For 128 years, Carroll County apparently has been using the wrong boundary line to divide its two judicial districts.
Changing it now could impact everything from tax collections to criminal trials.
Since 1883, Carroll County has operated to some extent as two separate counties divided by the Kings River, with courthouses in Eureka Springs and Berryville.
But research by local politicians into Act 74 of 1883 has revealed the river isn’t the dividing line between the judicial districts.
“I think they opened up a can a worms that they really don’t want to do,” said Berryville Fire Chief Doug Johnson. “It’s going to be a mess if they do.”
The county’s western district is actually about 45 square miles smaller than previously thought, according to a map generated Feb. 11 by the Arkansas GeographicInformation Office at the request of state Rep. Bryan King, R-Green Forest.
Act 74 states the portion of Carroll County that was carved out of Madison County in 1869 would constitute the western district. That means the river doesn’t divide the districts.
The true boundary is a survey line - the north-south range line between ranges 25W and 26W, according to the map made by Adrian “Butch” Clark, senior analyst with the state geographic office. The map was circulated to officials throughout Carroll County this week.
The boundary is about five miles west of the river in the northernmost part of the county. But the river is within two miles of the line farther south, near Eureka Springs.
Based on the range line specified in the 1883 act, the western district is about onefourth the size of the eastern district - 128 square miles vs. 509 square miles, Clark said.
Changing the dividing line now to follow those laws could affect tax collections and jury pools, along with ambulance and fire service, said Lamont Richie, a member of the Carroll County Quorum Court and transit director in Eureka Springs. “What needs to be determined is what the impact is going to be of that [new boundary],” he said.
The line is less than a mile east of the Eureka Springs city limits, Richie said.
An Arkansas Supreme Court ruling in October upheld Act 74, confirming the county had two judicial districts, butthe ruling has people reading the fine print of Act 74, which was never codified.
The Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library filed a lawsuit in January over the issue, saying the library has been shorted in tax revenue. The county has three libraries - two in the eastern district and one in the western district.
Tax revenue traditionally has been divided equally among the three libraries. Because the Eureka Springs library is the only one in the western district, and about half of the tax revenue is collectedin that district, its board of directors want half of the tax revenue instead of one-third.
King said the potential problems resulting from Act 74 are turning neighbors against each another. He said it reminded him of an episode of television’s The Andy Griffith Show in which deputy Barney Fife finds an unsettled case file regarding barber Floyd Lawson. Apparently, Lawson had “bopped somebody in the nose,” said King. Investigating the case brought up ill feelings among the townsfolk. Before the television episode wasover, many other people had bopped each other in the nose, he said.
“This needs to be settled,” King said. “This really has caused a lot more questions and problems that need to be solved.” King plans to schedule public meetings regarding Act 74 in Eureka Springs and Holiday Island.
At the request of the Quorum Court, he has been working on a bill that would change Act 74 by stating money collected in either judicial district could be commingled and distributed throughout the county. He started on that bill last fall before the dividing line became an issue.
Changing the boundary also would affect emergency services, said Rhys Williams, the Eureka Springs fire chief.
“Our county 911 map, according to this new map, is way out of whack,” he said.
It would take longer for Berryville firefighters and emergency personnel from St. John’s Hospital in Berryville to reach some people who live in remote areas of the western district because there are only two bridges over the Kings River, he said.
Based on the new map, a substation of the Eureka Springs Fire Department on Rock House Road would actually be in the Berryville Fire Department’s coverage area, said Williams.
Johnson said his department doesn’t want the additional territory west of the river.
“It would take us 30 minutes to get there,” he said, “and that’s on a good day.”
Jury pools are drawn from the district in which trials are held, in accordance with Act 74. But Ramona Wilson, Carroll County circuit clerk, said the river has traditionally been used as the dividing line for jury pools and filing of real estate records.
Based on Act 74, a person who committed a crime east of the district dividing line but west of the river should have stood trial in Berryville. But historically, with the river as the dividing line, trial for those people was in Eureka Springs.
Tony Rogers, Carroll County prosecuting attorney, said he needed more information before he could comment concerning venue and criminal trials. “We don’t know if that old act was amended at some point to say the Kings River is the boundary line or not,” Rogers said. “There’s a lot of things that need to be sorted out before we go with that [map]. The prosecutors, the judges, the lawyers always considered the dividing line the Kings River, and nobody’squestioned that until now.”
Howard W. Brill, professor of legal ethics at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, said he doesn’t think people could get a new trial based on venue or being tried in the wrong courthouse. “There’s a degree of common sense here,” Brill said. “They acted in good faith, apparently. It’s hard for me to believe a court would set aside judgments made in good faith under these circumstances.
“There would have to be a showing that someone has actually been harmed or prejudiced by a mistake in the boundary and other related factors. ... Or the court might say that because no one raised the issue in a timely fashion, they have waived any objection.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/18/2011