NATCHEZ —Hurricane Gustav is still giving the Adams County Board of Supervisors headaches seven months after landfall.

The county has 45 days to get three piles of hurricane-related debris removed and still receive reimbursement for the removal from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The problem is that the work hasn’t begun. Discussion of solutions to getting the work started wove their way in and out of different discussions during Monday’s supervisors’ meeting.

That’s partially because the county was told not to move the debris piles until FEMA had a chance to look at them, but then the county got the message earlier this year that the agency wasn’t going to examine the piles, County Administrator Cathy Walker said.

The county was, at that point, given a 90-day deadline to get the debris moved, Walker said.

That 90-day period is now half over, and Road Manager Clarence “Curly” Jones said that the work hasn’t begun because the county doesn’t have enough working trucks to complete the task.

During the course of the meeting, the supervisors had a phone call placed and found out that they could rent trucks and drivers for the debris removal without going through the bidding process.

The board will work to get an additional extension for the debris removal.

In other news:

Emerald Mound-area landowner Paula Pullins-Newton appeared before the board to protest what she believes is a lack of further communication about the upcoming road project to Emerald Mound.

“We have not been contacted except for a letter saying there has been no change in the value of the property,” she said.

The property Pullins-Newton owns — a total of 86 acres — will lose 13 acres and two homes to the development.

The family leases the land for hunting, and the project will force them to move onto the hunting land.

“We are losing all the way around,” Pullins-Newton said.

Supervisor Thomas “Boo” Campbell suggested the owners include amount of lost income in their asking price.

Among the family’s contentions is that their property should be given historic property value because of its proximity to Emerald Mound.

“If your land is connected to that, you ought to get appropriate pay,” Campbell said.

The owners do not oppose the project, Pullins-Newton said.

“We are not against this project,” she said. “We see it needs to happen, but we just want to be treated fairly.”

The problem may be that eminent domain proceedings have already started, County Engineer Jim Marlow said.

The project is being funded by federal dollars that were given to the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

“We were put at a disadvantage because we don’t have any input,” Board Attorney Bobby Cox said.

The supervisors passed a resolution to have Chancery Clerk Tommy O’Beirne call MDOT representatives and set up a meeting to hopefully resolve the issues.

Attorney Walter Brown appeared before the board to thank the supervisors for their part in bringing the Corrections Corporation of America prison to Adams County.

Local farmer Ross McGee appeared before the board to request they find a solution to erosion and sediment build-ups that cover the road and wash into fields in Anna’s Bottom after rains.

Both McGee and a neighbor have spent tens of thousands of dollars removing sediment from their property, he said.

“We are doing all we can do, but there is only so much we can do as landowners,” he said.

The supervisors voted to have the county engineer survey the site to determine what kind of easement the county needs to build a ditch there and to build up the road so water will not flow over it.

The supervisors opened the floor for nominations to fill a vacant slot on the Natchez-Adams County School Board.

The supervisors decided to leave nominations open for the time being, and when they close the nominations they will interview all of the candidates.

But the supervisors also voted to send a resolution to the state legislative delegation to change the system to have school board members elected.

Felter, who made the motion to send the resolution, said he couldn’t see a good reason for why the system is the way it is.

“Why do we have to be one of the two places in the United States where (school board members) are appointed and not elected?” he said.

The other supervisors agreed.

“Any time there is a board that has the ability to levy taxes, they need to be elected,” Grennell said.

The supervisors presented Sheriff Angie Brown with two resolutions, one from the supervisors and one from the state legislature, commending the life and expressing sympathy for the death of her late husband, Sheriff Ronny Brown.

The board voted that any new ambulance service must present a certificate of need prior to beginning operations in Adams County.

The companies already operating in the county, American Medical Response and Metro Ambulance, were grandfathered in under the new rules.

The board used the first part of the meeting to re-pass motions for the month of February.

That was done because the board did not approve the minutes for February in March.

“We had to do them and reestablish each one to give it credence,” O’Beirne said.