By Joel Phelps
The Arkadelphian

The Arkadelphia City Board of Directors on Tuesday will have a light agenda that includes a $55,300 bid for a driveway at Arkadelphia Fire Department’s Station 1 on Caddo Street and be introduced to the city’s new sanitation department supervisor.

The time of Tuesday’s meeting has been changed to 7 p.m. so city officials can take part in the 25th anniversary ceremony commemorating the March 1, 1997, tornado that ripped through Arkadelphia, leveling residential areas, commercial districts and taking six lives in its wake.

Sanitation Department head

City Manager Gary Brinkley will recognize Daymond House as the sanitation department supervisor. House has been employed at the sanitation department for a decade and serves as the transfer station operator. “We are excited and looking forward to good things to come under Daymond,” Brinkley wrote in a memorandum to directors, “and are extremely thankful for the 45 years of service [previous supervisor] Donny Manning has provided in our sanitation department.”

Concrete work at Fire Station 1

The board approved upgrades for AFD’s Fire Station 1 when it OK’d the 2022 budget. That work includes the removal of the former Chamber of Commerce building (which has been completed), installing a concrete driveway off 6th Street, replacing the asphalt pad with concrete behind the station, and installing a perimeter privacy fence. The entrance off 6th Street will become the “primary entryway for fire apparatus to the station,” Brinkley informed directors.

The city placed an advertisement in the Feb. 10 edition of the Southern Standard for bids to install a concrete pad, with specifications provided by B&F Engineering. Staff opened the bids for the work on Feb. 23. They are as follows:

Adair Construction: $55,300
Escamilla Excavating LLC: $57,638
Mar-Von Construction: $66,500

Brinkley is recommending Mark Adair’s bid. “He has done a significant amount of work within the city, and we have been pleased with that work,” Brinkley wrote. Adair’s bid keeps the city within its total budget expense of $75,000. 

Notification to destroy documents

In keeping with a city ordinance on document retention and codes from the State of Arkansas, city staff is requesting the approval to destroy certain documents dating from 2011 to 2014. “The documents will be posted at Town Hall for 30 days, then the mayor and city clerk will sign an affidavit to proceed with disposal,” Brinkley noted. The documents that would be destroyed include invoices, receipts and bank statements.

City Board meetings are open to the public. The meetings are held in the Town Hall Boardroom and may also be viewed via livestream.