NATCHEZ — Adams County’s constables have agreed to take out the trash — or at least document where it needs to be taken out.

The Adams County Board of Supervisors agreed earlier this week to a plan that, along with raising constables’ pay $6,000 annually, will have the constables locate and document illegal dumpsites for the county.

The county will then have the sites cleaned.

In doing so, the constables will be taking over the duties of the solid waste enforcement officer, a position the board created in 2012 but later transferred to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office because supervisors believed the position should be a bonded law enforcement officer who has the authority to issue citations.

“We would like to have somebody with a badge and authority — that was the problem with our first officer,” Supervisors President Mike Lazarus said. “They’ll also work with overgrown properties. We used to have to have a hearing, but I think it will work better with them knocking on somebody’s door and saying, ‘You need to cut your grass or the county will cut it for you.’ Then when we do we can put the cost on their taxes.”

The change came after current Sheriff Travis Patten took office and did not want to handle the illegal dumpsite program, Lazarus said.

Previously, the county had directed the $27,000 in annual pay allocated for the solid waste enforcement officer to the sheriff’s office.

Under the new arrangement, they will pay the constables and Road Department Executive Assistant Meg Freeman — who is handling all of the paperwork associated with the cleanups — an additional $6,000 annually for the extra work, bringing the total cost of the program down to $18,000.

“Seventy-five percent of that $18,000 is reimbursable from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, so we aren’t paying 75 percent of that $18,000,” Lazarus said.

Once illegal dump sites are identified, land owners are given the option of cleaning the property themselves or having the county clean it. The cleanup work is reimbursed for time and tipping fees at the landfill, Lazarus said.

“We will clean it up,” he said. “All you have to do is agree not to let anybody else dump here.”

Constable Adam Kirk said he’s excited to help out.

“The grant is going to be beneficial to the county as a whole,” he said. “We have a beautiful community, and we should endeavor to keep it so.”

Because the constables have to travel the county roads in their work executing the orders of the justice court, it makes sense for them to identify the sites, Kirk said.

“We are already out there and making contact with people daily in the community anyway,” he said. “We are kind of the front runners to find (the sites) before anybody else does.

“On private land, we will contact the property owners. In most cases, they want it cleaned up — they just don’t have the resources themselves.”

Constable Willie B. Jones said he is also eager to take on the additional duties.

“There are a lot of (illegal dump sites) out in the country — you will find old sofas or car tires, old television sets,” he said. “We are going to take pictures of them, come back and bring the pictures and the exact address and turn it in to Mrs. Freeman, and she will get the cleanup crews to go out and clean it up.

“If we catch people out there doing it, then we are going to issue a citation to those people. It is just unlimited dump sites out there to ID.”

Adams County’s litter ordinance allows for up to $1,000 in fines against those convicted of illegal dumping or littering.