BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace said June 10 they'll seek a vote on paying for rural ambulance service, even while expressing doubts their proposals can succeed.
"I really have some serious doubts that either of the things we're proposing will pass," Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for district 9, said during Tuesday's Committee of the Whole meeting. "I'm seriously considering not supporting either of them myself."
The justices of the peace agreed to a July 14 public hearing to discuss the two plans being considered. The hearing was set for 6:30 p.m. in the main courtroom of the Benton County Courthouse.
George Spence, county attorney, said state law requires a public hearing as part of establishing an emergency medical services district with the $40 per household annual fee the county is considering in one plan. The other proposal calls for a county levy of a 0.2 mill property tax. Both plans will be discussed July 14 and the justices of the peace will select one to be included on the November ballot.
Kevin Harrison, of District 5, said he's hearing more support for the millage plan and he thinks it could pass.
"My district is all in Rogers," Harrison said. "Am I optimistic it will pass? Yes, I am. The people I've talked to, as I explain it to them and engage them, they've said they will support it."
Harrison said he believes city residents will support an increase in their property taxes to ensure they can have ambulance service if they should need it while they or a family member are outside their city. He said the county needs to explain the measure in those terms and present voters with information to support the plan.
The justices of the peace discussed the option of asking the Legislature to amend the laws regarding ambulance improvement districts but agreed that's uncertain of success and still leaves the county with no funding mechanism for the next two years or more.
Mike McKenzie of District 1 said the county needs to proceed with the best of the plans and work to persuade voters to support it. He also said the county doesn't need to reduce the proposed fee or millage to the point other services will have to be cut to pay for ambulance service.
"It's a tough thing to ask somebody to pay for anything," McKenzie said. "The whole intent was to get enough money that we don't have to gut other services to pay for it."
The committee also heard from the Benton County Sheriff's Office on a plan to privatize medical services at the jail. Rob Holly, chief deputy, said the county asked for bids and received five proposals ranging from $1.8 million per year to $675,000. The committee voted to send a proposal to contract with Southern Health Partners, the low bidder, to the June 26 Quorum Court meeting. Holly said, if a contract is approved, the company has said it could take over the health service at the jail in September.
Holly told the justices of the peace the county budgets about $285,000 for medical services and drugs and about $476,000 in salaries and benefits. He said paying out comp time, vacation and other costs for personnel will reduce the initial savings but after that he estimated the county could save about $85,000 a year.
Holly also said the contract would remove the burden of potential medical complaints and lawsuits from the county. He said there are 17 medical lawsuits pending against the jail, and overall about 83 percent of the lawsuits filed involving the jail are related to medical care.
The committee also endorsed a $110,000 settlement of claims against the county for damage done to a pond during a search for a missing girl. Terry Johnson and his wife Cathy said they were approached without notice in June 2013 about the need to search the pond on their property, on Arkansas 94 between Rogers and Pea Ridge.
The Sheriff's Office and a Road Department crew drained the lake about halfway, and cadaver dogs were called, Terry Johnson told the justices of the peace last month. Workers said they needed to drain the lake and cut through the bank and dug holes in the bottom, Johnson said. Workers dredged mud from the pond and dumped it on his property, Johnson said.
Some of the mud was dumped onto a number of 100-foot tall trees where it was left. The banks of the pond were damaged, as was the bottom of the pond, so that it no longer fills from the springs at the site. A culvert bridge also was damaged by dump trucks driving over it, leaving it unsafe, according to Johnson.
General News on 06/18/2014