NATCHEZ — In the words of the Adams County Board of Supervisors, motorists on Beau Pré Road will soon have to slow down or visit the alignment shop.

The board voted Monday to have the county’s engineers place speed bumps along the road wherever they deem necessary after hearing complaints from residents about routine excessive speeders in the neighborhood.

Residents complained that in the last six weeks several mailboxes have been destroyed and unsafe motorists have killed at least five pets.

“When I moved there 30 years ago, you could walk down the center line and be in less danger than you are now sitting in your front yard,” resident Jerry McDaniel said.

The group accompanying McDaniel brought a petition signed by 75 percent of the residents of the area asking for the speed bumps.

“I don’t want (speed bumps) there, but what I really don’t want is a citizen hurt,” McDaniel said.

Supervisors President Henry Watts said he has known about residents’ complaints for a long time, but the problem was compounded by the state’s involvement in the construction and maintenance of the road.

“You can’t put speed humps on a state aid road or you will lose the (state aid) funding,” Watts said.

In the past, the county put speed bumps on Old Courthouse Road, another state aid road, and they were told to remove the bumps or lose their funding.

However, Watts said he was able to explain the situation to the state and the board now has a waiver that will allow them to place the speed bumps on the road.

“Sometimes, government moves slow,” he said.

The board also voted to accept a gift to the county of a 1980 Bobtail truck by Laurie Cloutier of Cloutier Oil Company.

The company cannot use the truck anymore because of new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, but the 1,600 gallon truck — which has a 50-foot hose that can shoot another 60 feet — could still be used by a volunteer fire department as a spare water truck, Cloutier said.

“I just wanted to give back to the county which has been good to me,” he said.

After accepting the truck, the supervisors said there were several ways the truck could be used, and voted to conduct a study to determine where the truck could be most effectively used.

In other news:

Charles Sanders of Broadmoor Utilities asked the board to train their work crews to be more careful after a county tractor broke a manhole cover in the Broadmoor area for the fourth time.

Sanders said he was not asking the county to pay for the manhole, but said he was afraid a child could fall into the exposed manhole.

“There is no way they could survive that except by way of a miracle,” he said.

The supervisors promised to address the issue, and Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter suggested they do something to make the manhole — which is at ground level — more visible.

The supervisors voted to utilize United County Auctioneers for the sale of county inventory that is no longer in use.

The supervisors presented Roy Henson with a resolution thanking him for 21 plus years of service as a county worker.

They also presented Angie Brown, chapter manager of the Adams County Red Cross, a resolution thanking her and the Red Cross for services rendered during Hurricane Gustav.

The supervisors opened and took under advisement bids for a pedestal mounted dock crane.

The first bid was from H&E Equipment Services, and was for $2,074,909.10. The second bid was from Upperline Equipment, and was for $1,995,000.