The total cost for repairing the grader ended up at $242,621.02. An additional complication is that the county stopped making its monthly lease payments of $1,700. The grader is still in the possession of Riggs because of non-payment.
County Treasurer Ricky Reyenga explained the problem to the court: “They never should have quit paying on [the grader’s lease] to begin with, just because it burned. We still had the lease obligation. It didn't have any insurance. It was a prior administration back then, and we inherited it.” Lease payments were not made for ten months in 2022, Reyenga said, and other payments may have been missed the year before.
County Judge Mike Otwell said at the start of the discussion that Riggs, the company holding the lease, offered a deal whereby the county would not be charged interest if it made payments on time in the first three months. After a few on-time payments, the county could receive additional increments of time when no interest would be charged and might be in a position to renegotiate the lease to lower the monthly payments.
The matter arose during the court’s discussion of new business. After about 20 minutes of discussion with Reyenga and Judge Otwell of options of how much to pay and which budget to pay it from, the court voted unanimously in favor of a motion by Justice of the Peace Willie Wilson to make monthly payments of $5,000 for three months but for the court to be informed by Judge Otwell about potential renegotiated, possibly lower payments after that.
The meeting began with a call to order by Otwell, an invocation by Wilson and pledges of allegiance. Then it proceeded to a vote to approve the September meeting’s minutes, then approve financial statements presented to the JPs.
Next came reports. Jamie Hillery of the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce spoke first to make all aware of the upcoming Fall Festival, to occur Saturday. It will bring 70 vendors to Prescott’s downtown area.
Hillery reported on the Love’s ribbon-cutting at the start of the month and that company’s donation of $2,000 to the Senior Citizens Center.
She also explained an effort to help local families with winter time necessities that has a registration date: “This is not toys and things like that. It's more necessities. So we provide socks, shoes, gloves, jackets, clothes, different things like that for needy families in our community. But our registration for that opens the first week in November.” Hillery requested the court and the public to alert her if you know of “families that might need some assistance during Christmas, we will be opening that that first week in November.”
Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Director Mary Godwin welcomed two members of the ongoing local leadership class she is leading who were in attendance at the meeting. On November 8th, she said, eighth grade students from all over Southwest Arkansas, including those from Nevada County, would be attending Manufacturing Day on Hope’s UAHT campus to learn about career opportunities in the manufacturing sector.
“We're bringing in a big speaker, and we'll also have breakout sessions. And then we'll have a panel discussion, so they can hear from the different manufacturers in the area,” Godwin said.
Godwin said that though the carnival portion of the county fair had been spectacular, she had learned from its operators that only half the number of patrons attended this year compared to last year. Godwin said two scheduled football road games had probably caused the shortfall and urged everyone to attend the show next year when there will be home games lest the carnival choose not to come to Prescott in the future.
The Love’s Travel Center, Godwin announced from conversations she had had with the company’s district manager, would be tearing down its old tire shop to make more room for parking. It will likely also be making improvements in its older store.
Godwin asked the JPs whether any had information from constituents about gaps in broadband coverage in their areas that were not accounted for on the Arkansas Broadband Office’s maps. JP Grimes asked what the last date was for submitting such information. Reyenga, a leader of the county broadband committee said early December.
County Extension Agent Stacey Stone briefed the court that 43 students from the county had competed at the county fair, 26 at the district fair and around 20 at the state fair. He reported that over $33,000 was raised by students who sold their animals.
Hillery pointed out here that Judge Otwell himself had helped put up a sesquicentennial marker on the courthouse grounds.
Old Business began with discussion about reviewing interlocal agreements with the city of Prescott and potentially other entities. JP Chris Fore said he found at least one interlocal agreement that had been written in 1995 and was supposed to be renewed a year later but remained in effect. Reyenga suggested the court’s budget committee meet with the city council’s budget committee to begin the process of reviewing these.
Judge Otwell asked for an ordinance to be drawn up for next month’s meeting requiring those doing construction projects in the county to register with the county, so information could be shared so as to avoid the cutting of utility lines by workers. Workers are bound by law to call 811 before digging in Arkansas, but this has not been sufficient to avoid the frequent cutting of lines that are often not very deep or placed under roads or above piping.
At Judge Otwell’s request, the court moved its next meeting to Wednesday, November 15th because the courthouse would be in use the previous night because of the scheduled school board elections.