Prairie Grove Council Accepts Walking Trail Bid

PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove City Council considered a full agenda at its Oct. 21 meeting that included a bid for a new walking trail, a rezoning request, an amendment to parking regulations, an agreement with the Washington County Detention Center and a proposal on solar energy.

Walking Trail Bids

The council decided in August to seek new bids to build a one-half mile concrete walking trail at Muddy Fork Park. The city opened five construction bids in July and the lowest bid was almost $140,000 above the engineer’s estimate of $200,000.

Larry Oelrich, director of administrative services and public works, said the decision to re-bid was a good one. The council last week accepted a low bid of $191,154 from Boulder Construction of Fayetteville. The bid includes two bridges for the trail.

Oelrich said the city saved $140,000 by seeking new bids for the trail project. Oelrich said the trail hopefully will be ready by late spring 2020.

Parking Tickets Approved

The council approved a measure called the Parking Ticket Ordinance of 2019 that was recommended by Capt. Jeff O’Brien with the police department. The ordinance gives officers the authority to issue a parking ticket, called a Prairie Grove Parking Incident, that’s not a criminal citation.

O’Brien said the ordinance is similar to what the city of Fayetteville uses in issuing its parking violation tickets.

Police would place a $15 parking ticket on the windshield of a vehicle parked in violation of the city’s parking regulations. If the ticket is not paid, then police would issue a citation, warrant or summons for Prairie Grove District Court. A person found guilty in district court of violating the regulations can be fined $25 to $100, plus court costs and fees.

Danny Bryan Rezoning Request

The council placed an ordinance on first reading to rezone 1 acre on Danny Bryan Road from agriculture A-1 to R-2, which would allow a duplex or tri-plex on the property.

Brad Hancock first asked to rezone the land to R-3 in July to build a four-plex. The Planning Commission denied his request and Hancock appealed the decision to the council. The council on July 15 voted to send the decision back to planners for further study. In August, the Planning Commission denied the request a second time.

The city’s zoning ordinance allows a property owner to go back to the council to request a new zone, according to City Attorney Steven Parker. Hancock said he was willing to accept an R-2 zone on the property, which is a less dense multi-family zoning designation.

Hancock addressed the council last week, explaining again that the reason he purchased the property for a multi-family project was because the city’s land use plan shows the area would be suitable for multi-family zoning.

Adjacent property owners spoke against the rezoning request, saying a multi-family development would negatively impact their property values and alter the character of their community. Others pointed out Danny Bryan is a narrow road and not suitable for more vehicles.

“There’s a lot of things that are legal but aren’t right,” said one property owner, Lloyd Beal. “To put a multi-family housing unit on property sandwiched by four homes is not right. It may be legal but I’m asking you to do what’s right.”

Hancock said he proposes to build an upscale, brick rental unit with landscaping in a park-like environment.

The council will take up the ordinance again at its November meeting.

County Jail Agreement

The council approved an agreement with Washington County for jail fees. The resolution says the mayor has negotiated with the county to enter into an agreement for the city to pay a fixed fee based on per capita to help with jail funding, instead of a “speculative, per-prisoner, per-day fee.”

For 2020, Prairie Grove will pay $2.57 per capita for jail fees for a total of $16,224. The population is based on the estimated 2018 census.

According to the agreement, the per capita fee amount is calculated using the projected shortfall in the maintenance and operations budget of the county jail for the previous year.

The agreement says a city in Washington County will have to pay a daily rate per prisoner unless its council approves a per capita agreement. The per capita amount will be determined by Sept. 1 each year and then the amount will be due the following February.

Solar Energy Moves Forward

The council gave the verbal OK for the city attorney to look over a contract with Entegrity Energy Partners on a proposal to provide solar energy for city government.

Sam Selig with Entegrity said the city is paying 8 cents per kilowatt hour now with SWEPCO and Ozarks Electric for about 1.5 million kilowatts per year for annual costs around $117,000.

Entegrity would charge 5.6 cents per kilowatt hour and save the city about $29,000 per year, according to Selig. Selig said a new state law on solar energy allows Entegrity to receive a 30% tax credit and that’s why the company can charge the city a lower rate.

A presentation showed solar panels would be installed at two locations, near the wastewater plant and off-site. Entegrity must own and maintain the system for at least five years and the city would have the option to purchase it after that or continue a contract with Entegrity.

The city would not have any upfront costs but would agree to purchase all power that’s generated by the system.

In other action, a committee selected three engineering companies as the top three for a downtown drainage project: Burns & McDonell, FTN and Associates, Olsson and Associates.