NATCHEZ &045; Getting federal support &045; including millions of dollars &045; for local economic development and infrastructure projects was a prevailing topic at Tuesday’s aldermen meeting.

Aldermen voted to join with county supervisors, the Airport Authority and the Economic Development Authority to petition the federal government to buy airplanes from a business looking to locate at the Adams County Airport.

Corky Fornoff of Fornoff Aerial Service of Louisiana and Jim Bede, an engineer with an Ohio company whose name wasn’t available Tuesday, want to locate a 10-employee business at the facility.

The business would assemble kit airplanes, hopefully for use by such agencies as the U.S. Border Patrol and the Coast Guard.

&uot;The next step will be encouraging our delegation to be very vocal in support of it and to know this project is embraced by several local governments,&uot; City Attorney Walter Brown said after the meeting.

&uot;And it ties into a subject that’s on everyone’s minds, which is national security.&uot;

Earlier in the meeting, aldermen authorized the mayor to sign an application for a $89,415 federal grant to study, over several months, the feasibility of constructing a stackwater port in Natchez.

&uot;I’ve been told we’re pretty much a shoo-in&uot; to get the funds, City Engineer David Gardner said.

In addition, the board voted to accept $147,000 from Congress through the U.S. Park Service for a study of the feasibility of further developing the Forks of the Road site.

The lot, located at St. Catherine Street and Liberty Road, was once the site of a large 19th-century slave market.

A kiosk with historical information, along with signage marking the site, now stands on the lot.

Next, the city will move to hire a professional to conduct the study, which must be completed within two years, Brown said.

And aldermen voted to join with the county, the EDA and the Chamber of Commerce in adopting a resolution asking the federal government to set aside funds for the North Natchez Drainage Project.

Details of the federal energy appropriations bill that would include the project must now be worked out in a House-Senate conference committee.

&uot;If they put in $20 million (for energy and conservation projects in Mississippi), we estimate we could get $2 million to $4 million&uot; to improve the system that drains stormwater from north and downtown Natchez, Brown said.

The money is needed to, among other things, to shore up an aging brick arch that runs under Canal Street and serves as a drainage canal for much of north and downtown Natchez.