Cavness fills vacant seat

His first meeting on the Board of Directors will be Sept. 6.

A new face will join the Siloam Springs Board of Directors to start September.

Jerry Cavness is the unanimous pick to fill out the term left by Scott Jones on his seat at position 5 on the Board of Directors. Cavness was recommended out of four applicants by a committee appointed by Mayor John Mark Turner, and then was approved with a vote of 6-0 at Tuesday’s City Board meeting.

Cavness will participate in his first meeting as a director on Sept. 6, at which time he will be sworn into office.

After making the approval, the board tackled a pair of purchases and an agreement.

The first purchase was for precision approach pathway indicators (PAPIs) for the Siloam Springs Municipal Airport. Currently, all visual aids at the airport are not in working condition. In April, the city board approved a grant application to the Arkansas Department of Aeronautics to replace both the PAPIs and runway end identifier lights (REILs).

The grant application came back to the board because, due to limited grant funds, the ADA requested that the project scope be reduced to only cover PAPIs.

The project will cost the city an estimated $21,500, though that figure could lower depending on the final cost of a required FAA test. The city is responsible for the cost of the test and 10 percent of the project cost. The ADA’s grant covers the rest of the project, which comes out to about $150,000.

Next on the agenda, the city approved the purchase of three firefighting apparatus. The three trucks included a pair of E-One fire engines and an E-One ladder truck. Together, the purchase will cost $1,689,053, according to a city staff report. The total will be financed and paid for out of the fire department’s reserved portion of the 1-cent sales tax.

The plan represented a slight change from the capital outlay presentation given by former Fire Chief Greg Neely a few months ago. Under this plan, Fire Chief Jeremey Criner said the department will put the body of the department’s current rescue vehicle on a newer chassis instead of buying a new vehicle. Neely was present and spoke during the time devoted to public comments, which Turner joked was the shortest time he had seen Neely speak at a board meeting.

The final item under contracts and agreements was a memorandum of agreement between the city and the Siloam Springs School District. The agreement was a renewal of past agreements wherein the school district agreed to pay a portion of wages for School Resource Officers. The school district also agreed to pay all overtime officers

spent on school-related activities.

The staff report estimated the revenue to come to $154,104.38. Director Amy Smith asked about the reimbursement to clarify that the city was not making money off the school district, but that the school district was just helping offset the cost of their police officers.

The Board also:

• Approved zoning changes to the 1000 block of Cheri Whitlock, 100 Highway 412, and 1611 Cheri Whitlock. The 1000 block of Cheri Whitlock was rezoned to C-2 in preparation for a Dollar General to be built, and the two other sites were rezoned to G-I for the police department and a church, respectively.

• Approved a significant development permit for New Life Church. The church is planning to add a 39,109-square-foot sanctuary and church facility, according to city staff reports. Before the church can begin building, five conditions have to be met, including a lot consolidation, screening and updating the plans to show landscaping and lighting. Senior Planner Ben Rhoads said the number of conditions was caused from some late design changes.

• Voted to give city staff approval to proceed in work on improvements to the Medical Springs Park, which is detailed in another story in this edition of Siloam Sunday.