GARFIELD -- During a Town Hall meeting in the community room at the Northeast Benton County Volunteer Fire Department Station No. 1 Monday, Aug. 21, Benton County Judge Barry Moehring told residents of Sugar Creek Road east of Arkansas Highway 72 and west of Arkansas Highway 94 that he does not plan to pave that section of road.
The town hall meeting also produced the usual questions and complaints about county roads, with several residents of Sugar Creek Road saying they had been promised over a period of many years their road would be paved. Moehring said he understood their frustration but the county has no plans in place to pave their road.
"I'm sorry that a promise was made to you in the past," he said, adding that the county had recently done a study of its 1,400 miles of roads and is working to maintain those roads in the best way possible within a limited budget.
"I've not promised to pave any road," he said. "We're going to look at every road subjectively. I'm not going to stand up here in front of you and promise we're going to pave your road."
He also said he's been inundated with calls, letters and petitions regarding the Confederate monument on the downtown square in Bentonville.
"Public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of keeping that statue there," Moehring said.
Moehring was quizzed by Gateway resident Don Deckard at Monday's town hall meeting in Garfield. Deckard asked about the status of the Confederate monument on the square and also asked if Thursday night's Quorum Court meeting is open to the public. Moehring said the Quorum Court meeting, which is set for 6 p.m. in the Quorum Courtroom at the County Administration Building, is open and will include a period set aside for public comment. Moehring said there is nothing relating to the monument on the agenda for the meeting.
Moehring agreed the monument is "history" and said under the terms agreed to when it was placed on the square the county would have to give 12 months' notice before taking any action to remove the statue. He said no such action is now being considered.
"There is no initiative to move it," he said. "There is a discussion going on around our dinner tables and around the country. You can't ignore that."
Moehring said he has been hearing about the statue since protests over the fate of a Confederate monument in Charlottesville, Va., turned violent. Confederate monuments and statues have since been removed from public areas in other cities and states across the country.
"This has dominated everything with the county for the last 10 days," he said. "But the business of the county has to go one while this discussion is taking place."
Sheriff Shawn Holloway and Assessor Roderick Grieve also spoke at the gathering. Holloway cited recent statistics on the Sheriff's Office law enforcement activity since he took office in January and discussed a number of community policing programs he has begun or reinstated. He mentioned mentoring and physical fitness programs aimed at youthful offenders along with a gardening project and a dog-training program for women being held in the jail as examples he is particularly proud of.
"These are the types of programs I believe, not only as sheriff but as a person, can help make a change in our community," he said,.
General News on 08/30/2017