NATCHEZ — A grant that funded an Adams County Juvenile Justice Center program to keep youth offenders out of the center was recently eliminated, but Youth Court Judge John Hudson said recent new revenue should more than pay to keep the program going.

Hudson said the Department of Public Safety recently phased out an approximately $121,000 two-and-a-half-year juvenile detention alternatives program grant. The grant funded the center’s annual rental of GPS-tracking ankle bracelets, community outreach and a position at the center to administer the juvenile detention alternatives program.

The ankle-bracelet program, Hudson said, allowed the center to monitor the whereabouts of local youthful offenders placed on house arrest or other restrictions instead of putting the teens in the center.

Keeping those local offenders out of the center, Hudson said, statistically reduces their chances of re-offending and keeps space open for detainees from other areas to be housed in the center. Adams County is reimbursed $100 a day for housing out-of-county juvenile offenders in the 25-bed facility.

Adams County has been housing Pike County detainees since Pike’s youth detention center closed in January. Since then, Hudson said, revenue has increased for Adams County’s center.

“Since we’ve been (housing detainees) regionally, on average we will take in probably five- or six-fold what we did before Pike County closed,” Hudson said.

Because of that, Hudson said, the county will not have to dig around for money in its budget to fund the juvenile detention alternatives program.

“We were averaging about $40,000 before Pike County closed, now we will average around $180,000,” he said. “It will be more than covered.”

To cut costs, Hudson said, the center has combined the duties of an administrative assistant and the community services and detention alternatives programs’ manager into one position. The salary of a current administrative assistant that is taking over the program will increase from $23,000 to $30,000, Hudson said.

Combining the two positions cut costs from $78,920 annually, which was funded by the grant, to a little more than $44,000, Hudson said.

“It works much better anyway,” he said. “There was always a bunch of crossover.”

County Administrator Joe Murray told the Adams County Board of Supervisors at its Monday meeting that typically at this point in the fiscal year, the center would have approximately 66 percent of its budget remaining.

“Right now we’re at 91 percent of what we budgeted (because of the new revenue),” Murray said.

The board approved a budget amendment at the meeting to fund the detention alternatives program.

In other news from the meeting:

• The board approved an endorsement for Coast2Coast free prescription discount card program. The discount card will be offered to the general public, and the county receives a $1.25 royalty per filled prescription, according to the company.

Murray said any residents with a card from the current discount prescription provider, NACo, would need to get a new card. NACo provides discounts through its partnership with CVS Caremark.

• The board approved a funding request from Rene Adams to help pay for First Natchez Radio Group’s fireworks shows for July 4, Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

The board approved $2,500 for the July 4 show and will revisit the remaining $2,500 for Christmas and New Year’s before the county’s next budget cycle.

• County engineer Jim Marlow reported to the board that the county could install a speed hump on Myrtle Drive in the Forsythe subdivision as previously requested by a resident. Marlow said, however, the speed hump was not completely warranted.

Speed hump installation requires a petition with 75-percent approval from nearby residents to install the speed hump.

The board said the resident that requested the speed hump would be contacted and informed of the petition requirements.