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Thank You, Washington County!
I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Washington County for hosting such a wonderful Christmas party last Thursday. The event was a delightful way to celebrate the season together, filled with delicious food, steaming hot chocolate, and joyful conversations. It was a pleasure to spend time with county employees and share in the holiday spirit.
Your effort and hospitality brought warmth to the season, and I truly appreciate the time and energy that went into making this gathering special. Thank you for creating such a memorable experience for everyone involved.
Happy Holidays!
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT COUNTY GOVERNMENT?
ARKANSAS ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES: www.arcounties.org
Last week I received an inquiry about procedural matters involving county government and the quorum court so I’m sharing this. The above link has a lot of information. You can go to the “Publication Library” and find guides, surveys, reports and handbooks. They cite Arkansas Statutes and summarize the state laws that apply to our county government.
UPCOMING PUBLIC MEETINGS WEEK OF 12/15/24
🌟 Washington County Quorum Court Regular Monthly Meeting, Thursday 12/19/24 at 6:00 PM, Washington County Courthouse. This is an in person meeting only. The meeting will be livestreamed here.
→ Since this is the regular QC meeting, public comment time is 15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting. Agenda Item 5. You may use this time to address the court on any county business, issues, concerns that you wish to bring forward.
Here’s the agenda for that meeting. Some things of note about the agenda:
Item 9: An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit for Anytime Hauling Storage Parking. More information here.
Item 10: An ordinance anticipating revenue in the amount of $1,000,000 in the ARPA Fund. This $1M represents $500,000 that was previously awarded to NWACC and NWTI to expand their nursing and public health departments. Those projects failed to materialize and now that money is available to be used, subject to the restrictions of the American Rescue Plan Act. I would rather see this money appropriated for housing, and I tried to accomplish that last week, but didn’t have the votes. Read more about this below in my recap of last week’s F&B meeting.
Item 11.2: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE ROAD DEPARTMENT BUDGET FOR 2024 in the amount of $445,103.31 from unappropriated reserves, Road Fund, to cover the increased costs associated with the paving program this year ($395,854.54), including the seal program and a leased rock crusher ($49,248.77).
Item 11.4: Transferring $1,000,000 from the Employee Insurance Fund the (sic) Health Insurance line item for 2024 for “...additional funding to finish the year with a positive balance.”
COUNTY MEETINGS FROM LAST WEEK
🌟 Washington County Quorum Court Finance and Budget Committee met Tuesday 12/10/24 at 6:00 PM, Washington County Courthouse. Here’s a link where you can watch the meeting.
We heard the Treasurer’s Report that to date in 2024, the County General Property Tax Fund has received $20,126,494.64. (December’s number will be in January report) Last year’s total income for that fund was $19,113,811.47.
This year has been hard on our employee insurance fund and we voted to transfer $1M from that fund to the Health Insurance Line Item in the Employee Insurance Budget. With bills for December still coming in, hopefully that will be enough to cover everything. The Employee Insurance Fund is money received from employees’ insurance premiums and the amount paid by the county.
We voted to send on to the full QC an ordinance for $445,103,31 from Unappropriated Reserves - Road Fund to Other Professional Services and Lease - Machinery and Equipment. The road department spent over budget that amount on road paving supplies and a rock crusher lease.
We heard a detailed report from the Excellerate Foundation on “unappropriated ARPA Funds.” Here’s the presentation that was presented to the court. These “unappropriated ARPA funds” represent $500,000 each previously awarded to NWACC and NWTI to expand their health services programs. Those projects did not happen and the money must be reappropriated or “obligated” before 12/31/24. I made a motion to award the money to Excellerate to use in a housing project. That motion failed with only JPs Coger, Rios-Stafford and Highers voting in favor.
ZONING ORDINANCE & MAP:
You can read the most recent version of the zoning ordinance here. The latest zoning map is here. The zoning ordinance and map have been postponed until the February 2025 County Services meeting.
🌟 DETENTION CENTER INFORMATION 12/15/24
As of 12/14/24, there are at least 755 people locked away in our Washington County Detention Center. This is from information on the public facing dashboard. There are likely more than this considering that the sheriff’s office does not post so-called “restrictive bookings” online. Those such postings have been estimated to be 80 - 100 at any time.
80 of the detainees list addresses as either “homeless” or “1832 S School Street - the address of Seven Hills Homeless Shelter.
Here’s the link to the Detailed Charge Report:
You can check the “Calls for Service” board here.
Here’s a list in alphabetical order to search for people.
READ AND STUDY THE 2020 CRIMINAL JUSTICE ASSESSMENT STUDY PREPARED BY THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR STATE COURTS HERE. READ AND LEARN WHY WE DO NOT NEED TO SPEND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON JAIL EXPANSIONS TO KEEP OUR COMMUNITIES SAFE!
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COUNTY BID POSTINGS 12/15/24
🌟 No new bid/RFP posting this week, but the “Automated Sales Verification Software” for the Assessor’s Office is still open. Here’s the link to current RFQs and bids:
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COUNTY JOB OPENINGS THIS WEEK (12/15/24)
There’s a new job posting for “Building Maintenance Technician,” and GIS Manager for the Assessor's Office. The Human Resource Director posting has been removed, so maybe we have a new HR Director.
Building Maintenance Technician
Type:Full Time
Posted Date:12/10/2024
Salary / Pay Rate: $23.71-$26.13
Job Type: Full Time
Job Application: Employment Application 2
Applications accepted from: ALL PERSONS INTERESTED
This position will not be filled until January 2025
Pay Grade:11
GIS Manager - Assessor Office
Type:Full Time
Salary/Pay Rate:$68,161.60 - $75,129.60 (DOE)
Posted Date:12/13/2024
Applications accepted from: ALL PERSONS INTERESTED
Salary: $68,161.60 - $75,129.60 (DOE)
Pay Grade: 19
Workday & Hours: Full-Time 8:00am-4:30pm
Benefits Eligibility: Eligible
Here’s a link to the other current job postings:
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🌟 WANT TO BECOME INVOLVED?🌟
ATTEND AS MANY MEETINGS OF THE QUORUM COURT AND ITS SUBCOMMITTEES AS YOU CAN. CHECK MY WEBSITE WWW.BETHCOGER.COM FOR DATES AND TIMES.
Continue to ask Judge Deakins to appoint members to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee and get that group up and running! This is too important. If you haven’t called, please do so, or send email, or go by the courthouse and speak to the judge in person. WHAT’S NEXT? WHY WON’T JUDGE DEAKINS APPOINT MEMBERS AND ACTIVATE THIS COMMITTEE AND LET IT GET TO WORK? ASK HIM.
Contact your JP and set up a time to meet them for coffee or just to get together. Become a regular voice in their ear and urge them to support criminal justice reform and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. That’s how I got started advocating to the court back in 2019. CAN YOU TAKE AN HOUR OR TWO AND MEET WITH YOUR JP AND SHARE YOUR CONCERNS OR COMMENTS, OR WHATEVER YOUR THOUGHTS ARE.
Share this Newsletter with your friends and neighbors!
Write letters to the editor. letters@nwadg.com
As always, let me know if you have questions or want more information.
Here’s how you can contact your county officials. We need to hear from you!!
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