The Clark County Budget and Finance Committee is looking for a place to cook meals for inmates, as Baptist Health Medical Center-Arkadelphia will no longer cook or deliver meals, effective Dec. 31.

County Judge Ron Daniell said the county received a letter from the hospital noting they would no longer be able to prepare inmate meals for 2009.

“They got reclassified as a surgical unit, and the cost of their meals went up,” he said. Sheriff David Turner began looking at other options for inmate meals. After trying several nursing homes and other such entities who were not interested, Turner found a company that is willing to sign a contract for $1.94 per meal. The company agreed to supplying the food and preparing the meals if the county will deliver the food to inmates and furnish at least two inmates to help clean up afterwards.

After finding a food service company, the county just needed a kitchen. The budget committee began negotiating with the Clark County Fair Board Association, which has a kitchen located in the Arts and Crafts building of the fairgrounds. The budget committee and the fair board have been holding seperate meetings to negotiate the deal, passing an updated lease back and forth without agreement. The fair board has requested in the lease that the county purchase equipment such as a stove, refrigerator, dishwasher and walk-in cooler, and leave it in the kitchen after the lease expires in three years.

After having auditors review the lease, Daniell said the county “just can’t buy that stuff with county money and give it to somebody. They can buy it back from us, or knock so much off of rent to compensate (that equipment).”

Both groups are meeting today at 2:30 p.m. in the conference room of the courthouse to discuss the lease agreement.

“Hopefully we’ll come up with an agreement this afternoon so we can start preparing meals at the fairgrounds,” Daniell said. Both Daniell and Turner said they hope a three-year contract will offer enough time to renovate the armory building across from the courthouse for feeding inmates.