NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors are developing a list of roads to repave using some of the $3 million they’ll have for a variety of construction projects. They met Monday to discuss this and decided to convene again Wednesday to review what roads to improve.
The Board of Supervisors is getting the money from bonds sold to investors. The $3 million this generates will be used for county roads, recreational facilities and other earmarked construction projects.
Potential bond-financed projects could also include digitizing circuit court and sheriff’s office records to eliminate the expenses of warehousing the paper documents in the old Herold & Miller building on Canal and Monroe streets.
Governments issue bonds as a way to borrow money they repay over time with added interest to bond investors. The county’s bond-repayment schedule for the $3 million starts in 2023 with the board budgeting $275,000 and various annual amounts as high as $330,000 until 2033.
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The Adams County Board of Supervisors is considering an attorney’s request to be paid more to hear lunacy cases.
Jack Lazarus said he’s assigned by the Chancery Court as the hearing officer for cases involving people with mental-health problems litigated in the court. Lazarus said Adams County has the 2nd-highest number of such cases in Mississippi.
He’s proposing to be paid about $25,000 a year. Supervisors said they’ll evaluate what Lazarus noted would be slightly more than what previously has been paid to him as a special master to review evidence and make recommendations to chancery judges.
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Adams County and other neighboring counties have grouped together with a plan to improve mental-health services deemed inadequate by state officials.
Adams County board attorney Scott Slover said Jefferson, Wilkinson and Claiborne counties have joined Adams in submitting a plan to Mississippi mental-health officials.
Slover said the heart of the plan is to meet federal requirements for community-based services being provided to those in need to ensure they don’t have to go elsewhere.
The Adams County board was told earlier this year it had to come up with measures to address 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.
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County board President Wes Middleton applauded news that Natchez-Adams County has been awarded a $750,000 federal grant to bring commercial air-service to the local airport.
He pointed to the collaboration of city-county officials in applying for the grant. He also gave special credit to U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker for his influence and to Natchez-Adams airport director Richard Nelson for his work upgrading the airport. “He’s a gem,” Middleton said of Nelson.
The Federal Aviation Administration grant will be combined with $500,000 in other federal funds the city and county have received to recover from the economic impact of the COVID pandemic. The “risk-mitigation” fund will be used to guarantee Southern Airways doesn’t lose money as it initiates daily commercial flights to the Natchez-Adams County Airport, which has been without airline service for nearly 30 years.
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