By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City City Council on Tuesday accepted a gift of property which would extend Ophelia Street to Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
The Bridgforth family had offered to give the stretch of property to the city. The city will be responsible for improving and maintaining the property.
Before the vote, Mayor Larry Bryant told the council that he would like, if possible to spread the work on the new section of street over several years. He said it had been estimated that doing it all at once would take anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000.
"It's more than just going down and putting a little gravel down," said Bryant. "Personally, I'd like to make it a project where we'd have two or three years to do the dirt work, take the trees out and do it piecemeal. That way we can take out $25,000 a year and we won't take away from what we've planned to do in Washington Heights, Forrest Hills and other sections of town."
He continued, "And we still have Patillo. I went down through there yesterday, and it has some problems. It's coming into the city and we need to do something to fix those streets also...That way it'll be one tenth of the street budget instead of one third of the street budget."
He said there will also have to be some ditch work done to keep the new street from causing more problems than it solves.
In other action, two bids were opened for some airpacks for the Fire Department. The specifications included six self-contained breathing apparatus with carbon cylinders on the pack, along with six spare carbon cylinders.
Pro File Equipment of Olive Branch, Miss., bid $16,338. Metropolitan Fire Extinguisher Co. of Little Rock bid $15,577.50. The bids were turned over to Fire Chief Dan Curtner to make sure the low bid meets the bid specifications.
The council also gave permission to bid for new fire hose.
On another matter, Bryant asked for and received permission to bid out repairs on the roof at city hall. He said the roof is part of a project for general renovations to the building.
"There are a lot of things in this old building that are in bad shape," he said.
Alderman Cecil Twillie said, "Hopefully, the men's restroom will be included" in the improvements. Bryant said it would.
Bryant said some of the work can be done in increments costing less than $5,000, so the mayor can simply have it done at his discretion. However, he said the roof would be a major project, requiring the council's permission to seek bids.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Questions over the county's two-month budget for March and April have forced a special meeting of the St. Francis County Quorum Court.
Justices voted unanimously on Tuesday night to reconvene tonight to hammer out the final details of the budget for the next two months. Questions arose during Tuesday's regular meeting of the court when justices were asked to vote on $558,169.61 in expenditures for March and April without a total of the revenues expected for the same time period.
"I don't know how we can make a decision on the budget without knowing how much revenue we're going to have coming in during that time," Justice Regan Hill said.
Hill also mentioned concerns regarding the county's trust fund in case of a money shortage over the next two months.
"Right now, we don't know what money is going to come in or how much is coming in, and I don't want us to come in here one night and find out that the trust has been depleted because we didn't have the revenue to cover our expenses. I understand that we might have to make some transfers, but we should at least know what we're going to be facing," Hill said.
Justices requested a list of anticipated revenues from St. Francis County Treasurer Ann Harbin, and will decide on the budget during their called meeting tonight.
A second meeting involving quorum court members will also be held this evening when the county's building committee meets at 4:30 to decide on the construction of a 50-foot-by-90-foot metal building with a 20-foot-by-50-foot shop at the North East Arkansas Recycling Center in Madison.
In other business, justices agreed to appropriate funding to purchase four vehicles for the St. Francis County Sheriff's Office. The ordinance designated $62,000 which will be borrowed from Forrest City Bank for the purchase of the vehicles. According to St. Francis County Attorney Fletcher Long, the move is the first time the county has ever borrowed money from a lending institution to fund a project.
Justices also authorized a change which will pay the Sheriff's Department communication and equipment fund all the fees for warrants served through the St. Francis County District Court for the next six months. The measure, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, changed the formula from 25-percent of the fees going to the communication and equipment fund and 75-percent to the county general account.
St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco also updated officials on the county's garbage disposal situation. According to Cisco, negotiations with B&B Disposal, the county's former garbage contractor, concluded Tuesday with the county and the company coming to an agreement which will pay the carrier a portion of their bill due for the month of February, with the balance being paid in March. B&B officials had been requesting full payment for February. Officials with King Disposal, the county's new carrier were scheduled to begin distributing garbage carts this morning in the western portions of the county.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City School Board voted to approve several recommendations, and heard an update on the junior high school construction during its monthly meeting Tuesday at Central Elementary School.
Bob Beavers gave the board an update on the new construction and said that the project is about 75 percent complete. Beavers said the north wing is on schedule to be completed first, which will be followed by the east wing, the administrative portion of the building and then the auditorium.
Beavers said also that there is more than $2 million remaining to ensure completion of the project.
In other business, the board unanimously approved a recommendation by Deputy Superintendent Alice Barnes for a change in the personnel policy to raise the pay rate for substitute teachers.
The board also approved the 2003-04 school calendar and voted to authorize to Superintendent Lee Vent to secure bids to demolish the old Forrest City Junior High cottage. Vent estimated the cost of the demolition process to be about $25,000, "far less than what it would cost to renovate the building." Vent said the money is available for the project.
The Board also approved a bid of $210,610.83 by School Specialty for the furnishings for the new junior high school.
A recommendation to increase the supplemental salary for the junior and senior high band directors died after discussion and the absence of a second to a motion. The recommendation would have increased the senior high band director's supplemental salary to the same amount as that of the high school football coach's supplemental salary, an increase of $1,454. The move also would have increased the junior high band director's supplemental salary to equal that of the senior high choir director, about $724.
Vent also updated the board on the current House and Senate Bills dealing with the state educational process.