The Pine Bluff City Council approved legislation ranging from rebuilding a small bridge to applying for a grant to improve drainage at its regular meeting Monday.
It voted yes on an ordinance to declare an emergency and waive competitive bidding for engineering services to replace a small bridge on 52nd Street between Main and Ohio Streets. Street Department Director Rick Rhoden said steel underneath the aging bridge has deteriorated, which caused the department to recently drop the weight limit on it from 20 tons to three tons. Rhoden said 52nd is heavily traveled in the morning by school buses, which currently avoid it due to the unsafe bridge.
The ordinance grants a $5,000 contract to Engineering Management Consultants of Little Rock. Under the contract, the Street Department would replace the bridge under supervision of EMTEC. The total estimated cost of the bridge replacement is $80,000 and will be paid out of the budget of the Street Department, Rhoden said.
The council also voted to give city staff permission to apply for a grant from the Delta Regional Authority. Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington said there is speculation that the DRA may be dismantled as a federal agency under President Donald Trump, and that the deadline to apply for grants to the agency is June 1. Washington said she believed the DRA possesses roughly $1.4 million in grant money to be distributed throughout Arkansas. She said the city would apply for a grant in the range of $150,000 to $250,000, to be potentially used to improve drainage in the city.
The council also approved a resolution requesting that the Arkansas Municipal League lead an effort to place a constitutional amendment on the 2018 Arkansas general election ballot. The amendment would enable cities to double the maximum millage a city could assess to support local police and fire pension funds from one mill to two mills.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Pine Bluff Finance Director Steve Miller last week said the ordinance was important to address the city’s unfunded pension plans for firefighters and police officers.
The council passed another ordinance that declared an emergency and amends the city’s code of ordinances to update the schedule of license and occupation taxes it assesses. These business licenses fees are assessed to every business that operates in Pine Bluff. The fees were increased in 2008, and again in the 2017 budget approved by the City Council in December 2016. However, the city mistakenly sent invoices for the fees at the old costs during the first billing cycle of the year.
“This was actually passed in the budget in December, this is just implementing the process,” Alderman Bill Brumett said.
Alderman Bruce Lockett’s proposal to require owners of vacant buildings to register with the city received its first reading. The ordinance, aimed at combating blight, would require property owners to use their property or be assessed a fine.
The council voted unanimously to designate the Friday before the annual University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff football homecoming game as “Dr. Lawrence A. Davis Jr. Day” in Pine Bluff. Davis served as UAPB chancellor from 1991-2012. The proposal originated from a request by the Pine Bluff Branch of the NAACP. Alderman Lloyd Holcomb Jr. thanked former Alderman Glen Brown Sr., who was in attendance, for his past advocacy on the issue.
Another ordinance passed by the council will close a portion of Pryce Street between Dollarway Road and Womack Street, as well as a portion of a 10-foot alley extending west of Pryce Street extended. Zoning Department official Lakishia Hill said the areas are right-of-ways for a street that was never built. The right-of-ways are owned by the city, which must maintain them, she said. They will be divided between two businesses whose owners want to expand, which will also keep the city from having to maintain the areas, she said.
The council approved an ordinance rezoning property at 5801 Cheatham Street, behind the Super 1 Foods grocery store, from commercial to residential. The rezoning request was made by a property owner who wants to put a trailer home on her property, Brumett said.
The council voted to appoint Goldie Diane Whitaker, Todd B. Howard and Anthony Jerold Howard to the Pine Bluff Crime Commission. During public comment, speaker Sederick Rice asked the council to look into the acoustics at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. The speaker said it was difficult to hear people speaking on the sound system during events.
A representative of the Convention Center said convention staff are aware of the problem and are looking to address it. Washington said she attended UAPB’s graduation Saturday, and thought the problem could be attributed to speakers at the event not talking directly into the microphone.