Benton County to allot leftover road funds

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace plan to use money remaining in this year's Road Department budget for the department's 2017 capital needs.

The Committee of the Whole approved transferring $200,000 into the Road Department's budget to buy an asphalt mill machine. Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said she's working with Jay Frasier, public services administrator and head of the Road Department, to find other capital requests that might be covered this year to help meet the Finance Committee's direction to cut next year's capital requests by about $400,000.

For the Road Department to buy items using money from this year's budget, the county has to take possession of the items before Dec. 31, Guenther said.

Frasier said an asphalt mill will cost $170,000 to $185,000. The mill will save time and money in the long run by allowing the Road Department to grind down rocks and pavement when roads are being rebuilt, Frasier said. The material is then used to build a new base for a road.

The department is looking at the other items on its capital requests list for additional purchases, Frasier said. He told the Finance Committee the four dump trucks he's seeking would be near the top of his priority list, but the trucks the county needs have to be built to particular specifications and it might be impossible to obtain them before the end of the year.

Frasier said he'll have a proposal to take to the Finance Committee when that panel has its next budget meeting Monday.

Guenther said departments turned back about $2.8 million in 2016. Current estimates show the county will have about $2.5 million turned back in 2017.

Barry Moehring, county judge-elect and a current justice of the peace, said he's open to the Road Department's proposal but also wants the Quorum Court to be cautious.

"You have to be very careful about spending turnback money before it's actually turned back," Moehring said. "I'm very wary of that. I think this should be the exception, not the rule."

Metro on 11/13/2016

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