The entirety of the meeting can be seen in the video included below this story.
The court also approved the distribution of $10,000 in storm relief funds that came from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management to cover recovery from the May 2024 tornado. After hearing a first reading, it tabled an ordinance that would have defined prohibited obstacles and actions impeding traffic flow on county roads and specified penalties of up to $1,000 and referral to the Nevada County Sheriff's Office for the act of creating such obstacles. It also passed a motion to purchase a dump truck, already delivered to Texarkana, with funds from reimbursements for emergency costs when they are received.
After the approval of minutes from the July meeting and the approval of financial reports, reports were heard from Prescott Nevada County Director Jamie Hillery, County Extension Agent Stacy Stone and Office of Emergency Management supervisor David Gummeson.
Hillery spoke about next month's County Fair which will be held September 6-15th. A calendar of events has been placed on the fair's website. Stone had praise for the performance of the county's junior 4-H livestock quiz bowl, which won the state title August 8th with Jamir Purifoy in one game scoring 200 points and being awarded MVP for the tournament. Stone also listed examples of the involvement of county 4-H members in other events.
"We've got kids that have been participating, not only in county, but in the Southwest District, the Arkansas Youth Expo at Washington County Fairgrounds at Fayetteville, and then the state fair, and we'll have one or two, I'm sure, go on to some of the national shows," Stone said.
There being no Old Business, in New Business, Judge Otwell requested the reading of an ordinance acknowledging receipt of $10,000 in Arkansas Disaster Relief funds for damage from the May 2024 tornado from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and amending the county's 2024 budget to record the addition of the funds. The funds, according to the ordinance, will be used "for individual assistance to qualified applicants affected by the current declared tornado disaster of May 2024." The maximum amount participants may receive for an approved claim is $250.
The ordinance passed unanimously after two readings by title only and will be in effect immediately.
The next ordinance on the agenda would yield more discussion. Entitled "An Emergency Ordinance for the Protection of the Traveling Public, Condition and Maintenance of the County Maintained Public roads in Nevada County and Within Its Unincorporated Limits; To Declare and Emergency; And for Other Purposes," the ordinance--which can be read below this article--makes illegal the presence or placement of obstacles to travel along marked and unmarked county roads unless with the written permission of the county judge.
The ordinance also includes language to allow the county to clear the obstacles or make repairs and bill the person or organization causing the situation for the full cost.
It also provides for a fine of $1,000 with the potential for an additional $500 a day fine for continued noncompliance with the law. Breaking the law could lead to prosecution for a class A misdemeanor, the next step down from a felony.
After it was read, Judge Otwell asked if there were any public comments. A citizen rose and said he thought the ordinance must be in reference to where he was parking his tractor. He said, "It ain't going to be a 123 on this one that y'all can just pass it by," referring to the previously passed ordinance being passed after two title only readings.
The citizen had spoken at July's Quorum Court meeting about his problem obtaining a loan from a local bank. He said the bank's loan officer told him he needed to show he had an easement from neighboring property owners for the use of a road to his property. He had requested a meeting with Judge Otwell on the matter, but he said this meeting did not take place.
Judge Otwell said the ordinance was not a response to the citizen's complaint, but that he needed to be able to clear county road obstacles and be certain the county could recover its costs. JP Herbert Coleman recalled a time when a deer camp placed a water pipe through a county road and the pipe was later cut when road work was attempted there.
Dennis Pruitt reported that at a recent convention he and JP Patricia Grimes attended, a lawyer had said County Judges essentially have complete charge of roads. He also told the citizen to get easements signed by the owners of the properties the road in question crossed. The record of the road being abandoned, he said, would be in the minutes of meetings in 2011. JP Kenneth Bailey said he remembered the decision being made in April or May of that year.
Former Justice of the Peace candidate Shane Horn addressed the court next, explaining that he preferred that an ordinance imposing a potential penalty of $1,000 and a class A misdemeanor needed to be heard and seen by the public prior to being passed. He said he favored multiple readings of the ordinance during more meetings. Justice of the Peace Willie Wilson said he agreed. JP Coleman made the motion to table the ordinance.
Horn also spoke about a matter of record keeping. "If there's a road there, there's supposed to be in the court clerk's office a book, where every time you create a road, it's supposed to be logged down in your book. Every time you abandon the road, it should be logged down in a book. It needs to be but I've already asked him, nobody knows anything about a book."
The vote was called for on JP Coleman's motion to table the emergency ordinance addressing county road obstacles. All the justices voted in favor.
Next, head of the Nevada County Office of Emergency Management David Gummeson provided to the justices and to the judge a report on recently received reimbursement funds for disaster expenses incurred by the county over the past two years, those expected to come in the next 30-60 days and those from May of 2024 just filed for.
The county received $1,091,853.91 for expenses related to a February 2023 storm. It expects in the next 30-60 days to receive funds totalling $587,388.70. It has filed for reimbursements totalling $1,080,000 relating to expenses incurred in May of this year.
Gummeson also presented options for temporary fixes to Wildcat and Landfill Roads, where projects by the Arkansas Department of Transportation have been delayed by the need for water flow studies at Landfill Road and a permit to dig at Wildcat Road.
Judge Otwell asked for approval to purchase a $77,000 dump truck, which has now been received in Texarkana, with proceeds from the reimbursements.
Shelia Butler, Interim President of the Sweet Home Cemetery Memorial Fund Association Committee, announced a celebration day and homecoming will be held starting at 11:00 a.m. at Sweet Home Baptist Church on Lackland Road. She said the cemetery there may be the largest of any African-American community in Arkansas. It holds graves that date back to the 1880s including Civil War soldiers and still receives several persons in a given month. The church is being converted to a community center.
She asked that quorum court members and judge come see a county road that would have been used in a tour of the area but cannot be because its condition. A conversation Butler had had on the topic with Otwell back in April had not yet gotten results in fixing the road, she said.
Just before the court adjourned, JP Wilson asked if future ordinances would be subjected to readings in three successive meetings before a vote for passage. There was no answer. He asked how the ordinance would be publicized. JP Grimes said it could be posted on the county courthouse bulletin board. The ordinance can be read just below this story.
Adjournment came about an hour and fifteen minutes after the meeting had started at 5:00 p.m.
