GRAVETTE -- It's the county's obligation to make sure town halls are available no matter the crowd size, Benton County Judge Barry Moehring said. And so the show went on Wednesday night.
A handful of residents gathered at the Civic Center to hear Moehring discuss a variety of topics including road work, the jail and courts system, and the downtown alternative courts plan during a 25-minute presentation.
"The county road personnel outnumber the citizens," Moehring jokingly said of the sparse crowd right before the meeting began.
Moehring said the county doesn't have any hot-button issues right now such as there was earlier this year when he held a series of before meetings before the March vote for a new downtown courthouse.
Mary Griffin of Gravette said Moehring's presentation was good and informative. She also mentioned Wednesday night is a church night for many people and that may have impacted the turnout.
The county has 1,400 miles of road -- 600 miles paved and 800 miles unpaved -- to maintain, according to Moehring's presentation. The county has completed 256 gravel road improvements, and another 72 involving red dirt this year, according to Moehring's presentation.
Moehring also discussed the courts system and the need for more space. Residents voted down a one-eighth percent sales tax increase March 12 to pay to build an 87,000-square-foot, $30 million courthouse on Northeast Second Street. The tax would have been for 54 months.
The Quorum Court last month approved spending $25,000 to begin design work on an alternative downtown courts project.
That plan would use the three courtrooms in the 28,080-square-foot main courthouse. The former jail area behind the courthouse would be demolished and replaced by a building with four courtrooms. The plan would cost less than $15 million, and wouldn't involve a new tax or any long-term bonding, Moehring said.
Case filings in 19th Judicial West district have grown from 9,238 cases in 2014, to 12,439 in 2018, according to the presentation.
Moehring will hold another meeting at 6 p.m. tonight at the Gentry Public Library. Others will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 30 at Hickory Creek and at 6 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Northeast Benton County Fire Department in Garfield.
NW News on 09/19/2019