By Joe May
The Southern Standard

The Arkadelphia Board of Directors worked quickly through a short agenda at Tuesday evening’s meeting of that body.

The board briefly recessed into a public hearing, as required by law to hear any citizen input on three ordinances slated for approval.  Those ordinances were the 2018 Arkansas Plumbing Code, the 2021 Arkansas Mechanical Code and the 2018 Arkansas Fuel and Gas Code.

With no one to speak to any of the ordinances, the board went back into regular session and each ordinance was approved individually with no dissent.

City Manager Gary Brinkley told the board that he had received two bids to refurbish the slides at the water park.  Noting that they had budgeted $60,000 for the project, he said the low bid came in at $40,249. with $8,091 for extra work if desired.

Explaining that the city’s best option was to accept the lower bid as well as the extra work, which would help preserve the slide longer, Brinkley said the total amount would be $48,304.  At the motion of Directors Jason Jone and Reo Cummings, the work was approved.

In other business, the board:

• Read a proclamation designating February as “Go Red for Women” month, in support of female heart health.

• Voted to place some used excercise equipment on an Internet auction site.

• Heard Brinkley give his “State of the City” address, as required by law.

• Voted to allow Brinkley to sign the third opioid class action lawsuit settlement. The city will receive no funds, but money will be placed in an account for state residents struggling with opioid addictions.

• Heard Brinkley say that bids are expected to open in June for the Pine Street widening project and in August for the bypass. He stated that work will likely start in the spring of 2023 and added that he expected the bypass to be finished first, though both projects will be running at the same time.