NATCHEZ — With a resounding “yes” from Adams County voters, local leaders are discussing the next steps toward a recreation complex.

“I want people to know we’re still working on (recreation plans),” Supervisor Mike Lazarus said.

Lazarus, who was a vocal supporter of the non-binding referendum presented to Adams County voters on Nov. 3, said every Friday a group of 10 to 12 people meet at the Chamber of Commerce and talk recreation over a meal donated by area businesses.

“We’re keeping the issue alive until after the holidays,” Lazarus said.

Lazarus said the Natchez-Adams County School Board, Board of Aldermen and Board of Supervisors will be meeting in January to discuss the next step and name a nine-member committee to oversee financial and legal recreational matters.

“We’ve been meeting over a year on this now. We didn’t want it to lose any steam,” Lazarus said.

Lazarus said the meetings also serve to meet with other local leaders in the Miss-Lou to figure out what is happening in other cities and towns that Adams County might want to emulate.

“We had a guy come in last Friday, and he talked about some possible grants that might be out there,” Lazarus said. “(Recently,) we met with Vidalia and found out what they are doing with their recreational facility.”

Lazarus and Supervisor Darryl Grennell said the main purpose of the Friday meetings is to provide legwork to find suitable, qualified members of the community to present to the three boards for inspection.

“We are basically trying to help these three boards out in terms of developing a list of recommendees,” Grennell said.

“For the (nine-person) commission, itself, we’re trying to recommend individuals with business backgrounds that can help to formulate proper financial and funding numbers (for the project,)” Grennell said.

Grennell said more than 40 names have been submitted, but within the next few weeks, the group would narrow the list to 12.

The 12 names will then be carried from board meeting to board meeting where the names will be presented and discussed by board members.

“These are recommendations to these boards. The boards make the final decisions,” Grennell said.

Grennell said the final list of names is due next week and voting on the 12 candidates to submit to the boards will shortly follow.