The Street Department, under the direction of Rick Rhoden, will have over $1 million in carry-over funds in its budget as the city nears the end of its fiscal year, money that Rhoden told the Traffic and Aviation Committee that he will need in the coming fiscal year for two major projects.
“I know that I have quite a bit of carry-over and that everybody thinks the money should be spent,” Rhoden said. “But I’ve got two big projects going on that are going to eat up more than a million dollars.”
Rehabilitating the 28th Avenue overpass is one job for which Rhoden is awaitingl an engineering report before he can begin the work, he said.
“I’ve been waiting on that for several months and also, just last week, I got a letter in from [the Arkansas Department of Transportation] about Eighth Street where the alley canal goes through,” he continued. “Those pipes are probably going to have to be replaced in the next year or so and so we’re going to eat up that million dollars I have in carry-over.”
“That’s good to know in preparation for budget,” said Council Member Joni Alexander, chairperson of the committee.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Rhoden said he also has an equipment purchase that should be finalized before the end of the year but has been delayed.
Rhoden said he is trying to purchase a knuckle boom truck at a cost of about $150,000,
Also known as a loader crane, articulating crane or picker crane, a knuckle boom crane lifts weighty objects. Although it looks a lot like a traditional crane, it has a boom that can fold like a finger.
“Everybody is blaming everything on covid right now which is why I can’t get the paperwork in as quickly as I’d like,” Rhoden said. “That’s basically the way its going and two of my trucks will be in before the first of November.”
Alexander said she and other council members have been receiving complaints about potholes and asked about the progress on those.
“We’ve caught up on a lot of them,” Rhoden replied. “I still like one that’s really bad, a section of road where they had a bad water leak on Bois ‘d Arc between 14th and 15th and I’m going to try to repair that this coming week.”
Rhoden said street crews have begun milling 11th Avenue between Main Street and Tennessee Street in front of the Aquatic Center in preparation for overlay operations there.
“I’m trying to get the most visible repaired first,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of streets in Pine Bluff that need to be overlaid, but these are the ones that all of our people who are coming in will see immediately so that’s why I’m doing them first.”
Doug Hale, Pine Bluff Municipal Airport manager, said the Airport Commission will meet Thursday to review the 2021 budget proposal from the airport.
“Hopefully they will approve that,” Hale said. “As the mayor requested it is the same amount we requested last year with the exception for department heads there will be a 3% cost-of-living increase, which is the only increase it has in it.”
Hale said the budget contains a $15,000 supplemental request for asphalt to complete repairs to Hangar Road.
“That was a four-phase project and we have three phases completed,” he said. “We’re asking for that supplemental $15,000 that would be for a grant match that was approved in the 2020 budget.”
Hale said the supplemental amount is contained in carry-over funds from the airport’s 2020 budget.
“We’d like to roll that over so we can get the fourth and final phase of that project completed,” he said.
“So you already have the $15,000, is that what you’re saying?” asked Alexander. “We just need to carry it over and put it back into your budget?”
“That is correct,” Hale said.
Larry Reynolds with the Planning Commission, presented a number of resident requests for signs to try to reduce speeding through neighborhoods. He said speed humps are being studied as a way to reduce speeding as well.
“I’m trying to pull up other cities to see what they’re doing,” Reynolds said. “There’s not a lot of cities our size that have done speed humps; that’s what I’m trying to get more information on.”
Reynolds told the committee that speed bumps, which are built at a sharper incline, are most often now used in private parking lots rather than on public streets.
“If the city is going to do something it should probably be speed humps,” he said.