NATCHEZ, Miss. –Adams County supervisors on Monday approved a $1-a-month increase in the E-911 tax levied on phone bills to help fund Adams County’s emergency services.
Revenues from the previous $1 monthly surcharge have declined as the number of landline phones has fallen while more people rely solely on cell phones. This has forced county supervisors to use other county funds to offset the E-911 revenue loss.
It’s uncertain how much the $2-a-month E-911 tax will generate, but it costs about $660,000 a year to operate the local E-911 service, with Adams County and Natchez evenly sharing the expenses. The emergency-dispatching system takes phone calls from people in need of police, fire and ambulance services.
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The much-discussed conditions of the Adams County Jail will be further studied as the 47-year-old detention facility continues to be plagued by structural problems.
Adams County supervisors are hiring a consultant to assess the jail’s state of disrepair and weigh the feasibilities of renovating it or building a new one, said county board President Wes Middleton.
After hearing Monday of the jail’s latest incidents of electrical problems and water leaks, the Board of Supervisors voted to move forward with an extensive evaluation of the building.
The board commissioned a plan in 2014 for a new jail costing about $7 million, but that was drafted by a construction company interested in building it. Middleton said a consultant without a vested interest in a new jail’s construction will give supervisors objective advice on what to do.
Built in 1975, the jail is substandard and has suffered various structural problems in recent years that include an inoperable air conditioner, leaky roof, mold, crumbling exterior bricks and malfunctioning cell locks.
The building – located on the corner of State and Wall streets by the Adams County Courthouse – has been the subject of lawsuits and court orders for improvements to be made.
Among the various questions to study is the extent of the current jail’s defects, whether it can be rehabilitated, whether it should be replaced, how a new jail should be structured, how much it would cost and where it should be located. Another option could be for the county to not have a jail and contract with another to house county inmates.
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A preliminary plan has been drafted on how Adams County will improve mental health services deemed inadequate by state officials.
The heart of the plan is to ensure community-based services are provided to those in need to ensure they don’t have to go elsewhere, said county board attorney Scott Slover, who’s helping write the plan for Adams County supervisors.
They were told last month they had to come up with measures to address the inadequacies caused largely by funding shortages and the lack of qualified mental-health professionals. This has resulted in poor services for people with a variety of needs,ranging from stress counseling to drug rehabilitation.
The Adams County Board of Supervisors provides funds to A Clear Path of Southwest Mississippi Behavioral Health, the public-private agency that relies on government grants, Medicaid and private dollars to pay for mental-health services for nine neighboring counties.
The McComb-based agency has facilities in Natchez, including an eight-bed crisis-stabilization unit it recently opened in a former medical clinic on Jeff Davis Boulevard.
Slover said Adams County officials should collaborate more with those in adjacent Jefferson and Wilkinson counties on how to improve the region’s mental-health programs for “community-based services from the ground up.”
“It’s not going to be instantaneous,” said Slover, who noted state mental-health care officials have given Adams County a two-week extension to the deadline that had been set for a plan being submitted.
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Adams County supervisors closed the public out of discussions Monday about potential litigation concerning a tax dispute with Cornerstone Church. The worship center is located on U.S. 61 at the former Trinity Episcopal School campus.
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