NATCHEZ — Natchez aldermen voted Monday to approve a contract to house Natchez Police Department inmates at the Adams County Jail.

Board Attorney Robert Latham said the agreement would cost the city $30 per inmate per day.

Latham said the issue had been on the county’s agenda at a specially called meeting Thursday, but the county inadvertently forgot to take it up. Latham said the city could move forward with the contract and the county would likely take the matter up at its next meeting.

“The jail did not come up, but it was not intentional,” Adams County Board of Supervisors President Mike Lazarus said. “It will come up at our next meeting.”

Lazarus said his understanding is the supervisors are for jail consolidation, based on a previous meeting in which Natchez Police Chief Walter Armstrong attended a recent supervisors’ meeting and the matter was discussed.

“It is a benefit for everyone,” Lazarus said. “I think everyone in principle has agreed on the terms.”

The city is spending approximately $250,000 per year to operate its own jail, Armstrong said previously.

He said the city’s jail only averages six inmates per day and that the county jail has more than enough capacity to handle the city’s needs.