FORT SMITH — Voters in Sebastian County should have had the opportunity to vote on whether to spend county tax money on building a water park in cooperation with the city, a candidate for Sebastian County judge said Monday.
Tim Dunn, a Democrat who is challenging longtime County Judge David Hudson in the Nov. 6 election, made his remarks Monday duringa candidate forum before the Fort Smith League of Women Voters.
County officials should have at least asked the voters in south Sebastian County before deciding to spend about $4 million on a water park at Ben Geren Regional Park that is expected to lose money through its operations once it is opened, Dunn said.
The Quorum Court voted earlier this year to join with the city of Fort Smith to split the cost of the estimated $8million water park, which is in the planning stages.
Hudson responded by saying voters renewed the countywide sales tax in 2003, a portion of which the county set aside in a capital improvements fund. The Quorum Court, which represents the people of the county, voted to use money from that fund to pay its share of the water park cost.
Hudson said if Quorum Court members had felt un-sure about the people’s desire to use the tax money for the water park, they could have called for an election.
Instead of using money for the water park, Dunn said, the county could use that money - and other money he believes is wasted - to hire more deputies who could provide more patrols in places like his hometown of Hartford.
As an example, Dunn said the county wastes money on “studies” about various issues.
Officials, including Hudson, met last week with Hartford residents who complained crime has risen because the town could not afford a full-time police officer.
Hudson said the capital improvement fund has been a useful tool for the county over the past several years. He said that since 1999, more than $20 million from the fund has been used to renovate the county courthouse, expand the county jail and build a new courts building - all without a tax increase.
Dunn, who is the owner of Dunn’s Auctions and Appraisals in Fort Smith and who ran unsuccessfully for the Quorum Court in 1992 and 2010, chided Hudson for not paving all the county’s roads.
Hudson said the countywill not use tax money to pave a road that is not in the county road system and will not accept a road into the county’s road system that doesn’t meet its standards. No county judge in the state would do that, he said.
The county implemented a program that has paved 156 miles of county roads and replaced 42 bridges since 2004, Hudson said.
Hudson, who has been county judge since 1998, said the most important issue facing the county is the renewal next year of the 1 percent countywide sales tax that voters first approved in 1994.
The revenue from the tax, totaling $21.9 million in 2011, is allocated by population to the county’s cities and to the county. The county’s share was $3.3 million in 2011.
Dunn said he believes the most important issue facing the county is providing adequate fire and police protection. In addition to inadequate police for the county and cities, he complained that rural fire departments in the county continue to use an antiquated pager system to alert firefighters. He said that system needs to be upgraded.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/25/2012