NATCHEZ — At their first meeting in January the Adams County Board of Supervisors devised a plan to find a new civil defense director — on Monday they changed their minds.

Monday’s motion was passed only after January’s motion was stricken.

“We decided to rescind that particular motion,” Henry Watts, board president said.

The new motion was passed in executive session and voted on by supervisors, Watts, Spanky Felter, Mike Lazarus and Boo Campbell.

In January the board passed a motion, proposed by supervisor Darryl Grennell, that called for the formation of a search committee.

The committee to be comprised of members of FEMA, MEMA and other local entities was supposed to interview possible candidates to replace current Civil Defense Director George Souderes, who is retiring.

Once the search committee narrowed the field of applicants the last candidates were going to be interviewed by the board at which point one applicant would be named civil defense director.

However after a conversation between Watts and MEMA state Director Mike Womack, at a conference in Jackson, that plan dissolved.

Watts said that Womack advised against letting an outside committee make a selection for the county.

Instead Womack recommended two retired MEMA employees that he thought would be best suited to sit on a search committee Watts said.

Watts said one of the retirees was already doing contract work and another lived too far from Natchez to make the plan logistically possible.

Watts said he ultimately thought the plan was too time consuming since the board would have ultimately made the final choice.

“This is something that we can handle,” he said.

The new motion passed on Monday says that only the board members will be involved in the selection of the new director.

In other news Natchez-Adams Airport manager Clint Pomeroy informed board members that work is about to begin on the airports outdated taxiway.

Pomeroy said the repair projects will replace outdated parts of the airport.

Pomeroy said the project, to be funded by a grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, will begin very soon.

And once completed the airport’s taxiway will have new lighting and two inches of new asphalt.

The lighting on two of the taxiways has not been updated or replaced since the 1960s Pomeroy said.

And the new asphalt will cover cracks in the taxiway.

“It’s work that needs to be done,” he said.

The total cost of the project is approximately $500,000 Pomeroy said.

Of that the grant will pay for 99 percent, the airport will pay the other one percent.

Pomeroy said all the work should be completed by the end of April.