Natchez — If country music songs are to be believed, prison cells are the loneliest places to be, but being warden of a prison with no prisoners isn’t much fun either.

Vance Laughlin, warden of the new Adams County Correctional Facility, told members of the Rotary Club of Natchez that he’s got plenty of time on his hands in the next couple of months.

Just call if you need a hand with anything, he told the crowd, joking, at least a little.

Laughlin said Wednesday that a delay in granting a federal prison contract means the new facility is vacant for just a little while longer.

Originally, Corrections Corporation of America, the owner of the private prison, expected the contract would be announced Oct. 1, Laughlin said, but now it looks like it will be in the first quarter of 2009.

Originally, CCA had announced they would start accepting job applications in October, but Laughlin said the delay in the contract has delayed the need for hiring just a bit longer.

“We’re (still) coming,” Laughlin said. “Once we start hiring, it’s going to be very, very visible … lots of big ads … just give us some time.”

The time is no problem, Laughlin said, in fact he said he’s looking at it as a positive factor.

“From my perspective, as warden, it gives me another two to three months to get things set up,” he said.

Construction on the $140 million, 2,500-bed facility is expected to be complete by Dec. 1, he said.

But even if CCA receives the much-anticipated contract to house illegal immigrant prisoners — ones who will likely be deported after their sentences are served — the first prisoner would not report to the facility until 120 days after the contract is awarded.

But, Laughlin said, CCA would begin screening applicants the very next day after the contract is awarded.

“We’re very hopeful for this contract, but we could not get it,” he said. “If so, we have a plan B and we have a plan C.

“The (Federal) Bureau (of Prisons) is a very important customer so they get first shot,” he said.

When operational, CCA anticipates employing approximately 409 people and paying an estimated $1.2 million in annual property tax and $1.8 million in utility fees.