Benton County Eyes Legislative Agenda

Justice Of The Peace Seek Rural Ambulance Relief...

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace began putting together an ambitious agenda to present to the area's state legislators for consideration next year.

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Legislative Committee, asked for suggestions for the agenda when he calls a committee meeting to discuss legislative priorities.

At A Glance

Quorum Court Action

Benton County’s Quorum Court met Thursday and approved:

• Appointing Alicia Tilghman to the Benton County Historical Preservation Commission.

• Changing the interim filling of an emergency vacancy in the Sheriff’s Office.

• Applying for a grant for the Adult Drug Court.

• Spending $1,450 from the Arkansas Festival GIF Grant.

• Spending $4,500 from the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant.

• Spending $20,000 from the Maysville Community Center GIF Grant.

• Spending $20,000 from the County Clerk’s Office for moving expenses associated with the county’s Rogers office.

• Deleting a deputy collector supervisor position and adding a deputy collector position.

Source: Staff Report

The Legislature meets in regular session next year and officials said they want to see changes in the state law governing ambulance service, distribution of county sales tax and road millage money, reimbursement rate for inmates in county jails and other items.

Steve Curry, justice of the peace for District 12, said he wants to see state law mandate ambulance services respond to emergency calls regardless of whether they are being paid by the county of other entities.

"As we've heard over several months, they won't go," Curry said of the cities demand for payment from the county. "I don't like that attitude. A life is more important than money."

Shirley Sandlin, justice of the peace for District 8, said she wants to see state law limit the ability of ambulance service providers to seek payment from anyone other than patients.

"Whoever needs the service and whoever is providing it, they work it out," Sandlin said.

No date was set for the committee meeting. Sandlin suggested the committee might meet once to refine the agenda before asking the legislators to attend a session.

Replacing a failing boiler in the jail will cost more than $74,000, officials were told Thursday.

County Judge Bob Clinard told the Quorum Court the boiler failed several times and was requiring constant maintenance. The county opened bids on replacing the boiler Thursday and officials said the low bid from Mountain Mechanical of Fayetteville was $74,368. Two other bids were received. Johnson Mechanical of Fayetteville bid $83,790 and Multi-Craft Contractors of Springdale bid $85,165.

The justices of the peace voted to spend $31,800 from the Jail Maintenance Fine Fund and transfer $50,000 from the jail's machinery and equipment budget to pay for replacing the boiler. Clinard said the county has an insurance claim pending over the boiler's failure, which will offset some of the cost.

The Quorum Court also voted Thursday to amend the 2012 budget, correcting an oversight found by state auditors. The justices of the peace amended the budget to correct a transfer to the capital projects fund planned but never made. The county allocated $1.8 million for Fisher Ford Bridge in the original budget but the work was delayed.

Sarah Wilson, comptroller, said auditors said the transfer should be made to "zero out" the budget.

Clinard said he had a preliminary report from auditors on the budget and he was "very, very pleased" with the report.

"We had a clean slate," Clinard said.

NW News on 03/21/2014

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