Benton County judge donates pay increase

Moehring
Moehring

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County Judge Barry Moehring has donated a salary increase approved by the Quorum Court to a pair of nonprofit organizations, keeping a pledge he made before he took office.

Moehring divided the roughly $6,000 increase between the Illinois River Watershed Partnership and the Benton County 4-H Foundation. He decided not to accept the salary increase during last year's budget process while he was still a justice of the peace.

The Quorum Court approved an increase in the county judge's salary from $91,611 to $97,626.70, according to Brenda Guenther, comptroller. Moehring gave each group a cashier's check for $3,007.

"There were raises considered and approved last year by the Quorum Court for all of Benton County's elected officials," Moehring said. "I have an issue voting a pay raise for yourself, particularly in that case. It was after the election. I voted against it, but when it was included in the budget I didn't want to hold up the budget, so I decided to take the difference between the existing salary and the new salary and donate it."

Moehring said he chose the two groups after some thought and consultation with other county officials, including Johnny Gunsaulis, the Benton County Cooperative Extension Service agent.

"Benton County and the Quorum Court have in the past expressed support for these two groups," Moehring said. "Since this is tax dollars, I wanted to be consistent with that. Also, these are two very good groups."

The Benton County 4-H Foundation helps with fundraising to support 4-H youth participating in camps and other activities, said Jackie Griffin, who serves on the board. The organization recently learned it would lose about $10,000 from the United Way, so the donation from Moehring is timely, Griffin said.

"We use our funds for scholarships for kids to go to summer camps," Griffin said. "Some of it goes to help kids go to D.C. for the Citizenship Washington Focus program in Washington. We help with summer camps locally and at the state, plus we offer college scholarships to our seniors."

Nicole Hardiman with the Illinois River Watershed Partnership said the group likely will use the donation to support education programs for youth, such as the Cave Springs learning center and watershed sanctuary, and outreach programs for local governments, businesses and the agriculture community. The group works to preserve and protect water quality in the Illinois River watershed, which covers much of Benton and Washington counties, Hardiman said.

"We're very appreciative of the donation," she said. "In Northwest Arkansas he had the choice of a lot of charitable organizations to donate to and I'm excited that he chose us."

Moehring said he will repeat the process next year and donate the salary increase to nonprofit groups. He said he would have no problem accepting the increased salary if he's elected to another term, and he doesn't feel the county's other elected officials who accepted the raises were in the same situation.

"The key distinction is the other elected officials were not on the Quorum Court," he said. "They didn't have to vote on it. I just didn't think it was right for me to be voting for a raise for myself."

Illinois River

Flowing through the Ozark borderlands of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas, the Illinois River is fed by 1,660 square miles of drainage area and serves as the primary tributary for the largest lake in eastern Oklahoma, Tenkiller Ferry Reservoir. Forty-five percent of the square mileage of the Illinois River watershed is in western Arkansas. The river and its tributaries flow first in a northwesterly, then southwesterly path through two Arkansas counties, Benton and Washington.

Source: Encyclopedia of Arkansas

General News on 04/19/2017