The meeting can be seen in its entirety below the photos and the report that accompany this story.
The Hempstead Quorum Court’s January meeting Thursday late afternoon in the courthouse’s third floor main courtroom was mainly concerned with the hearing of requests that came from residents living along County Road 2 and from the county’s Veterans Service Officer.
After the opening prayer, the pledge of allegiance, a roll call and the approval of the last meeting’s minutes, Judge Jerry Crane asked Nina King to speak at the podium.
King said the road to her residence had broken down blacktop and many potholes. “When we go down, we have no ditches on the road, so the water holds in the road. Our thought is, if you just scrape the black top off, we'll be fine with the gravel. The gravel is a whole lot smoother than that black top,” she told the court.
Crane explained, “We’re looking at state aid and situations where we might get extra money to do more, but it's not something that will happen overnight.” He said that rather than scraping the asphalt off roads in similar condition, the county road crew had simply covered the asphalt with gravel “and it stayed there.”
“I don’t care how you fix it,” King said. “The front end of our vehicles is just gone because of the road.
Crane said Hope-Hempstead County Economic Development Corporation Director Anna Powell has been applying for state funds to replace old bridges. Each bridge replacement would cost about a million dollars, Crane said, and the county would likely have to contribute half a million per bridge. County Road 2 has five bridges, according to google maps.
King said the portion of County Road 2 that she was concerned with the stretch of the road before it goes over I-30. “There's no ditches there, and the water just stands in the road, and then that causes the holes. And when the guys come out there, they just put a little scoop and that's it,” she said.
Another resident said water was standing in her yard and made it so she and her family had to park a distance away and walk home.
King also said the approach to a hill is so narrow that two vehicles could not pass each other. She also suggested ditches be dug a little at a time. “We’ll be glad to address it and take it up,” Crane said.
Road Department Superintendent Richard Kidd said, “Gravel will be better over that asphalt. It would be hard to do it all.” Crane responded that was true unless state aid funds came in to help cover the cost.
King said a bridge near Water Creek Church was “awful” and that there was nothing to keep a car from going over the side.
Crane said the whole county had roads like that and he knew of the importance of fixing them for the safety and welfare of county residents. He assured the residents the road would be attended to.
After the residents had finished their presentation, Crane made a request of the Quorum Court members: “Instead of just telling [me about] people complaining, give me a name, give me a phone number to where we can go see them so we can talk to them appropriately. Because if we're not getting the calls, if we're not getting their numbers, if we don't know where they live, how are we going to do this?”
Justice of the Peace Cherry Stewart said she was struck by the number of complaints that had come in recently. She asked whether the county had a plan by which it could determine which roads had been attended to on what date.
JP David Clayton responded that the state of a road was always in flux. “It's like writing a plan and everything, Then read the book and somebody’s changing the book. It's ever evolving,” he said.
Crane said County Road Two was only one of many roads in the county in that condition. JP Steve Atchley said many roads had been paved that should have been left as gravel. “It costs more to maintain a paved road,” he said, adding that he had talked to Superintendent Kidd and was satisfied he was following a plan.
Crane brought up the use of chip and seal, applying asphalt and a mixture of fine rock to roads. Atchley said it was a lot cheaper but not as long lasting.
JP Clayton said one of the things newly-elected JPs learn quickly at their orientation is that they have no say over the road department. “We can gladly relay our constituents [reports]. That's all. … But when it comes to any of us telling anybody, Richard or anybody at the shop about anything that is not in the scope regularly of what we do. We legislate, we appropriate, that's it.”
JP Jay Lathrop said that when he called Judge Crane about a road problem, sometimes sending him pictures, there were usually quick results. Crane said there had been occasions when a rough road would be gravelled by the county and then complaints would arise soon after because rain had washed the gravel out.
He invited County Veterans Service Officer Donna Rosenbaum to speak. She explained that the van used by her office to transport veterans to the VA hospital in Little Rock had hit 150,000 miles and needed replacing. She found a 2025 Ford Explorer van which costs $40,567. “All I have to raise is half of that, $22,312,” Rosenbaum said. “When I took the job, there was about $8,000 in an account.” She said she believed these funds came from the sale of a previously used van.
Rosenbaum reported that Jay Kopecky, a veterans and former Hope resident, had sent a check for $5,000. Clark and Nevada Counties contributed $5,000 each after she sent a letter requesting help for the purchase, leaving her with the need to cover about $3,000 remaining.
“Probably, whenever we get this one, we’ ll probably sell the other ones and put money back into the account but I have to have the money. And I'm supposed to have it by Friday. I don't have to have it. I just have to know I'm going to get it before that.”
Rosenbaum said she had written to the county in November about the need for funds for the van, but had not received a reply.
After a series of exchanges between Rosenbaum and County Clerk Karen Smith over the logistics of the county providing $3,000 from its budgets for the purchase, a motion was made by JP Stewart, seconded by JP Jessie Henry to grant the request. Smith helped tailor the motion so that it stated the funds would come from a part of the county budget it was legally acceptable to draw from. The motion passed by unanimous roll call vote.
Rosenbaum then spoke of receiving a complaint about parking the current van near the drive-through window. The van had been parked there to spare it the impact of winter weather. She asked for an apology from the person who had written the anonymous letter, which she brought copies of for the JPs to see.
Judge Crane said it was best to move on from the expectation of an apology. But JP Stewart said she would apologize on behalf of whoever wrote the note.
Next the court passed an ordinance, its first of the year, to establish the third Thursday of the month at 4:30 p.m. as the time for all regular meetings. The motion to pass the ordinance was approved unanimously.
Sheriff James I. Singleton read some information from a report his office compiled entitled “Jail and Sheriff’s Office Activity 2024.” Among the items, he read to the court:
· The number of persons entering the courthouse in 2024 was 34,970 with 40,519 being English speakers and 5,549 being non-English speakers. Among the items found by courthouse security: Knives 1,185, purses or briefcases 4,609, other objects 59, cell phones 19,942.
· In warrants entered or served, 919 were entered, 1,254 served, 338 recalled, 938 were active.
· In district court filings, criminal were 632, with 1,688 incident reports, 429 persons arrested and 38 weapons enounted.
· Juvenile court filings were 17.
· Victims of crime numbered 1,184. Offenders 1,587.
· Property stolen amounted to 437 items, vehicles 5.
· Active cases are 207.
The report can be seen below the photos for this story.
The meeting adjourned about one hour after it had begun.