Adams County Civil Defense Director George Souderes said he is keeping his fingers crossed for a new fire station.

The Adams County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to advertise for bids to renovate the District 5 barn on Foster Mound Road into a volunteer fire station once details on the project are complete.

&uot;I’ve been anxious and looking forward to a volunteer fire station on the north end of town for a number of years,&uot; Souderes said.

The station will help provide fire protection for supervisory districts 4 and 5. That area of the county is currently rated a 10 for insurance purposes in fire protection – the highest rating issued by the Mississippi Rating Bureau, Souderes said. The high rating means residents pay higher insurance rates than those people in lower rated areas.

Vickie Barron of Waycaster and Associates presented the plans for the building at Monday’s meeting.

Souderes said details of the plan still needing to be finalized are minor and include making sure the station has an adequate generator.

&uot;I want to make sure the generator is capable of operating the entire building when there is a power outage,&uot; Souderes said.

The building being renovated was once used as a county work barn for maintenance projects.

To convert it into a fire station, the county is gutting the inside of the building.

&uot;It’s like building a new building except we don’t have to worry about the sides and the roof,&uot; Souderes said.

The fire station will have central air conditioning and heat, an office, two bathrooms, a kitchen area, a storage area and bays for two fire trucks.

Cost estimates on the project are not yet available, Souderes said.

A timeline for completion is also not in place, but even once the station opens it could be years before residents see any drop in their fire insurance rate.

The Adams’s County’s volunteer fire station in Kingston opened in the early 1990s but it was four to five years before fire rates dropped from a level 10 to 9, Souderes said.

And ratings in the areas of the Liberty Road and Lake Montrose, the county’s newer volunteer stations, are still a 10.

To acquire lower fire rates requires a combination of things, including a building, equipment, manpower and training, Souderes said.

The county has already taken the first step in acquiring equipment for the station by purchasing a $89,000 fire truck partly funded by a state grant.

In other business Monday, the board:

4Approved a moratorium on communication towers in the county until the county has finalized its comprehensive plan.

4Heard an update from Larry Smith of the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District on a comprehensive plan for Adams County.

Smith presented a rough draft of the plan. The supervisors were asked to read it and will talk with Smith about their questions at a later date.

&uot;None of this is etched in stone,&uot; Smith said.

4Awarded a $14,434 bid to fund new radio equipment to Metro Narcotics. The money is available in the Metro Narcotics budget.

4Heard concerns from residents of Hawkins Road, on a recent board decision to make the road public.