Hazardous materials top Quorum agenda

On Tuesday the Faulkner County Quorum Court will meet to discuss hazardous material storage and a mutual aid agreement with White County. Though a hot topic this past week, the drama surrounding the fate of the Faulkner County Courthouse will not be on the agenda for Tuesday's Quorum Court meeting, but will most likely come up during county reports.

The first order of new business will be discussion of proposed ordinance 08-14 sponsored by the Courts and Public Safety Committee, which will establish the requirement to report the storage of hazardous materials to the Faulkner County Office of Emergency Management.

Shelia Hutchens, director of the Faulkner County Office of Emergency Management said the ordinance is based on an already existing Arkansas law and that the approval of this ordinance will give the county the authority to enforce it. Hutchens went onto say that the OEM reports to all of the area's fire departments so that firefighters will know what substances they are dealing with in the event of a fire.

Also sponsored by Courts and Public Saftey is proposed resolution 08-04 establishing mutual aid between Faulkner and White counties. The agreement will allow for the either counties' Office of Emergency Management to request assistance from the other in the event of a disaster such as a flood or tornado. The resolution will also allow for reimbursements to the counties from FEMA or the state should a disaster be declared in the area where assisted was needed.

The Budget and Finance Committee will present proposed ordinance 08-15 regarding financial adjustments in several departments. A $5,000 donation to the Faulkner County Sheriff's office from Southwest Energy, which will be applied to the Criminal Sales Tax Fund for officers equipment is included in the ordinance. Also on the agenda is a $60,000 appropriation within CMRS/PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) to cover salaries for the Office of Emergency Management's dispatchers. According to county officials, if the ordinance is approved the state will pay part of the dispatchers' salaries.

Finally, the Grounds and Maintenance committee are expected to announce their purchase of Bill Fagan's Bail Bonds office at Robinson street. The committtee did not need the full court's approval to go ahead with the purchase and are waiting for the county's lawyer to finalize the paperwork. In addition, the committee will report on courthouse plans received from Rik Sowell of Sowell and Russell Architects and Bill Grant, an engineer with W.H. Grant and Associates of Little Rock, but will not be making any decisions as to what to do with the courthouse.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the courthouse.