Miller County Budget Committee suggests new line item for repairs

TEXARKANA, Ark. — With the Miller County Courthouse’s flood damage being projected to cost between $7 million and $10 million, the county’s Budget Committee on Monday proposed creating a budget lineitem account for $1 million.

The committee members then agreed to recommend at next month’s full Quorum Court meeting that the justices of the peace Approve the measure so as to make the money available for the county to draw down on to pay for the first restoration costs.

All five of the courthouse’s floors, along with the basement, suffered severe water damage Feb. 20 after below-freezing winter temperatures caused water in the building’s water pipe system to freeze and rupture the lines. Plans tentatively exist to have the courthouse re-opening in January of 2022.

Committee members, who met inside the Texarkana Arkansas Municipal Building’s Board of Directors’ second floor meeting room, plan to recommend that county pay $323,674 for services performed by an energy efficiency research firm for advising county officials on saving energy costs for several of the county’s buildings.

In other business, committee members agreed to recommend that a $9,000 engineering study be approved to determine if the county’s Correctional Center needs to have an extra jail cell pod built to accommodate inmates needing more COVID-19 precautionary separation space. The jail can hold up to 310 inmates.

Committee members then agreed to request that JPs grant an addition $15,000 in overtime pay to the county’s Road Department for extra work preformed during the snow storm.