Benton council to consider narrowing street right-of-ways

The Benton City Council will consider a measure that will amend the current subdivision ordinance street right-of-ways guidelines during its first meeting of the year Monday night.

The measure, which was recently approved by the Community Services/animal Control Committee, has been heavily discussed for some time in the Benton Planning and Zoning Commission meetings.

According to Community Development Director Brad Jordan, the discussion concerning the revisions has been underway for four to five months. Originally, there was a plan for broader changes in the subdivision ordinance itself and Jordan said that he feels that still needs to happen, however, at this time, the only proposed changes concern street right-of-ways.

“The small change that we would like to make tonight would be to reduce the right-of-way just for those local streets in subdivisions,” Jordan said.

According to Jordan, the changes would not apply to the main thoroughfares in the subdivisions but only the secondary local streets.

“We believe that giving this option to developers will help spur development,” Jordan said.

Alderman Frank Baptist was not in favor of the changes and spoke about the section that refers to the restrictions on any onstreet parking saying that unless the Benton Police Department was involved that there was no way to enforce that section. He gave examples where some residents have 18-wheelers and boats parked on the streets. By narrowing the streets even further, if the street department has to do work in narrowed areas, traffic jams could be created due to the on-street parking. Baptist was the only dissenting vote on the measure in the committee meeting,

“Unless the homeowners decide that they will go ahead and comply, there’s no way a POA can make sure that these people will go ahead and comply,” Baptist said.

For detailed information on the committee discussion, see the Jan. 16 edition of

The Saline Courier.

Benton Mayor Tom Farmer is also set to give his estate of the City address during Monday night’s meeting. ” Other items on the agenda include:

• A resolution setting procedural guidelines for the council for 2021.

• A resolution declaring a collection of police car upfit pieces that are no longer of use to the city as surplus property and allow the items to be sold at auction.

• A resolution authorizing the mayor and chief of police to apply for grant funding through the Walmart opportunity for the purchase of safety barricades.

• A resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract with Pierce Manufacturing for the purchase of a Pirece Saver Fire Truck in the amount of $505,481.

• A resolution authorizing the mayor and the fire chief to apply for grant funding through the Assistance to Firefighter grant for the purchase of 25 Motorola radios in the amount of $216,480; additional turnouts for firefighters in the amount of $204,302; and three 10 air packs for station number six in the amount $94,228.

• A resolution authorizing the mayor and the community development director to apply for grant funding through First Electric and the Rural Broadband Grant opportunity.

• A resolution amending the 2021 budget for the purchase of a broadband study within the city limits of Benton.

• A resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract with Scott Hill for operating concessions at Bernard Holland Park, Tyndall Park and Riverside Park.

The pre-council agenda meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. with the council meeting following at 7 p.m.. Both meetings will be held at the Benton Municipal Complex, located at 114 S. East St.

All meetings are open to the public and attendance is encouraged. Social distancing measures will be enforced and masks are required to attend.

The meetings will also be streamed live on the city’s Facebook page.