Ten of 11 Mississippi County Justices of the Peace met Monday afternoon for the Finance Committee, hearing updates on the landfill and courthouse issues.
Finance Committee chairman Justice Michael White asked Mississippi County Judge Dr. Terri Brassfield how the patching of the courthouse was going and she responded by saying they are “patching right along.”
She also added that Aaron Ruby of Revival Architect will look at the Blytheville courthouse Tuesday and will be meeting with those who are interested in the roofing on top of the Blytheville courthouse. She added that it was a pre-bid inspection and that it was mandatory, if they were interested, then they’d have to be there and if not they are not in the race. She also added that the floors in the Osceola courthouse have been stripped and waxed properly by the Arkansas Historic Preservation who toured the courthouse. Also, the dome work is being finished and then after the dome work is done they will be replacing and painting tiles in the courtroom.
Justice Neil Burge spoke about a contractors meeting that was held at the landfill last Thursday. He said there was a total of four companies that sent representatives to the meeting. They were giving a tour in regards to bidding on the Class One Landfill. He added that the bids are due Friday.
“We will know more after Friday, but now we’ve just got to sweat the price,” Burge said.
White addressed the change of management at the landfill and asked Burge to give an update.
“Everything seems to be doing fine,” Burge responded. “James Roundtree, who has been there I don’t know 10, 12 or 15 years. He’s fully licensed. He is the interim director. The judge and I seem to be checking in with him pretty regularly but everything seems to be working fine. There has been no interruption of services at all. We are having problems with the leachate ben but we are working on that. We are having problems with the pump and this time it seemed to be a wiring problem and we are working on it. We did pay a $100,000 back to the County General at the end of August. Our balance is still a little bit over a million dollars but this will be a very expensive thing coming up Friday. Don’t anybody get excited.”
Brassfield added that she’s just excited that the County will be able to pay for it.
Brassfield brought up that they are hauling the permit limit of 10,000 gallons of leachate a day, which is the limit at which Luxora can take. Justice Howard “Bubba” Norvell asked if the city of Osceola or city of Burdette could also be places that the leachate is hauled to.
Justice Bill Nelson asked Brassfield and Burge about how the work atmosphere at the landfill seemed to be going.
They both responded that it’s good as they could ever want it and “tremendously better.”
Burge added that everyone seems to be able to just work and not have so much drama happening around them.
Justice Sylvester Belcher asked if there were other people at the landfill that were fully licensed besides Roundtree. Burge said no, but it’d be nice to have more people fully licensed. However, some are licensed but just not fully endorsed.
Also, in the meeting county treasurer Peggy Meatte said that the county general balance to date was $1.5 million, which White said is a pretty solid number. He said that it wasn’t going up or down right at the moment but they are heading into October.
Meatte and Financial Management Director Kelli Jones also spoke about getting on the same computer services. Meatte added that they also have a program for the County Clerk’s office. County Assessor Harley Bradley asked if there was a program that would also help in his offices and if they were putting all their eggs in one basket. White added that they’re just looking at options. Jones added that a sister program offers a whole county government package, and it would be up to the elected officials if they want it. Another topic discussed was $5,000 missing. The Snyder Building was bought by the county for $600,000 for an economic development plan that eventually fell through. However, the building is owned by the county and Nelson said they are baiting it for another economic development project with an industry in Illinois. White added that is just quite but not gone.
“What Harley’s problem is is that somebody owes some taxes on from before the early part of 2016 before we bought the building,” White said.
Bradley explained, “The Snyder Tire Company paid their 2016 taxes but the taxes were due until the time y’all purchased it, but we found out that they gave $5,083 credit to pay their portion of the 2017 taxes. Because y’all got it in June of ’17. So, those taxes are due… So, we’re trying to figure out where the $5,083 is.”
Nelson said to let him see the Hud-1, so he could tell where the money is. Kennemore said if it was credited to the county by Hud-1 then the county owns it.
White said since the county is the buyer where is the money. Nelson said that is why he needs to see the Hud-1. Kennemore said if it came out of Economic Development and if it came out of Hud-1, then the county paid that $5,000 less at closing, but the Hud-1 would tell for sure.
Nelson said that he will hunt the money to make sure but it sounds like Economic Development owes the County $5,083.
Lastly, White brought up the meeting Wednesday on the updated project study on a potential new Blytheville courthouse. They have the results from the private study and White urged all elected officials to come to the meeting Wednesday because it was a county-wide issue.
The special meeting will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Annex Building regarding the new courthouse.