Tia Lyons
EL DORADO — The El Dorado City Council will convene at 5:30 p.m. today for a regular meeting in the Council Chamber of City Hall, and aldermen are expected to hear updates on two items that were recently approved by the Union County Quorum Court.
Mayor Frank Hash reached out to county officials and asked that they attend the council meeting to discuss new daily rates for housing inmates in the Union County Jail and a proposal to dissolve the Union County Solid Waste Authority.
Mike Dumas — a Union County Justice of the Peace and interim president and chief executive officer of the El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce — will address the council on the two topics.
Dumas represents one of two county votes on the UCWSA. JP Benny Vestal is the UCQC’s other voting member.
El Dorado has five votes (the mayor and an alderman representing each of the city’s four wards), and the other cities in the county have one voting member each on the authority.
During a special called meeting on April 13, the city council voted against the proposal to dissolve the UCSWA.
The proposal included a recommendation by the county judge to use the $877,000 balance in the UCSWA account to purchase 77 acres of land off Industrial Road for $770,000 and sell 20 acres to CB&I for future expansion.
The remaining balance would be divvied up between the Union County cities, with El Dorado receiving 52 percent.
Additionally, Loftin recommendation that remaining assets and future revenues be directed toward the Union County Industrial Board.
All other county cities, with the exception of Calion, voted in favor of the proposal. Loftin said the Calion City Council has not yet voted on the matter.
Loftin said the decision to dissolve the UCSWA would require a unanimous vote from all participating cities.
El Dorado city officials said on April 13 that they wanted to discuss the matter further.
Hash said he felt the money should be directed where it was intended: toward solid waste and not economic development.
Dumas is also expected to provide additional information on a vote by the quorum court to raise the daily fee to house inmates in the county jail from $30 to $35.
The quorum court approved the increase on April 21, a few weeks after Alderman Willie McGhee inquired about rumors that a proposal to increase the rate was forthcoming.
The city pays the daily fee for inmates who are arrested by the El Dorado Police Department and placed in the jail. The city’s bill for March was $21,780.
McGough said previously that the total annual cost of operating the Union County Jail is $2.5 million, with the total annual cost per inmate at $11,820.24.