NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Adams County board has approved a $250 fee placed on builders for construction permits in the county outside Natchez.
A new state law taking effect July 1 mandates counties to implement a construction permitting process like Natchez and other cities already have.
Builders will now be required to get permits from the Adams County Board of Supervisors’ office and pay the $250 fee before construction can begin outside the city.
County board attorney Scott Slover said Monday the new law mainly requires counties to collect and maintain information from builders to include the property owners’ names, construction locations, contractors’ names and verifications they’re licensed to build.
While the new law appears to be aimed at ensuring new buildings are structurally sound, Slover noted it does not require county inspectors to evaluate the construction to confirm that.
Natchez has regulations for buildings within the city that set standards for structural integrity, safety and appearance, but construction outside the city aren’t under such restrictions.
The Mississippi Legislature in 2014 enacted a law to encourage local governments statewide to enforce nationally recognized standards for how buildings are constructed, but the Adams County board opted not to adopt that amid protests from local constituents.
The law taking effect July 1 requires all counties and cities to establish a local construction permitting process regardless of whether they’ve implemented building codes.
The new law (House Bill 1163) can be viewed on the state Legislature’s website:http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2022/html/HB/1100-1199/HB1163SG.htm
—-
The controversy continues over allowing booze at the Natchez-Adams County swimming pool for a private party scheduled Friday.
Pool board member Jimmy Ware told county supervisors Monday that alcohol can be consumed at the public pool for after-hour parties only. However, Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson and aldermen declared last week that booze is completely banned at the pool co-owned by the city and county.
County Supervisor Ricky Gray said it should be prohibited. “I don’t think it’s a good idea swimming with alcohol,” he said. “That’s like getting drunk and driving. They just don’t mix.”
Pointing to the hazards of drunk people potentially drowning in the pool, Gray said the city and county could be sued for negligence.
—-
County supervisors are awaiting a decision by city officials on whether they want to continue jointly funding and operating the Natchez-Adams County E-911 system for handling emergency phone calls.
They’re being pressed for a resolution as they try to move E-911 dispatchers and equipment out of the deteriorating Adams County Jail’s basement.
County board attorney Scott Slover said he’s talked to Mayor Dan Gibson about this, but it remains uncertain whether the city wants to continue the consolidated emergency-calling arrangement with the county.
Questions have been raised about whether it’d be less expensive and more efficient for the city to have its own E-911 operations, but Slover said that’s “not practical.”
A consolidated city-county system is needed “get all on the same page to respond to emergency calls,” he said.
—-
A rail line upgraded by the county to serve Delta Energy doesn’t meet federal standards and can’t be used by the industry located at the old International Paper mill. Improving the site’s railroad was an incentive offered by Adams County board to lure Delta.
As more funds are being sought to redo the rail tracks, Delta will use adjacent county-owned land as space for the additional trucks replacing the railcars that otherwise would haul materials to and from the rubber recycling and processing facility.
—-
Law-enforcement officers responded well Sunday to keeping the peace as gun-carrying Juneteenth marchers paraded through downtown Natchez, said Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten.
He noted members of the Texas-based gun club obeyed the law in their demonstration and left the city with a positive and “totally different attitude about Adams County.”
The Elmer Pratt Pistol & Gun Club’s website advocates for “Black Americans exercising their 2ndAmendment right” to have guns. It encouraged them to come to Natchez this past weekend to take advantage of Mississippi’s “very permissive gun laws” where permits are not required to carry firearms.
County Supervisor Ricky Gray said “a situation that was just about to get out of hand” was quelled.
The gun club’s Juneteenth celebration included a commemoration of hundreds of newly freed slaves during the Civil War who died in Natchez from malnutrition and disease in Union-run refugee camps.
Comments