PEA RIDGE — We want to take some time and look back at what has been done in 2010 and alsolook forward to 2011. We will look at several areas starting with the Street Department.

Last year we completedthe work on Weston Street, reconstructed or improved the drainage on North Davis, McCulloch, Ryan Road, Barris, Henry Little Circle, Carr and Givens Place subdivision. We overlaid North Davis, McCulloch, Patton, Carr and West Harris. Reconstruction was done on Greer and Woods streets.

Two community cleanups were held as well.

Several items were completed last year at our city parks. We now have a new park in the Givens Place subdivision, a new handicap-accessible restroom facility at the city park, along with new equipment, new swings, new picnic tables and BBQ grills.

We also planted new trees at both parks.

In our Water Department, we painted the inside of the water tower at the EMS building which included cathodic protection. Installed SCADA system equipment at the old master meter in Brush Creek, removed the Standing Oaks lift station, fencing and landscape at our new tower on Arkansas Highway 72, completed the preliminary engineering report on our improvements needed at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. Water/ Sewer line rehabs were done at the following locations: Van Dorn and McCulloch, Tinnen and North Davis, North Curtis, McCulloch and Dodge and at Cardin and Bloxham.

We purchased a new building just west of the current EMS building to house our Police Department. The other Police Department had less than 1,000 square feet.

The new building is considerable larger along with the land and some storage units.

Staffing of the Fire/Ambulance Department had started out as Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.;

we were able to extend that schedule to include weekends. Having individuals at the station has helped our response time. This is the first steps toward having a fully-staffed department.

In February of 2009, the city launched the Prescription Drug Discount Card Program; at the end of December 2010, we had had a total of 402 prescriptions with a total cost savings of $4,504.16. This figures out to an average of $11.20 per prescription, which is a savingsof 20.8 percent. All total, we have 148 individuals taking advantage of this program.

This is open to all residents of the area, not just residents of Pea Ridge.

We are currently working on the plans for street improvements for the current year. This includes overlay, patching and additional drainage work.

We will be making updates and/or changes to our Wastewater Plant to meet ammonia limits. We are in the preliminary stages of the project at this time.

The Library Board will be adding a new Web site to help keep the community better informed of activities and services they offer.

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Editor’s note: The State of the City was written by Mayor Jackie Crabtree. He may be contacted at pearidge [email protected] or by calling 451-1102.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 02/23/2011