QUORUM COURT COMMITTEE OF 13: Building Purchases Approved

COUNTY WILL HAVE TO TAP INTO ITS RESERVES FOR FUNDING

— During a special meeting of the Quorum Court’s Committee of 13, members did something rather unexpected when they voted to purchase property for not one or two but three additional buildings, spending nearly all of the money the county is expected to have in reserve during the next three years.

The committee forward to the Quorum Court proposals to purchase a building at Southwest Runway Boulevard, near the Wal-Mart Distribution Center, for a Juvenile Detention Center, to build a minimum security barracks for the Benton County Jail and to purchase space at the Center for Nonprofi ts to house the Health Department.

The price of the building at 5121 S.W. Runway Blvd., is $1.2 million. After the building is purchased, it will be renovated for $330,000 to house the Juvenile Justice System and a separate hardened facility to the Juvenile Detention Center for $2.5 million. The total cost of the building proposal, including build out costs, the purchase of two additional lots for $150,000 and renovation to the space currently housing the Juvenile Detention Center is $4,919,240, with $515,000 contingency added in.

The motion to purchase the building carried with a vote of 7-6. Justices of peace James Wozniak, Marge Wolf, Tawnya Lewis, Tom Allen, Dan Douglas and Robert Stephenson voted against the measure. Many people who attended the meeting in support of the proposal to move the county Health Department into the Center for Nonprofits left the meeting following the committee’s decision to purchase the property on Runway Boulevard, feeling the committee had also decided not to move the Health Department.

Roy Clinton, chief operating oftcer of the Jones Trust, was one such person.

“We are disappointed, but I think it needs further review and I think it will get that review,” Clinton said. “We need to think not so much as to the cost of something (like housing the Health Department inside the Center for Nonprofits) as the value.”

Having the Health Department housed with the Center for Nonprofits means people choosing to use the Health Department have the services of other nonprofit groups available to them inside the same building and vice versa, Clinton said, adding the Center for Nonprofits is also located on the public transit route, making it easier for families in need to seek out those services.

Moments after justices of the peace agreed to also allocate money for the Benton County Sheriff ’s Off ice to build a $2.2 million minimum security jail barracks, Shirley Sandlin made a motion that surprised members of the Committee of 13.

Sandlin proposed in addition to the building plans already approved, the committee also forward a proposal to the Quorum Court allowing County Judge Dave Bisbee to purchase the 23,850 square feet at the Center for Nonprofits for $1,966,905 to house the Health Department, a turnkey cost for the facility.

Sandlin’s motion carried with a vote of 10-3. Justices Bobby Hubbard, Michelle Blaty and Frank Winscott voted against the purchase.

When the Quorum Court meets Dec. 17, all three proposals are not likely to pass.

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