Farmington To Repair Rheas Mill Road

FARMINGTON — City Council members recently approved a low bid of $83,505 to make improvements to Rheas Mill Road in places where the road has eroded.

Sweetser Construction of Fayetteville submitted the low bid, though its cost was about $20,000 higher than estimated by DCI Consulting Engineers of Springdale.

The motion approved by aldermen allows city officials to look at options for reducing the cost. Floyd Shelley, public works director, said the bid includes $ 18,000 for 100 feet of guard rail along one side of the road.

“We don’t have any other guard rails anywhere else in town,” Shelley told council members.

He said he would ask the engineer if a guard rail is necessary or if a less expensive safety measure could be used instead.

The city did not receive any bids the first time it submitted a request for proposals. The second request for bids brought in four bids that ranged from the low end to a high bid of $129,052.

City Clerk Kelly Penn reported that revenue for September from the 1-cent city sales tax was up $6,153, compared to September 2013, and proceeds from the county sales tax were up $3,623, compared to the same period last year, for a total of $9,776.

In other action on Oct. 13, City Council members approved purchasing 11 new police Tasers for a total cost of $24,795, including a fiveyear service plan. The new Tasers were not included in the 2014 police budget but Chief Brian Hubbard said his expenses should come in under budget for the year.

Council approved the annual ordinance to levy a 5-mill property tax for the city general fund, vacated a portion of easement for 279 Briar Hill in Southwinds Subdivision at the request of property owner Jeff Wiedner and voted to remove Chris Layman as a volunteer firefighter and add Hunter Carnahan of Farmington as a new volunteer firefighter.

Aldermen also approved other requests from Shelley. He recommended purchasing a New Holland backhoe from Williams Tractor in Fayetteville. Shelley said the original price of the backhoe is $84,783 but the city will trade in several pieces of equipment for $43,000, making the city’s net cost $41,783. This will come out of the public works 2015 budget.

In addition, Council members agreed to Shelley’s request to seek bids for a salt spreader and a walk behind edger for the public works department.