WALDRON, AR - The Scott County Quorum Court delayed until its June 19 meeting action on a proposal to build a new county jail. Several justices of the peace said they — and many voters — had been confused over the ballot proposals in the May 23 special election proposing a five-eighths percent tax to fund construction of a jail and a seven-eighths percent tax to pay for its maintenance and operation.

Voters approved the construction tax by a 1,422 to 1,378 vote margin, but voted down the maintenance tax 1,648 votes to 1,158. Scott County Sheriff Cody Carpenter and some justices of the peace said at a special meeting Thursday that voters they talked to said they did not understand the failed proposal asking for “jail maintenance” was related to the jail project and voted against it.

JP Lloyd Hattabaugh and several other JPs said they had been under the mistaken impression that the failure of either jail proposal would mean the entire project would be scrapped.

Brian Bowman, an attorney with Friday, Eldredge & Clark, the law firm that prepared bond ordinances for the city, said the ordinance calling for the election offers the county the option of scrapping the bond issue. Without action by the court, the approved tax will be collected and the bonds sold, said Kevin Faught, an associate banker with Stephens.

He said an ordinance authorizing the bond sale could be presented to the county in July and construction funds could be available to the county in late August.

Bowman said the county has several options before it for funding jail maintenance and operation. He said another special election could be called and a tax adopted before the jail is completed, or the county could identify some other source of revenue before the jail opens.

Dennis Hunt with Stephens Inc., the firm selected to market the bonds, reminded JPs a significant delay in selling bonds could result in changing market conditions that may leave the county with less money than it anticipated.

Responding to JPs' questions, Carpenter said the county could not operate the new jail with its current staff.

In an hourlong discussion, JPs raised several issues, including scaling back the size of the $5.7 million project, delaying the implementation of the construction tax and calling another election, proposing a lower maintenance tax rate.

Consensus of the court was they wanted to move forward with jail construction because the voters had approved it. But JPs said they wanted time to consider options and discuss them with constituents.