Drew County Judge Jessie Griffin opened the July meeting of the Drew County Quorum Court to order at 6 p.m. on Monday, July 10. All members were present except for Sheila Maxwell. After an opening prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, last month’s minutes were approved along with the agenda for the July meeting.
“I’m tickled to death,” said Judge Griffin when discussing the state of the county. “Everything is going well, and everyone is working together. Everyone is being open minded. We may not always agree with each other, but we will always agree on what’s best for the people of Drew County.”
Judge Griffin said that they are working hard to get job descriptions for all county employees. He added that this is to help out if an employee has to be terminated. The employee will be able to know what the expectations and responsibilities of the job, and can’t say they didn’t know at termination.
Judge Griffin also noted that the county’s website is moving along nicely. He said that there are currently efforts to link the county’s page to all of the elected official’s pages to help promote seamless navigation between them.
Judge Griffin also wanted the citizens of Drew County to know that the county has access to Hyper-Reach. Hyper-Reach is a notification system that sends out severe weather warning and several other warning types. This has been payed for and is offered to the citizens of the county. If you have questions you can call the judge’s office for info.
“This is just another tool we can use,” Griffin said. “We need to take every step possible to take care of our citizens.”
Several of the courthouse a/c units have been turned on. There is still work being done to others.
The county received a $74,000 grant to perform work on the courthouse basement. The Drew County Historical Society members are assisting with this project.
New trash billing will begin on Tuesday, July 11. Currently there are a significant number of accounts that are past due.
“I know that the trash service sometimes sucks,” Griffin remarked. “I hate to use that word. We’ve had several trucks down, and I’m not trying to blame anybody for that. It is the lack of the county judge for not having the equipment needed to pick up our resident’s trash. It’s all on me.”
These past due bills range anywhere from $100 to $2,000.
“You will pay your water bill, and I know that this is going to make some people mad, you pay your electric bill, buy food, you make sure all of those are paid on time. Please pay your trash bill on time so that we can have some money to work with, and keep this trucks running better. I’m frustrated about this.”
Judge Griffin also touched on what constitutes “household trash”. House hold trash is defined as the common stuff in your house, the stuff that comes out of your bathroom, or the stuff you would put in the can under your sink.
“Household trash is not a dead Possum in the bottom of your can,” Griffin said. “It is also not all of the meat and food that comes out of your freezer after it fails. That is just gross and nasty. We’ve also seen toilets in the cans. While they do come from the bathroom, this isn’t what we are referring to. If you have these type of things, bring them to the landfill, that is why we have it.”
The Drew Memorial Health Systems Chief Executive Officer, Scott Barrilleaux, gave an update on the hospital. He said that the financial issues have improved. This is mostly due to funds that have been awarded by the state.
“This is a testament to our team and the hard work that they have put in,” Barrilleaux said. “It is also the state’s recognition that Drew County having a hospital is important, and how much of an economic engine we are.”
Barrilleaux said that half of the funds were awarded at the end of June, and the remaining funds will be dispersed in early December.
There have been no real updates on the Baptist Health merger. DMHS is still waiting for their bondholder to give their blessing on the management agreement and sub-lease agreement. Barrilleaux said that he sees no issues with this happening.
Drew County Sheriff, Tim Nichols, said that they had run bids to get the jail roof repaired. They received two bids that were significantly different prices. Cliff Gibson, County Attorney, asked if Nichols had consulted an engineer to get specifications for the bid. Nichols stated that he had not. Gibson suggested consulting an engineer and have them list the specs that would need to be met in a bidding process. Gibson also suggested opening the bidding process again once these specs were listed so that they could do a true “apples to apples” comparison.
Sheriff Nichols said that in the past month they collected $11,260.50 in fines and fees. They are planning to crack down on delinquent child support cases due to the significant amount of people who are not fulfilling their obligations.
Starlyn Wilcox with Pafford Air came in to discuss a new Air Evac plan being presented to the employees of Drew County. She stated that they are doing their best to have this begin on August 1. Wilcox then went on to describe what the benefits are to switching to Pafford’s service.
Pafford has four air bases that serve the area. They fly Bell 407GX helicopters which are larger and travel faster. There is also no weight limit on this craft. They also have the ability to fly a parent if they are transporting a child, or a spouse in event of transport. They are also the only ones qualified to transport prisoners from one facility to another.
Another plus of the Bell 407GX is the fuel range. On a trip to either New Orleans or Houston there is no need to stop and fuel up enroute.
The price for this plan will be $40 annually versus the usual $49.
They are planning an open house at the Monticello Airport in the near future.
There is currently a contract being reviewed by Big Smith Waste Services. This is the company that the county is looking to contract all trash services with. Judge Griffin says he expects the company to send the contract back to the county with some suggested edits, and that is okay.
The current cans that the county has in place will remain the property of Drew County. Any cans that Big Smith placed would also become county property should the contract be dissolved. Judge Griffin hopes to have the final contract signed by October 1.
The court members also saw an appropriation ordinance to help track labor more efficiently in the event that a sanitation worker has to be moved to the road crew, or vice versa. This will help to show how the employees are being paid, and how much these departments are truly spending.
The court members passed another appropriation ordinance that would amend a previous ordinance regarding the Strive-STEM program. The amendments would fix the fact that originally this was put in as contract labor rather salaries. The amount would be adjusted due to the number of teachers changing from three to two. All of these funds are fully reimbursed by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The court members heard another ordinance that dealt with imposing a noise ordinance on any data mining companies that would try to come in and establish themselves in Drew County.
According to Gibson, there has been recent legislation passed that gives these entities preferential treatment. Counties will no longer have the right to regulate locally. The mining centers emit sounds that are said to be disturbing to those who live in the vicinity. Gibson added that in areas of the state where these business have already been established, there have been issues with neighbors saying that the noises are very intrusive. This is potentially due to a large number of fans or A/C units needed to keep the temperatures of servers cool enough to run.
Gibson also noted stated that there have been international implications. A good number of these companies are based in China, but China itself does not allow these businesses to operate in the country.
“I think we should follow the advice the the Arkansas Association of Counties and adopt this noise ordinance before August 1,” said Gibson.
“We don’t want to stop them from coming here,” said Judge Griffin. “We just want to be able to regulate where they can and cannot go. If they want to appear before this court and discuss changes or repealing of the ordinance, they have the same right as anyone else.”
The Quorum Court voted to pass the ordinance, and to invoke the emergency clause which made it go into effect immediately. Gibson added that this only applies to the unincorporated areas of Drew County. Monticello, Wilmar, and Winchester would need to adopt ordinances of their own if they so choose.
The County Treasurer, Charlie Searcy, gave the treasurer’s report. The county has written checks for $687,298.76 for courthouse renovations. These checks have been paid from the General Fund. Currently the operating fund in -$159,000 compared to the -$457,000 last year, this is a good sign.
“We are actually doing better than last year,” Searcy said.
The county’s main revenue source, property taxes, usually don’t come in until October or November. Searcy said that the county has done a good job collecting revenue so far this year. The quarter cent sales tax account currently has $5.2 million, the General Excess fund has $1.2 million, and the county is still has $890,000 left over from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds received.
“We will carry over into 2024 in pretty good shape due to still having these ARPA funds,” Searcy added.In the final piece of business, Judge Griffin appointed Kari Sawyer and Daniel Wigley to the Drew County Law Library Board.
