by DAVID HAMILTON

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — Natchez City Clerk Megan Edmonds discovered yesterday the supposedly missing $100,000 from the Casino Pool Fund is not missing at all.

After the board of aldermen requested Tuesday that Edmonds look into the where the funds had gone, Edmonds discovered two separate $50,000 payments made from the pool fund that were approved by the board in March 2016 and June 2016.

Edmonds said both payments went to the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission, which used those funds to pay for the architectural planning and design of the pool along with multipurpose fields.

Those payments were issued before Edmonds joined the clerk’s office in November 2016 as an accounting clerk. The payments also preceded the tenures of Ward 2 alderman Billie Joe Frazier, Ward 4 alderwoman Felicia Irving and Ward 5 alderman Benjamin Davis, whom all took office in July 2016.

Edmonds also said, to her knowledge, Adams County matched the two $50,000 payments made by the city last year.

The discussion over the pool funds began at Tuesday’s board of aldermen finance meeting, when Ward 1 alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis questioned why the pool fund only contained $400,000 instead of the $500,000 believed to be in the account. No one present at the meeting could explain the deficiency.

Arceneaux-Mathis also proposed that the board freeze the approximately $96,000 remaining in the Community Development Fund, which receives monies annually from Magnolia Bluffs Casino, and dedicate that money to the pool fund. That would almost bring the fund back up to approximately $500,000, but the board has yet to take action on the proposal.

Both the city and the county, which also pledged $500,000 to construct the pool, are currently working to achieve the necessary funding to begin construction.

The current lowest bid to build the pool and support structures is approximately $1,433,000.