Springdale Council approves budget

SPRINGDALE — The City Council approved the 2019 budget in a vote 6-0 Tuesday night. But the council asked for some discussion of new employee positions in the budget.

Mayor Doug Sprouse included in the budget 11 positions the city will hire in 2019. Those include six firefighters to man Station No. 7, which will open in the summer; four positions in the Parks and Recreation Department to maintain the city’s newest park, the C.L.

“Charlie” and Willie George Park, and the Shaw Family Park, which soon will be under construction in the northwest part of town; and one person in the Building Department for code enforcement.

Sprouse noted after the meeting the pay for those positions was approved along with rest of the budget, but council members wanted to discuss the timing of filling those spots. Because those hires won’t be made immediately, the council will have the opportunity to discuss them after the first of the new year.

For example, the salary of the six firefighters isn’t an expense in the budget until July. But Fire Chief Mike Irwin said he would need to fill those positions in March to give those firefighters time to complete the Arkansas Fire Training Academy and local training before the station opens.

“We will discuss moving (those hires) up to March, so they will be ready,” said council member Jeff Watson. The 18 extra months of firefighter pay will require a change in the budget before March, and council members said they are ready for the additional money to be added to the budget.

Watson also noted while council members considered a pay raise for city employees, they didn’t have much discussion about the new positions. The budget includes $27 million to raise the pay for city employees, making Springdale’s pay rates equitable with other cities in Northwest Arkansas.

“We need to look at the timing of these hires and our ability to pay,” Watson said. “We need to find out what we need and when we need them. We have not looked at them as part of the big picture.”

Council members will discuss the new positions with the heads of the Building and Parks and Recreation departments during committee meetings in January.

In other business, the council approved the city’s actions in a three-part real estate deal. The city will sell its Recreation Center at 600 Ash Street in Murphy Park to the Springdale School District for $2.2 million. The city then will buy the former All-Star Sports Arena at 1906 Cambridge St. owned by the Arkansas Warehouse Group for $4.1 million for the city’s new recreation center.

Sprouse said the $2.2 million from the School District will go to pay for the sports arena, with the rest of the balance coming from the money set aside for parks with voters approval in the 2018 bond issue.

The School Board approved buying the Recreation Center for the John and Velma Archer Learning Center during its meeting Tuesday night. Recasting LLC will purchase the school building and its future probably will depend on renovation of Luther George Park and the efforts to revitalize downtown, Sprouse said.

Recasting is registered in Delaware, according to records on the Delaware secretary of state’s website. The company bought three city-owned properties on Spring Street in September. Recasting shares an agent with Ropeswing Hospitality Group and Springdale Downtown, both of which are backed by the Walton family.

The City Council also approved buying 0.77 acres at 301 E. Huntsville Ave. from Triple T Foods/Springdale Cold Storage for $132,000. The land is needed for parking for the Police Department when the new Criminal Justice Center is built, with construction expected to begin in 2019, Sprouse explained.

The money will come from the bond construction fund for the building, also approved by voters in the bond issue.

Wyman Morgan, the city’s director of administration and finance, said the city gained the property adjacent to this track in condemnation when the city widened Huntsville with money from the 2004 bond issue.