Video of the meeting in its entirety can be seen just below this article.

The discussion concerning the truck came early in the meeting, in the agenda item devoted to County Treasurer Lorelai Hale’s financial report which is provided to the JPs every month.  Hale fielded questions regarding the county jail’s not receiving state reimbursement for housing inmates placed there months back by the state department of corrections, saying she had no word of when that money would be received, which leaves the jail budget down compared to budget projections.  Then she said, as long as they were discussing the jail budget, she needed to make the court aware of another difficulty.

“I've been approached by the sheriff. He was approved last year on his budget for $50,000 for a truck. He ordered it in January. It's in and he would like to get it. The only problem I can tell you right now with it [is] it’s coming out of county general, and if you all look at your piece of paper, I don't have $50,000 to spare for a new truck,” Hale said.

JP Willie Wilson asked whether Hale and County Clerk Tammie Rose recommended the court to table the vote on whether to okay the spending.   Rose said she knew that if the invoice came in for the truck, which was ordered earlier this year, a special meeting of the quorum court would be needed.  “I’m not going to write the check,” she said.

Hale then said, “We did build out the jail end of last year. They still owe county general $50,000.” At this, a couple JPs said simultaneously they would like to hear from a representative of Sheriff Danny Martin’s office about these matters.

Asked for other reasons for the county general budget being down, Hale compared the amount paid out in 2023 and 2024 for salaries to those paid in the past six months.  In 2023 the salaries payout was $293,000.  In the first six months of 2024, it was $340,000; in the first six months of 2025, it has climbed to $425,000. “From last year to this year, we're already up $84,819.01,” Hale said. 

Hale said the revenue that was anticipated when the 2025 budget was set has not been coming in. There is money expected to come in, Hale said, “but until then, we’ve got to keep our purse strings tight.”

JP Wilson cited an occasion a few years ago when one of the JPs asked that Sheriff Martin report to the court on a monthly basis on his department’s fiscal state.  “I think that happened maybe two months, and so that's why now we’re in this situation,” Wilson said.

A motion to table the truck purchase was seconded and then carried on a unanimous voice vote.

The county’s emergency management director and fire chief David Gummeson gave a report on the county’s efforts to get weather radar installations into the city that can cover the lower lying areas.  The city of Prescott’s mayor, Terry Oliver, told Gummerson the city would cover 100 percent of the cost of installing a radar unit in the northern part of the county.  For the southern part, the installation would be paid for with a state grant.

Asked more specifically for the locations of the radar units, Gummeson said the one covering the northern part of the county would be placed on a tower near the county jail, just south of the county courthouse.  The radar to cover the southern part of the county could either be installed on a county-owned tower in Mount Moriah or a Bodcaw-owned water tower in that town. Gummerson said this should result in the elimination of the gaps in radar coverage that has hampered meteorologists from seeing what is going on in the lowlands of the county.

In other business, the court approved an ordinance setting a maximum amount of $750 for the Sheriff’s Office’s drug enforcement fund.  County Clerk Rose said state auditors recommended this ordinance be passed.   JPs Eric Jackson, Regina Irizarry and James Cornelius voted against, but the ordinance passed 5-3.  Jackson said he wanted to hear from the Sheriff’s office about how the funding will be used.

The JPs also saw a Solid Waste financial statement, which will now be submitted.  JP Wilson brought up a suggestion by former JP Chris Fore that interlocal agreements like that the city and the county have to each pay half the solid waste cost would benefit from greater communication between county and city governments.

A county resident asked where the 3/4-cent sales tax went.  Rose said the funds collected went directly to the bond holders rather to the county.  The tax was passed during the May primaries to help the county with expenses related to upgrades of the jail, the courthouse and to roads.  Counties regularly receive lump sums from bond issues bought by investors based on future tax collections to be able to pay for projects more quickly than when sufficient sales tax proceeds accumulate.

The JPs also discussed the need for mowing of particular roadsides in their respective districts due to summer growth of grasses and other plants.