GRAVETTE -- Gravette City Council established the mayor's office as a full-time position and set his salary at $50,000 per year in a short meeting last Thursday night.
The city recorder and treasurer's salary was set at $6,000 per year by the council, and city council members' salaries were set at $3,300 per year. The city attorney will be paid $850 a month for up to 10 hours of work and $85 an hour for time above 10 hours a month.
A short public hearing was held preceding the meeting to discuss a tract split for Jerald Boling. In the meeting, an ordinance was passed to split the tract of land on Bluebird Road south of Highway 72.
Motions to close the administration of justice account at Bank of Gravett and the fire department special revenues account at Arvest Bank passed unanimously. The administration of justice account had a zero balance. Act 833 money in the special revenues account was placed in a separate Act 833 account and fireworks funds were deposited in the general fund.
A resolution was passed authorizing the mayor to request a grant from the Arkansas State Police Highway Safety Office for up to $20,000 to help finance the electronic citation and crash reporting software. Gravette Police Department is participating in a statewide program to install this software in order to more efficiently issue citations and free officers to do other work.
City recorder Mike von Ree reported that he had contacted SWEPCO about its failure to pay franchise fees. He said SWEPCO understood what the city wanted and a franchise fee contract is being drawn up. The city is requesting four percent of SWEPCO's gross revenue.
Council members voted to approve Corey Reardon, city water and sewer department manager, and alderman Bob Robinson as Gravette's representatives on the Benton-Washington Regional Public Water Authority Board.
Mayor Kurt Maddox reported that March was "an extremely good month" for revenue, with income 40 percent above what was expected. He said an increased projection of income would be prepared before the April committee of the whole meeting and he would recommend moving a significant amount of money over to reserves.
City attorney David Bailey said he was working on an ordinance to establish a cleanup lien to be placed on a homeowner's property tax bill. This will aid the city in collecting the costs of cleaning up abandoned properties.
General News on 04/01/2015