NATCHEZ — Adams County Board of Supervisors members announced during Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting that they are in the clear to receive the state’s approval for funding of a widening and resurfacing project on Morgantown Road.

Adams County Attorney Scott Slover said the approximately $1.6 million project that has been in the works since 2001 would be funded by mostly federal and state money.

However, it was first up to the county to purchase and obtain legal rights-of-way on each of more than 60 private properties on Morgantown so the road could be widened and drainage ditches dug along the shoulders of the road.

Slover said the county has finally received legal permission from all of the property owners, adding it is now up to the state to provide written approval that the county has held up their end of the agreement to receive funding.

District 4 Supervisor Ricky Gray offered words of praise during Monday’s meeting for the project’s moving forward— especially given the unsafe condition of the road in stormy weather, he said.

The Morgantown Road project was first conceived in 2001 after the accidental death an 18-year-old crossing guard, Casey Schrock, at the intersection of Morgantown and Booker roads, and the beginning phase of attaining the legal rights of way has lasted since 2009.

“I’m glad it has finally moving forward,” said Gray, whose district includes Morgantown Road. “A lot of people have been saying it’s not ever going to happen, but now we’re at the point where it’s about to get done.”

In other matters during Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting of the Adams County Board of Supervisors, the board:

4Heard a request from Paul Benoist, the spokesperson for a group calling itself “One Board,” that an item be added to the ballot for the November election asking voters whether they would support the City of Natchez being dissolved into the governing authority of Adams County officials. The supervisors took no action on Benoist’s request during Monday’s meeting.

4Heard a public service announcement from the Adams County Tax Assessor’s office stating that people who own property should report to the office for their tax appraisal by August before bills are sent out in case they have questions about their property’s appraised value.

4Unanimously approved three new hires for the road department and the advertisement of two open positions for certified dispatchers in the emergency management department.