Surely no politician worth his or her salt in Natchez is going to deny funding for economic development at a time when we need jobs above all else.

But it seems that lately no one can quite agree on what economic development should be for our community.

&8220;We all want the same thing, it’s just that when you talk to people on different boards, we have different ways of getting there,&8221; Natchez Alderman Theodore &8220;Bubber&8221; West said last week, effectively articulating what seemed to be the problem when the aldermen met with county supervisors and EDA board members.

Over and over in conversations last week about economic development, miscommunication &045; or simply lack of communication &045; was a common theme.

&8220;People are not communicating,&8221; Alderman Rickey Gray said. &8220;If we can get on the same channel, we can get some things done.&8221;

The future of economic development funding came to the forefront last week when the city, county and EDA board members met for a lengthy session, some of which was conducted in public and some in executive session.

City officials said they wanted a greater emphasis on &8220;community development&8221; &045; and they want their EDA funding to pay for it.

But listening to them, it’s not clear all of the aldermen are even on the same page about what community development is.

It’s a term that seems to encompass everything from quality of life issues to marketing of projects like the convention center hotel.

What seems logical is an annual meeting between the city and county &045; and including the Economic Development Authority board &045; to set an agenda for the year.

The provision for such a meeting is actually built into the legislation that created the EDA, which is essentially a joint creation of the city and county governments.

But neither city attorney Walter Brown nor EDA board chairman Woody Allen could remember such a meeting &045; or at least an effective one &045; in the last several years.

If we’re not approaching economic development &045; almost irrefutably the most important issue in our community &045; without a plan, just what do we think is going to happen?

The answer is what’s happening now: miscommunication.

We need a strategic plan for attacking economic development and its accompanying issues.

And right now, our first priority should be making sure we don’t lose rail service, a very real possibility as Canadian National looks to abandon its line between Natchez and Brookhaven.

Other priorities are finding an EDA director and setting an agenda for what kind of industries we want to attract. We all know that traditional smokestack industry has gone the way of the dinosaur, and we need innovative ideas for attracting jobs.

That might well be growing our tourism industry by luring a hotel or building up our retail base by attracting more development. It might mean recruiting a call center or more technology-based companies.

A meeting to set priorities could lead to such ideas &045; and more &045; but everyone’s got to be on the same team first.

And no matter what, we need a central authority like the EDA to be in charge of the plan.

Kerry Whipple

Bean is editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3541 or by email at

kerry.bean@natchezdemocrat.com

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