Vehicles -- both the purchase and the sale -- dominated the business of the Pea Ridge City Council during the regular meeting Tuesday, March 15.
Council members authorized both Nathan See, superintendent of the Street Dept., and Fire Chief Jamie Baggett to purchase vehicles, pending their inspection of the vehicles, and Police Chief Ryan Walker to sell two vehicles.
The city received one bid for the dump truck wanted by the Street Department. Although the truck is used, the equipment to outfit it is new, See told the council. The total cost for the truck, snow plow, hydraulics, bed, spreader was $62,899. Council members questioned the $25,000 wanted for the "rolling chassis" that has 187,000 miles on it. Council member Steve Guthrie told fellow council members that type of truck should be good for 600,000 miles and the price was good.
"We have a 2-ton right now," See told the council. "We're just getting to where we need a bigger truck. This will help us on time, spreader will be hydraulic like the Highway Department's is. The 10-foot plow is going to allow us to get reimbursement from the state on state highways. They pay $175 an hour for cities" to clear state highways inside their jurisdiction.
Two state highways run through Pea Ridge -- Ark. Hwy. 72 and 94.
See said the larger dump truck would also allow the city to haul gravel as needed and not pay delivery charges.
"Conditional approval sounds good to me, that way we don't have to wait a month," councilman Lance Sanders said.
"Nathan takes really good care of our resources," Guthrie said. "I trust Nathan to go through the truck and get what we need."
Mayor Jackie Crabtree presented a request from the fire chief for a 2003 F550 mini-pumper. He said the purchase price was in the mid-$60,000 range.
"We have a $15,000 grant that Sue Scott (State Rep.) got for us and we currently have $20,000 in the budget leaving us with about $30,000 needed. Arvest has approved us," Crabtree said. He said the class A pumper would replace the current rescue truck which is a 1979 model which the department would sell as surplus. "This would help keep our ISO rating."
In other business, council members:
• Approved a resolution authorizing a memorandum of understanding for mutual aid between the Police Department and "several Police Departments in Benton County, Ark., and Washington County, Ark.";
• Approved rezoning 744 E. Pickens Road, from agricultural to residential;
• Appointed Donnie Ewald to the Planning Commission to complete the remaining four years (2019) of Heather Clark's five-year term; and
• Approved selling two police cars -- a 2008 Chevrolet Impala and a 2009 Impala -- for surplus.
General News on 03/23/2016