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By HUNTER CLOUD

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — The Adams County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a request from Sheriff Travis Patten to order seven new vehicles for his department.

Patten requested to order six Ford Explorers and one transport van.

Patten said the sheriff’s office lost 12 vehicles in 2020 with eight of those being from accidents, including hitting deer. All the money from insurance claims has been collected and put into a general fund, Patten said.

A new Ford Explorer would cost the department $34,610 and a new transport van would cost $26,300 with an additional $3,577 needed to equip the van with required cages and cameras, he said.

Typically the department budgets the cost of 4 to 5 vehicles for replacement, Patten said.

“The transport van that we run all over this state has over 160,000 miles in it,” Patten said. “If you get above 50 miles an hour it starts rattling like it is going to fall to pieces. We are asking for Explorers because they are way more dependable.”

The board unanimously approved Patten’s request to purchase all six Explorers and a new transport van at a total cost of $237,537.

In other matters during Monday’s meeting, supervisors:

* The board voted unanimously to extend the county’s COVID-19 emergency proclamation, after Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford requested to extend the proclamation for Adams County for another 30 days.

“Our numbers are going down,” Bradford said. “We are at 74. We had over 100. We haven’t received our New Year’s Eve or New Year’s day numbers yet, but we anticipate those to spike back up. We have been doing pretty good so we just want to continue what we have been doing.”

Currently Adams County is one of the Counties under Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeve’s executive order that requires masks and expires Jan. 15.