Beech Grove Park improvements get council approval
Group asks mayor for more information on funding request for 911 dispatch center
Members of the Forrest City City Council on Tuesday agreed to support a project to improve Beech Grove Park.
The improvements, expected to cost about $140,000, will be funded through grants secured by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service and the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas.
Jessica Vincent, instructor of health and project manager, HOP with the UA Division of Agriculture attended the meeting in person to speak about the project while Christie Jordan, chief executive officer of the Food Bank, participated by video.
Vincent explained that the group studied four parks that in addition to the one in Beech Grove included the Sycamore, Lake Street and Southside parks.
“Grant funding has been awarded to us in an effort to improve physical activity opportunities for residents of Forrest City. Our funds are designed to be used in areas that appear to be underserved in your city,” said Vincent.
Vincent said she had worked closely with the city’s parks and recreation department on the project, taking measurements and assessing the needs for the parks.
The plan for the Beech Grove Park includes new playground equipment, benches, a walking track and parking spaces. A water station is one option the city can consider adding. The grants can fund the purchase of a water fountain, but the city would incur the costs of providing the water.
Forrest City Mayor Cedric Williams, when asked by council members about the city’s contributions to the project, said the majority of the city’s responsibilities could be taken care of in-house without having to hire someone to do those jobs.
“We are typically in your community doing mobile food distributions,” commented Jordan. “Receiving funding that allows us to work on a different quality of life project is really fun for the Food Bank and to be able to build an asphalt walking track is something we would really love to do in cooperation with the Extension Service. We’re working together to be able to leverage our funding to have much more of an impact than either of our organizations trying to do this on our own.”
Williams also noted that the agencies funded the engineer renderings for all four of the parks that the city will be able to use when seeking grants for other parks in the future.
Also during the meeting, the council adopted an ordinance allowing the city to purchase vehicles under the same guidelines as the state contract.
Water department manager Edward Gregory explained how he has experienced problems getting vehicles because he is unable to purchase them in a timely manner.
“We know the supply chain issues we’re facing not only with the city but nationwide,” said Williams. “It is becoming difficult for us to basically get vehicles and is an issue in each of our departments. This ordnance allows us to purchase vehicles through cooperative purchasing allowance vendors with pricing at or below state contract pricing for new or low-mileage vehicles for the city.”
“How is the different from what we’re already doing?” asked councilman Chris Oswalt.
“This allows us to purchase a vehicle if it becomes available outside the state contract as long as it is at or below the state contract price,” said Williams. “Each one of our departments has been trying to purchase vehicles for the past year and a half, and honestly a lot of our vehicles are on their last legs.”
Oswalt voted against the motion to adopt the ordinance, with the other council members voting in favor of it.
The council heard first reading
of an ordinance to allow the city to fund 30% of the county’s 911 dispatch center. The state has mandated that all counties and cities combine their 911 centers into one.
Williams explained that he asked fire chief Shane Dallas to contact other cities to see what they are paying toward their 911 centers. He said, for example, West Memphis pays about 66% toward the Crittenden County center and Paragould pays about 63% for the Greene County center.
He also said the SFC center will be funded by the county, Forrest City and Emergency Medical Services.
“The Quorum Court ordinance says the city would cover 30% and the council found out about that through the newspaper after they had already voted. We never agreed to do that and now we have this ordinance in front of us,” said Oswalt.
Capps noted that each person who has a cell phone pays a $1.30 monthly fee for the emergency service and asked Williams to find out what is being done with that money, which goes directly to the county.
Council members also questioned why other cities in the county are not paying a portion of the funding considering they’re also using 911 and the dispatchers for their cities.
“They’re getting the benefit of it and don’t have to pay for it,” said councilman Lowry Astin.
The council also asked the mayor to find out how much the county has in its 911 fund to cover expenses for the service, if the state is funding any of the costs and what the budget will be for the center for next year.
Before adjourning, the council paid general bills of $44,090.25, street bills of $20,108.21, solid waste bills of $23,455.55 and water department bills of $67,147.72.