NATCHEZ — Stationed on Lindberg Avenue in front the house of Adams County Board of Supervisors President Henry Watts sits a speed hump that is causing concern among some city and county officials.

The speed hump was requested by Watts, but other supervisors and the city engineer were not notified.

“I’ve got people begging for speed bumps on Mansfield Drive,” Adams County Supervisor Mike Lazarus said. “The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘What am I going to tell these people who want theirs built up, too?’” Lazarus said.

Lazarus said if the supervisors had been filled in on Watts’ plans, it could have better prepared them for the public reaction.

“I really wish he would have brought this before the board. The domino effect might occur on this.”

City Engineer David Gardner said he was not notified a speed hump within city limits was going to be worked on.

Gardner said the city placed a moratorium on speed bumps and humps in 2008 because the pre-existing ones were poorly done and hurting vehicles and people.

Since that time, work on speed humps and bumps has been a rarity, if not non-existent.

“I think out of courtesy, they needed to check with the governing authority over that,” Gardner said.

But while Gardner’s office was not contacted about the construction project, Natchez Alderman Mark Fortenbery said Watts asked him for speed hump specifications and asked about completing the project.

“(Henry) came to me, and I said, ‘If you want to do it, that’s fine.’ That’s been several months ago,” Fortenbery said.

After receiving the specifications from Fortenbery, Watts said he gave a copy of the documents to County Road Manager Clarence “Curly” Jones.

Jones and a road crew went out to the Lindberg location on Monday and began work on the project.

“The speed bump was already installed there, and we used asphalt and raised it up,” Jones said.

Jones said the total cost of capping the speed hump was approximately $200.

Watts said the project was pursued for a number of reasons, all based on the safety concerns of the community, and construction work on the speed hump was not against the city’s moratorium.

“To my knowledge, there was never a moratorium on putting a cap on an existing speed hump,” Watts said.

Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said his interpretation of the city’s moratorium follows Watts’ understanding.

“To me a moratorium on speed bumps would mean no more putting them in,” Middleton said.

Watts said since he was not building new speed humps or creating a series of them, his request to cap the speed hump was within the guidelines of the city’s moratorium and also served to address concerns he’d been hearing about the hump.

“This particular speed hump has been talked about for years.”

Standing three-inches high and 12-feet wide, Watts said the pre-existing speed hump left much to be desired.

Watts said in the past six months, three neighborhood pets have been killed near the speed hump — two of which were hit after vehicles crossed the hump at high speeds — and certain residents had taken precautions for slower traffic into their own hands.

“My personal opinion is it’s a sad day when the residents of the street have to go out and buy their own slow down signs,” Watts said. “There is a family down the road who has two signs saying ‘Slow’ and they put them up about a month ago for the safety of their children.”

Watts said since the people living in his neighborhood are in his district, it was part of his responsibility to relay their concerns and promote safety for his neighbors.

“Just in the last three years, I know I’ve had at least 40 people talking to me about speed humps,” Watts said.

The concern stemming from Watts’ involvement in helping cap the speed hump in his neighborhood is a factor of which Watts said he is aware.

“If it were in front of anyone else’s house, it wouldn’t be a problem, but it had to be in front of Henry Watts’ house, and I think that’s what the story is,” Watts said.

Lazarus said he had considered how actions such as Watts’ would appear to the public and has tried to stay out of similar situations himself.

“You’ve got to go out of your way to make sure it doesn’t look like you’re doing anything for yourself,” Lazarus said.

However, Supervisor Thomas “Boo” Campbell said he believed the concern expressed over the speed hump shouldn’t be a concern at all.

“A speed hump, two speed humps — why would anyone want to make a problem over a speed hump?” Campbell said. “Our job is to accommodate the citizens — whether Henry called it in or whether I had called it in, to me it’s immaterial.”