The Blytheville City Council’s Finance committee met on Thursday for their last meeting of 2018.
Mississippi County Quorum Court Justice of the Peace Neil Burge attended the meeting to give a presentation to the committee concerning the QC's plan to hold a special election in February to present a vote that would repurpose the half-cent sales tax utilized by the Mississippi County Hospital System to fund the renovation of the Blytheville courthouse and, on a much smaller level, the Osceola courthouse. The committee also reviewed the proposed 2019 budget and decided, after some discussion, that the budget was ready to be taken before the full council.
Burge explained to the committee that the Blytheville courthouse is, and has been for many years, in a state of disrepair that is in desperate need of being addressed. After a failed plan to build a new consolidated courthouse for the county, the QC's new plan is to renovate the current courthouses, though the Blytheville courthouse will see much more intensive renovations.
The project as it stands will completely renovate nearly all parts of the courthouse, excluding the marble flooring and stairs on the first floor and the hallways. The plan also includes an addition that will take over the area that currently serves as parking and stretch the courthouse all the way to Chickasawba Street.
If the renovation takes place, it will require all business conducted in the current building be moved to another facility for approximately 18 months. The QC has not currently decided where the alternative location will be, however, Burge stated that they have a few options.
The renovation of the courthouse is not set in stone simply because it is what the QC wants; however, to fund the project the QC will have to go before the voters and hold a special election to repurpose the tax that currently is set to expire in 2020 and use the money to pay for bonds to fund the project.
Burge asked the committee for a resolution supporting the QC's plan and the committee passed it after asking many questions about the proposed plan and the courthouse's current state.
Blytheville Chief Financial Officer John Callens reported the monthly budget numbers to the committee. He stated that most departments should be around 92 percent for 11 months of the year being completed. Several departments were at or under budget with only one department being slightly over and expected to be slightly over budget for the year.
"Now you can see pretty well everybody is close to being in line. The only one that is a little bit over is that Street department. We already talked about this last month that we forecasted this. They are going to be a couple of percentage points over…that is very minuscule. There again though if you look at the Street Fund overall, which is comprised of the Public Works Shop, the sign and signal, and the Street Department, the Street fund is going to come within budget," Callens said.
Committee Chair Stan Parks, who will be leaving his seat on the council in January, commended the department heads throughout the city, stating that this will be the fourth year in a row that the departments have stayed within their given budget.
The committee also reviewed the proposed 2019 budget and eventually decided the budget was ready to be presented to the full council for a vote.
Callens reviewed a few points in the budget that he stated people have asked him questions about. He started by addressing the $50,000 increase in the General Administration salary line item.
Callens stated that increase did not represent a monetary raise in general admin, excluding the three percent raise for all non-uniformed city employees. He noted that within the contract labor line item, there is a decrease from $19,000 to $1,000.
The money is made up in the salary line item because for many years the city has contracted a custodian service out and this year they have found someone to do the job who can be hired as a full-time employee.
The increase also represents the city paying out vacation and sick leave to a city employee who has been with the city for a very long time.
"We are going to have to hire somebody for about six months to come in and train someone to do her job because she has her hand in everything and so it is going to be very difficult to replace her and we are going to have to have an additional employee for about six months," Callens said.
In other business, the committee approved Jowers General Contract Inc.,'s bid for repair to sewer lines on Moultrie Street.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com