Craighead County Justices Learn Of IT Storage Concerns

Craighead County officials are literally running out of room.

While it will not require building onto the Craighead County Courthouse, the servers that house much of the data that the county stores will need addressing, the county’s computer director said Monday.

Erin Johnson spoke to Craighead County justices about the issue during Monday night’s Quorum Court meeting.

Johnson said his office has worked on the issue since Jan. 2015 with employees looking for ways to add memory.

“We are at a critical time with storage,” Johnson said. “We have less than 5% (left).”

A new system will need to hold the information that the county currently has as well as two to five years of growth, Johnson said.

“Our storage has reached maximum capacity,” Johnson said.

A new system that will hold up to five years of information is expected to cost at least $75,000, Johnson told justices.

The current system is expected to run out of space by Nov. 2015.

While none of the justices said they opposed the plan, several expressed misgivings about how the plan was presented.

“Why the wait,” Justice Garry Meadows, R-Goobertown, asked Johnson.

Johnson responded that he originally felt like the county could have avoided purchasing the new system until the first of the year.

Johnson said the county has been working with technicians with Presidio Computing in Little Rock to address the issue.

“It would have been nice to come to the Finance Committee or Public Service Committee beforehand,” Justice Barbara Weinstock, D-Jonesboro, suggested.

Johnson said he did not expect the amount of data to increase so far this year, leading to the need for the new system.

The next step will involve the county getting quotes for the system, as well as providers and vendors who can provide the service.

The system will be discussed further at the Aug. 10 Craighead County Quorum Court meeting.

PUBLIC FACILITIES BOARD
Justices also voted 11-1 Monday to appoint five members of a county board that opponents say has been inactive for at least a decade.

The appointments to the Craighead County Public Facilities Board came after some discussion over the issue.

According to the appointment ordinance, the board was created on June 24, 2002 by the Craighead County Quorum Court.

Michael Moyers, an attorney for the Little Rock law firm of Friday, Eldridge and Clark, said the board and others like it help 501-c-3 groups receive tax free bonds for projects.

In the Craighead County case, the board was created to hear a plan by the Ridgefield Christian school in 2002 to purchase nearly $2.1 million in bonds to help with needed building projects, Moyers said.

However, the school has since filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Moyers said.

Several justices, including Meadows and Justice Josh Longmire, R-Jonesboro, questioned the appointments and the need for the board.

The board has not met since 2002 and no one has been appointed or reappointed to fill vacancies since then, county officials said.

Those appointed to the board were Steve Cox, for a one-year term; Marilyn Hummelstein, for a two-year term; Doug Gilmore, for a three-year term; Elijah Agnew, for a four-year term; and Wayne Bond, for a five-year term.

Voting yes on the appointments were Weinstock, Longmire and justices Fred Bowers, D-Jonesboro, Steve Cline, R-Bono, Terry Couch, R-Caraway, Max Render, D-Jonesboro, Ray Kidd, D-Jonesboro, Jim Bryant, D-Jonesboro, David Tennison, R-Jonesboro, Ken Stacks, D-Jonesboro and Billie Sue Hoggard, R-Jonesboro.

Meadows voted no while Justice Richard Rogers, R-Jonesboro, was absent.