The regular meeting of the Lawrence County Quorum Court was held last night at the Lawrence County Courthouse in Walnut Ridge.
The Lawrence County Road Department’s funding soon became the topic of conversation with Judge Barnhill asking for a motion to restructure an expiring jail tax and have it placed on the November ballot as a permanent tax.
The first step of this process is for JP’s to make a motion and vote on whether this would be on the November ballot.
No Justice’s came forward to make a motion, Justice Yates stated he was not interested at this time in trying to restructure the current temporary tax, he stated this was advertised to the public as temporary and should not be changed fearing it would confuse tax payers.
Judge Barnhill, clearly not happy with the decision to not move forward with a new proposed tax told JP’s in the meeting that without funding increases, county roads would only receive maintenance until next year’s budget.
The Lawrence County Road Department has been a heated topic at recent QC meetings. The department is over budget and basically out of money less than halfway through the fiscal year.
A motion to move funding from the County General fund to the road department was approved and finalized by justices last night, but the Judge acknowledges this is only a temporary repair.
This makes several attempts by Judge Barnhill to restructure funding for Lawrence County Road Department, all have failed.