County Judge, JPs should hold boot drive for their pay

The Craighead County Quorum Court is happy to dole out money — unless you're a first responder. Area firefighters recently made an urgent plea to justices of the peace, stating that first responders and the public are endangered by the antiquated radio system used by firefighters to communicate with dispatchers.

Firefighters asked for $13,000 to upgrade the current equipment that Sun reporter Pat Pratt described as "essentially an old truck radio" — located on the other side of a room filled with modern equipment.

The county's 911 calls are dispatched through Jonesboro E911, and police and sheriff calls are handled through a single modern console.

Fire calls, however, are handled with technology that's more "Hee Haw" than "Star Trek."

"Every day that we use this existing radio system the way it is we are rolling the dice.

It is going to cost somebody their life," said Jonesboro E911 Director Jeff Presley. "Not only a loss of life, but there are going to be lawsuits. One loss of life, one lawsuit, would pay for 10 radio systems."

Justice of the Peace Josh Longmire, who is on the finance committee, asked if providing the radios would drop the county ISO rating and save residents money on insurance, Pratt reported. Longmire said he would like to see a survey completed before granting the funds from the county coffers.

"We would like to see an actual study done so that way we will know how much it will affect the ISO rating for each community to see exactly how much savings will be passed on to the taxpayers before we move on with something like this," Longmire said.

Longmire also said he would like to see the firefighters raise the money on their own if possible or perhaps "meet the county half way."

"There is the option of seeing how much they can raise on their own rather than using taxpayer funds. I would like to see that, but that is what I also proposed meeting in the middle. We could match. If they could raise $6,500 on their own and we could match $6,500 that would be great."

Finance committee member JP Dan Pasmore was also in favor of raising the money privately if that could be done. He said he would see if volunteers could raise the cash or a web-based fundraiser was an option.

In the end, the quorum court sent the $13,000 request to the finance committee without taking action.

Sounds like good, fiscal conservatism in action, right? Not so fast.

On June 27, these same penny-pinching JPs were more than happy to spend $42,500 on a whim, without even knowing how much they were spending.

That was when the quorum court decided to go off-agenda and give all 310 county employees an extra Fourth of July holiday.

Pratt reported that the quorum court approved a motion made by JP Jim Bryant, and seconded by JP Terry Couch, to give county employees Monday, July 3, off with

pay. Tuesday, July 4, was a regularly scheduled holiday for county employees.

Bryant said it's just a "good gesture" for the employees. He was unaware of the cost to county residents.

"I don't have any idea what it costs," Bryant said. "I was just doing it as a good gesture, and I'll do it again."

As for whether he felt a closure of county services for an extra day might inconvenience residents trying to do business, Bryant was indifferent. He said most residents will be celebrating the holiday and not doing business on Monday anyway.

The impromptu holiday caused confusion at the courthouse, where cases had to be rescheduled.

Bay Assistant Fire Chief Kevin McMasters, who approached the quorum court with the request for the radio upgrade, said he is not concerned with how the county raises the funds but that something needs to be done soon.

"I think that anyway they want to come up with the money is going to be fine," McMasters said. "The fire departments of Craighead County have financed this for 26 years. I think it's time somebody else put some skin in the game. If they want to do it with a boot drive or a GoFundMe page, that's great, as long as we get the money so we can get this on the console."

The majority of the county's firefighters are unpaid volunteers, so that must make them less worthy of respect than the county's full-time employees, at least in the quorum court's eyes.

Not only is it ridiculous to expect these volunteers to go out and beg for money to buy county equipment, it's insulting. Here's an idea. County Judge Ed Hill is paid $82,230 annually by the taxpayers.

The 13 justices of the peace each get $9,432 a year for a total of $122,616 siphoned from the taxpayers' teat.

Maybe Hill and the JPs should conduct a boot drive for their pay, and we put that $204,846 we're spending on their salaries toward other expenses like making sure our firefighters have the equipment they need to keep the county safe.