NATCHEZ — Local officials gathered Tuesday to turn dirt on a site they hope will soon be filled with the sound of splashing water.

The groundbreaking for the new community pool — a purely ceremonial affair since the Natchez-Adams Recreation Commission doesn’t have construction plans yet —was at the site of the planned facility, between the Liberty Road ballpark and the Natchez High School football stadium.

The pool will be part of a construction project that will also include a pool house, press box and the construction of two multi-purpose fields that can be used for — among other things — soccer.

Recreation Commission Chair Tate Hobdy said the ceremony marked “one of the few times we have see true cooperation between the city, county and school board.”

Hobdy’s comments about cooperation were a reference to the six years of stalemate that essentially killed several iterations of a proposal for a unified recreation program after Adams County voters passed a non-binding referendum in 2009 supporting the construction of a recreation complex.

The glue that has made this proposal hold together has been the introduction of the YMCA into the equation in 2015, Hobdy said.

“That (glue) is why we need to support (the YMCA),” he said. “They have the experience and the ability to really run this well.”

The YMCA has agreed in principle to operate the new recreation program, including the new pool, and is expected to formally sign a contract for the operations by May. The organization is not expected to have a central office in Natchez at this time, though officials have said that’s a possibility in the future.

YMCA’s Natchez liaison, Casey Custer, thanked the local leaders for putting out “an enormous effort over many months,” and said that he hopes the pool and the YMCA’s core values will “strengthen families and hopefully impact this community.”

Custer promised the YMCA will “work very hard to merit your trust.”

The pool was not originally part of the immediate plans for the recreation.

Under the terms of the pool 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 the city of Natchez making a one-time pledge of $500,000 for the project and Adams County giving $700,000.

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 was the first to recommend 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 in October 2014.

Community Development Committee member Philip West — who also serves on the school board — said that sometimes the community has to take steps backward to move forward — in this case, the closure of the Thompson pool in the 1990s and the Duncan Park pool in 2001.

“That has given us this opportunity for something much bigger, much better than what we had in the past,” West said.

Natchez Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said that while some have criticized the timing of the groundbreaking as being close to an election, she believes, “this is the time and this is the place” to build it, alluding to the previous pool closures before saying, “I have been on the battlefield for this pool for a long time.”

“This is going to be for our children, but it will make money, and it will hopefully serve as an economic nucleus for this city,” Mathis said. “If I have to go home for opening a pool, I’d choose that.”

Mathis said she never learned how to swim, and she doesn’t want the area’s children not to be able to pick up that skill, and the new pool will provide “advanced, 21st-century aquatic training” for the area’s people.

Natchez-Adams School District board of trustees President Amos James said the pool “should have happened a long time ago,” but “when we are doing it now, we are doing it big, and if you look at it, it is well put together.”

Adams County Board of Supervisors Vice President Calvin Butler said his son is in his 20s and “has never been swimming in a public pool in Adams County.”

“I am glad to be here today,” Butler said.

Hobdy said the recreation commission — the official body through which the pool will be constructed and with whom the YMCA will contract — plans to begin construction soon.