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NATCHEZ — Some Adams County Supervisors expressed exasperation Monday when Robert Bradford, director of Adams County Emergency Management, told them he wanted to go on record as not approving of a building on Feltus Street to house E-911 dispatchers.

Supervisors purchased the building in June 2023, which it has planned since that time to house E-911 dispatchers, a move that would get them out of the basement of the condemned Adams County Jail.

For years, dispatchers and other emergency management staffers have suffered through the woes of having their jobs located in the basement of the county jail, which has been plagued by sewage leaks, leaks of storm water, mold, air quality issues and more.

Supervisors are in the final stages before moving the dispatchers into the building at 14 Feltus St., off Liberty Road. The building has been renovated and new electrical service and HVAC systems installed. Officials were working on the dispatchers’ budget with director Annette Fells calculating what is needed for new dispatching and telephone equipment when Bradford stepped forward with his statement Monday.

“When we started looking for buildings, I advised this board and I advised her (Fells) that you want a hearty structure. Everybody knows tornado alley has pushed down into this county,” Bradford said. “And we are putting all this money into a tin building. You are talking about $600,000 into a building that straight-line winds will hit and tear up … I want to go on record that I am advising the board that we shouldn’t do this.”

Bradford said a plan for moving internet and telephone lines from the basement of the jail to the new building is also needed.

“I’ve been here five years and we’ve been planning on getting them out of that basement for five yours, and we still don’t have a plan,” Wilson asked. “Now we’ve got this building and have put all this money into getting it ready and now here we are at the 11th hour and you are saying now that we don’t want it there all of a sudden.”
Wilson said the Feltus Street building has never been considered a “forever fix” for E-911.

“We have been trying to get them out of that dungeon down there for years. We don’t need to put brand new computers down there. Annette sent a picture the other day with water pouring out of light fixtures.

Fells said the 911 Advisory Board all voted in favor of the Feltus Street Building. “If there was a problem with the building, it should have been brought up way long ago,” she said.

Supervisors Ricky Gray and Warren Gaines called for greater communication.

Gray said Bradford, a member of the sheriff’s department, police department, AMR ambulance and a representative of the fire department all recommended the Feltus Street building for relocating E-911.

“That’s why we went along with it,” Gray said.

Wilson said what Bradford was warning against “is a worse case scenario. That kind of storm doesn’t happen very often … There is a lot of talk about building a new jail. That may happen and it may now, but if there is a complex, 911 would wind up there.”