Private club receives PB City Council OK
The Pine Bluff City Council on Monday unanimously voted to approve the application of a private club that will be located at 208 S. Main St.
Owned and operated by Adrianne Dismuke, the Daiquiri Lounge was first approved by the Pine Bluff Planning Commission earlier this month.
Dismuke said the Daiquiri Lounge will add to the redevelopment of downtown’s Main Street and be a part of the economic advancement of Pine Bluff. Dismuke also stated that the city has few such places where adults can go.
The bar menu, according to Dismuke, will consist of freshly made daiquiris, beer, wine and soft drinks. The bar will also serve tapas or light bites for food options such as loaded french fries, air-fried wings and flatbread pizza. A built-in stage will be available for entertainment.
In other business, a resolution authorizing the mayor to contract with Enterprise FM Trust for the lease of police units was also approved by the council.
Last week, during the Public Safety Committee meeting, Thomas Layton, of the Enterprise Fleet Management division for Oklahoma and Arkansas, and Roman Aldaiz, an account executive with the company, presented the committee with an analysis explaining the program and how it would benefit Pine Bluff.
They said that they were already in lease agreements with several Arkansas entities such as Bryant, Cabot, Rogers, Benton and Siloam Springs as well as the Little Rock School District and Police Department and Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Pine Bluff Police Chief Lloyd Franklin Sr. has said in the past the city needs to be replacing older police units, noting a patrol unit averages about 18,000 miles a year.
Council Member Ivan Whitfield, who attended the Public Safety meeting last week, asked
if the city was comfortable and had the money it would take to acquire these vehicles.
“We are tentatively comfortable, but we are still doing the research before we close,” said Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington. “We haven’t settled on exactly what this would look like but we just wanted to go ahead and get this in place so we could move forward.”
Washington said her office is currently looking at what was spent on automobiles over the past three years to see if it averages out to what the annual lease agreement payment would be.
Whitfield said he supports the resolution but was concerned if the revenue was available.
Washington said the 10-year plan would allow for all the cars to be replaced because some of the units are relatively new. “We’re getting rid of all of the older cars, and we want to eventually have all of the cars on the lease plan,” said Washington.
According to the city’s analysis, the goal is to lease 88 vehicles over 10 years beginning with 51 in the first year.
Roman said the city will be able to do more with fewer budget dollars by replacing four to five vehicles for the same cash outlay as purchasing one vehicle outright.
The estimated fleet equity by 2026 would be a little over $700,000, according to the analysis presented by Enterprise, with the resale proceeds coming back to the city.
Several resolutions to appoint and reappoint commissioners were also approved by the council, including appointing Leslie Nicole Woods to the Pine Bluff Utility Commission and reappointing Lafayette Woods Jr. to the Pine Bluff Utility Commission.
The Planning Commission had four reappointment candidates and one appointed. All but one were voted in favor of by the council.
Lumond Rhodes Jr.’s appointment was approved. Latasha Woods, Stephen Huselton and Terence Mitchner’s reappointment were also approved. The reappointment of Gordon Reece failed by a 5-3 vote.
Whitfield had a concern that Reece had served on the commission for more than 20 years, but according to Joe Childers, Pine Bluff assistant city attorney, Reece’s new term started in 2016, and he didn’t serve those 20 years consecutively.
According to Childers, only 10 consecutive years can be served at a time.
Whitfield, Steven Mays, Joni Alexander, Glen Brown Jr. and Steven Shaner voted against the reappointment of Reece.