Final vote is set on Dassault incentive
Without a recommendation, the Quorum Court approved 14-0 on Tuesday night the scheduling of a final vote on an endorsement of Dassault Falcon Jet Corp.'s participation in a state tax-incentive program for a $60 million expansion.
The expansion includes construction and renovation but will not add jobs, District 6 Justice of the Peace Donna Massey, D-Little Rock, told the Quorum Court. The expansion is for making production more efficient and increasing output by 98 jets per year.
District 15 Justice of the Peace Shane Stacks, R-North Little Rock, asked whether jobs would be added as a part of a separate expansion that goes hand in hand with the one now before the Quorum Court.
Massey, the item's sponsor, said she did not know and that she would be in favor of scheduling a final vote on the matter for July 22 without the Quorum Court's usual recommendation for passage.
Representatives for Dassault were not at Tuesday's meeting.
Local governments must endorse program participation for a company to be approved for it.
District 9 Justice of the Peace Wilma Walker, D-College Station, was the only Quorum Court member not present.
Two appointments put on next agenda
The Quorum Court gave preliminary approval Tuesday night for two appointees to the county Planning Board.
Eight justices of the peace voted to move the appointments to the July 22 meeting for final approval, but six abstained.
W.H. Rath, 85, and Mark Wilson, 38, were not present at Tuesday night's meeting.
Rath, who would be reappointed for a second four-year term, worked in operations and project management for AFCO Metals from 1978 until 2004, when he retired.
Wilson is a business development officer at First Arkansas Bank & Trust in Jacksonville and currently serves on the Pulaski Technical College Foundation and the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council. Wilson would be appointed for the first time.
District 11 Justice of the Peace Bob Johnson, D-Jacksonville, told the Quorum Court that he asked Wilson to attend the meeting but that he was unable to and would try to attend the July 22 meeting.
The Quorum Court must confirm County Judge Buddy Villines' appointments to the Planning Board.
14-0 vote advances sheriff office plans
A sheriff's office plan to add a new jail cell in the county courthouse and new air conditioners at the jail has received preliminary approval from the Quorum Court.
The Quorum Court voted 14-0 to recommend the plan for a final vote July 22.
The sheriff's office plans to use $16,000 in Act 1188 funds to build an additional holding cell at the courthouse for county prisoners and $65,000 in Act 1188 funds for five new air units at the jail.
Act 1188 levies a $5 court fine on misdemeanor and traffic defendants who aren't acquitted.
The sheriff's office also received preliminary approval for using $20,000 in federal drug seizure money to construct a portable building to house a firearms simulator for officer training.
Sanitation-billing shift preapproved
Maumelle Water Corp. and the county Sanitation Department have been preapproved by the Quorum Court to combine bills to be more efficient in collecting fees.
Water customers would see an increase of $1.50 per billing cycle on their monthly statements in addition to seeing sanitation charges on their bills.
The Sanitation Department employs this method of collecting fees on thousands of bills with Central Arkansas Water, Jacksonville Water Works and North Pulaski Water Works, Public Works Director Sherman Smith told the Quorum Court.
He said 2,000 people would be affected by the change and that many people prefer to be placed on the monthly billing cycle instead of the previous quarterly billing method because it would be easier to remember to pay their bills.
LR school removed as station for voting
Meadowcliff Elementary School in southwest Little Rock will no longer serve as a voting location as a years-long effort to move polling sites out of elementary schools pushes the Precinct 102 site into Moody Chapel A.M.E. Church.
County Election Director Bryan Poe said the county has a long-term policy of attempting to move polling locations out of elementary schools because schools have grown reluctant to have outsiders in their buildings on Election Day.
The county has five schools that host elementary-age students left on its list of polling locations, although Meadow Park Elementary School in the North Little Rock School District will soon be replaced as a polling location, as the building is being torn down and a new one is replacing it.
The others schools are: Harris Elementary in the Pulaski County Special School District, private Pulaski Academy, and Franklin Elementary and Baseline Elementary in the Little Rock School District.
Metro on 07/10/2014