NATCHEZ — Local leaders say the pieces to the economic development puzzle exist. They just need to come together.

Tuesday, Oxford-Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation President and CEO Jon Maynard presented his ideas for improving economic development by focusing on quality of life issues instead of only focusing on recruiting large industries.

Maynard suggested efforts to improve quality of life in a community are equally as important as recruiting business when it comes to economic development.

“I thought he was very on point with Natchez,” FOR Natchez president Chesney Doyle said.

FOR Natchez spearheaded efforts to create a downtown revitalization plan for the city with the help of urban planner  Phil Walker. The city board of aldermen adopted the plan in May.

Doyle said she was glad Maynard said that economic development includes creating a community that attracts people to the town.

“I was very encouraged to hear (Maynard) say you have to do it all at the same time,” Doyle said. “You need those manufacturing jobs. … You need the jobs that attract the smaller entrepreneurial types, who bring life to the city.”

Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Hudson agreed.

“I call it a diverse portfolio,” Hudson said. “We have what is needed, we just haven’t put the portfolio together.”

Hudson said local groups are trying to address quality of life issues. FOR Natchez’s effort to revitalize downtown Natchez is a good example.

As part of the plan, a downtown organization is proposed that would guide future development downtown.

Advocates for a downtown group have asked the city, county, Natchez Inc. and Visit Natchez to contribute money to fund the downtown group. So far the city is the only entity that has committed to providing $25,000 through the city’s Community Development Fund.

Doyle said the city and the community had already committed to a quality of life project when they committed to the FOR Natchez downtown revitalization program.

“They acknowledged that tourism is an industry,” Doyle said. “They acknowledged that 900 people work downtown and that downtown is an industry that needs to be supported and promoted.”

Who would be responsible for leading economic development efforts when it comes to downtown?

Doyle said she doesn’t think it should be Natchez Inc.

“Natchez Inc. has been 100-percent crystal clear about their mission from the beginning — which is to recruit manufacturing and large employment-based companies,” Doyle said. “The people who have invested in Natchez Now to fund that, that is the mission they are supporting.”

Focusing on downtown and quality of life issues is “another side of the coin” of economic development.

“It makes perfect sense to me to have Natchez Inc. continuing to do what they do and then also have the energy that we have put together that is devoted to the other side of the coin,” Doyle said. “We have to have both.”

Hudson said whatever direction the community takes, people need to work together around the same table to communicate and plan.

“We agree with that,” Natchez Inc. Executive Director Chandler Russ said.

Several communities across the state, Russ said, work under one umbrella organization. Russ said the Oxford-Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation is a good example.

In those types of arrangements, the chamber and the economic development agency share resources and office space. They also regularly meet and work together, Russ said.

“It gives a good cohesive mix — something that could be explored in the future for the Natchez area,” Russ said.

In Oxford, Maynard said he runs both the local chamber and the economic development foundation.

“The chamber takes care of tactical issues, meets regularly with businesses,” Maynard said. “The EDF looks strategically at the community and focuses on the question, ‘Where do we want to be?’”

“It is a combined effort to truly grow and develop the economy. It takes both entities,” Maynard said.

However, how things are structured is not as important as staying focused on the community, Maynard said.

Maynard said the chamber doesn’t have to be under the umbrella of the economic development authority to work as long as what is best for the community is the focus.

John Grady Burns, owner of Nest on Franklin Street, said staying focused on the community is the biggest message he took away from Maynard’s presentation Tuesday.

“It is when we put community first. That is what is important,” Burns said. “It is not who your friend is or this group or that group. We have to do what is right for the community.”

Hudson said the community has what it needs to be successful.

“The bones are there,” Hudson said. “We just have to put them together.”