NATCHEZ — Adams County has a new road manager, and it’s a familiar name to those who know local public works — specifically, Natchez Public Works.

The Adams County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to hire Natchez Public Works Director Robbie Dollar as the new county road manager.

The position has been vacant since former road manager Curley Jones retired last fall. Sammy Lee Gaines has filled it in the interim.

Dollar could not be reached for comment Monday.

Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said Dollar was a great public works superintendent who is going to be hard to replace.

“Any time you have a person in a position you can count on like Robbie, you get selfish — we don’t want to see him to leave,” he said.

“I wish he would stay, but there is nothing you can do about those situations.”

It’s because he feels Dollar is so competent that Middleton said he plans to discuss the possibility of consolidating city and county public works departments with the aldermen.

“Robbie is familiar with our operation,” he said. “(The city and the county) could both chip in some salary, and if Robbie would be willing to do it I would be 100 percent for that.”

Natchez is the sole municipality in Adams County, and it doesn’t make sense to have two departments doing the same thing, the mayor said. Middleton said he liked the idea of having a one-year trial to see how the consolidation might work.

“We are duplicating stuff out there that we don’t need to,” he said.

Supervisor’s Vice President Mike Lazarus said he would be willing to have a discussion with the city about the possibility of public works consolidation.

“I am open to any ideas that will save the city and county money,” Lazarus said. “A lot of these things you have to look at and see if there are any savings in it. If we save money and get quality service to taxpayers, I am for it.”

Dollar will start working for the county in approximately two weeks, Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said.

Natchez Assistant City Engineer David Atkins will likely fill the position of interim public works director, Middleton said.