NATCHEZ — The Natchez Mayor and Board of Aldermen will hold a required second public hearing on the 2018-2019 fiscal year budget when the board meets at 11 a.m. today in the City Council Chambers, 115 S. Pearl St.

The first public hearing was held Friday, and the budget will not require any increase in ad valorem taxes or millage.

In addition to the budget hearing, the board has a full agenda that includes discussion of hanging banners promoting the Fall Pilgrimage on Main Street.

Fall Pilgrimage starts Sept. 21 and the city has customarily placed a banner on Main Street proclaiming the impending dates for both Fall and Spring Pilgrimages.

Entergy, however, recently informed the city it would no longer allow hanging the banners from the company’s utility poles.

“That’s for safety reasons,” said Mara Hartman, Entergy spokesperson. “We’ve never allowed hanging banners and that has been in effect forever.”

Hartman said if the city used Entergy’s utility poles in the past to hang banners, Entergy did not sanction it.

“Obviously, it is a liability issue,” said Tim Runnels, Entergy’s customer service representative in Natchez.

Runnels said potential dangers include a large truck coming through and pulling down power lines, which could cause injuries, power outages and expensive repairs.

Runnels said Entergy would offer the city a $500 to $1,000 grant next year to help pay for an alternate means of hanging banners.

Meanwhile, City Planner Riccardo Giani said he has been working to find a remedy to allow the city to continue to hang banners to promote the Pilgrimage and he may have found a solution.

“I got a call from Natchez Pilgrimage Tours that said property owners on Main Street offered to put brackets on their buildings to accommodate the banner,” Giani said, adding that city ordinance requires board of alderman approval before installing the brackets.

Therefore, Giani has an item on the agenda for today’s regular meeting of the Natchez Mayor and Board of Aldermen seeking approval to hang bracket’s on Darby Short’s buildings on Main Street, from which the Pilgrimage banner could be hung.

Giani said the offer is generous and other remedies, including the city purchasing and installing decorative poles from which to hang the banners could be expensive and time consuming.

In other matters at today’s meeting, the board is expected to:

• Consider approving minutes for Aug. 28, 29 and Sept. 5 work sessions;
• Hold a public hearing on fiscal year budget, allowing 3 minutes each for public comments;
• Have a public hearing on nuisance properties and lien resolutions;
• Hold a public hearing on an application for a mobile food vendors ordinance;
• Hear a report on the annual Fat to Fit Summer Olympic Games;
• Hear a report on health insurance;
• Hear a report on the condition of playground equipment at Duncan Park;
• Consider unfinished business;
• Hear city officials’ reports;
• Hear the city clerk’s report;
• Hear the city attorney’s report concerning Lee Edward Scott-Board of Examiners;
• Hear the mayor’s report and his proclamation for Domestic Violence Awareness Month;
• Consider new business.