NATCHEZ — All that stands between the YMCA coming to Natchez and operating an already agreed-upon recreation program for the city of Natchez and Adams County are a few signatures.

“The YMCA is just waiting in the wings, ready to go,” said Paul Lovitt, operations director for the YMCA in Jackson. “As soon as all the officials give the go-ahead and say ‘We want the Y on board’, the Y is ready to come.”

After six years of sometimes contentious discussions about combining county and city government recreation programs with the goal of building new facilities and more efficiently operating the ones that already exist, the city and county boards signed this fall an interlocal agreement that will fund the program and gives the broadest of outlines about what it will build.

The friction of the discussions was greased in part by the injection of the YMCA running the program.

Since the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission would officially engage the YMCA, all three of the bodies that initially created the commission have to approve the interlocal agreement. The last body needed to ink the deal is the Natchez-Adams School District, which can’t legally put any money in the pot but can allow some of its properties or facilities to be used for recreational purposes.

The school district board of trustees is set to take up the matter this month, and Recreation Commission Chair Tate Hobdy said he does not anticipate any holdup on the school board’s part.

“The agreement has to be sent to the attorney general for approval after that, but as long as everybody approves unanimously, I don’t think that will be an issue,” Hobdy said.

“Once that happens, we can sign a contract with the YMCA. We are supposed to have an attorney working on that, so hopefully we will have that contract between the recreation board and the YMCA as soon as we get that approval back from the attorney general.”

The YMCA was injected into the discussion after Adams County District 2 Supervisor Mike Lazarus decided to contact the organization on his own after the discussion of a pool was injected into back-and-forth of the recreation discussions.

“I don’t see this working any other way without the YMCA getting involved,” Lazarus said. “We need their experience and leadership.

“From the very beginning, they have pointed out that the city and county lose (money on recreation), but they know how to run a program that is financially stable.”

Having the YMCA take over recreation will remove local politics — in government and youth sports leagues, Lazarus said. It will also allow for an honest assessment of what the area does and doesn’t need for recreation.

“With the YMCA running it, you have some consistency, you know what the program is about and what it will be about next year and the next year,” Lazarus said. “Instead of fighting and trying to compete with what Vidalia has across the river, let’s embrace and build facilities over here that they don’t have over there.”

The agreement

Under the terms of the agreement signed by the city and county governments, the first phase of the combined effort would include the construction of a pool and multi-purpose fields, with both governments giving a one-time pledge of $500,000 for the project.

The city would also give $500,000 for annual operations, while the county would pay $334,000 to the effort.

The agreement also calls for both governments to pledge the money necessary to cover a 10-year bond issue for capital improvement to the area’s recreation infrastructure.

In the city’s case, the 10-year funds would come from the community development funds pledged by Magnolia Bluffs Casino. The casino’s community development board recommended the development funds be used for a pool, and was the body that first brought the discussion of the pool — which had been talked about but not prioritized — to the front of the discussion.

With the basic groundwork in place in the interlocal agreement, a representative of the YMCA visited Natchez last week to see what’s already here and meet key players, Hobdy said.

“They have a guy who is ready to be here and making this go smoothly,” Hobdy said. “Their biggest focus coming up will be the pool and multi-purpose fields, as well as after-school programs.

“They have some ideas of things they have done in Jackson or other places that they would like to try to implement, so they’ll do a feasibility study and a community assessment in the first 12 months or so.”

Lovitt said if the agreement is signed, the YMCA would have someone full-time in Natchez. Initial work would be to meet the broad goals of the agreement, he said.

“The first priority has always been for a swimming pool, so we would begin the plans and development of a community pool right away,” Lovitt said.

“Other programs we would like to see implemented is working with the schools to get some kind of after-school program so the kids were not having to go home alone until their parents got home from work, and we could do that relatively quickly if everyone is on board with that.”

The YMCA can also do a study to see what could enhance offerings for senior citizens and other residents Lovitt said.

“We are excited,” he said. “We are ready to go.