Ribbon cuttings: Natchez projects a long time coming
Published 12:12 am Saturday, June 11, 2016
A celebratory ribbon is cut for the Bridge of Sighs Friday. (Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)
A celebratory ribbon is cut for the St. Catherine Trails Friday at Angelety House in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)(Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)
Ward 4 Alderman Tony Fields speaks before the ribbon cutting ceremony for St. Catherine Trails Friday at Angelety House. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)
Caroline Altman, 11, of Brandon swings before the ribbon cutting ceremony for St. Catherine Trails, Friday at Angelety House in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)
Natchez National Historical Park Superintendent Kathleen Bond speaks at the ceremony for the St. Catherine Trails. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)
For a second straight day, red ribbons were in display as local and state officials celebrated the completion of two projects. Mayor Butch Brown celebrates the ribbon cutting for the Bridge of Sighs. (Ben Hillyer /The Natchez Democrat)
Mayor Butch Brown speaks at the ribbon cutting for the Bridge of Sighs in 2016. (Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)
NATCHEZ — Two more ribbons were cut Friday at the site of completed city projects — the fourth in two days — as the City of Natchez celebrated the past while looking to the future.
During the dedications of the St. Catherine Street Trails and the Bridge of Sighs, city officials thanked funding and organizational partners for their participation in the projects and shared ideas for future developments.
Natchez National Historical Park Superintendent Kathleen Bond spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the St. Catherine Trails project.
Bond contributed to the interpretive panels along the trail as part of her involvement with the Natchez Community Alliance.
“As we celebrate our city’s tricentennial — as well as the centennial of the National Park Service — we look back to our past with fresh eyes as we contemplate our move into our future,” Bond said.
Bond thanked the Historic Natchez Foundation for spearheading the effort to create the interpretive panels.
The trail follows the course of the city’s civil rights history, she said, from the former slave market Forks of the Road site to the Zion Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“Zion Chapel AME Church stands as a beacon of our greatest achievement with the rising of Hiram Revels to the U.S. Senate — but also the district was anchored on the east end by a slave market that was a site of extreme tragedy,” Bond said.
Bond said she hopes the Forks site can be protected, developed, and interpreted in the future to ensure its preservation.
The City of Natchez currently owns the Forks of the Road site, but intends to donate it to the National Park Service once it gains congressional approval to do so.
Natchez Mayor Butch Brown said expansion of the Natchez Trails project would likely continue for some time.
“There is still another plan in the works,” Brown said, “Though I don’t think I’ll live to see it, to take this trail further out to Liberty Road, and through another route back to town. We want to have a walking trail that is very suitable and very telling of the story of Natchez and the surrounding area of Southwest Mississippi.”
Brown asked the incoming group of city officials to plan for “a 100-year future” of what Natchez may need.
Ward 4 Alderman Tony Fields said he was proud to see the completion of the trails, which was a priority during his term as alderman.
“I tell you what, this has been a long time in coming,” he said. “And my God, look at what we have now: a beautiful, beautiful trail.”
The fundraising, he said, was a major part of the process of completing city projects.
“We begged, I hate to use this word — we borrowed — but we didn’t steal anything,” he said, joking.
The St. Catherine Trails had a total cost of $725,000, and the Bridge of Sighs cost a total of $750,0000 to build, Community Development Director James Johnston said.
A grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, sourced through the Federal Highway Administration, funded 80 percent of both projects.
At the ceremony on the bluff celebrating the Bridge of Sighs, MDOT Southern District Commissioner Tom King said he was proud to be able to offer grants with 20-percent matches.
“What a deal,” King said. “That’s a great deal not only for the City of Natchez but for the counties (in the southern district,) and many of them applied for the same type of grants that y’all have.”
FHA Mississippi Division Administrator Andy Hughes said he was glad to have worked with Mayor Brown to fund the project.
“But Butch Brown doesn’t really describe the entire story here — agencies get tired of listening to him so we just fund it,” he said, joking.
Brown repeated what he said was a motto while seeking grant funding for city projects during his administration.
“The word ‘No’ is just a request for more information,” he said.
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