NATCHEZ &045; Several of the city’s ongoing issues, from Civil Service Commission matters to a convention center hotel, were discussed at Tuesday’s aldermen meeting.

Aldermen voted to direct City Attorney Walter Brown to meet with Everett Sanders, attorney for the Civil Service Commission, to decide on a date for city officials to meet with Sanders.

While no further specifics were given during the meeting Alderman Theodore &uot;Bubber&uot; West, who chairs the board’s Police Committee, said &uot;we have questions about policy and procedure.&uot;

&uot;We need to decide on a date by mid-June,&uot; Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said.

Most recently, the Board of Aldermen ran afoul of the commission in October. That’s when the board &045; on a 4-3 vote, with Mayor Phillip West breaking the tie &045; voted to rehire Willie B. Jones as a police officer.

City Attorney Walter Brown told the board prior to its vote that under state law, the Civil Service Commission must be the one to hire officers.

Aldermen and Mayor West briefly discussed comments Darryl Grennell, president of the Adams County Board of Supervisors, made recently, saying he would like the county to help the city construct a swimming pool.

No matter what the funding source, Mayor West said he &uot;hopes to have a pool, and hopefully something better than a pool, next year,&uot; although it is too late in the season to construct a new pool this year.

Later in the meeting, Brown said he hopes to have an option agreement for a hotel across Canal Street from the convention center ready for the board’s review by its next meeting.

Tourism officials have said such a hotel is needed to help attract more and bigger conventions to the area.

Brown Friday for the city-owned former Natchez Pecan Factory building.

In other business:

4Brown said he prepare a letter to officials of the new company managing the Oak Towers building, asking them to repair several code violations found recently at the building.

Arceneaux-Mathis said she and city Building Inspector Paul Dawes found, among other things, floor joints failing in one room and no hot water on the second floor.

They also included an obstructed exit, broken exit signs and emergency lights, water entering the building and standing water and broken light fixtures on landings.

4City officials honored the Natchez High girls’ track team and Cathedral School’s golf and tennis teams and their coaches with certificates recognizing their accomplishments during the 2004-05 school year.

The board also presented Natchez High track coach Larry Wesley with a resolution in his honor.

The presentations were made as part of the city’s Presentations Representing Our Unique Diversity, or PROUD, program.

4City officials honored Margaret Graves, a 15-year employee of the Public Works Department, as the city’s Employee of the Month.

4The board reappointed Kirk Bartley to the Planning Commission.

4Arceneaux-Mathis announced the manager of Susie B. West Apartments is putting in a playground and basketball courts at the complex.

4The board deemed an overgrown property at the corner of Union and Lincoln streets a health hazard. The city will cut the grass at that house and add the cost to the owner’s property taxes.