By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
The Arkadelphia Board of Directors heard two of three required readings of a pair of ordinances to place a tax measure on the 2024 primary election ballot.
The election will determine whether the city will continue to collect a sales tax that funds the city’s government operations. It also calls for a 10-year sunset, set to expire in 2034. The current tax, which passed in 2020 during a special election with 66% supporting it, had a five-year sunset clause that expires on New Year’s Eve next year.
Regarding the decision to lengthen the sunset, City Manager Gary Brinkley said extending the tax to a decade would grant enough time for million-dollar projects to come to fruition.
Citing a Dec. 26 deadline to get the paperwork in so that the 1-cent sales tax renewal makes it to the March ballot, directors were urged by city administration to hear the first and second readings during a regular meeting Tuesday evening. With five of the city’s seven directors present, there was no opposition to the two ordinances.
The first ordinance will, once passed, levy a 1-cent sales tax, contingent upon its approval from voters, beginning Jan. 1, 2025. The second ordinance puts the issue on the ballot. Directors will hear the third and final readings of each ordinance, before adopting them, when the city board next meets on Dec. 5.
The board would have had enough time to hear each of the three required readings by the December deadline, as it had three meetings slated until then, but opted instead to suspend the rules — a move that required the consent of all five present directors — to expedite the process.
Discovery of price discrepancy tables hangar build
Directors tabled a decision to fund a three-bay hangar at Dexter Florence Memorial Field, as Ward 3 Director Keith Crews discovered a discrepancy in the dollar figure presented.
The city would be obligated to fund $98,157 to match an Arkansas Department of Aeronautics grant valued at $633,596. A bid opened on Oct. 24 was awarded to Frank A. Rogers Company Inc., of Newport, to construct the facility.
Crews questioned a $30,000 discrepancy he found while reviewing documents associated with the funding. Brinkley and the board spent whole minutes re-tallying the figures before determining the error was in correspondence between the city and the ADA.
Blown trash truck engine costs $40K to fix
A three-year-old sanitation truck is out of commission temporarily until its engine is replaced. Directors approved a $40,702 expenditure to replace the blown engine. In the interim, the department has leased another truck to run sanitation routes.
The Gurdon-based Hudspeth Diesel was awarded the bid to fix the vehicle, a process that is expected to take about three weeks to complete. Money to fund the repair comes from an emergency reserve fund, which directors later pointed out is possible thanks to the 1-cent sales tax.
City manager’s report
• Brinkley thanked the public for its patience with the slower trash service due to the loss of half that fleet.
• Brinkley thanked local businessman Billy Bunn for purchasing two twin-engine aircraft leased to Henderson State University for its multi-engine certification program. The planes, he said, are “amazingly beautiful and will help HSU grow their market share in the flight instruction community.” Brinkley also promised more good news is ahead on that front.
• Brinkley, Mayor Byrd and other city heads were privileged to attend Hostess Brand’s recent celebration of the factory’s first “sellable” products from its assembly line. Brinkley reported the plant manager doted on Arkadelphia’s workforce as the best he had ever employed.
Closing thoughts
Mayor Byrd said he attended Saturday’s MLK Park rally, which grew a diverse crowd. The event organizer, Corey Turner, has a goal of raising $350,000 toward the park and “he will not be denied.”
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