County advances new deputy position

The Garland County Quorum Court Finance Committee advanced funding Monday night to add a sheriff’s deputy to the county campus’ security detail.

The deputy would be posted primarily at the government office building on Woodbine Street, the human resources

committee said after creating the position last month, joining the rotation that guards the county courthouse and district court building on Ouachita Avenue.

The quorum court will consider the Finance Committee’s recommendation at its Feb. 11 meeting.

The general fund-supported sheriff’s department budget would pay for the position and be reimbursed by the tax collector’s office’s automation fund. The $59,641 reimbursement requested by the sheriff includes $6,800 for two radios capable of communicating on the Arkansas Wireless Information Network, or AWIN, which the county joined full time late last year.

The tax collector’s office requested the position, as it, along with the county assessor and state revenue offices, is located in the government office building.

The automation fund’s 2019 budget allocated $46,000 to its maintenance and service contracts line item in expectation of hiring a contract security guard, but the county said no security firms responded to the request for bids. Per the ordinance advanced Monday, $44,000 of that will be transferred to reimburse the general fund, and a $15,641 appropriation from the automation fund will also go toward reimbursement.

Commissions the tax collector receives on personal and real property taxes it collects for school districts and other taxing entities support the automation fund, which the collector can use for administrative costs associated with collecting those taxes.

Fourth floor

A $17,000 transfer the Finance Committee approved within the capital improvement fund will be used for the final payment on the contract for the renovation of the courthouse’s fourth floor.

The money was withheld from the more than $300,000 contract with Moser Construction LLC as retainage, County Judge Darryl Mahoney said, ensuring work is completed to the county’s satisfaction before the contract closes.

Mahoney told the committee part of the county’s office of financial management has already joined the county attorney on the courthouse’s top floor. The full relocation of the office will be completed soon, he said. It has been located in the courthouse basement since its creation in 2016.

The Finance Committee advanced a $5,703 appropriation from the solid waste fund to furnish the new offices. The money came from Samsara Networks Inc.’s buyout of the county’s GPS contract for environmental services trucks. Mahoney told the committee those vehicles will be tracked using automatic vehicle location, or AVL, technology the county acquired as part of its $5.9 million project to join AWIN full-time.

AVL tracks vehicle-mounted and handheld radios assigned to environmental services, posting their position in real time on the county GIS map.

Environmental services’ stormwater division will relocate from its Woodbine Street office to the courthouse basement. It will use the office of financial management’s old furniture, as the county said the furniture will not fit into the new fourth floor offices.

The fourth floor was vacant for several years after the Hot Springs Fire Department said the nearest exits were outside the fire code’s mandated distance. A free-standing metal walkway and stair tower leading from the third and fourth floors to the parking lot and a sprinkler system have since been added.

Renovations included removing the suspended ceiling underneath the cupola, revealing the inside of the courthouse’s signature architectural feature.

“It’s a showplace,” Mahoney told the committee. “It really is. I’m very proud of it.”

The courthouse was built in

1906 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in

1979. The interior was rebuilt after a fire damaged it in 1913.