COUNTY NEWS Baxter County drug, waste dropoff a big success
‘Operation Drop Off’, designed to give Bax- ter County citizens a place to dispose of their old medications and hazardous household waste, was a huge success. Te Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and the
Baxter County Judge’s Office put on the event at the county fairgrounds in Mountain Home following six weeks of planning. Te appointed day saw 492 vehicles driv-
ing through the fairgrounds dropping off old prescription medications, paint and chemicals. Prescription and over the counter medications were dropped off. Many of the drugs were scheduled narcotics. Te prescription drug take-back was orga-
nized by Lt. Terry Johnson and investigators Brad Lewis and Brad Hurst. Te goal by the Sheriff’s Office was to take in around 70,000 pills. Te number counted, 119,192 far exceed- ed expectations. Five pharmacists from local pharmacies volunteered their time to sort and count the medications. Te drugs were incin- erated in a drug incinerator purchased for the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office by Roller Funer-
al Homes of Arkansas. “Tis event was awesome. It far exceeded ex- pectations. We appreciate so much people’s pa- tience,” said Sheriff John Montgomery. “Nine- ty-nine percent of the people were great, most saying thank you to the deputies as they drove through even after waiting in line for more than an hour.”
Te County Judge’s Office estimated be-
tween 10 to 11 tons of paints, chemicals and hazardous waste were dropped off. Volunteers from several organizations helped unload, sort and stack the materials. Members from CERT (Citizens Emergency Response Team), Friends of the North Fork and White Rivers, Baxter Day Service Center, and many others helped with the event. Te Salvation Army provided food and water to all of the volunteers. “Te event far exceeded our expectations,
“Te new feature will allow us to easily and
said Judge Joe Bodenhamer. “Tis is the third time we have put on a hazardous household waste cleanup, the last being about 8 years ago. Tis by far was the most materials and hazard- ous waste we have ever received. Working with the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office on this event has obviously made this a great success for both of us. In the end, the people are the ones that benefitted.” Te Sheriff’s Office is working on a perma-
nent drop site for old prescription medications. Studies have shown that chemicals and pre- scriptions are getting into the nation’s streams and waterways at an alarming rate. Tere have been traces of prescription medications found in the waterways in 30 states. Arkansas is listed as number one in abuse by prescription pain medications by teenagers, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s Office uses technology to gather photos to help it serve more warrants from tips An upgrade to the arrest warrants section of
the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office web site will allow for the opportunity to serve even more warrants from citizen tips and information. Prior to the implementation of the upgrade, only photographs from prior Baxter County jail bookings were available to attach to warrant of arrest entries on the web site. However, many persons that they hold active arrest warrants for have never been booked into the local jail and therefore no booking photo is available, said Sheriff John Montgomery.
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readily import photographs from other sources, such as photos from drivers’ licenses and identi- fication cards, directly to the warrants section of our records management system, which in turn automatically sends the photo to the warrants page of the web site,” he said. Te upgrade was accomplished through the joint efforts of the Sheriff’s Office and Brooks- Jeffrey Marketing, which hosts the web site, as well as with the provider of their records man- agement system software.
“Te Sheriff’s Office continues to receive many tips each week on the potential where- abouts of persons who have outstanding war- rants,” the sheriff said. “We believe that by hav- ing additional photographs available for public viewing, we will be able to serve even more war- rants from information received from the pub- lic. We value public input and participation in our efforts to serve the thousands of outstand- ing arrests warrants in Baxter County.”
COUNTY LINES, FALL 2010
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