By Megan Ashley Fink

& Cain Madden

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — As the city elections start heating up, the candidates for Mayor of Natchez have already begun their campaigns.

Local residents are already starting to think about who should take over after Natchez Mayor Butch Brown, who is not running for re-election, steps down.

Natchez Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Hudson said the candidates’ experience would be a factor in the race.

“Since none of the candidates have been mayor before, what plans will they put in place to plan for the future?” Hudson asked.

Hudson said she would also want to know the candidates’ views of the aldermen’s roles and their plans to develop good relationships with the aldermen.

Nachel Shannon, who is a librarian at the George W. Armstrong, said unity is the most important issue to her during this election season.

“I think the aldermen need to do more to make sure everyone’s voice is heard,” she said. “We need to work on being a community as a whole and be on one page.”

Further, Shannon said transparency is important.

“I think you should see more of them, really,” she said. “I know in Jackson the mayor does a tour — it would be nice if they would do that here.”

Shannon said she plans to vote.“I’ve been thinking about who I’ll be voting for — I don’t know yet,” she said. “I am still wanting to see what each candidate represents, what change they want to do.

Working in the area’s youth court, Marty Kemp was quick to say that education and recreation are the most important issues to him in this election.

“There needs to be more things for the youth to do, as well as more educational resources offered to children outside of what’s being offered at school,” he said. “We see it every day (in) what happens to these youth who don’t get these opportunities.”

Of course the economy is also important to Kemp, but he said it’s time for leaders to value the future.

“These teenagers today are going to be the ones taking care of us down the road, so they are very important,” he said. “It seems like too often they are put on the backburner compared to other issues.”

Sitting down in the back of a construction van in an alley off Commerce Street, Kenneth Jones said Natchez needs to start competing for more industry.

“Too many young people leave town because they have no work,” he said.

Jones said Natchez has jobs, but they aren’t jobs that pay well.

“People have jobs, but they are going to work and don’t have any money to buy anything after bills,” he said. “That’s kind of defeating the purpose of going to work, isn’t it?

“Unless you can convince the fast food jobs to start paying more like $15 an hour, which isn’t going to happen, I think you need to recruit more plant jobs that pay a decent living so that you can support your family.”

Jones said he was looking forward to casting his vote.

“Oh yes, I never miss a vote.”

Barbara Fletcher, a Natchez voter and resident, said she was concerned how the nation’s economy could impact the city.

“I just heard on the radio we could have another recession coming,” Fletcher said. “Is Natchez prepared to handle it if the economy gets worse?”

Fletcher said she would like to know how candidates would encourage businesses to come to Natchez to help support the economy.

On a break from work at the Natchez Grand Hotel, Lee Felton said the city needs to build a recreational center for the children.

“Our youth need to have something to do, somewhere to go, other than sitting on the corner doing drive-bys,” he said. “You need to put up some kind of facility where kids could go to do sporting activities, like handball, volleyball and a pool.”

“The basketball courts on the street could be good, but a lot of the drug activity is happening there.”

Felton said Natchez also needs to do something about its dilapidated buildings and bring in some more jobs.

“A lot of these homes are grown up and abandoned,” he said. “They are eyesores to the neighborhoods, and they need to come down.”

For Kathleen Bond, Superintendent of the Natchez National Historical Park, management of public assets will be a major issue in the election.

“The City of Natchez seems to be dependent on waiting on grant funding to perform basic maintenance or repairs on its facilities, so that small problems are ultimately much more costly to correct,” Bond said.

Bond also said volunteers are operating the city’s two historic properties —Auburn and the Old Post Office — as tourism sites, and said she would ask candidates how those properties could be revamped.

The public schools, Bond said, could also gain from mayoral leadership, and said she would ask candidates how to improve the local schools.

“Given the need for strong public schools to attract jobs to this area, do you believe the public school system can be significantly improved as long as a largely de facto segregated system of private schools remains in place?” Bond said she would ask.

The city’s party primaries will be held May 10 with a runoff, if needed, on May 24. The general election will be June 7.