GENTRY — Gentry’s city council met in special session Dec. 18 to address a number of matters requiring council action before the close of the year.
A resolution was passed amending the city budget for 2012 and adjusting line items where necessary to match the actual expenditures.
In order not to exceed the adopted budget, adjustments were made to the General Fund, Police Department, Court, Fire Department, Senior Center, Cemetery, County Tax, Library, Solid Waste, Street and Alley, and Water Department line items. Most changes were small, but some amounted to several thousand dollars.
The largest adjustment was to the water department budget, adding $95,000 to the budgeted amount for bond payments due to the approved early payoff of two bonds, resulting in significant savings for the city.
An ordinance, required by law, which sets minimum energy standards for new buildings and structures and new additions was passed on three readings with a single vote, and with an emergency clause attached.
The new standards, required to be in place by Jan. 1, 2013, regulate the selection of a building’s external covering, heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems, water heat-ers, electrical and lighting systems.
The multi-volume 2011 Arkansas Energy Code book is available for viewing at city hall.
Also approved, due to a Federal Communications Commission directive, was the purchase and installation of radio equipment for the police department to comply with FCC requirements that law enforcement agencies switch over to narrow band radio use by Jan. 1. Total cost for the approved equipment and installation was $2,868.58, according to a sales quote from Smith Two-way Radio.
The requirement for police departments and other emergency service agencies to switch over to narrow-band radios, cuts their bandwidth in half and makes it possible formore departments to operate on radio frequencies within the same range of frequencies.
According to Keith Smith, Gentry Police Chief, assigned frequencies the department uses were not changed, just narrowed. He said most of the department’s radios were capable of being reprogrammed to comply with the new requirement, but a few were too old, making them obsolete after Jan. 1. He expects additional changes - moving from analog to digital - to come within a few years. That change, when it comes, is expected to require the purchase of new radio equipment.
Also discussed was proceeding with the Safe Routes to School grant application. The grant is 100 percent, with no matching funds required from the city, though no amount available was specified. The council considered and selected Civil Engineering of Siloam Springsas its first choice for an engineering firm to prepare plans for projects which the city could complete with grant funding. Civil Engineering is the firm working with the city on existing sidewalk projects as well.
If received, the grant money would assist the city in completing existing sidewalk plans and linking them to Gentry Schools to provide safe walking routes for students. Also suggested as a part of the plan would be improved school crossings.
News, Pages 1 on 12/26/2012