NATCHEZ — The Adams County Board of Supervisors voted to provide the Adams County Sheriff’s Office with the funding for a new position Monday.

The funds — which will be used to pay the new officer at $12 an hour — will be used to hire a booking officer for the county jail.

Mayfield said the request for the new officer is one that he made when the county was first making its budget several months ago.

“We have been needing a booking officer to free up our jail staff to do more of their job,” Mayfield said.

“We get a big influx of bookings during indictment time, and it is really taking our jailers away from their jobs to do that. We are trying to keep our officers on the street more and this would relieve a lot of pressure to have this one person.”

With the hire of a booking officer, the sheriff said jailers would spend more time on the prison floor interacting with detainees and visitors. The booking officer would also be tasked with full-time scanning of paper records into an electronic system, and would pick up other duties as needed, he said.

In other news:

•The board voted to award a railroad bridge rehabilitation project to Joe McGee Construction for a bid of $513,614.

The bridge, which served as the main rail entrance to the former International Paper property, is important to the rail switching operations in the Natchez-Adams County Port.

Supervisor’s President Darryl Grennell has previously said the project will be underwritten by a grant from the Mississippi Development Authority.

•The board formally adopted a change to its public records policy requiring that any public information be provided within seven days of the request.

Chancery Clerk Tommy O’Beirne said the board had previously adopted the policy, but it was not reflected anywhere in the board’s recorded minutes.

•The board voted to approve three applications from AT&T mobility to modify the antennas on existing cellular towers.

County Tower Inspector Spencer Stutzman said the modifications are meant to improve 4G data service in the Washington, Stanton, Natchez State Park areas, as well as north of the Natchez city limits.

•The supervisors approved a $9,126 change order on a rail project in the port.

County Engineer Jim Marlow said the order was to add in some drainage pipe that was left out of the project.

•The board approved a permit application from CableOne to furnish fiber optic cables to Elevance along River Terminal Road.

•The board opened and took under advisement eight bids for a Community Development Block Grant project to repair drainage in the Kingston Road area.

The apparent low bid was $158,580.70 from Coleman Construction.

Marlow said the engineer’s estimate for the project was $189,582.