Committee OKs building purchase

AThe Faulkner County Grounds and Maintenance Committee met on Tuesday afternoon to walk through and approve the purchase of a building on Robinson Street.

The committee unanimously approved the purchase of the Bill Fagan Bail Bonds building for $145,000 and are awaiting meetings with the county's lawyer before the purchase is final.

Justice of the Peace Johnnie Wells led committee members on a tour of the property, estimated to be about 1,600 square feet. County Administrator Jeff Johnston said the building will house the maintenance and Veteran Services offices.

Wells said at every meeting he's been pushing for "baby steps to alleviate all the personnel (in the courthouse). We do it one step at a time rather than try to take it all on. This is another step."

"I've looked at this property two or three times and it does complete the surrounding property that we are looking at," Wells said. The county is also looking at other properties adjacent to the courthouse, but nothing will be finalized until next month.

JP Jimmy Bryant made a motion to accept the purchase, but withdrew it after learning that the committee did not need the full court's approval to purchase the property since the money was already in the county's budget.

"There won't be an ordinance to that because the money is already there," Johnston said.

JP Dan Thessing added that announcing the purchase "would be an informational courtesy to the other members of the court."

"This would be like us buying a stack of paper," Wells added. "If the money's already there it don't have to go to the full court. We won't be able to vote in the full court."

"I would suggest we make sure everybody's on board," County Judge Preston Scroggin said. "We'll just have an informational presentation by one of the members of the court about what the committee has decided. That way there's not hobgoblins or anything."

JP Jerry L. Roberts then made a motion that Thessing make a report to the full court next week in regards to the purchase.

"At that time they can make whatever comments they would like to make," Thessing added.

Courts and Public Safety

The Courts and Public Safety Committee met to discuss an ordinance requiring persons to report the storage of hazardous materials to the Faulkner County Office of Emergency Management.

According to Johnston the ordinance will help first responders know the substances they are dealing with in case of a fire or explosion.

"We're accepting international fire code and it allows us to make sure that people are doing what they are supposed to do with the storing of hazardous chemicals," Johnston said.

Director of the Office of Emergency Management Sheila Hutchens said "any fixed facility in the county that houses over a certain amount of hazardous material" will be required to report to OEM.

"We report to all of the fire districts what chemicals are housed in their district," Hutchens said. "Let's just say one of these buildings catches on fire these fire departments know what chemicals are in these buildings. It's just a public safety issue."

Jon McMahan, chief of the hazard materials division for the Conway Fire Department, said that the ordinance is under consideration because the county is seeing more development in natural gas drilling. He added that the ordinance would not affect most agricultural operations. If anyone has any questions about materials they are storing, McMahan said they could contact the Conway Fire Department at 450-6143 or OEM at 450-4935.

The committee also accepted a resolution allowing a mutual aid agreement between Faulkner and White counties in the event of a disaster in either area.

"We've got these agreements with every county that surrounds us and under the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management we're supposed to update them every few years," Scroggin said. "White County had contacted us asking for (the agreement) to be updated."

Under the updated agreement the county providing aid will be reimbursed for assistance in the event of a disaster.

"There's one section in (the resolution) that allows us to recoup our losses from FEMA or the state. We can submit our bills to them also and they will reimburse us the money we've spent to help those counties out," Johnston said.

Justice Jerry Park asked if the county would have to wait to be asked for help in the event of a disaster. Johnston said the county would wait for word from the Arkansas OEM before assisting other counties.

Budget and Finance

The Budget and Finance Committee held a short meeting to discuss ordinances appropriating funds received from a donation to the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office from Southwest Energy.

At last month's meeting of the Quorum Court a representative from Southwest Energy presented Faulkner County Sheriff Karl Byrd with a $5,000 donation as part of the energy companies' Everyday Heros program. On Tuesday, the committee approved appropriating monies received from the donation to the Criminal Justice Sales Tax Fund.

In other business the committee discussed the appropriation of $60,000 from the CMRS/PSAP fund to Department 4800 CMRS/PSAP for part-time salaries.

"We have recently discovered that the PSAP (Public Service Answering Point) fund is to pay salaries with. So, they are moving dispatch's salaries over to the PSAP fund, which is where it's supposed to be paid from instead of the 911 fund, it comes out of County General," Johnston said.

From moving the salaries over, the Office of Emergency Management will receive some reimbursement from the state for salaries.

Jonhston said it will be a long-term money saving measure and "we'll probably work on restructuring that more at budget time," Jonhston said.

The committee also heard from Faulkner County Tax Assessor Jeff Stephens in regards to changes handed down from the Arkansas Attorney General's office on how his office handles reappraisals.

(Staff writer Monica Hooper can be reached by e-mail at monica.hooper@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1266. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)