120 YEARS AGO: FACTS AND FIGURES ON COURT HOUSE; John C. Harlin, County Clerk, Give His Views on the Court House Question - How Court House Can be Built, and Cost of Same.

Reprinted from the June 16, 1905, edition of the Ozark County Times -

Since the Hon. John T. Moore, our Circuit Judge, has ordered the Sheriff to repair our old court house by adding to it a 12-foot front, build a new fence around the court house, and repair it in general, which will cost the tax-payers of Ozark county at least five hundred dollars to place it in proper condition, I have been called upon to express my opinion on the subject. 

I would like to say to the taxpayers of Ozark County a few words in as brief space as possible, as to what I think about the situation. 

I don’t believe there is a tax-payer in Ozark county who would not appreciate a nice, new court house, and a good substantial jail. Why? Because it would invite immigration instead of discouraging it; it would be a safe depository for the thousands of dollars worth of records which the taxpayers have paid for, and it would be a monument to Ozark county for years to come; it would add to the valuation of Ozark county one-third; it would give to the people a convenient place in which to hold court and transact business; by having a good substantial jail, it would save the tax payers hundreds of dollars which is now being spent in transferring prisoners to other counties for safe keeping; it would be more convenient to have prisoners confined in our own jail than to have them off in other counties, and have to run the risk of letting them escape, as no other county would guard them as well as our own county. 

Yes, I say that there is not a tax-payer who would not appreciate a good substantial court house and jail; but the question that next arises is: what will it cost? Well, be patient with me for a brief moment, and I will tell you. It will cost the tax-payers something like eight or ten thousand dollars which will require a bond issue. Say we issue bonds for ten thousand dollars which will require a bond issue. Say we issue bonds for ten thousand dollars, payable in ten or twenty years and 4 1/2 per cent., it would require $450.00 a year to meet the interest. This would require a levy at the present valuation of the county, of the pitiful sum of three cents on the hundred dollars valuation. Say you have a valuation of one hundred dollars, your taxes would be increased three cents more; say your valuation was one thousand dollars, your taxes would be increased thirty cents more, etc.

Then, the court, of course, would have to create a sinking fund to meet these bonds. Say we make a levy of five-cents on the hundred dollars valuation, which would be sufficient to create a sinking fund in one year in the sum of $750.00 to be loaned out to the farmers of Ozark county at 8 per cent.  interest which would add the sinking fund the next year the sum of $60.00, etc., and in the course of ten or twelve years, the county would have a nice new court house and a good substantial jail, all paid for, and the tax-payers would never feel it; and if the bonds are made payable in twenty years, you understand that the levy would be still smaller. At this basis, the levy would only be 8-cents on the hundred dollars valuation, and the bonds would be paid within twelve years and the tax-payers would never feel it. 

Under these circumstances, and taking into consideration the great danger our county records are in and other valuables too numerous to mention, such as permanent school fund bonds, etc., and the wealth it would add to our county, I don’t see why any man who is interested in the welfare of the county could vote “No.”

I, for one, can say that I honestly believe that it would be to the best interest of the tax-payers to build a new court house and jail, instead of spending five or six hundred dollars to repair the old “fire trap” which we now have, and which would have to be repeated as the years go by.

Yours very truly,

JOHN C. HARLIN,

County Clerk.