NATCHEZ — Adams County supervisors agreed last week to approve a $703,296 six-location Emergency Watershed Protection project, the bulk of which will be paid for with federal funds.The United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service’s EWP program will make improvements on LaGrange Road, Sage Circle, Lower Woodville Road, Lincoln Heights Road, Cemetery Road and Jackson Point Road.

The agreement with NRCS was short by $45,396, County Engineer Jim Marlow said.

The county will make a 17.5-percent match in funding, plus County Administrator Joe Murray said acquiring rights-of-way could add costs.

The bid — which was the only one received — by Midway Construction is almost double a 2014 $351,952 engineer’s estimate.

Supervisor Ricky Gray said discrepancies such as this difference in bid and estimate are caused by delaying projects for two years. Gray, a former member of the Natchez Board of Aldermen, said similar issues have occurred in the city, as well.

“They come out and look at a project and you don’t get the money until a year or two later,” Gray said. “So that same project they have done looked at has gotten worse there.

“That’s the reason you need additional funds because it is two years later.”

Marlow said only one bid was received because many of the local construction businesses are tied up in Franklin, Jefferson and Amite counties with U.S. Department of Transportation grant projects. The EWP program aims to make improvements and repairs to systems designed to prevent hazards to life and property such as floods.

The program can remove debris from stream channels, road culverts and bridges; reshape and protect eroded banks; correct damaged drainage facilities; establish cover on critically eroding lands; repair levees and structures; and repair conservation practices.

Murray said EWP projects are eligible to be on private property.

Supervisors discussed a problem with some

EWP projects — many homeowners do not take ownership of the repairs, Supervisor David Carter said, and it falls on the county bridges and road department to upkeep them. Carter said this spreads County Road Manager Robbie Dollar’s crews thin.

President Mike Lazarus said he doesn’t know how Dollar keeps track of where all of the repairs are. Lazarus said the county might need to look into an agreement with homeowners stipulating if the citizen sits back and watches the erosion control repair on their property break down, they ought to pay to fix it.

The board voted Monday to rebid another EWP project where the bid came in more than 100-percent higher than the estimate. The engineer estimate for Oakridge Road was $72,835 and Midway Construction’s bid was $169,945.