NATCHEZ &045; Darryl Grennell, president of the Adams County Board of Supervisors, has said he wants the county to consider funding, along with the city, a public swimming pool for the community.

&uot;It’s a safety issue,&uot; Grennell said, referring to teaching both children and adults how to swim.

Grennell, who floated the idea at supervisors’ Monday meeting, said Wednesday he hasn’t had the chance, due to an out-of-town conference Tuesday, to discuss the issue with city officials.

City Recreation Director Ralph Tedder said it would cost $1 million to build a pool at a new location or $800,000 to build it at the former Duncan Park pool site, because that site already has a road and utilities.

Tedder noted that the city is seeking any funding it can get from federal sources for a health and wellness complex that would tentatively include a pool, a gym, soccer fields and ballfields.

Possible funding sources include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to which the city had proposed several housing, economic development, recreation and other projects earlier this year.

A date for city officials to revisit USDA in Washington hasn’t yet been set, and the city isn’t yet asking for a specific amount of funding, said city Grants Coordinator Brett Brinegar.

But Brinegar said they will discuss that and other projects with federal officials visiting Natchez Saturday for the Trace extension opening.

A commission in 2003 drafted preliminary plans for $12 million to $15 million worth of new facilities and upgrades county-wide.

At the time, those included ballfields, soccer fields, walking trails and picnic pavilions, a horse arena and a pool, among other things.

The city gave $22,000 to fund drafting of plan to be presented to the public, which would vote on a bond issue, but the county and school board didn’t put up funds.

Then the idea was put on the back burner after the loss of thousands of area jobs due to plant closings &045; most notably, the closing of International Paper in July 2003 &045; impacted the area’s tax base.

At the same time, revenues from such sources as golf fees have declined.

A Friends of the Parks Foundation now in its formative stages would ask locals to donate seed money to the cause.