RISON - An old ordinance dealing with skidding logs on county roads, a one-time statefunded $5,000 stipend for law enforcement officers and an update on the demolition of the county’s old hospital building in Rison were among the topics discussed during the Cleveland County Quorum Court’s regular monthly meeting Tuesday night.
The venue for the meeting was switched from the second-floor courtroom inside the courthouse to the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building. County Judge Melody Spears made the move since she is in a wheelchair after sustaining several injuries in a fall at her home.
One issue that Spears brought up was an ordinance approved in May 1988 that deals with logging operations along county roads and ditches. Ordinance 88-5 is entitled “An Ordinance Regulating Persons Skidding, Loading or Dragging Logs, Poles, Pulpwood, or Trees on County Maintained Roads and Right-of-Ways.”
After being appointed as county judge early last year, Spears said she favored what some of the neighboring counties were doing in regards to repairing county roads that were damaged by log trucks or logging crews. She said some counties were charging the logging companies to make the repairs caused by their operations.
Cleveland County has more than 600 miles of county roads, most of which is unpaved and (see COUNTY page 12) (continued from page 1) susceptible to damage from heavy trucks.
Ordinance 88-5 states that county roads are to remain open to travel; no logs, poles, pulpwood or trees are to be placed on road beds or ditches; and “all debris shall be removed from road beds and/or ditches and same shall be returned to as near as its prior condition as possible.”
Spears had highlighted the last statement regarding the condition of road beds and ditches once all debris is removed.
Violations of the ordinance are classified as a Class B misde‐meanor. At the time when the ordinance was passed, the pena...
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