NATCHITOCHES, La. – Natchitoches voters will make big decision during the election on Saturday; they’ll be voting on a new mayor.
Candidates are incumbent Ronnie Williams Jr., former mayor Lee Posey, and newcomer James Below Jr.
“I served on the City Council for 20 years. Mayor for eight. I am pretty familiar with this community. I grew up here. I got a lot of encouragement to run. We had a survey, and 65% of the people in Natchitoches didn’t think we were headed in the right direction,” said Posey on his reason to run again.
Williams defeated Posey in the last election and has been serving since 2020.
“One of the simple, simple ways to say it is that I’m a servant at heart. Every career or job I’ve held has been about serving people, whether as an educator for 12 years or as a pastor. I love serving the residents. It’s not really working for me,” said Williams.
Below said he entered the race because “I’ve held different positions in the community, and I think it’s time that our city go in a different direction. I don’t believe it is going in the right direction.”
Williams wants to continue plans he has put in place during his first term.
“When I came into office, the city didn’t really have a plan, you know, not in terms of a master plan. In cities that want to grow and are thriving, we noticed that they have a strategic plan, so we developed the master plan. The plan thinks about every area of our city and what projects we can do to foster growth and improve in those areas,” said Williams.
Below has a strategic approach in mind.
“Four things on the platform would be public trust, public safety, economic development, and community development. Public trust: I think that we need to rebuild the communication of trust between the citizens of Natchitoches and our local government. I think that I can come in; I can make that happen,” said Below.
Posey said he knows the city’s needs and is pulling in other leaders for a united approach.
“Well, we’ve got some issues that we need to address. Crime is number one, but I’ve got some ideas I’ve already built with the D.A. and the sheriff about what we could do to all work together. Our infrastructure in our community is a big need. We need to do everything we can to help Northwestern State University be the strongest it can be,” said Posey.
The Natchitoches mayoral election is Saturday. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.
