NATCHEZ — Natchez recently made changes to its council chambers building in an effort to soundproof the room where officials hold private meetings, including executive sessions.

The chambers at 115 S. Pearl St., where Natchez Board of Aldermen meetings take place, used to have a conference room with two doors and a large window.

Now, a solid wall stands in place of the window and one of the doors, and the other door has been replaced in an effort to keep sound from escaping the room.

“Just trying to soundproof the executive session room,” City Clerk Megan Edmonds said.

The $3,200 to make the changes came out of the city’s public properties fund, City Building Inspector Jody Rutter said.

The room is used for various means, one notably being for the board of aldermen’s executive sessions, during which leaders are permitted to discuss sensitive information that state law allows to be excluded from the public portion of meetings.

The city held its first executive session in the newly soundproofed room Wednesday, when they discussed the potential transfer of the Natchez Visitor Reception Center to the National Park Service.