By DAVID PIERCE
NEA Town Courier
Mississippi County Justice Reggie Cullom continues to challenge County Judge John Alan Nelson and his fellow justices to do something about the deteriorating condition of the Osceola Courthouse.
Already he has detailed issues with the 111-year-old building, provided a list of needs from each of the county office administrators housed there and cited fire code violations which nearly caused the building to close.
In December, the county pledged ‘serious money’ – presumably $1.5 million – for renovations which prompted Cullom to ask, “what are we waiting for?”
Of that sum, only $231,000 is secured, but Justice Michael White said the balance has been earmarked for renovations.
“It’s solid,” he reiterated.
Cullom said the final straw for him came when he learned that a circuit judge had brought her own supplies to clean the women’s restroom.
“How long do we continue to do nothing?” again asked the District 11 justice.
Apparently, the county has not contracted with an architect as of yet but has been in discussion with Ruby Architects, Inc. of Little Rock since August.
“That’s step one,” said Justice Molly Jackson who mentioned the firm believes $350,000 is needed just to upgrade the electrical systems.
According to Judge Nelson, in those preliminary discussions, Aaron Ruby had presented an informal quote for $4 million for renovation.
“We’ve spent $13-$14 million up the road,” said Cullom of the overhaul of the Blytheville Courthouse, “but can’t spend $1.5 (million) here?”
As the banter lingered, the justices finally motioned to permit Judge Nelson to negotiate a contract with Ruby. County Attorney Chris Brown is expected to draft a formal resolution to support the motion.
In addition, the justices addressed another issue which seems to be escalating.
The court was presented an ordinance declaring a moratorium on “new non-residential solar farms in the unincorporated parts of Mississippi County”.
Cullom had brought the issue to the court late last year and asked that the court and its attorney to determine if legislation could be drafted to slow or stop more solar fields from being constructed in the county. According to Nelson, nearly 27,000 acres are committed to the solar farms.
The ordinance would halt new solar panel farms for 180 days as the county reviewed its options going forward.
“We’re going to be at the point of the spear,” said White noting that no other county or municipality had placed any restrictions on the construction, operation or decommission of the farms. “We understand it’s a great windfall for the landowner, but we need time to do more research.
“We can always rescind,” he added.
The measure did pass 9-1 with Justice Rick Ash casting the lone nay vote and Justice Harbans Mangat abstaining.
Ash believed the ordinance’s wording to be too vague and needed to be defined better.
In other business, the court:
• Tabled action on two appropriation ordinances as Justice Neil Burge pointed out that these requests didn’t have approval of the county’s finance committee. Procedure has been that committee approves and sends to the full court. Both Atlas Tube, seeking an additional $100,000 to along with an already granted $1 million appropriation, and the Arkansas Aeroplex’s request for $500,000 will have to wait for finance committee approval.
• Passed an ordinance granting $1 million in incentives to Big River Steel. In exchange for the payout, the company agreed to hire an additional 100 employees.
• Discussion died on the hiring of Clements and Associates and Brownlee & Mann Consulting LLC for the construction of a new scale house at the landfill. White motioned for adoption of the resolution but it failed as it received no second.