BENTONVILLE — The Benton County Finance Committee fi nalized a draft of the county’s 2010 budget Tuesday.

The bare-bones budget will include no salary increases for elected officials or nonelected county employees and just $17,000 for the Washington County HIV Clinic.

Some justices of the peace voiced frustration with a request for money from the Washington County HIV Clinic. In 2008, Benton County officials agreed to pay $34,000 to the clinic to be paid in 2009. At that time, o◊cials agreed the expenditure was one time only, Justice Bobby Hubbard said.

“We gave this a good e◊ort last year, and it sounds like they got the ball rolling (toward becoming a self-sustaining nonprofi t organization),” Hubbard said. “But I am against giving them the money. We have too many things to spend money on.”

Paul Smith, a member of the Washington County HIV Task Force, assured justices of the peace the clinic would have its nonprofi t status by the end of the year and members of the task force were busy seeking funding.

As of Tuesday, the Washington County HIV Clinic was responsible for treating 262 HIV patients from Benton County, 18 of which were new to the clinic in 2009, Smith said.

Justice of the Peace Marge Wolf reminded Smith the Quorum Court agreed to fund the clinic last year, it did so with the stipulation the clinic become a nonprofi t organization and self-sustaining before asking for any additional money.

“Competition is the answer to high rates,” Overton said.

The city is not trading services for salary raises in the 2010 budget, said Alderwoman Kathy Jaycox.

“We’ve done the best we can to keep the budget cuts from impacting services,” Jaycox said. “The city sta◊has done an excellent job providing those services. If we can give them a step raise, I think we should do it.”

Several of the council members praised Sprouse’s performance in his fi rst year in o◊ce.

“He had to step into a hard position with the economy down and the ice storm damaging the city,” said Alderman Jeff Watson. “He tackled it head on.”

The future Springdale group plans to hold a forum for U.S. Senate candidates and for the local U.S. House of Representatives seat, said Stephanie Vaughn, group president.

News, Pages 1 on 11/06/2009

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