City, county reach agreement on Morgantown Road, fire service, 911 dispatch

NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez and the Adams County Board of Supervisors have finalized plans to fund and get started on the long-awaited Morgantown Road Drainage and Road Improvement, as well as come to a final agreement on E-911 dispatch service and fire protection services.

The joint meeting of the two boards was Thursday in the Natchez Council Chambers at 4 p.m.

Morgantown Road improvements, which have been in the planning stages for close to 25 years, will move forward quickly because Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson announced the city was postponing indefinitely its plan to raise Silver Street Under-the-Hill and would move eligible funds designated to that project to the Morgantown Road project.

“We have worked very hard the last four years on a number of projects. Two of those projects that have been in the forefront of what we have been doing area Morgantown Road and the raising of Silver Street. Both of these projects are very difficult and involve a lot of back and forth on budgets, meetings trying to get everyone in agreement,” Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson said. “As we have been doing this, the city has encountered some challenges. The main enemy we all have is inflation. … Obviously, the cost of Silver Street has increased beyond what we projected. The cost of Morgantown Road has increased more than we projected. We have tried to re-bid it several times. We have tried to re-design it. And we are now at a place when you hear this presentation, understand the city is about to make a major concession. We have to choose between raising Silver Street right now or repairing Morgantown Road. And we are going to be making the suggestion that we make Morgantown Road the priority,” Gibson said.

Also in the mix with making that decision is the city now must make the unbudgeted repair of the Canal Street Bridge, which is projected to cost in the neighborhood of $800,000.

The Morgantown Road Drainage Project, which must be completed before the road can be resurfaced, was originally expected to cost approximately $1.8 million. That cost now, including engineering fees and construction, is $3.344 million. The city has gotten permission from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to move its grant funds designated for Silver Street to the Morgantown Road project, which will make up that shortfall.

Natchez Community Development Director James Johnston, who provided detailed transaction information to the aldermen and supervisors, said the move will allow for a pre-construction meeting with all involved parties to take place soon.

Gibson also told supervisors the city would agree to pay an increase of $199,000 over what it is currently paying for E-911 dispatch services.

“We have gotten the most current salary numbers and the cost for 10 dispatchers equates to an annual cost of $492,214.85,” Gibson said. “The city currently pays the county annually $292,404. Under this scenario, the city will have to increase its contribution to $199,810.85.”

Aldermen voted unanimously to accept that new agreement and increase for dispatch services, as did the county supervisors.

The new E-911 agreement is for four years. The city also agreed to pay its proportionate share of any pay increases the county gives to dispatchers going forward.

The new county fire services agreement with the city is based on the same criteria. The county will fund 16 of the city’s current 42 firefighters.

The new amount the county agreed to pay is $989,992.24 for fire services. It is currently paying $701,603 for fire services. That’s an increase to the county of $288,319.24.

During the discussion of the fire agreement, District 2 Supervisor Kevin Wilson asked if it was necessary for the city to send two trucks to all of the fires the city responds to in the county.

“I started getting those breakdowns for the calls, and if you look at the calls coming in from the county, half of them are trash fires or an automobile on the road on fire, which isn’t going to harm anybody. It’s just going to burn,” Wilson said.

He asked Natchez Fire Chief Robert Arrington if the Natchez department calls county volunteer firefighters to those calls. Arrington said county volunteer firefighters are dispatched.

“Any calls we get in the county, we page out the volunteer service. We go ahead and respond and wait on what we find out from the volunteers — if they are going to be able to come out and are they going to bring a truck or whatever,” Arrington said. “The participation of the volunteers over the past several years has decreased.”

District 3 Supervisor Angela Hutchins said the original agreement between the county and city was for the city to hire an additional 15 firefighters to its force to handle county firefighting.

“I’ve been here 37 years. You all were supposed to get 54 firefighters, and that never happened,” she said. “Now you are asking for us to pay for another firefighter?”

Gibson took exception to Wilson and Hutchins’ questions.

“If I could, we just committed major city funds to Morgantown Road. We have spent so much political capital for the last four years to raise millions of dollars for projects to benefit all of us. 100 percent of Adams is 100 percent of Adams County. 100 percent of the fires that occur are in Adams County. 100 percent of the streets that are repaired are in Adams County. 100 percent of the law enforcement calls are in Adams County. I’m tired of splitting these hairs,” Gibson said.

“We are one. We are only talking about one firefighter here. … I have to stand up on the taxpayers of Natchez who are paying double taxes. We are talking about one firefighter out of 42. We ask for your support. If you want to continue splitting hairs, I’m just going to take the whole thing off the table.”

County supervisors voted unanimously to approve the new fire agreement, as did the city’s aldermen.

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