FAYETTEVILLE -- City officials balked at paying higher fees to hold municipal prisoners in the Washington County Detention Center and a proposed county ordinance to increase those fees was withdrawn from active consideration Wednesday night.

A proposal to raise the daily fee to $80.52 was withdrawn at Wednesday's meeting of the Quorum Court's Finance and Budget Committee. The ordinance provides for a $500 per day fine to be levied on cities that fail to submit payment within 45 days of a request for payment.

The County currently charges cities $63.12 per day for holding municipal prisoners. That rate was set in an ordinance approved by the Quorum Court in 2019. That ordinance provides for a fine of $25 per day for failure to pay.

The 2019 ordinance allows cities to enter into contracts

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