NATCHEZ — The Natchez Adams County Recreation Commission will hold a joint meeting at 9 a.m. today with Natchez and Adams County officials to discuss rehabilitating area ballparks.

The meeting, including members of the Natchez Mayor and Board of Aldermen, the Natchez Adams School District and the Adams County Board of Supervisors, will be held at the Board of Supervisors building, 314 State St.

On Tuesday, a little more than four months after being appointed to the recreation commission, Matilda Ogden Stephens resigned her position.

“Please accept this letter as notice of my resignation from the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission, effective immediately,” Stephens wrote in a resignation letter dated Oct. 8 and addressed to Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell.

“It was an honor to have been appointed by the City of Natchez and I greatly enjoyed my time as a board member and as the Commission Treasurer,” Stephens wrote. “I will continue to support any effort to improve the quality of recreation in our community. Thank you for the opportunity to serve.”

Stephens, who was appointed to the NACRC on May 28 by the City of Natchez, said she decided to step down as the board is entering its new fiscal year because her obligations at work have recently increased.

“I’m starting to consult with another non-profit,” Stephens said, “and I was going to be traveling a lot and there were going to be a lot of times that I wasn’t going to be here for the meetings.”

Stephens said the board has had a problem in the past getting quorums for meetings. 

“I knew it was really important that they have people who are dedicated to come,” Stephens said, “and I felt like that with it being the beginning of the fiscal year and they are about to take on that baseball project… With me leaving now, and them just starting that project, I felt like maybe the city could appoint somebody that had a little expertise in that area and it would help.”

Grennell said he was surprised by Stephens’ letter because of the short time she had served on the commission.

“I certainly appreciate the service and wish her the best,” Grennell said, adding the city will move quickly to fill the position. Stephens works as program manager for Girl Scouts of Greater Mississippi and has recently been working to establish a new Girl Scouts Troop in Natchez and Adams County.

NACRC Chairman Jimmy Ware said the NACRC, which is made up of nine members — three appointees each from the City of Natchez, Adams County Board of Supervisors and the Natchez Adams School Board — now has two vacant positions, including Stephens’ position and a school board position vacated in May by former NACRC treasurer Mose Ard.

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan YMCAs of Mississippi backed out of managing the Natchez Community Swimming Pool in May after the contract failed to be renewed in a timely manner due to a lack of an NACRC quorum and because the YMCA said it had not been paid since September 2018.