NATCHEZ — The Adams County Board of Supervisors said gambling on a new casino might be part of the solution to a heated issue with the City of Natchez about the cost of fire protection.

After the board unanimously voted at Monday’s board meeting to enter a contract with the city for $566,000 to keep residents outside the city limits protected by the Natchez Fire Department, they talked about how to fund, in the future, an increase requested from the city.

The city recently asked the county for an additional $50,000 to fund fire protection. Supervisors agreed that they could not afford the increase, which was requested after their budget passed, and did not grant it.

“Our city (officials) are going to ask for an increase in fire protection (again),” District 2 Supervisor Henry Watts said.

Watts said since the county gets 30 percent of the royalties the city collects from the Isle of Capri Casino, he wondered if the county would receive the same chunk of cash from a propsed casino at Roth Hill.

Premier Gaming, a management company that is working to develop a casino at Roth Hill in Natchez, received permission two weeks ago from the Mississippi Gaming Commission to move forward with plans to build.

The county generally spends all of the gaming revenue it receives from the city on fire protection, which the county pays back to the city to fund.

“What’s going to be our status with that second boat…Are we going to be at the table?” Watts asked.

Board President Darryl Grennell said he had not yet heard anything about the new casino from any city officials.

“I didn’t know anything about (the new casino) until I read it in the paper,” Grennell said.

However, the county receives a portion of the city’s gaming revenue according to state policy, Grennell said, which suggests the same rule would apply.

Watts said the county could use gaming revenue from a new casino to offset the increasing cost of fire protection.

Some supervisors said that a second casino could mean less revenue coming from their current gaming revenue because it could detract from their Isle of Capri earnings.

Watts made a motion, which passed unanimously, to authorize the county attorney to find out if the same revenue-sharing formula will apply to a second casino.

County Administrator Joe Murray said the county budget reflects an estimated $250,000 in gaming revenue that is spent on fire protection. In addition, the county uses $80,000 of a state fire insurance rebate to pay the city for fire protection.

District 5 Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter said the county raised taxes outside the city limits last year to pay for fire protection to help fund it.

4 The board unanimously approved signing an annual contract for $10,756 for computer hardware maintenance with IBM.

Murray said the county pays for the annual contract with IBM and also pays fees to a company to service computers.

Murray said he has been told that the county is getting to a point where the supervisors should consider hiring a full time IT person on staff.

Supervisor Mike Lazarus suggested the county explore the possibly of hiring an IT person with the city, who recently expressed an interest in creating the position.

“It would make a lot of sense,” Grennell said of consolidating IT services.