The Blytheville City Council discussed and approved several new ordinances and resolutions in their monthly meeting Tuesday evening; one being the resolution to amend the 2017 budget for the city of Blytheville.
The resolution regarding the amendment of the 2017 budget states, “The city council has determined that changes need to be made to the budget and these changes would fall under the Arkansas Law and the adopted Resolution No. 2017:01 for the city of Blytheville; which approved the expenditures for the operations of the city for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2017. The waterworks lease payment expense will increase to $55,000 in order to pay for the Iowa lawsuit settlement over equipment leases. The building repair expense will increase to $360,197 for repair to the Regal Beloit building (formerly Magnetek). The city will only be responsible for a $10,000 deductible and insurance will pay for the remainder.”
Since the committee agreed to increase "insurance revenue" by $350,197, they also had to increase building repair expenditures by the same amount. The $10,000 insurance deductible will come out of the general fund surplus.
In other business, on April 20 the city received a request to rezone the property located at 633 West Main Street from a classification of B-2 (commercial) to a classification of R-2 (residential).
Proper notice was given to the public and the Blytheville Planning Commission conducted a public hearing on May 9. The commission decided that the change could not conflict with the surrounding land usages. Therefore, the city council voted unanimously to approve the rezoning.
Another ordinance discussed and approved by the board was an ordinance waiving a competitive bid process and authorizing the purchase of survey equipment for the Blytheville Waterworks Department.
“Both the Utilities and Finance Committees have determined that the Waterworks Department is in immediate need of purchasing survey equipment to be utilized in mapping the assets throughout the City of Blytheville,” the ordinance states. “At the recommendation of CWB Engineers, Inc. the survey equipment should be purchased from Javad GNSS [a company that specializes in the sale of this type of equipment] for a total cost of $22,000.”
The board unanimously approved the ordinance. In doing so, “The city of Blytheville will waive the competitive bid requirements as set in ACA 14-58-303 and shall enter into an agreement with Javad GNSS for the purchase of the proposed survey equipment,” according to the ordinance.
Also discussed was the resolution to authorize the sale or disposition of scrap equipment.
“The Blytheville City Council’s intends to sell certain unneeded obsolete, and non-operational scrap equipment [owned by the Blytheville Water Department] to the scrap metal recycling business paying the highest price per pound.”
The proceeds from the sale of the scrap equipment will be deposited in the General Fund or in the appropriate fund as determined by the Finance Committee of the City Council. This resolution was also passed unanimously.
rvaden@blythevillecourier.com