Sebastian County Quorum Court approves debris-removal ordinance, hears budget report

Companies that remove vegetation from areas in the county must now ensure the debris is removed from the site, or they will face a fine thanks to an ordinance passed by the Sebastian County Quorum Court on Tuesday (July 21).

The ordinance amended the road standards ordinance (2025-9) that the court previously adopted. The amendment states its intent is “to protect county roads, drainage facilities, culverts, ditches, bridges, channels, and other drainage infrastructure from damage or obstruction caused by vegetation management activities performed within or adjacent to county road rights-of-way.”

“People call complaining to us, but even worse, it takes a lot of time, our time, and expense,” County Judge Steve Hotz said after the meeting. “What I was mentioning, this spring we had several drainage ditches clog up because of that, and it caused damage, damage to roads and damage to property.”

Hotz said the estimated cost to the county was close to $100,000 because of one storm.

Because of the changes approved, all debris placed in or adjacent to county right-of-ways must be removed within 10 calendar days unless an extension is granted by the county. Those in violation are subject to a $500 per day penalty.

“Basically you’re violating an ordinance if you cut trees and leave them laying,” Hotz said. “We’ll give them a reasonable amount of time to pick them up, but you can’t just leave them and drive away and not come back.”

BUDGET REVIEW
Hotz provided a mid-year budget report. Of the approximate $65 million budget, Hotz said about 46% has been spent so far this calendar year, which is in line with previous years’ spending. So far, Hotz said the county has received more property taxes and sales taxes compared to this time last year.

“As always, we watch our spending and stay out of trouble,” he said.

In addition to passing an ordinance appropriating additional funds and approving additional expenditures for county offices and departments for 2026, which Hotz said is a typical ordinance to adjust for spending, the court also approved an emergency ordinance to adjust salaries for drug task force and library positions.

According to the ordinance, $113,134 was appropriated from the general fund to cover a new drug task force coordinator position with an annual salary and benefits package of $100,183 and to increase the drug task force investigator’s salary from $59,631 to $63,000. The ordinance also increased the drug task force coordinator’s salary from $75,337 to $82,500.

Hotz said the positions are state funded and passing the ordinance makes the salaries consistent with similar positions across the state.

In addition to increasing the salaries for the positions, the ordinance also approved spending an additional $27,835 from the library fund for additional staff positions as a result of the new library that will open this fall. The ordinance eliminated the EHP children’s program assistant position and created a new regular part-time youth program coordinator position with a salary and benefits package totaling $15,231.

In other news, Rene Myers, library director of the Scott-Sebastian Regional Library, announced that First National Bank of Fort Smith donated $100,000 to name the community room at the new Scott-Sebastian County Library in Greenwood. Work began on the new facility in December 2024.