BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace on April 8 approved paying for rural ambulance service through the end of the year from reserve.
The Committee of the Whole voted 10-3 to transfer $257,000 from reserve to complete funding for the service in 2014. Justices of the peace Rey Hernandez, Tom Allen, Kevin Harrison, Pat Adams, Shirley Sandlin, Susan Anglin, Steve Curry, Kurt Moore and Patrick Carr voted in favor of the move. Mike McKenzie, Joel Jones and Barry Moehring voted against it.
"We need to take care of it. Be done with it," Sandlin said. "We're committed to this year. We've got bills to be paid."
McKenzie said he wasn't satisfied the Quorum Court has done enough to find money in other areas.
"I don't think we've really broken a sweat trying to find the $257,000," he said.
Allen said the county needs to move on with the EMS discussion and not try to pay for it through an overly complicated method. He said the Quorum Court can continue to work on finding other cash to replenish money taken from reserve.
"I'm OK with this because I know we're going to pay it back," Allen said.
The county included $236,000 in the budget to cover ambulance service through the end of March while a February election on a funding plan was pending. Voters rejected the plan, leaving about $707,000 needed to pay for the service. The county agreed to pay seven cities providing the service about $942,000 this year.
The Public Safety Committee has met once since the election to discuss how to proceed with ambulance service but hasn't developed a recommendation to consider. Patrick Carr, Public Safety Committee chairman, said he set another meeting for 6 p.m. April 29.
In a related matter, the justices of the peace approved asking the elected officials to refrain from midyear requests for personnel or for nonessential expenditures.
The justices of the peace also endorsed a request from the Bentonville School District to help with a traffic study for the district's new high school in Centerton. Michael Poore, superintendent, presented information on the district's projected student population and on the routes leading to the new school, several of which include some stretches of county roads.
County Judge Bob Clinard said the county's share will be about $8,200.
General News on 04/16/2014