Camden Commission Looking For Input On Property Tax Freeze, License Plate Readers & Juvenile Justice Center

The Camden County Commission is hoping to get some public input on a couple of issues which will be the main focus of two meetings that have been put on the calendar.

“The first one will be next Tuesday, the 29th. This will be an evening meeting at 5:30,” says Presiding Commissioner Ike Skelton, “I would like to get as much public input as I can on a proposed ordinance that would prohibit or seriously restrict automatic plate readers in Camden County.”

Skelton also says the other meeting is set for the morning of Thursday, September 7^th, which will cover a proposed ordinance to adopt provisions of Senate Bill-90 designed to freeze property taxes for senior citizens, and that meeting will begin at 10:00.

Both of those meetings will take place in the third-floor meeting room of the administration building.

That’s not the only thing the County Commission is working on….another item on their agenda, that was discussed this week, has been the Juvenile Justice Center.

Skelton says it has some much-needed repairs coming into focus…..specifically the increasing numbers of referrals for juveniles to be held in Camdenton.

“The juvenile justice center is being used by more counties than they have been before….that’s because Juvenile justice centers are being closed down all around the state,” Says Skelton,
“And unfortunately, a lot of districts are not keeping them. So we’re going to have one of the few district or one of the few juvenile justice centers remaining in the state.”

The juvenile justice center operates on a yearly budget of about $280-thousand collecting about 200-thousand of it from outside agencies housing their offenders in it leaving Camden County responsible for about $80-thousand each year.

Couple that with various repairs needed to the water softener system and correcting some drainage problems and the county is looking at about $160-thousand dollars.

That issue was tabled by the commission this week to see where the funds need to be allocated sooner than later.