By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Forrest City Mayor Larry Bryant gave his annual State of the City address Tuesday night, saying Forrest City is on a good course and calling for unity in 2004.
"After five years as mayor, I can truthfully say the state of the City of Forrest City is in fine shape, as it relates to the administration and the services to the citizens," he said. "All city departments are doing a superb job and are better equipped."
He said the city's finances are in good shape, "having reserves for emergencies, and money to improve the quality of life for the citizens.
"Forrest City is blessed with good people, good schools, good financial institutions, a good industrial base, good retail businesses and in general, a great city government -- a city government that is proactive in its decision making as it relates to improving the quality of life of the citizens," he said.
Bryant said he hopes the city council can avoid divisiveness in 2004.
"I hope and pray that the city council looks into their respective mirrors and sees just who has helped to make our city the best in the lower Arkansas Delta, and not get sidetracked into competing with itself," he said.
He specifically named three projects that are on the board for this year, and said economic development should also be a priority. He said Forrest City should "continue moving forward...by building a new multi-purpose center, a new fire substation, a new animal shelter in 2004, and by increasing the funding for economic and community development in our city, increasing the funding for recreational activities, youth jobs, more housing developments, and a community effort to build a homeless shelter for those who are less fortunate than us."
He continued. "Yes, yes, we can do it. We can, if we work together for one Forrest City -- your city and my city.
"In closing, please let 2004 be a year that people in all wards of the city are proud -- proud of you, proud of me because we are working together to serve their needs by being good stewards of their money."
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
A final operating budget for Forrest City is almost finished, and one more meeting is expected to do the trick.
The city council will have a special meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. to finalize the budget.
In addition, the committee formed to discuss pay parity will continue to meet, possibly even after the budget is passed.
In a budget meeting before the regular council meeting, several things were discussed.
"Some years ago, we really put a lot of effort into parity pay," said council member Roger Breeding. "We were worried about losing police officers once we got them paid."
For that reason, he said, the Forrest City Police Department is fairly close to being in line with other cities of this size.
"We are way out of line with the street department, public works department and fire department," he said.
Although some recommendations have been made for the uniformed employees, committee members agreed that more discussion was needed on the compensation for non-uniformed employees. The committee will also decide whether or not to recommend that any raises be retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year.
As the budget discussion continued, council member Cecil Twillie said he had a wish list, which includes, among other things, a completion of the Ophelia Street project, two new pavilions at South Side Park, a pavilion at Lake Street Park and a summer youth work program.
Mayor Larry Bryant said some of those things are already in the works, including the pavilions.
In other business, two bids were opened for the demolition of a building at 208 Water Street. One was $2,500 from Pardue Construction, and one was $2,150 from Prentis Wright. The bids will be reviewed.
The council also passed a resolution calling for the condemnation of two structures. One is the old First Christian Church building at 327 South Washington. The other is the old Razorback Drive Inn at 3202 North Washington.
The council also gave permission for the Fire Department to seek bids on fire turnout gear. Fire Chief Dan Curtner said the department was seeking about 23 complete outfits. Permission was also received to seek bids on new bunks for the Fire Department.
The council voted to adopt the "Procedural Rules for Municipal Officials," published by the Arkansas Municipal League, as a guide for parliamentary procedure during meetings. The council had discussed adopting Robert's Rules of Order, and some members thought the city had done that many years ago. But City Attorney Alan Cline said Robert's Rules were highly technical, while the Municipal League guide was much simpler.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
In an abbreviated meeting Tuesday, members of the St. Francis County Quorum Court reappropriated close to $280,000 in grant funds to the Forrest City Fire Department, while the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department received over $15,000 in grant funds.
Justices unanimously appropriated the $279,649.19 to the FCFD. The funds are from the State Homeland Security Grant and an Emergency Operations Plan Grant to be received from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The funding was used to purchase equipment for the FCFD's hazardous materials program.
Justices also appropriated $15,988.28, from the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant to the sheriff's department to purchase video equipment for department vehicles.
The money was appropriated at the end of 2003, but because it was not spent before the year ended, the money had to be reappropriated.
In other business, Quorum Court committees announced February plans to look at possible raises for county employees.
According to budget committee Chairman Henry Wilkinson, the committee will begin the process of determining how to fund raises at the next monthly meeting. Prior to the budget committee taking action, the county's personnel committee will also look at raises, comparing the income of county employees with the salaries in other counties comparable in size to St. Francis.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
An architectural firm was chosen Tuesday night to build a multi-purpose center at the Forrest City Municipal Sports Complex.
Although there was a lot of discussion and some disagreement, the final vote was one-sided (7-1), to choose the Woods and Caradine firm of Little Rock.
Some council members had been holding out for local architect Bob Beavers, although he had the lowest score of the three architects who were interviewed.
Alderman Roy Hancock said there were originally five architectural firms which submitted their qualifications, and those were narrowed to three, including Woods and Caradine, Beavers and Taggart Architectural of North Little Rock. He said the three remaining firms were then invited to interviews. After the interviews, the selection committee made its recommendation, with Woods and Caradine as its first choice.
Everyone agreed that the scores were close. According to the system used, Woods and Caradine received 27 points, Taggart 26 points and Beavers 24 points. After the mayor did his own scoring, the point differences remained the same.
Alderman Roger Breeding said that Beavers' familiarity with Forrest City could be an advantage. City Attorney Alan Cline had been asked to provide copies of state law covering the selection of the sort being made. He said that the three firms were close on three of the required qualifications, including such things as technical competence, the capacity of the firm to perform the work in question within the time limits fixed for the completion of the project, and the past record of performance of the firm.
