Benton County Budget Takes Shape

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace will start to set the 2015 budget next week.

"This next meeting on Monday we'll be getting into what I call the nuts and bolts of it," said Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Finance Committee.

"We're going to start looking at requests and approving or disapproving requests," Allen said. "We'll be looking at new personnel requests, raises, capital requests and other miscellaneous items that we may need to fund next year."

The county is looking at $63.8 million in available money in the general fund and road fund. With transfers out of the general fund and a reserve required by law the county expects to have $55.7 million to spend. Initial budget requests show about $45.5 million in expenses, including capital items, but excluding raises and new personnel.

That leave about $10.2 million. The county anticipates having about $1.9 million in new revenue to work with for 2015.

The committee hasn't reached any consensus on spending priorities, but Allen thinks raises for employees has to be considered.

"Speaking for myself, I tend to think we really ought to put something in there for raises," Allen said. "We've got to have something for our employees. The next priority would be capital requests and then new personnel. After that would be Ozark Regional Transit and all the other things we've been asked to fund."

Brenda Guenther, comptroller, told the Budget Committee raises cost about $305,000 for each 1 percent increase, with about $225,000 coming from the general fund. The Budget Committee has a list of nine new employee requests costing about $436,000. An additional employee for the Election Commission also will be considered, Allen said. That position would cost about $43,000.

Capital requests submitted to the committee include five road graders for the Road Department. Jeff Clark, public services administrator who heads the Road Department, is asking to begin buying five road graders every year and selling them on a five-year rotation. Buying five road graders would cost about $1.5 million with the county expecting to receive about $657,000 by selling five older graders. County officials have said they can buy the new graders with a guaranteed buy-back plan that after five years would reduce the net cost of each grader from about $300,000 to about $65,000.

The Road Department is asking for a new excavator, a new backhoe tractor and a mini excavator, along with eight new trucks. After the trade-ins for the used vehicles being replaced, the department requests total about $1.5 million.

The county also is looking to buy two fire trucks to be put into the rural fire service fleet. Fire Marshal Marc Trollinger told the committee the new trucks will be assigned to the Centerton Fire Department and the Little Flock Fire Department.

The Sheriff's Office and Jail have several new vehicles on the capital items list, along with a new phone system. The Sheriff's Office is asking for about $220,000 from the general fund for vehicles with other funds paying about $450,000 for the rest of the requests.

The Information Services Department has a plan to spend $196,000 to upgrade the data process system. If approved, that plan should save the county up to $595,000 in other IT projects, according to officials.

Joel Jones of District 7, said he thinks the county can pay for some raises and other personnel costs in 2015. He said justices of the peace will have to decide what to do about mold at the Sheriff's Office. Bids on that work are set to be opened Dec. 2.

"With the $1.9 million it seems reasonable we could do the raises and personnel requests," he said. "We still have a big item with the work at the Sheriff's Office. Some of that may have to come out of capital projects. I don't think we're going to forego raises or personnel to get the Sheriff"s Office done. The question is how much do we want to set aside now to get a jump on that?"