Benton County Road Budget Cut To Fund Ambulance Service

— Benton County officials voted Tuesday to cut the Road Department budget $450,000 and use the savings to pay for part of rural ambulance service through the end of this year.

The Finance Committee voted unanimously to cut the asphalt budget after quizzing Terry Nalley, public service administrator, on the effect the cut will have on the department’s work plan.

Nalley said the department planned to pave about 35 miles of roads in 2014 and had $2.65 million for the work. Cutting the budget $450,000 will mean paving about 3 miles less.

“That will take us back to about 32 miles,” Nalley said.

The Quorum Court is looking for ways to pay for ambulance service. The justices of the peace in September created an emergency medical services district for the unincorporated areas except the area served by the Northeast Benton County Fire Department to make service available.

What’s Next

Finance Committee

Benton County’s Finance Committee will discuss rural ambulance service when it meets at 6 p.m. March 4. The meeting will be held in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.

A petition drive forced a referendum and the final, but unofficial, total from the Feb. 11 election showed 1,134 votes, or 33 percent, were in favor and 2,346 votes, or 67 percent, were against it.

The county budgeted $950,000 to pay the cities for service. When the election was scheduled, the Quorum Court reduced that to $236,000 to the cities through March. The county needs $709,000 to pay for the service through the end of the year.

The committee also voted to send a proposed voluntary tax for service to the Feb. 27 meeting of the Quorum, Court. George Spence, county attorney, said the county could still get such a tax on this year’s tax statements for collection in 2014. Spence said a similar road tax of 2 mills netted about $217,000 last year.

Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for District 15, voted against the voluntary tax proposal, saying he would rather have more time to consider it. The other six on the Finance Committee — Tom Allen from District 4; Kurt Moore from District 13; Joel Jones from District 7; Michelle Chiocco from District 10; and Steve Curry from District 11 — all voted to send the idea on.

A number of people in the audience spoke in favor of the idea in a comment session at the end of the meeting.

“If I had been given a choice of voting for a voluntary tax I would have voted yes,” said Sue Elverston of Pea Ridge. “I will happily pay on a voluntary basis.”

The committee also discussed looking for savings in personnel costs through a hiring freeze but took no action Tuesday.

The group agreed to give administrative staff time to gather information on the number of vacant positions along with data on personnel turnover and vacancies for the next Finance Committee meeting.

The panel left Tuesday night needing another $256,339 in cuts to pay for ambulance service through the end of this year.

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