Impact fees help pay for City Hall

The first two government meetings were held in the meeting room of the new City Hall/ School Administration building. School Board met Monday, Aug. 15. City Council met Tuesday, Aug. 16.

“We were beat by the first meeting of School Board last night,” Mayor Jackie Crabtree said laughingly as he brought to order the first City Council meeting in the building. “We just want to recognize Rick Neal (school superintendent) and give thanks to him and the School Board and the City Council for such a wonderful facility.

“We had Congressman (Steve) Womack here last Friday. He was very complimentary,” Crabtree said. “This is just the first part of what we can see as a community going forward in the collaboration between the city and the school.”

Council members authorized $90,000 transferred from impact fees with $80,000 coming from

the City Hall/safety line item and $10,000 coming from the Street/Park facilities line item to the general fund to pay for City Hall.

“We only borrowed $100,000,” City Clerk Sandy Button said.

“We had the other in savings,” Crabtree said.

The building was constructed for $2.5 million, half of which was paid by the city and half by the school.

The last Pea Ridge City Court to be held downtown was to be Tuesday, Aug. 23.

A grand opening for the new building is slated for 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the contract with the school for the School Resource Officer program with two officers serving in the school and the school paying for nine months of their salary;

• Amended Ord. 587 correcting the rate amounts, which were correct in the system by incorrect in the ordinance;

• Approved purchase of a horizontal boring machine for $18,000 and waived competitive bidding;

• Approved selling a car and the old ambulance at surplus; and

• Approved a resolution adopting the Benton County Hazard Mitigation Plan.