Christmas might come early for the future of economic development in Natchez-Adams County.

Earlier this week, the Adams County Board of Supervisors voted to enter into agreements with International Paper and Rentech, a company intent on bringing a coal-to-liquids plant to Adams County.

In the deal, the county will wind up playing the middleman of sorts, buying the former IP Natchez mill site and simultaneously signing a long-term lease with Rentech.

Rentech plans to invest more than $1 billion on the plant that is slated to produce more than 10,000 barrels of their special Fischer-Tropsch clean-burning fuel.

Obviously, if the Rentech plant becomes a reality, it would provide much-needed jobs and a much-needed economic shot in the arm for the area.

The fact that the plant would be located on the site of the once mighty IP mill, the industrial bastion of the area during the last half of the 20th century, underscores the significant changes in our local industrial base.

Perhaps equally as important for the county is that Rentech likely will not need all of the land at the site. That would leave a significant portion that could be developed into the county’s first true, modern industrial and technology park.

But all of the plans for Rentech and the IP site still have to come to fruition. At this point, although things are looking pretty good, the Christmas wishes are still a ways off.

Regardless, Adams County may soon have a rather large — 400 acres or more — present as the Christmas holiday rolls around later this year.