However, the law also states that a firm's "proximity to and familiarity with the area in which the project is located" can be taken into account.
Alderman Cecil Twillie asked about the part of the law that said the three candidates should be chosen by a "political subdivision," and asked if the selection committee met that legally. Bryant answered that the committee had aldermen and citizens on it. "If that's not a political subdivision, what is?" he said.
After some more discussion, Bryant said that it came down to the interviews.
"All three came in and gave their spiel," he said. "And during the interviews, they (Woods and Caradine) blew everyone out of the water. All were good, but they just blew them out of the water with the interviews."
Cline was asked if the council could choose any architect it wanted, and he answered that ultimately, it was the council's decision. However, he also said that the decision had to be defensible if, for any reason, it ended up in court.
"You must have an articulatable reason" for not picking the committee's first choice, he said.
Finally, Twillie moved to accept the committee's recommendation and Mary Jeffers seconded it. On the vote, Hancock, Brent Ponder, Jeffers, John Gadberry, Louise Fields, Twillie and Breeding voted yes. Steve Hollowell voted no.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City Advertising and Promotions Commission voted Tuesday to give more money to the annual Rumble on the Ridge Basketball Tournament.
Bill Baxter, founder and director of the event, told commissioners that for the next three years, money raised by the Rumble ticket sales will be given to local charities which have an opportunity to have those funds matched by foundations.
"The A and P gave $30,000 to help fund the Rumble in its first year," Baxter said. "Each year since, you have given $25,000 to fund the Rumble. Our average expense to put on the Rumble is $42,500. With our average gate receipts at $15,000 and our corporate sponsorship at $4,000, we have an average profit of $1,500. I am asking if the commission could fund the Rumble by $15,000 more (which totals $40,000)."
Baxter explained that the $15,000 would take place of the average ticket sales for the event, freeing most of the money from tickets to be distributed by the St. Francis County Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Arkansas Community Foundation, to endowment funds. He also spoke of matching funds from the Walton Foundation to the endowments.
"The Rumble will match money raised by the endowment funds up to a total of $15,000," said Baxter. "Then for the next three years, the Walton Foundation will match the general endowment fund of the St. Francis Community Foundation. Here is an example, the (Forrest City Public) library endowment raises $1,000. The Rumble matches that $1,000. Both are put in the library endowment. Then the Walton Foundation matches at $2,000 into the general endowment fund."
Chairman Kem Merrill offered a simple question, "Is it legal?"
"Yes," said Baxter. "Of the 10 endowments in the foundation, money is distributed proportionately to what they pay in." Baxter also said that he did not have more concrete figures and facts about how the money would be distributed through the foundation. He said he would have more details in about a week.
Commissioner Mark Turner endorsed the idea, but said he wants more promotion of the event. "I will personally support the extra $15,000 to the Rumble. The event has been around for seven years, and I want to give it a shot in the arm. I'm thinking we need two nice billboards on the interstate, and we should advertise the Rumble on them."
Merrill agreed, "We need one that can be changed to promote the other events that happen here. So we can promote the Rumble, Mightymite, the Pow Wow, all our seasonal events. When people see that we are good enough to have these events, even when they aren't happening, maybe they will stop here."
After some discussion, commissioners voted unanimously to fund the tournament up to $40,000, and voted to support the idea that any other money raised by the event be given to St. Francis County Community Foundation endowments.
John Alderson of the Arkansas Community of Excellence (ACE) Tourism Team presented the option of having East Arkansas Community College do the first phase of a tourism study.
"It has been suggested that we get a marketing study," commented Alderson. "That comes in two phases. The first phase is to identify our tourism assets. Lee County, which is involved in the Kellogg Corporation project with us, has already done one. It is a list of what our assets are locally. The addition to Village Creek State Park and the opening of the Mississippi State Park are in the near future, but right now we have areas for farming tours, cemetery tours and family reunions. We have assets out there."
Merrill added to Alderson's statement, "It (the list) will give us a target, a laundry list, of what we should spend advertising on. Kellogg is funding the project, but it will benefit us as well."
"The college can do the inventory for the first phase if you want us to," added Alderson. "That is gathering the information. After that, a marketing firm that deals with our type of tourism will draw up a plan for us."
The commission asked Alderson to return next month so that they can review his proposal more closely.
Plans for a countywide disaster drill will be hammered out Thursday as emergency officials will meet to plan a simultaneous drill at several locations throughout St. Francis County for later this year.
According to Lisa Drake with the Local Emergency Planning Committee, an emphasis for this year's drill will be placed on how to handle a disaster in areas outside of Forrest City.
"We're really looking to get as many communities involved in this as possible because we always seem to focus on Forrest City. In the past, we've talked about what would happen throughout the county in cases of a disaster, but we've never taken the drill outside of the Forrest City area. We need to know what will happen if everything is tied up in Forrest City, and who's going to respond in the other areas," Drake said.
"We really need the leaders in all of the communities to be at this meeting because then we can get their input on how to best handle this," she said.
The LEPC meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in the quorum court room at the St. Francis County Courthouse.
The Palestine City Council accepted the resignation of Councilwomen Carolyn Burdett in a very brief meeting Tuesday night.
Mayor Willetta Carroll read a short statement from Burdett, who was not in attendance. The statement said that her resignation became effective at last night's meeting. No other information was given.
Councilmen also unanimously adopted the 2004 city budget and water budget without discussion.