GENTRY — City Council members will, at their rescheduled meeting on Monday, tackle a variety of issues, including approval of a skatepark bid, a tree ordinance, appointments to the Two-Ton Water Board, 2010 street and road projects and a rezoning request along Arkansas Highway 59.

The council meeting originally set for July 5 was rescheduled for July 12 due to the legal Independence Day holiday on Monday. The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers, next door to the police station.

Bids to build a skate facility in Gentry’s city park were opened June 25, with four companies submitting bids for the project.

The apparent low bidder forthe project was Allcorn Inc. Concrete Construction, with a bid of $69,000.

Other bidders were JSCI (Sanders Construction) with a bid of $74,655; Hard Core Shotcrete Skateparks, $103,097; and Danny Robinson, $144,000.

Before a contract can be awarded, the city council must approve a contractor’s bid. The city already received approval of Allcorn’s bid from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

The city had applied for $80,000 in grant money through the Outdoor Grant Program of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. The grant is a 50/50 matching grant, so the city also budgeted $80,000 in city funds for the skate park project.

Since the city was only awarded $40,000 in grant money for the construction of a skate facility in the city park, the plan proposed by the Parks Committee and approved by the council is to accept the $40,000 and match it, making $80,000 available for construction of the skate facility and adjoiningplayground. The city will use the remaining $40,00 in its budget to pay professional fees and to build required access walks to the skate park.

The council will also take up the July 1 recommendation of the planning and zoning commission to rezone lot 31 of Parks Acreage from residential to commercial for Cam and Jane Klassen, who are considering the land as a possible restaurant site. The land is located acrossArkansas Highway 59 from the current Wooden Spoon Restaurant location.

With information supplied by Ron Homeyer of Civil Engineering, Inc., of Siloam Springs, the council will possibly consider a proposed plan for improvements to the city’s streets and roadways for the current year.

The city’s parks commission was consideringthe inclusion of some minimal landscaping requirements to be included in a city tree ordinance but is now recommending that a basic tree ordinance be adopted at the present time and more study be done on suggested landscaping requirements for future property developments.

A basic tree ordinance regulating public trees is needed before Gentry can become a Tree City USA.

News, Pages 1 on 07/07/2010