New Benton County judge making changes

BENTONVILLE -- Barry Moehring is moving quickly to implement some of the changes he promised during his campaign for county judge.

Moehring named Robert McGowen as public safety administrator Tuesday, the first working day of his term. Moehring also is looking for a consultant to evaluate roads and said he hopes to have a choice made next week. Moehring said during his campaign he wants to change the way the work program is set for the Road Department. The road survey and analysis would be part of that change.

Moehring said hiring McGowen was a decision he made as he studied how he would structure his administration after he won the election. Moehring took the top two positions in emergency services and combined the responsibilities of the two. Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said combining the two jobs saved the county about $60,000.

Moehring wants emergency services to adopt more of a collaborative approach and stresses working closely with cities, rural fire departments, rural ambulance service providers, and state and federal disaster agencies. He said McGowen fits those needs, with both an academic and professional background in the field, including time spent working for Benton County from 2010 to 2015.

"Having bookmarked what other counties were doing and having talked to other county judges and other officials at the county and state levels, I decided this was what we needed," Moehring said. "I wanted to have a highly qualified individual and also wanted a change in direction."

McGowen left Benton County, where he served as director of emergency management, to take the emergency services director's position in Saline County. In that job he worked with rural fire departments, cities and state agencies on emergency services issues.

"I went to Saline County because I had an opportunity to go there as director of emergency services and their 911 system," McGowen said. "It's about half the size of Benton County, but a lot of the issues are the same."

McGowen said he's familiar with many of the issues he will deal with in Benton County.

"I know the ambulance issue is still there," he said of the ongoing agreements with area cities and other ambulance services to provide coverage for the rural areas. "The radio system is something that's been talked about. What we have, I feel, needs to be replaced or updated to a more modern system."

Moehring wants to get the road survey done early this year, before spring when warmer weather will allow paving work. The county has advertised a request for qualifications for the work with a Tuesday deadline to respond. The consultant will make a record of the roads designated, showing the condition of the roads and work needed, and link the video record to GIS (geographical information system) data so the video can be shown along with a map locating the portion of roads being shown.

Moehring said his first priority is getting detailed information on the 800 miles of paved roads, but he wants the county to consider the entire road network and how it connects to city streets and state highways.

"We need to understand the condition of our current road system, primarily the paved roads and their condition, their usage and the repair needs," he said. "For our dirt roads we need a better understanding of our schedule for improving those roads, how often they're going to be graded and also work needed clearing out ditches and culverts, or trimming back trees. And we need to make sure people know our expectations for their roads. The third strategy is solving our rural transportation problems. We need to look at internal improvements we can make and how we can partner with cities and use our state aid money."

Moehring cited one example he's been approached about, where city streets, county roads and a state highway intersect and school buses and other traffic experience delays in getting through. Better turning lanes and other improvements can be made to the intersection by the city and county that will ease that traffic congestion, he said.

Pat Adams, justice of the peace, is familiar with the kind of study Moehring is proposing, and he supports the project.

"We've got so much out there that probably hasn't been really looked at in years. This will give us a baseline for our maintenance and future improvements," Adams said. "I don't know what it's going to cost, but the cost will be justified if, instead of waiting for people to call us and complain, we'll know for ourselves what needs to be done."

NW News on 01/08/2017