economic problems.

Natchez-Adams Schools students went back to school Thursday, and local private and parochial schools &045; along with Concordia students &045; won’t be far behind.

Students throughout the Miss-Lou will have new experiences this year &045; with new superintendents, new teachers and new principals. We wish everyone well in the coming year.

With summertime effectively over &045; although you wouldn’t know it from the weather &045; we encourage everyone to be aware of school buses dropping off and picking up children in the county and in the parish.

Visitors were in town all weekend for two major events &045; the annual River Road Food Festival and the Wildlife Expo benefitting St. Catherine Creek Wildlife Refuge. We hope everyone enjoyed the events and enjoyed their time in Natchez.