VIDALIA — The Natchez Port Commission, the Adams County Board of Supervisors and the Natchez Board of Aldermen have filed letters of written concern about the proposed Vidalia port with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The letters of concern were submitted during the period of time allotted for public comment when the Concordia Parish Economic and Industrial Development District applied for a preliminary permit for the port.

“If the City of Vidalia is going to apply for federal funds to put a facility on the west bank of the Mississippi River, our concern was whether or not it was a wise use of federal funds because our facility on the east bank was done with federal funds,” Natchez-Adams County Port Commissioner Anthony Hauer said.

The letter of concern is just proper protocol to ensure good stewardship of federal dollars, he said.

Through the years, funds have been spent constructing weirs and doing other work to ensure a specific channel flow, Hauer said.

“What is going to become of all that, and do you think it is wise to throw federal dollars after federal dollars?”

The board of supervisors letter of concern was a resolution they passed affirming the port commission’s concerns, Supervisor Darryl Grennell said.

The Natchez measure is essentially the same thing, Mayor Jake Middleton said.

“We are not against anything Vidalia does,” Middleton said. “We are just supporting our port.”

But it needs to be clear that the Natchez-Adams County Port Commission’s objection is standard protocol and not the beginning of a turf war, Hauer said.

“If it gets blown out of proportion by anyone, it is going to be by someone other than myself,” he said.

Concordia Parish Economic Director Heather Malone said the federal government wouldn’t be guilty of duplicitous spending with the Vidalia port because it’s a different project.

“Our initial purpose for the port is for our agriculture community,” she said. “That is our main industry over here, and we want to accommodate their needs.”

The Vidalia port could more properly be called a loading and unloading station, and it would be a slack water port rather than a deep-water port, Malone said.

The business at the proposed Vidalia location would be primarily unloading and loading barges with agricultural products, she said.

“We call it a port because that is what everybody calls it,” she said. “Our purpose with adding this is not to take business away from the Natchez port.”

Both Malone and Middleton spoke of the idea of having a joint port authority.

“We have talked about doing a joint port and not having one compete against each other,” Middleton said. “Have one entity operate it and share the costs and profits.”

Other letters of concern have been filed, but Vicksburg U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Public Affairs Frank Worley said the documents associated with the permit determination cannot be released at this point because they are part of the Corps’ deliberative process.

Once the decision is finished and has been sent to the applicants, however, the documents will be made public.