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4C — EL DORADO NEWS-TIMES Saturday, March 9, 2019
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Union County invests in roads, sees election upgrades in 2018
By the News-Times staff
A lot has happened in the last year for Union County.
More money was spent on roads. New election equipment was procured. A jail fire resulted in not only repairs, but long planned upgrades to the facility.
Let’s take a look at some of what stood out in Union County in 2018:
Roads
At an economic outlook luncheon in February, Greg Harrison, Union County Quorum Court’s District 3 Justice of the Peace, said revenues are up in the county, bills are being paid and overall, the county is doing well.
“I hope you all enjoy the nice roads and bridges that we have,” he said at the luncheon. “We’re working hard for you.”
Union County officials appropriated $2 million more than usual for roads in 2018, allowing additional roads to be resurfaced in the county and nearly doubling the typical amount spent on county roads each year. In October, Union County Judge Mike Loftin said the extra money was able to be used thanks to a longer “laying season” in 2018. There was a hot, dry summer and not as much spring flooding as in the past, he said.
The majority of the extra $2 million was being spent on 3 miles of Braswell Corner Road and 4.5 miles of Hibanks Road.
It costs the county around $228,000 per mile to build a road that can handle large vehicles, such as log trucks and oil field equipment.
File Photo
Machine: Election Systems Software Technician Jessica Simmons inputs passwords into new voting machines for Union County in February.
Voting equipment
The county also was able to make plans for new voting machines in 2018, though the actual machines arrived in early 2019. The machines were able to be purchased thanks to a joint effort between the county
and the state, though there were some issues in the process.
In May, the state offered to purchase half the cost of new voting machines for the county. That offer was rescinded after a chief deputy in the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office expressed frustration at comments made by a Union County official to the News-Times concerning reported issues with the equipment being offered.
The offer was then made again on June 6 with the state willing to pay 100 percent of the cost, but that offer was again rescinded before state and county officials met face-to-face to sort everything out. The state ultimately committed to paying for the voting machines and to provide training and support for the installation process and first election when the machines are used.
The machines cost just under $500,000.
Jail repairs and upgrades
In mid-August, an electrical fire caused a brief evacuation of the Union County Jail. The fire spread throughout the ceiling of the facility near the kitchen and no one was injured.
The fire was started in a walk-in cooler unit that was being used as a storage room. It caused enough damage to shut down the kitchen while initial repairs could be made. The Salvation Army and Tiger Correctional Services both helped to feed the inmates in the meantime.
The county had already been discussing potential jail upgrades and the Quorum Court ultimately approved $1.2 million for those in November. Improvement categories include an air conditioner system, plumbing, network, main gate, sliding security doors, radios and TigerTrack, which is a public safety software.
Some of the improvements were meant to save money in the long term, with the plumbing upgrade estimated to save 40 percent on the jail’s water bill and the air conditioning system upgrades allowing for more cost-efficient practices.
The radio upgrades allow the county to increase coverage, improving officer safety and communication. “We’ve got places right now in this county that you can’t talk,” Roberts said at a Quorum Court meeting in January, referring to deputies not having sufficient signal. “I’ve got one guy that can’t sit in his office and listen to his radio because it doesn’t work in his office. Our lives depend on that radio and when we pick it up,
we need to be able to talk.”
Lawsuit filed
A saga that started in late 2017 continued into 2018 with a former county employee filing a lawsuit against the county, Loftin and eight members of the Quorum Court in August 2018.
Conor Gleason was the executive administrator of the Union County Tax Collector’s Office until January 2018, when he resigned during an issue that stemmed from a new ordinance requiring background checks for county employees. At the time the suit was filed, an attorney for Gleason told the News-Times that the suit alleged violations of the Arkansas Civil Rights Act,
File Photo
Fire: A fire at the Union County Criminal Justice Facility damaged several areas inside the building.
state and federal constitutions, the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act, among other allegations.
The issue stemmed from an ordinance passed in fall 2017 requiring all county employees and officials to submit to a criminal background check and sign written consent forms. While Gleason initially refused to comply, he eventually submitted his form, but not before being removed from the payroll in October 2017.
A couple of months later, Quorum Court members were told that Gleason would not be covered by the county’s liability insurance because of a prior embezzlement charge. The members voted not to issue back pay to Gleason at that time and moved to explore and take legal action to force the tax collector, who at the time was Paula Beard, to remove Gleason from the office.
Instead, Gleason submitted his resignation in early January 2018 during a special meeting with the Quorum Court, which unanimously approved a motion to issue Gleason back pay at the same meeting. At the time, Gleason issued a statement saying his reason for resigning was to “quell threats and contemptable legal actions” against the tax collector’s office and the office staff.
While nothing further has been said publicly concerning the suit, court records state that a jury trial has been set for January 2020 with attorneys indicating the trial will take about four days.