Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Some County Polling Places Not In Compliance

By RICKY RAGSDALE

Nevada County may need to help several polling places come into compliance with disability requirements is the message from Nevada County Democratic Chairman Davis Benton to the Nevada County Quorum Court.

JPs met in regular session Monday, November 10.

Benton told the group about six polling stations were not in compliance and the county should be sure the places were ready for the May 19, 1998, primaries.

Nevada County election commission, as well as every county commission in Arkansas, was apparently named in a lawsuit filed in Pulaski County when polling places there were not in compliance with the federal law.

Benton said the areas would probably need loading pads, ramps, handrails, widened doors and other things to be accessible to those who are handicapped, even though there may not be a handicapped individual registered to vote in that particular box.

He said county election commissions were warned to be in strict compliance by the year 2000.

The out of compliance polling places will be examined for upgrades later.

Prescott-Nevada County Economic Director Chandler Russ informed JPs an inter-local agreement would have to be redone for the new year since his office and the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce merged.

Russ also told JPs a $300,000 grant had been approved for the Nevada County Health Unit to open in the wing of the former Nevada County Hospital, closest to its building.

At that time Russ told the group the rest of the hospital was still in line to land a prospect.

Russ said he found out the day after the JPs met the company will not be opening due to changes in funding from Medicare/Medicaid.

JPs were informed of a document imaging system and its costs for Circuit Clerk Carolyn Steed's office.

The imaging system will eliminate paper document storage in the already overcrowded vault in Steed's office as new records would be processed on computer and saved on CDs.

The system will cost $28,000, of which Steed already has $7,500 set aside.

She told JPs the abstract office and County Tax Collector Barbara Butler were interested in buying a license to access the records for $500 each.

Her office will end up owing nearly $17,000 on the system, almost what it would cost to add a third level of racks near the ceiling, purchase oversized paper and the large volume books.

No mention was made of the records already filed, whether they could be imaged onto CDs also.

JPs will wait until December or possibly the first of the year before purchasing the system.