Members of the Nevada County Quorum Court, with County Judge Mike Otwell in a red jacket left of center, voted to buy a Grade-All at a cost of about $300,000 from American Rescue Plan Funds, Tuesday night.

The regular February meeting of the Nevada Quorum Court Tuesday night, video of which will later be uploaded to this page, was taken up with the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds for the replacement of a road grader, a change of telecommunications providers, discussion of the County’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, and changing a member on the Economic Development Office committee.

After the opening prayer, pledge of allegiance and approval of minutes, the Court discussed recent financial statements. In answer to a question from Justice of the Peace Pat Grimes, it was disclosed that $31,000 was used from the Solid Waste budget to pay for County Judge Mike Otwell’s truck.

County Treasurer Ricky Reyenga reported the county was benefiting by earning higher interest rates for its bank accounts and its certificates of deposit. In answer to a query from a Justice of the Peace about having a written list of requirements on what kinds of spending was possible of the $1.2 million American Recovery Plan Act grant money the county still holds, Reyenga said he would be attending a meeting in Little Rock of federal treasurers next week.

The next item was Committee Reports, in which Judge Otwell and the Court heard from Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jamie Hillery, who told the Court she had provided them with an updated calendar of events, not least of which is the Chamber’s banquet to take place April 8 which the court and Judge Otwell, she said, were invited to attend.

Then Director of Economic Development Mary Godwin introduced two people attending the Leadership Nevada County course who were in the audience to fulfil a requirement of their course to attend a Quorum Court meeting.  She then introduced Katie Hardy of the Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District, who addressed the possibility of the county applying for a three-quarters state-funded grant for funds toward hardening the county’s infrastructure against future damage from natural disasters and chemical spills.

Currently, Hardy said, an assessment of potential risk is taking place that includes data since 1950 on hazards in the county. It takes two and a half years, Hardy said, to develop the hazard mitigation plan from this assessment. When each city in the county adopts the plan, the county will be eligible again for federal hazard mitigation funds.

Updating the county’s hazard mitigation plan must be done every five years to maintain the county’s eligibility for federal funds for hazard mitigation. The most recent plan has expired as of last October. The grant for the current work toward a new hazard mitigation plan was received by the District this past January.

A discussion of the costs of the plan, and the timing of when the county must pay its part of these costs, ensued among the JPs. When JP Chris Fore said the county could put up its 25 percent of the costs for the hazard mitigation plan and still be turned down for every grant request based on it, Hardy said the District has learned from past rejects and cited a study showing that for every dollar spent on hazard mitigation, six dollars were saved in disaster recovery costs.

In response to a question from JP Eric Jackson about what caused counties to be more successful in applying for federal grants, Hardy said that if projects were more environmentally friendly they had a greater likelihood of being funded under the present administration.

Asked who actually writes the grant application, Hardy said the District does this with input from the county. Godwin affirmed this was the way this was done in the past.

The next report came from Nevada County’s Extension Office Agent Stacey Stone on the numbers of students participating in this past weekend in Career Development Event competition with 42 schools including nine 4H Clubs from Prescott. Next Tuesday, February 21, starting at 6:00 p.m. a program for cattle ranchers and forage producers in Hempstead and Nevada County will take place at Hope’s Livestock Auction. He also announced Katelyn Kirkham as the new Family and Consumer Sciences agent for Prescott and Nevada County and said she was already starting projects with students in area schools.

Nevada County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Larry Miller reported that the current average for jail inmates recently has been about 70. When asked by JP Willie Wilson if he had heard about the state proposing to build a new penitentiary, Martin said he thought Godwin would know more than he. Godwin responded that it would likely hold 1,000 inmates, that funding is available, but that it would take two to three years to build. The proposal, Godwin said, will be brought up before the Department of Corrections for the first round of reviews. A second proposal exists that would be a smaller facility. Godwin said Nevada County is applying to host one or both of these. For a past attempt to host a penitentiary in 2015 that eventually went to Malvern, Nevada County was turned down based on soil conditions at the site.

Discussion followed between Miller and JP Herbert Coleman regarding some figures.

Turning to Old Business, JP Chris Fore reported on whether or not an unnamed person was to be appointed or sworn in. The answer, from the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office was, “He will not be appointed. All he does is take an oath just like an elected official.”

Next, the question of whether ARPA funds could be used to buy a new piece of ditch-digging equipment called a Grade-All was considered. Judge Otwell made the case that having the equipment would save the county in gravel costs because of its ability to re-use displaced gravel. Treasurer Reyenga told the Court, "People could go to jail," if ARPA funds were used in ways not approved by the Federal Government, which he said has released new rules on the use of the funding recently. After a difficult-to-follow discussion, the Court voted unanimously by voice vote to buy the Grade-All at an estimated cost of $300,000.

In New Business, which was not included on the Agenda, a vote was tabled until next month on the purchase of another piece of equipment requested by Judge Otwell, costing about $198,000, which would help in the picking up and disposal of downed trees. Judge Otwell said an Arkansas Office of Emergency Management official, had told him Nevada County was worst hit by the recent winter storm than its surrounding counties and that the county would be paid $175 an hour for the use of that equipment during a six-month period, which would allow the piece to pay for itself, contended the judge. 

The Court voted unanimously by voice vote to accept the services of Telogix, whose sales vice president, Hope resident Levi Fitch, said the county could save $1,590 a month by switching to his company from Brightstar. The county currently pays $3,600 monthly. Telogix would reduce this to $2,010, while upgrading the county buildings’ internet service to Cablelynx out of Hope pending the viability of South Central Connect’s fiberoptic internet service.

Another vote was taken to confirm Judge Otwell’s nomination of JP Eric Jackson to replace JP Curtis Lee Johnson as the Quorum Court’s representative on the Economic Development Office board. Johnson received applause for his 27 years of service to the county.