Howard County Quorum Court Meets For May Session

The Howard County Quorum Court skipped their April meeting due to COVID-19 but returned to their normal monthly meeting schedule Monday for May.

J.p.’s conducted a couple of routine public meetings. One was held so a resolution could be approved that allows Howard Memorial Hospital to receive equipment through a state grant. The other public meeting was required upon completion of a project previously approved with a grant for the North Howard Rural Water Association.

The justices also held a general discussion relating to how COVID-19 might end up affecting county funds. Treasurer Sheri Mixon said it will likely be June before the county starts seeing impacts of the virus since distribution of sales tax and other revenues are behind by at least a month.

Quorum court members discussed district court and the lack of fine collections due to the pandemic. Through April, district court collections are down by more than 11 thousand dollars compared to the collected amount for the first four months of last year. More than 30 thousand dollars of county revenues were used to subsidize the district court’s budget for 2020 and there is concern that the court’s deficit could be more than that at the end of this year.