Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Adams County and the City of Natchez lack about $1.8 million to complete the long-awaited Morgantown Road drainage and paving project.

That’s what County Attorney Scott Slover told the Adams County Board of Supervisors Monday morning.

County and city officials had hoped they could take out a low-interest loan, known as a CAP loan, offered by the Mississippi Development Authority to bridge the gap between local, state, and federal monies pledged for the project.

However, Slover said Monday the project does not qualify for such a loan because it is not tied to an industrial development project.

“That’s disappointing,” Slover said. “That was our fail-safe for the project.”

On behalf of the county board, Stover has written to each state legislative representative and informed them about the situation, and asked them to address it during the current legislative session.

“If they would make way for us to borrow the money in a similar fashion to the CAP loan, that would work,” Slover said.

District 4 Supervisor Ricky Gray reminded other supervisors that they must get together and form a consensus on what Adams County needs from legislators during this session.

The state’s legislative session began Jan. 7 and ends April 5.

The county chose not to renew its portion of a joint contract with the City of Natchez for the services of lobbyist Gregg Harper, formerly of Watkins and Eager. For several years, Harper represented the city and county before the state and federal legislatures and lobbied for grants and other funding. Harper is credited with securing millions of dollars in grant funding for the city and county.

Harper, a retired U.S. Representative from Mississippi, has since formed his own firm, Harper and Bailey Governmental Solutions. The city continues to contract with Harper for legislative lobbying.

Further, Bill Jones of Dozer Construction, the contractor on the Morgantown Road drainage project, discussed with supervisors today difficulties that have been costly for his company and have slowed the project’s progress.

Jones said the difficulty lies with dealing with utility companies and misplaced and mis-marked utility lines.

“We knew this was going to be a difficult job out there on Morgantown Road, and it probably appears to some of your folks that it’s going slow. We all know that utilities were not supposed to be in the way, but they are,” Jones said.

He said gas lines owned by Atmos Energy have been most troublesome.

“We have gotten no cooperation out of Atmos at all. They are such a big company,” he said. Construction crews have been forced to hand-dig down 10 feet or more to locate water lines owned by Adams County Water Association, Natchez Water Works, and Atmos.

“We can go out there and have a little show and tell if you want…We have been completely shut down seven or eight times with a full crew sitting out there. That’s cost us $8,000 or $9,000 a day,” Jones said.

Gray said that some people do not want the project done and are trying to find a way to stop it.

“We got permission to start the project, then they all showed up with all of these concerns,” Gray said. “There’s something about this Morgantown Road. Some of the people didn’t want it done, and they are trying their best to slow up the project.”

Jones said residents in the area have been “very kind with all the problems we’ve caused them so far,” citing right-of-way issues, retaining walls that must be constructed near some driveways, and tree issues to come.

“Now would be a good time for y’all to come see it because it’s all opened up out there,” he said.