NATCHEZ — The cost to repair all pending issues at the Adams County Jail could total nearly $2.5 million, but only some fixes are necessary to bring the facility up to current standards, a local architect said Monday.

Johnny Waycaster of Waycaster & Associates Architects presented the Adams County Board of Supervisors with a conditions report on the State Street facility.

In June, a Jackson architectural group presented the board with plans to construct a new jail that would cost nearly $6.8 million, but board members said they wanted to consider the costs of renovating the current facility before writing a check.

Waycaster’s report included six items that needed to be addressed in the repairs but some were cosmetic issues that could be done over time.

The most pressing repairs, Waycaster said, aim to fix the lack of ventilation inside the facility, which caused mold and mildew to form in some areas of the building. Other repairs in his report included repairing the roof system to prevent leaks and repairing exterior brick issues.

The report states the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system was designed 40 years ago for a staff size and inmate load nearly half of today’s sizes.

The jail was designed with 62-single-use cells, and those cells are now double-bunked increasing capacity to double the original design load.

Waycaster said the current capacity of the HVAC system is 100 tons, but code requirements for indoor air quality require 150 tons.

Some of the other repairs, which included improving the condition of windows in cells and addressing cracks in the interior masonry walls, wouldn’t disturb the day-to-day operations of the jail.

The HVAC repairs, however, would cause some disturbances.

“With the HVAC system, you would want to sit down and plan to do it in different pieces,” Waycaster said. “I don’t recommend this all be one project.”

When Supervisor David Carter asked Waycaster how long the project would take, the Natchez architect said he estimated six months of total work with two or three of those months interrupting the jail operations.

Waycaster suggested the possibility of the sheriff’s office contracting with nearby counties to transport certain blocks of inmates to another facility while the work on that area was conducted.

Speaking to board members after Waycaster’s presentation, Sheriff Chuck Mayfield and Chief of Staff Debbie Gee said they didn’t think that option would be possible.

“There would be a cost of moving prisoners, and we don’t know of a close county that would be able to house them,” Gee said. “We’d have to bring them back and forth to court hearings, so all the jailers we have now will all have to become transport people.”

Mayfield quickly stressed to the board his position on the jail.

“I’ll have to continue to clarify — I’m not crusading for a new jail,” Mayfield said. “Don’t think I’m saying, ‘Please build a new jail.’

“I want to do whatever is best to have a compliant jail because we’re open to lawsuits all the time through this.”

The board ultimately voted to advertise for bids on portions of Waycaster’s conditions report in order to get an estimated cost.

The sheriff also asked the board of supervisors for an update on the possible move of his administrative team to a different location.

Mayfield has previously asked the board to consider finding a location in which all ACSO offices — including those of Natchez-Adams County Metro Narcotics — can be centrally located.

The board has gone back and forth with the sheriff on two possible locations — the former Callon building at the corner of Franklin and Wall streets and a second downtown building owned by James Biglane.

Supervisor Mike Lazarus said he had come to an agreement with those managing the Callon building for the county to pay $5,000 a month, including utilities.

Board members agreed the Callon building would be the best fit, but no formal decision was made as the conversations steered back toward repairing the current jail or building a new facility.

Carter said he didn’t want to move the administrative officers to a different location before making a decision on the future of the jail.

“We have a lot to take under advisement,” Supervisor David Carter said. “Let’s not do anything quickly so we don’t come back and say, ‘Well we shouldn’t have spent a couple of thousand dollars in the meantime.’”