Several reports were presented and one ordinance was approved during Monday’s Bradley County Quorum Court meeting.
Chief Operating Officer Leanna Williams of Bradley County Medical Center told the justices that hospital roof repairs had been delayed by rainy weather. She said work was also ongoing on a telemedicine grant program.
Top photo: Bradley County Quorum Court held its monthly meeting Monday. Shown, from left, front row, are JPs Jimmy Sledge, Alton Richard, Pat Morman, Dana Harvey; back row, Tony Cathey, Gwen Bullard and Jim Zander’s. Photo by Tim Kessler.
By Tim Kessler
Saline River Chronicle
Estephany Roman, Bradley County Chamber of Commerce board member, said the Martin’s Department Store lot had been purchased and was unavailable for the Chamber’s Market On Main events. She requested use of the county’s Cedar Street property for such events.
County Judge Klay McKinney said a committee had been set up to formulate usage rules for the property. However, the committee is still working on the rules and the property is unavailable for use until they are formulated.
McKinney also reported that an email had been received from District Judge Bruce Anderson indicating that over 200 defendants had not appeared for court hearings recently. He said problems are also occurring in which area jails are unavailable to take in Bradley County prisoners.
“The county is going to have to come to grips this fall with what we want to do,” he said.
McKinney said he had met with Justices Alton Richard and Pat Morman about roof problems at the Emergency Services Building and the Extension Service. He said he would recommend a three-year loan of about $150,000 to pay for the roofs plus a new HVAC system at the Extension Service. However, he is still working on cost estimates before making a formal proposal to the court.
He reported a joint program between the county and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will result in a 14-by-105-foot boat ramp being installed on the Saline River between Longview and the Monticello bridge. PotlatchDeltic Corp. donated land for the project and built a road to the ramp.
A county appreciation dinner will be held Thursday at Warren Country Club. All county employees and Quorum Court members will be invited.
Keith Neely was reappointed to the BCMC board of directors.
An ordinance was approved that specifies all data centers in the county “shall be designed and built to incorporate external noise attenuation measures in order to minimize the impact of noise disturbance on the residents of Bradley County.”
McKinney explained that companies that specialize in bitcoin mining sometimes use a huge amount of computers hooked together which require large amounts of electricity and can be extremely noisy.