NATCHEZ &045; Recreation opportunities play a big role in a city’s quality of life, community development consultants told a group of Natchez leaders Monday.

Albert E. Myles, one of the four consultants visiting from Mississippi State University, said Natchez should show the need for recreation and find a local investor to help with the project.

Myles, a specialist in community resource development at the MSU Extension Service, attended the meeting along with Phil Hardwick, coordinator of capacity development at the John C. Stennis Institute of Government; P.C. McLaurin Jr. of the Center for Governmental Training and Technology at the MSU Extension Service; and Kimberly A. Brown, director of the Carl Small Town Center at MSU.

Myles said recreation, health care and education contribute in large measure to a city’s quality of life. He and the other consultants urged city and county officials to make a case for recreation. &uot;Start a capital campaign. Go to the community for money. Be very focused about what you want,&uot; Myles said.

Consultant Brown said to research carefully before deciding where to build a recreation complex. &uot;You want the recreation center to be where you can walk to it, not on the outside of the community,&uot; she said. &uot;Even the pecan factory is a good possibility.&uot;

The group toured downtown Natchez and the Broadway Street property owned by the city, including the former Natchez Pecan Shelling factory.

Consultant McLaurin suggested Natchez leaders should look at Snowden Grove Park in Southaven as a model for recreation. &uot;Thousands of visitors go there every year,&uot;

he said.

Natchez participants threw many ideas on the table, including Kurt Russ, who represented the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce at the meeting.

&uot;We’ve talked about a recreation complex, but the big issue has been the expense. We need to start looking at it as an income provider and not an expense,&uot; Russ said.

Research shows $2.2 billion in liquid assets exist in Natchez, Russ said. &uot;There’s money here to be spent. We just have to get it out of the pockets of those folks who have it.&uot;

Margaret Perkins of First Natchez Radio brought up the proposed recreation complex in Vidalia, La. She posed the question, &uot;Is it possible to cross state lines and have a recreation complex for the Miss Lou?&uot;

Michael Ferdinand, executive director of the Natchez Development Authority, said &uot;it’s possible but not simple.&uot; He described a compact that dates to the 1980s involving Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. &uot;It’s being explored,&uot; he said.

Recent efforts to build a new recreation complex have centered on ball fields. Some participants in the meeting pointed out other recreation needs.

Brent Bourland, a sports enthusiast, said green space for informal sports will make a statement about the city’s lifestyle. &uot;Green spaces are a cheap, inexpensive way to improve how the city looks. Ball parks are wonderful, but the green spaces add to the quality of life of everyone.&uot;

The closing of the city’s public swimming pools has had an unfortunate impact on Natchez children, said Mimi Miller, director of preservation for the Historic Natchez Foundation.

&uot;Recreation is one of the most important things we can do,&uot; she said. &uot;I hate that a whole generation of lower income children are growing up without learning how to swim.&uot;

Funding projects such as recreation will be challenging, Phil Hardwick said. &uot;What are your targets for money outside Natchez coming into Natchez,&uot; he asked the group. &uot;And where does that old money come from?&uot;

Recreation is one way a city shows what it thinks of its less affluent people. &uot;I want to know what you do with your poor people,&uot; Hardwick said. &uot;How do you take care of your poor people?&uot;

Today, opportunities abound for people to choose where they want to live, Hardwick said. Natchez has opportunities to attract those people.

It starts with convincing Natchez people about the vision. &uot;I worked with Oxford and Lafayette County on a sports complex. It passed with 71 percent of the vote for it. And the vote gave officials the authority to issue bonds as they deemed necessary,&uot; Hardwick said. &uot;It was a real vote of confidence.&uot;

So what is next for Natchez? All the consultants have ways of helping in the vision.

&uot;I’d like to see you create the Phillip West Strategic Task Force and have me come down to help,&uot; Hardwick said, looking at Mayor Phillip West, who conducted the Monday meeting. &uot;What are we going to accomplish in your first term?&uot;