Traffic light timing topic at work session

The city will meet with Bentonville officials Dec. 14 to discuss responsibilities.

Traffic woes at the intersection of U.S. Highway 71 and Benton County Road 40 came up during the Bella Vista City Council’s work session Monday night.

Aldermen also discussed the purchase of new city vehicles and the resignation of Ward 2 position 2 alderman Larry Wilson.

Wilson’s resignation was the last item on the agenda. Staff attorney Jason Kelley said it presents a handful of options.

“You have the option to have a special election to fill the space,” he said. “You don’t have to; you can appoint.”

Holding an election, he said, would cost a few thousand

dollars. But regardless of the approach, he said, the council is obligated to fill Wilson’s seat.

Mayor Peter Christie said that if the council chooses to appoint someone, the city can put together a list of candidates or ask interested parties to apply. Applicants, he said, will be interviewed publicly before the council.

Aldermen turned to the traffic light when they discussed hiring a consulting firm to fix the light’s timing. Christie said that he will be meeting with officials from Bentonville on Dec. 14, with the intention of putting together a memorandum of understanding, which would spell out who is responsible for what.

Christie said he would like to see this result in Bentonville taking responsibility for the light’s maintenance and Bella Vista taking operations.

Chris Suneson, director of Community Development Services, said the light’s timing has not seen any significant work in at least five years.

“A major update as proposed by the contract in front of you has not been done in my time,” Suneson said.

Alderman Doug Fowler asked what success would look like — that is, what result the city could hope to achieve.

Alderman Frank Anderson said that, while adjustments to the traffic signal’s timing would not completely fix a problem caused by too much traffic flow for the number of available lanes, it could improve flow and speed up traffic moving through the area.

“Will it be perfect?” Anderson asked. “Probably not. And we will need tweaking forever on that particular light.”

But hiring the firm, he said, is contingent on getting that memorandum of understanding. Without it, he said, he won’t vote for the resolution.

The council also explored the purchase of five new vehicles for the city — three trucks for the Street Department and two police cars.

Christie said one of the two Dodge Chargers would become squad cars for the first officer to be hired in 2017 with a car, with the other replacing one that was destroyed during a response to a 911 call.

“It was a slippery, wet night and she hit a corner too fast,” Christie said. “Luckily, no one was hurt.”

Some of the funds that will go toward the replacement, Police Chief Ken Farmer said, will be from the city’s insurance on the old car.

The three Dodge Ram 1500 pickup trucks for the Street Department, Christie said, will be replacing two aging vehicles and providing one for the to-be-hired code enforcement officer.

The council also discussed changes to the city’s employee handbook, including an introductory period for new employees, a compensatory time policy and progressive discipline policies, plus revisions to the inclement weather and performance review policies.

Christie said he asked the head of Human Resources, Melissa Cruise, to revise the handbook to ensure it is in compliance with the law as well as competitive. He also suggested looking for ways to give incentives to employees outside of salary, he said.

“We will never be able to compete with other cities on salary,” Christie said. “We don’t have the tax base.”