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NATCHEZ—The Adams County Board of Supervisors has called a meeting for Thursday at 9 a.m. to investigate what’s going on at the Adams County Port.

At least one client of the port is not happy with its operations and has reached out to the supervisors. In fact, for BASF, a Vidalia, Louisiana, company that operates at the port, it’s their second letter complaining about port operations.

“The two parties have had a longstanding relationship, which has earned a lot of grace from our side in working together with the port to improve what has reached unacceptable levels of performance with regards to handling the customer shipments and integrity of the silos that are critical to maintaining business continuity of our site,” the letter reads.

“Mistakes are being made in executing basic warehouse operations such as ensuring containers are properly loaded with the right produce in the specified quantities, proper handling of goods, accurate inventory tracking, etc. A change needs to be made,” the letter continues.

“Either the change has to come from your side in a drastic improvement or it will come from us in the form of dissolving our relationship. We are already actively working to find alternatives,” the letter read.

The Adams County Board of Supervisors met for about 30 minutes in a closed session with Port Director Anthony Hauer. Kevin Wilson, the board’s president and District 2 representative, invited Hauer to the board’s Monday morning meeting. However, when called upon, Hauer said he would not discuss client business in an open meeting.

After returning to public session, the supervisors voted to resume their meeting on Thursday at 2 p.m. and invited the commissioners of the port and Hauer to join them.

During his supervisor’s report, District 4 Supervisor Ricky Gray indicated he has been receiving texts as part of a group text message. He asked that he not be a part of any group text message that involves other supervisors.

“There are just things that I think, or know, I don’t want to be involved in because I think they are illegal. And I don’t want anybody texting me when they are texting three and four other supervisors because that’s what the meetings are for. Do not text me about nothing because, in my opinion that’s just like having a meeting. So, do not text my phone when you are texting three and four other supervisors about the same thing. That’s considered as a meeting. Am I not correct?” Gray asked County Attorney Scott Slover.

“If any of you respond to that, it would be a meeting,” Slover said.

“Do not text me, period,” Gray said. “Some people may can get away with doing illegal stuff, but I know I can’t, so don’t text me.”

He said the text messages he referred to dealt with the Adams County Port.

“If we have a problem with the port, for instance, the law states in 59-1-9, we only appoint commissioners and approve the salary of the director. We approve the overall budget of the port. We do not run day-to-day operations.

“I understand how you can be in the president’s seat because I was there at one time, and how I got disrespected. People will call who they know rather than go through proper procedures and that’s disrespectful,” Gray said. “A perfect example is we appoint commissioners and they have a chairman down there. And if they have any problems, people are supposed to call the chairman of the commission. They aren’t supposed to call me because I’m not on that board. If the chairman and that board say they need to come before us, that’s fine. But the disrespect that is going on when certain people are sitting in office, that needs to stop.”

The county is conducting its meetings in the City of Natchez Council Chambers, 115 S. Pearl St., because of a flea infestation at the Board of Supervisors’ headquarters at 314 State St.

Corvet McNeal, the county’s administrative assistant, said the fleas have come from raccoons that have gotten into the basement of the building. The county is working with a pest control company to remedy the issue, but those efforts have not succeeded.