GRAVETTE -- City council passed two resolutions at its Oct. 23 meeting, one authorizing the adoption of a police department policy manual and the other setting the rate of taxation at 5 mills on assessed value of real and personal property.
A public hearing for alley abandonment was held prior to the meeting. Two ordinances for alley abandonment were read and passed unanimously, one for Heritage Baptist Church between 307 4th Avenue S.E. and 410 3rd Avenue S.E. and the other for Duane Spear between 807 Second Avenue S.E. in the Highlands addition and a parcel in the original Gravette addition.
John Mitchael, chairman of the Gravette Historical Museum Commission, addressed the council about the proposed addition to the museum annex. The commission has received approval from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program to construct a new 30-by-10 foot addition on the west side of the annex building. This will allow space to exhibit the hand printing-press and back issues of the Gravette News Herald donated by Dodie and Louise Evans. Funding is available for the addition. Mitchael noted that the museum has already hosted about 450 visitors this year, including the entire second-grade class from Glenn Duffy Elementary.
A resolution was passed to authorize the Gravette Police Department to formally adopt the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police model policy manual. This adoption will cover the core policies in the current manual and all future updates to those policies furnished by the AACP with their recommendation. This does not prevent Gravette's chief of police from issuing new policies but establishes a core policy with which all future policies must comply.
A resolution was passed setting the rate of taxation to be levied for the city of Gravette at five mills on each dollar of assessed value of real property and five mills on each dollar of assessed value of personal property. The Benton County Quorum Court will enact an ordinance levying these millage rates for Gravette at its November meeting. Gravette's millage has remained at five mills for the last several years.
An ordinance establishing new dates for assessing penalties on late payments of water bills and setting other dates and procedures for water meter reading, utility billings and payment, appeals and penalties and deposits for meters was tabled at Mayor Byron Warren's request. He asked that the ordinance be discussed at the November committee of the whole meeting when water department manager Corey Reardon could be present.
Rental of the old city hall building was discussed. Mayor Warren said the city had received an estimate of $6,000 for redoing the floors in the building and ceiling tiles also still needed to be replaced. He said the issue could be discussed at the November committee of the whole meeting but the potential renter's current lease is up Dec. 1 and he felt it was unrealistic to expect the building to be ready by then.
In remarks following the meeting, alderman Ron Theis asked Kurt Maddox to identify those in his office mentioned in an email to council members. In response to other questions, Maddox said he defined deficit spending as spending more than budgeted for a particular item and said he had included figures for Hiwasse in his budget calculations. He said some city "income" was actually transfers from one fund to another and should not be defined as income.
City attorney David Bailey expressed appreciation to library manager Kim Schneider for the recent library gala. He said it was a very enjoyable evening and he would like to see the city host more such events.
General News on 10/29/2014