NATCHEZ — The owner of the company hired by Adams County to overlay roads said Tuesday cold weather has caused delays in the project.

When the $2.4 million asphalt overlay project began in late October 2010, Adams County Road Manager Curley Jones said it was slated for completion by the end of November 2010, pending good weather conditions.

Mark Godfrey of W.E. Blain and Sons told the Adams County Board of Supervisors at their regular meeting Tuesday the project could take until as late as April for completion of all 12 areas.

As of Tuesday, Godfrey said his company was currently working on areas five and six and had spent $876,000.

Area five, near U.S. 61 North, includes sections of Foster Mound Road and Roosevelt roads and Traceway and Parkway drives.

Area six, Bryandale, includes sections of Ratcliff Place and Benbrook and Farr roads.

Godfrey said work on area seven, the Cranfield area, will follow. area Seven includes Old Highway 84 No. 3, paving at the Windy Hill church and sections of Cardinal, Dunbarton, Chance, Sandpiper and Pheasant roads.

“We would really like to get the weather around 60- or 70-degree temperatures (to overlay the roads),” Godfrey said.

He said common standards indicate a minimum temperature of 55 degrees for thin lift overlays.

District 2 Supervisor Henry Watts said the board has been working on the road overlay project for close to two years and did not intend for the project to coincide with election season.

Watts said the board planned to spend approximately $6 million on a complete county overlay system. However, the board’s low bond rating prevented supervisors from borrowing enough money to take on the full scale of the project.

“We can’t do everything we wanted to do originally . . . So we went to Plan B . . . and had to prioritize some roads.”

Watts and Grennell both said the board is working to restore the bond rating and is headed in the right direction.

In other news from Tuesday’s meeting:

– Maj. Billy Neely from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office asked the board for funding to replace the Adams County jail’s fingerprinting machine for $34,000.

Neely said the county should also consider purchasing an AFIX Tracker add-on for new machine at the cost of $17,000. The tracker would allow deputies to analyze fingerprints at crime scenes locally instead of sending the prints to labs to save time during investigations, Neely said.

The board voted unanimously to advertise for bids on both items.

– The board approved a bid of $108,668 to work on the state-funded construction of less than a mile of culvert and approaches on Cutoff Road.

The bid was awarded to Dozier LLC, which had the lowest of six bids. The highest bid was $148,402.

– The board voted to award a bid of $32,000 to Mannie Stewart, an individual, for the labor cost of patching concrete roads with concrete slabs on 29 damaged areas on Kingston, Martin Luther King Jr., Liberty and Morgantown roads.

The two other bids for the concrete repairs was $845,125 from Dozer Contractors and $287,944 from Dunn’s Construction.

Stewart appeared at the board meeting to answer questions about his bid.

Since Stewart said he had no liability insurance, the board amended the motion to accept Stewarts bid pending he acquire liability insurance for the project.

– The board voted unanimously to elect Grennell as president of the board, Watts as vice president and Bobby Cox as board attorney for 2011.

– The board proclaimed Corrections Corporation of America as Adams County’s business of the month. Representatives from CCA said the jail is currently beyond capacity for the number of inmates and still looking to hire more employees.

– Veterans Service Office director Erle Drane gave an update on van services for veterans.

Drane said the buses that run on Tuesdays and Thursdays provide transportation for an average of between four and five passengers per van. Seven volunteer drivers currently drive the vans, and Drane said the office could use more volunteers.

Drane said VSO is seeking stories to be submitted for a book promoting the Veterans Home Project for the Miss-Lou.

– The board talked in executive session for more than one hour about personnel issues regarding the job performance or termination of employees, Attorney Bobby Cox said.

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield and Road Manager Curley Jones attended the executive session.

No action was taken in the closed session, Grennell said.