Baxter County has proposed making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a paid holiday for county employees.
A proposed ordinance adding the civil-rights leader's birthday to a list of official county holidays went through its first reading Tuesday at a meeting of the Baxter County Quorum Court.
Canda Reese, the Baxter County clerk, said the proposal will likely go through readings at meetings in November and December before a vote is taken. Ordinances normally go through three readings before the Quorum Court votes.
"I do not anticipate any objection to the proposed ordinance based on what I've heard so far," she said in an email.
The Quorum Court's personnel committee voted unanimously Sept. 14 to revise the Baxter County Personnel Policy Manual to add the new holiday, pending approval by the full Quorum Court.
The county will have 10 official holidays if the ordinance passes.
Gary Smith, a justice of the peace from Lakeview, said they were told that Baxter County is the only one of Arkansas' 75 counties that doesn't observe King's birthday as a paid holiday.
"That's the rumor that's been promulgated for the last couple of months since this came up," he said.
Christy Smith, a spokesman for the Association of Arkansas Counties, said the organization didn't have information on holidays in various counties, so she didn't know if Baxter County was the only one currently not recognizing King's birthday.
Gary Smith, who chairs the Quorum Court's budget committee, said it will cost the county about $20,000 in holiday pay to add King's birthday to the list.
"I just throw that out as a minor factor that has to be looked at," he said. "It's the only minor consideration that I can think of that's going to come to light during this decision."
Baxter County employees said they sometimes find it difficult to get things done when they are working on a day that is a holiday for state and federal employees.
Jayme Nicholson, the Baxter County assessor, said the state revenue office in Mountain Home is closed on the King holiday -- as is every other revenue office in Arkansas.
"We have been open in the past, and in my office the taxpayers get frustrated that they can assess their property but cannot get their tags on their vehicles," she said in an email.
King was born Jan. 15, 1929. Since 1986, his birthday has been commemorated with a federal holiday on the third Monday of each January.
From 1985 until this year, Arkansas celebrated that day as an official state holiday honoring the birthdays of King and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was born Jan. 19, 1807.
Act 561 of 2017 split the dual holidays, keeping the third Monday in January as an official state holiday honoring King. The law moved Lee's commemoration as a state memorial day to the second Saturday in October, which is closer to the date of his death, Oct. 12, 1870. Lee's memorial day isn't an official holiday for Arkansas employees.
Metro on 10/09/2017