Benton County accepts software offer

Benton County sheriff's office vehicles are shown in a 2016 file photo.
Benton County sheriff's office vehicles are shown in a 2016 file photo.

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County Quorum Court members accepted the $1 million price tag for a new software and record-keeping system for the county's public safety dispatching system, jail management and related records at a meeting Tuesday evening.

Meeting as a committee of the whole, court members unanimously referred the matter to the county's finance committee to come up with a recommendation on the method of payment. Finance committee chairman Tom Allen of Bentonville told the other justices of the peace the money will likely have to come from the county's reserve funds unless cuts could be made in the county's budget.

The system selected is provided by CentralSquare Technologies of Lake Mary, Fla. The company will not demand payment in one lump sum but will require at least 25 percent of the total cost up front before beginning work, the committee was told by County Judge Barry Moehring and public safety administrators.

The issues of final approval and financing will come before the next quorum court meeting on April 25.

In other business, the Northwest Benton County Volunteer Fire Department sought permission for a special election to nearly double its membership fees, the first increase of any kind in 20 years, according to board chairman Dean Adair. The department no longer has enough volunteers to cover the 80-square-mile district where the population has grown to about 5,000 people, Adair told the quorum court members. The rate increase would help the district hire two full-time employees, he said.

The fire district has an excellent participation rate of about 96 percent of eligible residents, Adair said. The department also regularly holds fundraisers but so it is raising all the money it can under the current rate structure, he said. The department would pay the cost of the special election, estimated at $7,000, Adair said.

The proposed rates would be: $84 a year for structures less than $100,000 in value, $154 for structures worth $100,000 or more but less than $300,000 and $244 for remaining structures.

The department brought this proposal to the court while seeking a special election date of July 9. Making that election date would require the court to enact an emergency clause. Justice of the Peace Michelle Chiocco said she is opposed in principle to emergency clause when such haste can be avoided. Adair said the clause is needed for, without it, the new fees cannot be included in the property tax notifications in time for them to be collected in 2020. The department would have to wait another year if it does not get an election and voter approval before August, he said. The committee voted to recommend the department's request over Chiocco's opposing vote.

NW News on 04/17/2019

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