Consent agenda includes farmers market lease
The consent agenda the Hot Springs Board of Directors will consider tonight includes a resolution renewing the ground lease for the nonprofit that runs the city’s farmers market.
The Historic Downtown Farmers Market Inc. leases the facility at 121 Orange St. for $1 a year in exchange for providing the farmers market program. The nonprofit has been managing the program since 2009. Hours for the May-through-October summer season are Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon and Tuesdays from 4-7 p.m.
The winter market runs from November through April on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. According to the lease, the city can use the space for events and programs when the farmers market is closed.
Parks and Trails Director Jean Wallace told the board at last week’s agenda meeting that the city
spends about $1,000 a year for utilities at the market and about
$3,000 for a contract mowing service to maintain the grounds in conjunction with the Garland County Master Gardeners.
Before the summer season opens, the master gardeners will hold its plant sale at the farmers market April 29.
The following items are also on the consent agenda:
• A resolution approving Square One Construction’s
$96,000 bid to construct Pac Placit Street at the intersection of Airport Road and West St. Louis Street.
The construction will enable the installation of a traffic signal at Airport and West St. Louis. In February, the board adopted an ordinance accepting 40 feet of right of way from the family limited partnership that owns 114 Airport Road and numerous commercial parcels near the Wal-Mart on Albert Pike Road.
The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department said last year that the signal project couldn’t proceed until the exit of Kentucky Fried Chicken at 114 Airport Road was reconfigured into part of a four-way intersection with Airport Road and West St. Louis Street.
Pac Placit Street will allow signalized access into and out of the Wal-Mart-anchored shopping center and serve as the western side of the fourway signalized intersection at Airport Road and West St. Louis street. The KFC’s current exit is in the middle of the proposed intersection, requiring the closing of the exit drive on the south side of the restaurant and rerouting drive-through traffic to the entrance drive north of the building.
The city is responsible for 10 percent of the cost to install the traffic signal and reconfigure the intersection, with the federal government paying 80 percent and the state 10 percent. The city bears all utility relocation and right-of-way acquisition costs. The right of way for Pac Placit Street was deeded to the city at no cost.
According to the public works department’s request for the spending resolution, Square One submitted the lowest bid of the five companies who responded to the city’s bid package. The contract will be paid from the city’s share of turnback funds it receives from the temporary half-cent state sales tax voters approved in 2012. According to the city’s
2017 budget, its share is projected at $715,000.
• A resolution approving a contract to Cranford Construction for the city’s 2017 street paving. According to the resolution request, Cranford’s bid was the lowest of the two responsive bidders, which included Redstone Construction Group.
The city’s street fund budget allocates $300,000 for street maintenance. The fund that receives the city’s share of the temporary half-cent state sales tax allocates $580,000 for maintenance. According to the resolution request, Cranford’s paving and cold milling contract is estimated at $800,000.
This is the third-consecutive year the city’s street fund won’t receive proceeds from the 1.2mill road tax Garland County stopped levying in 2015. The Garland County Quorum Court reallocated it to the county General Fund, effectively reducing the city’s annual street budget by about $350,000.
The city street fund’s $2.83 million in revenue is primarily generated by a $1.11 million transfer from the city General Fund and $1.63 million in state turnback funds.
State law requires counties to give cities a share of road millage proceeds collected within municipal boundaries. Cities are prohibited from levying a road millage, but counties can assess up to 3 mills for roads. Garland County transfers the $1.5 million its 1.2-mill levy is projected to raise this year for its General Fund to the county road fund.
The city’s $636,035 paving budget last year covered about
3.5 miles of the more than 300 miles of streets the city maintains.