By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Early sketches of work that could be done to improve a building owned by St. Francis County were greeted with approval Tuesday by the quorum court's Building and Grounds Committee.
Architect Bob Beavers spoke with the committee and showed them several options for changing the wood frame home, located on Cross Street, accross the street from the courthouse.
According to Beavers, the county could approach the project from several angles based on how much was desired to be spent on the building.
Beavers did suggest that the county remove a carport from the building which is currently being used for storage.
"That garage really has no purpose that I could find. No matter how I drew it up, that portion of the building just couldn't be included. It's my suggestion that the carport be removed regardless of any other work that is done," Beavers said.
Other plans for the building could include adding siding or paint similar to the color scheme used on the courthouse to adding brick matching the courthouse to the building.
"The work that can be done really matters on what you all want to put budget for working on the building," Beavers said.
Justice Regan Hill voiced some concerns about putting too much money into the building.
"I really do think that we need to do something to improve that building," Hill stated. "But last year we put $25,000 into it and we need to bring it up to standards if we're going to use it as office space, but at what point are we putting too much money into this?
"If we're going to use this office to represent the county then we need to get it looking as good as we can, I just don't want to see us putting money into a bottomless pit on this," Hill said.
No estimates on the cost of the work were available Tuesday.
In other business, St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco updated committee members on projects currently taking place at the Northeast Arkansas Recycling Center in Madison. According to Cisco, the county has received its new baler and the new building which will house the baler is close to completion.
"We got the baler in last week and it's up and we're between 90 and 95 percent finished with the building. The only thing that is holding us up on that is getting the doors up and we've got that scheduled," Cisco said.
Committee members also asked Cisco to seek bids for replacing the roof at the courthouse. According to committee chairman Sam Armstrong, county officials were told that repairs could not be done to the current roof and it would need to be replaced.
St. Francis County will receive nearly $125,000 in grant money from the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Hazardous Material.
According to a release from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM), SFC will receive $124,857 in funds. The county will be among 33 other counties, eight state agencies and two cities to receive a part of more than $19.5 million dollars in distributed in Arkansas.
Other counties in the area that were also allotted funds include Cross receiving $176,450 for Decontamination, Crittenden received $205,622.78 for Hazmat and Phillips received $125,373 for Hazmat.
The funding is the result of a collaboration of efforts from the DHS, ADEM, the Arkansas Health Department and emergency response officials in every county in the state. The amounts distributed to each county were based on population, a hazard analysis and the amount of equipment currently available.
To receive this funding, the counties must develop mutual aid agreements with surrounding counties so that equipment purchased will cover as much of the state as possible. Also, each county must include a terrorism annex to their Emergency Operations Plan.
Of the $19.5 million, $13.7 will be used on equipment. The rest of the grant will break down as follows: Local Critical Infrastructure, $1,305,500; State Critical Infrastructure, $1,305,500; Exercises, $2,444256; Training, $678,960; and Administration of the program, $101,844.
The St. Francis County Sheriff's Department is investigating several instances of rocks being thrown at cars in the Colt area.
According to the report, the reported incidents took place between 7:50 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Highway 306.
A total of five vehicles were damaged. The reports stated that several juveniles were throwing rocks at the passing cars and then running into some nearby woods to hide.
The juveniles have not yet been identified.
A car reported burning yesterday on a Forrest City street turned out to have been stolen in Jonesboro.
A call was received at about 1:25 a.m. that a car was on fire at South Rosser and Davis. They found a small car fully engulfed in flames on a vacant lot.
The Forrest City Fire Department extinguished the fire. The vehicle's identification was checked, and the vehicle was found to have been stolen from a Jonesboro resident on Aug. 5.
A red gasoline container was also found, which might have been used in starting the fire. No one was around the vehicles with the police arrived. The car, a 2002 Hyundai, was a total loss.
Those who are interested in teaching adults to read and non-English speaking people to speak English can attend a workshop in September that will instruct them.
East Arkansas Community College will host two workshops for ProLiteracy Basic Literacy and English as a second language, according to a press release. There will be two sessions held, the first on Saturday, Sept. 6, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the second on Saturday, Sept. 13, also from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Both sessions will be held in the EACC Learning Resource Center, Room B-129.For more information or for registration call Mary Ella Riley at 870-633-4480 Ext. 251 or 870-238-5400.