County will seek sales tax increase for radio system

FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County’s justices of the peace on Thursday agreed to ask voters to approve a quarter-percent sales tax increase for a new $8.5 million emergency communications system.

The Quorum Court approved placing the sales tax proposal on the ballot for the March 3 primary election. Officials have estimated a quarter-percent sales tax will raise about $10 million in a year’s time. The proposal includes a “sunset” clause providing the tax would be collected until the money needed for the project is collected and then discontinued.

The county has had a committee of emergency responders studying how best to replace the 15-year-old system in use. John Luther, emergency services director, said the equipment should be replaced before the system suffers a catastrophic failure.

The panel studying the communications system recommended the county

buy equipment compatible with the state-supported Arkansas Wireless Internet Network. The group recommended the county adopt an $8.5 million package, including about $4.9 million for new communications towers and dispatch consoles, and 1,727 radios costing about $3.1 million. The project also includes a 3% contingency cost, project management fees, administrative costs and bond charges.

Also Thursday, the justices of the peace made a last-minute change to increase raises for employees from 2% to 3% before they approved the 2020 budget. Ann Harbison, justice of the peace for District 14 and chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee, said during the meeting adding the additional 1% to the raises would reduce the reserve from about $4.3 million to about $4.1 million.

After some justices of the

peace said they would like to see elected officials and department heads find cuts to match the cost of the larger raises. Circuit Clerk Kyle Sylvester volunteered to cut a project from his budget and offer the $100,000 cost of the project to offset the raises.

The amended budget failed on its first reading, with eight justices of the peace voting in favor and six against. To approve the budget required 10 yes votes. Eva Madison, justice of the peace for District 9, voted against the budget on the first vote but made a motion to reconsider, saying she would change her vote to spare the county the cost of additional meetings to adopt a budget since it had enough affirmative votes to pass on a third reading. The motion to reconsider was approved and the budget passed, 10-4.

The justices of the peace denied a request for a permit from Tom Terminella for a red dirt mine on property on Harmon Road, north of Wedington Drive and west of Fayetteville.

The dirt mine is proposed for 60 acres near the Wedington Woods subdivision. Many residents of the area opposed the plan at the Planning Board hearing in August and again in October when the Quorum Court heard the first readings to approve or deny the permit. The residents cited concerns over the hazards of large numbers of fully loaded dump trucks operating on narrow, curving roads, noise from the mining operation and the trucks, possible environmental dangers of runoff from the site, and the potential for the business to decrease the value of their property.

Terminella has told the county he plans to have no more than 4 acres being mined at any time. The land will be reclaimed after it is mined, he said, and the project will be limited to 20 of the 60 acres. Terminella has told the county the mining operation will generate 30 to 50 round trips per day by dump trucks.

Property in unincorporated Washington County is zoned for single-family residential or agricultural use and property owners must obtain a permit from the Planning board for any other use. The Quorum Court has the final say on any permit.