The Fulton County Quorum Court held their regular monthly meeting July 18 at the new courtroom annex building.
The meeting opened with Judge Kenneth Crow, with all Justices present.
Following the approval of minutes from the June meeting, the court then moved on to the Clerk’s report and Treasurer’s report which were approved.
Crow then briefly updated the court on the radio project saying it was close, but not complete.
“To give you an update on the radio, we’re still waiting on the registration to come through, we expect that any day,” Crow said.
Courtroom renovations were the next topic discussed. Crow said roofers were still working and new windows had been ordered and a flagpole would soon be installed at the annex.
It was noted due to the hard rains recently, some leaks were discovered on the roof but were being repaired.
Carol Langston then spoke to the court about a Keep Fulton County Beautiful Commission.
“… Our beautiful county could use a makeover in some areas and that’s where the Keep Fulton County Beautiful Commission comes in. We have to bring some pizazz, charm and much needed attention to our wonderful county. I know what you’re thinking, why do we need a commission for beautification? Because it’s not just about making things pretty, it’s about fostering a sense of pride in our community, attracting more visitors than we have now and boosting our local economy,” Langston said.
Langston said the purpose was to host fun events to gather volunteers and work with existing organizations and schools as well as existing campaigns to beautify the county.
“We’ll also have events such as Paint Your Heart Out Fulton County, a day where volunteers will help our seniors paint their porches and spiff up their properties. We’ll also make recommendations to our county leaders for various beautification projects throughout the county,” Langston said. “Let’s make Fulton County the talk of Arkansas, the envy of our neighboring counties and the pride of all of our citizens.”
Langston said with the court’s approval, a town hall meeting will be held to generate board interest. Langston noted there was aleready interest.
“We’ll bring back to this group the names of volunteers who would like to serve on the commission,” Langston said.
The floor was opened for questions from the court and some concerns regarding the potential lack of volunteers was voiced.
Langston said that was always a challenge, however; using people for their areas of interests paired well with the mission of the committee.
The challenge of convincing certain property owners to part with unsightly items was also brought forward.
Langston said the idea was not to tell property owners what to do with their own land, but that the commission could help to educate owners on ways to better store items.
“Tath’s not our role we’re here to educate folks on what would help our county to become more beautiful,” Langston said.
One justice inquired as to whether or not Langston was requesting funds from the county, but her answer was simply, no.
“I think we can do this with existing resources. It might be that if there is an opportunity to plant outside this building for example, there is no landscaping, we could help if there is a budget for landscaping or we can look for grants,” Langsont said. “There are a variety of grants from state and federal funds available and local resources to counties.”
A concern accepting byway funds would limit what property owners could do with their lands was brought forth, however Judge Crow noted this was more in keeping with the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Campaign then to regulate property owners rights as a result of a potential commission for the county.
“I don’t believe this has anything to do with scenic byways. In fact, Arkansas has a Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. This is augments that in fact, Keep Arkansas Beautiful supplies trash bags, gloves and everything for trash pickup drives and things like that. We’re not going to be passing any ordinances spawning off of this,” Crow said.
A motion was made and passed to table discussion until the August meeting.
The next item on the agenda briefly discussed was the county’s Hazardous Mitigation Plan (HMP) which was also tabled until the August meeting.
Due to the level of proposed regulations presented to the court in past presentations regarding the HMP several members of the court expressed their dislike of the idea of hearing additional proposals and noted if the proposals came with additional regulations, it would be voted down.. again.
AR Connect was the next issue addressed.
“We are going to form a committee. The state of Arkansas has received federal funds to enable every citizen to have access to high speed internet and estimate 1300 of our households don’t have access to high-speed internet and 800 residents have insufficient digital skills,” Crow said. “What I’m doing now is just listing to the public if anyone is interested in being on the committee to facilitate high speed internet to the citizens of our county.. If you want to be on the committee just shoot me an e-mail.”
Crow said he would like to see 12 or more people on the committee.
Crow said the personnel policy was meeting next week and some new committee members had been appointed including Josh Smithee, William Fawcett and Jeremy Langston.
“I feel we need to visit the personnel policy once a year and make adjustments as needed,” Crow said.
A resolution allowing Crow to apply for a grant on behalf of the Fulton County Circuit Clerk to obtain the upgrade to allow the county to E-record all land transactions was discussed.
The resolution to authorize crow to apply for grant funds in the amount of $59,600 was approved.
A resolution to officially change the meeting time and place of the regular monthly meeting was also passed moving the regular Fulton County Quorum Court Meetings to the Fulton County Courtroom Annex on the third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.
An ordinance with an emergency clause adopting certain rules and regulations concerning noise attenuation of data centers and to prevent noise disturbance in Fulton County within the unincorporated limit was also passed.
The Fulton Count Quorum Court meets the third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m., at the Courtroom Annex next to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department.
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