The Hempstead County Courthouse. Hempstead County Quorum Court meetings are held on the third floor in the large courtroom the third Thursday of every month.
Residents of Patmos will see construction to improve their water system starting in March of 2024 thanks to an ordinance passed by the Hempstead County Quorum Court Thursday evening.
The ordinance spends $361,127.25. In the words of Justice of the Peace and sponsor of the ordinance James Griffin, the funds are “to help bridge the gap between the grant that [Southwest Arkansas Water System has] and the amount that’s needed for the construction.”
Griffin also said County Clerk Karen Smith had brought a bottle of water to work display from her home in the Patmos area, but she had forgotten to bring it up to the courtroom. Still, he described what he saw. “It looks like you dipped it out of a creek,” Griffin said.
Warren Webster, head of SAWS, said the system is more financially solvent than in the past because it had raised rates after a long period of not doing so. He said 180 customers had signed up at a cost of $235 to receive rural water service which provides water purchased from Hope Water and Light to Patmos. Griffin said the work will also provide water to the Bois D’Arc area.
The ordinance was passed by the Quorum Court by a unanimous roll-call vote, with only Justice of the Peace Ed Darling absent for the meeting (and the votes on other ordinances). The funds for the ordinance come from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds which were voted out by Congress and signed by President Biden. After the vote, Judge Jerry Crane told the representatives from SAWS, “you’ll get your water.” Several in the room applauded.
Three other ordinances also passed on unanimous votes. The first passed was the use of $404,000 in ARPA funds to partially fund the purchase of two used road graders from John Deere for $237,000 each. The county lost the use of one recently due to an engine explosion and a replacement is needed. A second grader is being bought, said Richard Kidd, Superintendent of the County Road Department, because it allows the county to respond to individual needs for road work while its other grader is involved in an ongoing project. Judge Jerry Crane added that inflation was likely to increase the cost of graders in the future.
Kidd said he had priced Caterpillar graders and found they were $290,000 each. Concerning the John Deere graders, whose purchase Kidd favored, they have a low number of hours and will be covered by an extended warranty.
The court voted unanimously in favor of the purchases of the John Deere graders.
Another ordinance was passed to allow for the purchase at $151,133.49 of Arkansas Wireless Information Network radios for officers for the Hempstead County Sheriff’s Office to use so that all county emergency personnel are available on this secured communications network and so that the state can take up costs of tower maintenance and equipment repair. ARPA funds were used for this purchase as well. The ordinance passed unanimously by roll call vote.
The last ordinance of the evening was to replace the air conditioning unit in the new location for the County’s Agricultural Extension Office, again using ARPA funds at a cost of $15,000. Terrie James, County Extension Agent and Staff Chair told the court the unit has already been installed. The court unanimously approved by roll-call vote the expenditure, but not without Justice of the Peace Griffin saying the seller of the new location told the county the building’s air conditioning system was sound and Justice of the Peace Steve Atchley saying the building’s water tank is also a problem.
After the vote, JP Griffin brought the news that an air conditioning unit on the roof of the County Jail had failed. The jail uses 13 units, Hempstead County Sheriff James Singleton said nine of them are 13 years or older. Griffin responded that under the stress of the summer it was likely two or three more units would fail. Singleton said for the most recent failure he had money in his budget allotted to finance a replacement. The item did not require a vote.
Before the four ordinances began to be discussed, Singleton told the court that the medical provider to the County Jail inmates had been switched over to Pafford, since its services are more to the linking of the Arkansas Association of Counties and since it charges $300 less per month than the previous carrier, who charged $3,800 monthly.
At the start of the meeting under New Business, County Clerk Smith told the JPs that copies of the results of a state audit were placed in their packets distributed to them by her office prior to the meeting. There was no discussion of these.