County sales tax slow

County sales tax slow

Collections down from 2015 numbers

news@theeveningtimes.com

Sales tax collections are off by about 3 percent from last year, but county officials expect them to inch back up and still end the year with a surplus.

“We’re still down 2.6 percent for the year over where we were last year,” County Treasurer Charlie Suiter told the Quorum Court. “But I think our revenues are slowly creeping back up.”

Suiter said the county at this point last year had taken in just over $1 million. This year, the county has collected about $978,000.

“It comes down to about $26,000,” Suiter said. “So we are holding our own.

We’re doing pretty well.”

That puts them still about $100,000 over their revenue projections, Suiter said.

Suiter said the county will still finish in the red‚ but it might not be as big as last year’s totals.

“It is slow. But it is just a little under last year,” Suiter said. “We will probably finish $250,000 to $300,000 over and will be able to do a few extra things at the end of the year.”

In other business,

• The county passed a resolution renewing the letter of assurance they are required to file with the state ensuring that they have the funds to cover the closing and post closure costs of the county landfill.

• Heard a report from Sheriff Mike Allen informing them that the county received $26,800 from its insurance to replace a Dodge pick up truck which was totaled.

“We got almost the full price for it,” Allen said.

Allen said they paid $28,000 for a new vehicle.

The insurance company also let the county keep the wrecked truck.

Allen said the county has the vehicle in storage and will have a practically new motor and transmission in case they need a back up.

“It had very low miles on it,” Allen said. “And I’ve never seen them (insurance company) do this before.

So we probably have an $8,000 to $10,000 motor.”

• County Attorney Joe Rogers told justices that he is waiting for the bankruptcy court to release $33,000 that was for the Schoettle Center.

“The money is there but it is in the bankruptcy court,” Rogers said. “I am waiting on (bankruptcy trustee Jan) Thomas to get the paperwork done to release it.

Once they sign off the county will put that in the lease for the center and we will use that to renovate the roof.”

The county is planning to lease the building to Delta Arts, an arts agency that provides art, theater, education and learning experiences for students, teachers, families and senior citizens in Crittenden County, east Arkansas, north Mississippi and west Tennessee.

The Glenn P. Schoettle Center Medical Education Center is a 7,500 square foot facility which features a 76-seat auditorium and physician’s study room.

The facility was built in 2000 and was a gift from the Schoettle Family in honor of his 47 years of medical practice in Crittenden

County.

The building is owned by the county and got caught up in the bankruptcy proceedings when Crittenden Regional Hospital closed in August 2014 and declared bankruptcy.

The county has agreed to use that $33,000 for repairs.

The building needs a new air conditioning unit which will cost about $24,000 and about $5,000 in roof repair.

Any amount over that will be paid by DeltaARTS.

By Mark Randall