Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Court blasts sheriff's office

It was a bad night for the Nevada County Sheriff's Office at the Nevada County Quorum Court meeting Monday, Oct. 8.

The night began with Justice of the Peace Orville Mason questioning how the NCSO would continue operating the rest of the year having spent 87 percent of its budget already.

Mason said the department is over budget in some areas, especially fuel.

The NCSO has $33,000 in its budget for the remainder of the year, he said, and has been spending about $16,000 a month on necessities.

This translates into the department running out of money by the end of November.

Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown said fuel costs rose during the summer because of rising gasoline prices.

In other counties, Brown said, sheriff's have to come before the quorum court to ask for more money when they run low.

Regardless of what happens, he continued, the jail must remain open by law. However, deputies don't have to do patrols and can be laid off if there is no money in the budget to pay them.

"We need to let them know they're in trouble," he said. "They need to check on the funds they've been reimbursed for and appropriate it."

"I'm worried about paying the bills," Mason said. "At three-quarters of the way through the year we need to look at all budgets."

The court, he said, borrowed from the solid waste fund to help the Nevada County Library in the September meeting.

"I don't want to get to December and not be able to pay the bills," he said, adding other departments aren't doing well either financially.

JP Gary Lewis said the NCSO's deputies are only supposed to work 171 hours in a 28-day span, but one had 178 hours and 20 hours of comp time. "How do you do this?" he asked, getting no answer.

Joyce Gibson, librarian, was on hand to ask for more help with the library.

Gibson had received $2,500 from the court at its September meeting, and gone to the Prescott City Council asking for further funds, which were denied.

In September, the justices had told Gibson to come back if the city didn't help and they'd see what they could do.

She said the library needs more than $2,700 to pay for the mandated upgrades.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, she said, read the article in the Picayune and had information sent on grants the library may qualify for.

The owner of Internet of Clark County (IOCC) also contacted Gibson, telling her he could have installed the DSL line cheaper.

Gibson, however, went through the regional library system to find an installer, not knowing about IOCC's capabilities.

She said if the library gets away form CenturyTel as its provider, the monthly bill will be less than $80 per month.

However, the court did not give the library further funds.

Cindy Wake voiced her complaints about the NCSO because of the way she was treated when calling in a suspicious truck driver.

Wake made the call after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., telling the dispatcher at the sheriff's office about a suspicious looking truck driver. The driver, she said, was bearded, wearing a turban and appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent.

According to Wake, the dispatcher asked what an ordinary truck driver was supposed to look like.

Wake then went to the NCSO and told who she was, only to have the dispatcher continue being rude to her and ask irrelevant questions.

"It made me feel like an idiot," Wake said.

She said a deputy made the statement the driver was likely trying to avoid the weight scales as to why he was on Highway 67, but nothing was done to investigate.

Wake contacted the Arkansas State Police on the matter, telling them what happened. She said the trooper she talked to was upset because there had been radio bulletins put out to be on the lookout for suspicious truck drivers.

"I want service from the NCSO," she said. "I think the NCSO is too laid back, and I don't feel I was out of line by calling.

"As a taxpayer in Nevada County, I feel the NCSO isn't doing its job."

JP Gary Lewis agreed Wake did what needed to be done and suggested the NCSO change its attitude.

Julie Stockton, Nevada County Clerk, said the NCSO attitude won't change.

Brown turned the topic to a pair of resolutions mailed to all counties after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The first resolution sought the support of counties for the condemnation of terrorists while supporting President George W. Bush's decision to go to war, along with the relief efforts. The second concerned condemning all hate crimes in the U.S. and encouraged vigilance not vigilantes. Both were passed.

The court also passed a resolution to help the Fair Hills Volunteer Fire Department. With the passage of the resolution, the department can now apply for grants.

Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, said a grant for $140,000 was received to resurface the airport runway and taxi-way, and another grant for $242,000 for the construction of a spec building in the industrial park to show prospects.

The $242,000, he said, is about half the amount needed for the construction, with a search for more grants to help being conducted.

Chadwell is writing an economic development grant to help renovate the defunct Nevada County Hospital for a prospect interested in putting a business in the facility.

He pointed out there are five new medical specialists practicing part-time in Prescott and Nevada County, all working out of a new clinic opened recently by Medical Park Hospital in Hope.