Board meeting ‘light’ on the agenda
The city’s board of directors will work through a little lighter agenda during its upcoming meeting on Tuesday.
No more discussions on weighty issues like whether to allow alcohol at special events on city property, the fate of the rodeo grounds or a sales tax extension to fund much-needed upgrades at the water treatment plant.
Those were the topics over the past several months. With those topics decided, the board will choose whether to approve the submission of a grant application and whether to allow kids to use soccer fields. They are the lone two action items up for approval on the agenda.
In addition, there is the second reading of an ordinance to simplify electrical inspection fees and the first reading of an ordinance related to a rezoning application. Typically, the board hears three readings at three consecutive meetings before adopting an ordinance, although it occasionally will vote to waive a reading.
The grant application to the Arkansas Department of Transportation is for a new taxi van to pick up elderly or disabled people from their homes and transport them to their needed destinations. The city currently has two vans that are going to need numerous repairs in the upcoming year “to keep them road safe,” according to the city’s staff report. A new passenger van is estimated at $46,000.
It’s an 80/20 matching grant, meaning 80 percent of the purchase would be funded by the grant while the city would be responsible for the remaining 20 percent, or about $9,200.
“This would be much more fiscally responsible than just purchasing a replacement vehicle outright,” reads the staff report.
The grant will be awarded in 2019, but it’s on the agenda now because the application
must be submitted by no later than April 11, 2018.
Resolution 11-18 details a facility usage agreement with the Siloam Springs Futbol Club, a youth soccer league, to use the city’s Sager Creek Soccer Complex during the next three years. It’s a basic agreement that outlines dates and standards for the club’s usage of the fields.
The rezoning application is from Chris Willis and involves a 0.17-acre property located at 609 North Gunter Street. The applicant is requesting to rezone from I-1 Industrial to C-1A Light Commercial to construct an office/shop building at the property.
There also will be the second reading of Ordinance 18-04, which would amend municipal code to simplify electrical inspection fees. The city generated about $22,000 through the issuance of 229 electrical permits. The proposed rates will generate an additional $4,000.