NATCHEZ — A month after Gustav’s passing, the storm’s impact is still being felt in Adams County.

At Monday’s meeting of the Adams County Board of Supervisors, Glenn Arnold told the board the Adams County Juvenile Justice Center is in need of serious, and costly, repairs.

Arnold, the facility’s detention administrator, said the facility’s control panel was ruined as a result of the power outages during the hurricane.

And while the county has already allocated funding for a new panel, Arnold said it won’t be enough.

The control panel runs the lights, intercom and all door locks — and right now it isn’t doing any of those things.

The lights cannot be turned on or off, the locks must be opened manually and the intercom is unusable.

But since the facility opened in 2002, Arnold said the control panel has been plagued with problems.

Arnold said the board approved the purchase of a new panel, approximately $78,000, several weeks ago.

But the contract for the control panel did not include lighting controls.

Arnold said the contract used the term “optional lighting” to describe lights and Arnold told the board optional lighting was not needed.

It was not until later that Arnold realized the new panel would not allow for the control of any lights.

Arnold said it is absolutely critical that his officers be able to control the lights, as of now they’re on all the time.

But on Monday the cost of the lighting system, more than $30,000, caused the supervisors to defer Arnold’s request to the county administrator to see if the lights could be covered by insurance or by FEMA since they were broken as a result of the power outages.

Arnold said the outages ultimately fried the circuit.

“We need it now,” Arnold said.

But Arnold said since the supervisors have not come to a decision about the lighting, the entire project is on hold.

“It’s going to have to be done,” Arnold said of the lighting expenditures.

After Monday’s meeting Supervisor Mike Lazarus said he didn’t think Arnold’s presentation adequately explained how lighting impacted the overall installation of the control panel.

Lazarus said the board would likely have to move faster to fix the situation.

And Arnold is also hoping for a quick decision.

“If there’s a fire we’ll have to go to each cell to make sure it’s empty,” he said.

In other news, David Carter, director of the Adams County Extension Services, said the county has secured the necessary grants to host its household waste amnesty day.

On Nov. 1 county residents will be able to bring their toxic household chemicals to the country extension office and have the chemicals disposed of safely.

Supervisor Darryl Grennell said the supervisors have been pursuing an amnesty day for the past 2 years.

Grennell said the day is an excellent opportunity for county residents to safely dispose of chemicals or poisons that can’t be thrown out with regular trash.

“We want to keep this stuff out of the landfills,” he said. “And we don’t want people dumping it in the bayous.”

Carter said biological and medical waste and explosives will not be disposed.