Farm Bureau Talks Issues

COMMITTEE OF 13 HEARS CONCERNS

By Tabatha Hunter

Posted: November 11, 2009 at 4:35 a.m.

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BENTONVILLE — James Simpson, president of the Benton County Farm Bureau presented the county’s Committee of 13 with several issues the bureau would like to see the county address in the coming years.

Among those issues, the need to take care of rural volunteer fi re departments and replacing or repairing currently closed county bridges were paramount.

Simpson referred to the county’s network of volunteer fi re departments as one of the best deals for fire protection services the county can get and asked justices of the peace to address the various equipment needs of the fi re departments, citing the services offered by volunteer fi re departments as critical to the health safety and well being of rural Benton County residents.

Simpson also urged justices of the peace to reevaluate the closed bridges in the county and suggested county officials look into rail car bridges as a cheap alternative to replacing bridges outright.

“Bridge closures place undue hardship on residents served by the bridges and pose increased health and safety risks due to increased response time of fire, police and ambulance service,” Simpson said.

Simpson also requested the county train all of its personnel who enter area bio-secure farms such as county assessors in procedures that help maintain the farms’ security.

The Benton County Farm Bureau is also available as a resource to help county officials in any way necessary to help meet the issues outlined by Simpson, he said.

The Committee of 13 also requested that County Comptroller prepare fi nal drafts of the county’s 2010 operating budget for final review before the Dec. 8 Committee of 13 meeting.

One of the most hotly debated items included in the 2010 budget is a $17,000 donation to the Washington County HIV Clinic.

“One of the things I would like for you to think about is that we funded this last year with very specific conditions,” Justice of the Peace Bobby Hubbard said. “Those conditions were not met.”

Last year, the Quorum Court voted to give the clinic a one time donation of $34,000 with the condition that the clinic become a selfsustaining non-profit by the end of this year.

Giving more money to the clinic even though the conditions have not been met “is not a precedence this court should set. We asked them to do something and they did not,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard advocated that the Quorum Court place the $17,000 earmarked for the Washington County HIV Clinic instead into the county’s projects to clean up solid waste such as the newly opened convenience center.

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