NATCHEZ — Today, community members will have an opportunity to voice their opinions on the impending Natchez Trails Project.

At 1:30 p.m. at the Natchez Council Chambers, the project architects will present drawings and renderings of the first phase of the project.

“This project, it has been from the start a community project,” Trails Chairman David Gardner said. “We certainly want the community to be a part of planning it and designing it.”

Project architects already invited community involvement in the form of a preliminary presentation in late June.

In this round table discussion, the designers and architects listened to the suggestions of interested residents.

Ideas of bicycle trails, outdoor cafés, seating and lighting were all discussed. Today, the most recent idea will be once again evaluated.

“The purpose of it is to expose it to the public before it’s finalized and offer it for comments,” Gardner said. “People are pretty sharp on how they would like to see the trails, or any project for that matter.”

After the meeting, he said the project designers will compile the comments and see if the plans can accommodate them.

“We always take it seriously and incorporate their comments so when we get through, it will be more representative of what the public wants,” Gardner said.

The first phase of the project will consist of walking trails across the north end of town from Broadway Street to High Street, all the way over to Rankin Street.

South of that, trails move from Broadway over to Washington Street and up to Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

Three tiers of trails will be built along Broadway, down to Silver Street then down Roth Hill and Learned Mill roads and along the bank of the river.

A timber bridge will traverse the wooded area on the bluff.

Throughout the 5.6 miles of trails, interpretive signs will be displayed.

Gardner said ground breaking will take place in the spring of 2009.

The funding for the project comes from several different sources.

The final leg — $275,000 — came through the Mississippi Legislature appropriated in House Bill 1589.

The National Park Service gave a $25,000 Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative Grant, $218,000 was earmarked from Congress, the Mississippi Department of Transportation gave $2 million and $380,000 was raised locally.