I t has been uplifting to see so many arms reaching out to help the unpaid county workers.
Food pantries, churches, the utility companies that said they wouldn’t cut people off — the efforts have shown how deeply average citizens have felt the plight of their brothers and sisters.
Perhaps the need for such assistance is coming to an end. There was a bill in the House of Representatives and then senators took up the cause and now that piece of legislation seems to be the one that will reach the governor’s desk and bring this sad chapter to a close.
The Jefferson County Quorum Court had one more chance to get it right on Tuesday night when they met to — once again — take up the matter of passing a budget for 2025. Like the four times before, however, the JPs couldn’t get out of their own way long enough to make headway. As has happened during every other attempt — and for the past two years — tempers flared, accusations were tossed around, elected officials and others talked over each other, and the proceedings went nowhere.
Consequently, it is now apparently up to the state to fix our county government problem.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
It’s always interesting to hear what other people’s take is on what has been going on for many months on the Quorum Court. The sponsor of the Senate bill, Sen. Ben Gilmore, R-Crossett, said he tuned into Tuesday night’s meeting with what sounded like disgust. Perhaps he thought it was a rerun of the Jerry Springer Show and not the Jefferson County Quorum Court.
“I watched the Quorum Court meeting. It was troubling to say the least,” Gilmore said. “There’s a lot of bickering. … Let me just say, there are wrongs on both sides of the issue. But we as public officials are called to rise above that. We are called to cancel out the noise and do what we’re supposed to do for the people that we represent.”
The day being pointed at for when this might end is Monday when the bill would reach the governor’s desk. And very quickly after that, the county workers, many of whom have continued to work despite it all, would receive paychecks.
That can’t come soon enough. Not that a meal here or there or a forestalled water bill is going to make these folks financially whole, but those kinds of things have certainly helped. To all those who have stepped into the breach to offer assistance, consider yourself thanked.