Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Court transfers much needed funds to county general

Funds from an account with $67,000, untouched for six years, were transferred to the County General Fund by the Nevada County Quorum Court.

At the March meeting, held Monday, March 8, the Justices of the Peace, moved the money from the Prosecuting Attorney's fund to county general for appropriations. The fund, Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown said, is used to help defray cost for the prosecuting attorney's office, but this hasn't been done since 1999.

Brown said he asked officials in Little Rock what needed to be done and was told the funds needed to be transferred and appropriated.

The original fund was under Act 1256, and had six different funds in it from court costs, Brown said. A percentage of these costs were distributed to each of the funds.

Brown said another appropriation will be done at the end of the year to clean up the account.

Julie Stockton, Nevada County Clerk, said the state auditor said if the money was transferred, the account should be closed and future funds go directly to county general.

Nevada County Treasurer Karen Cobb said she would set up an account number for these funds, so the county can keep track of the money.

Jim Cross, director of the Nevada County Office of Emergency Services (OES), asked the court to appropriate about $1,500 so he can purchase a laptop computer.

Last year, he said, the court appropriated $7,800 from state funds to help finish an emergency operation plan for the county. The plan had to be done by Dec. 31, 2003, and was for Nevada County.

Cross said the final payment wasn't received until the plan was done. While he finished the county's plan by the deadline, it was sent back for corrections. These, too, have been made.

Now, the court has until March 19, to appropriate this money or it will be lost and returned to the state. The exact amount, he said, is $1,497.22, and will be used to buy a laptop computer for the OES.

Brown told the court the money was appropriated from the 2003 budget, but not spent, therefore, must be appropriated again.

Questions were asked if the OES had anything to do with the county's emergency warning sirens. Brown said it isn't and part of the reason for some of the sirens not working was traced to a lack of power.

It seems some of the sirens were hooked into water pumps in the south part of the county, where a rural water system was recently completed. When the water system was turned on, the pumps were shut off, and the sirens had no electricity running to them. Hence, after going off once or twice, the batteries ran down and the sirens could no longer function.

Brown said the county will have to find a way to get power to them somehow, so they'll work properly again.

The siren at Emmet, he said, has a burned out diode which will have to be replaced before it will work again.