NATCHEZ — FOR Natchez President Chesney Doyle and Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell asked the Adams County Board of Supervisors on Monday to allocate at least $25,000 to help create a downtown association to implement plans for a recently completed downtown Natchez revitalization project.

Detailed in a 186-page document with six sections and seven appendages, the plan lays out guidelines for boosting the economy and “heart” of the city. Doyle said FOR Natchez is now taking steps to implement that plan by forming a downtown association.

Doyle said the plan requires a minimum of $80,000 to begin implementation, and the goal amount is $120,000. The mayor and Board of Alderman have already pledged $25,000 and will consider an additional $25,000 in the budget process, Doyle said.

“We’re here today to ask Adams County to consider investing $25,000 and maybe a little more as time goes on,” Doyle told supervisors during Monday’s meeting.

Doyle said she plans to visit the Convention Promotion Commission’s board to ask for its support of the project as well.

“We are here to ask you to partner with the city, the citizens and downtown merchants to take the most important next step to make this downtown association,” Doyle said to the supervisors. “That entity will be charged with implementing this plan.”

The revitalization plan focuses on three key landmarks of the downtown area, including the bluff, the Martin Luther King Jr. Street triangle and the “heart of the city” on the block of the Ritz Theater — which connects Main and Franklin streets.

The triangle, Doyle said, is the “gateway to the city” and has a historical significance that should not be ignored.

“It is the precious site of our African-American history story, from slavery to freedom,” Doyle said. “From Forks of the Road to Zion chapel — this is where Hiram Revels went from the pulpit to become the first African-American ever — ever — in the United States Congress. This is huge national history.”

Part of the revitalization plan includes creating a statue of Revels and turning the bluff into a “Broadway entertainment district” with a re-imagined bluff utilizing the old Broadway Street depot as a food and beverage venue and adding a park and entertainment village to the Broadway Street strip. The plan transforms the center of the downtown area on the Ritz Theatre block into an arts district — with shopping centers, banners and nighttime lighting.

Grennell said revitalization could lead to a substantial increase in revenue for the city, especially in the triangle area.

“When you look at the greenery and the development there … who wouldn’t want to invest?” Grennell said. “Think about property appreciations that can kick-off in that community.”

District 2’s supervisor, David Carter, said the board would consider a contribution after reviewing the county’s budget.

In other matters at Monday’s Adams County Board of Supervisors meeting:

-Supervisors heard a presentation from ION Business Concepts & Payment Systems about an electronic kiosk that would be made available to the community in front of the county tax collector’s office.

ION representatives offered to leave the kiosk in place for a three- to four-week trial period, to help alleviate lines for people to pay their taxes. The board opted to test the equipment at no immediate expense to the county before deciding whether to purchase it.

-Supervisors heard a report from GIS project coordinator Peter Dale about potential locations for two or three new fire stations in the northern and southern parts of the county. Adding new stations could help reduce residents’ insurance costs and alleviate some of the pressure on the existing first stations, Dale said.

District 1 supervisor, Mike Lazarus, said the stations also will eliminate some of the time it takes for responders to arrive on the scene of fires in outlying parts of the county.

“This is good, and it’s what we need to do,” Lazarus said. “First of all it saves people insurance money, but it saves lives, too. … By the time the city gets out (to distant houses in the county), there’s nothing they can do. The house is gone.”

The board is reviewing the potential locations for the stations before any more action is taken.