GRAVETTE — Gravette City Council Thursday night adopted three ordinances, authorized purchase of 300 radio-read water meters, amended the city personnel handbook involving on-call city employees and adjusted the city budget to accommodate the hiring of two new full-time police officers.

Approved on third reading was Ordinance 12-04 establishing a flood damage prevention program required to accommodate purchase of flood plain insurance.

Approved on three readings was Ordinance 12-05 establishing new ambulance fees which will accommodate salary expenditures when the current basic life support service is upgraded to paramedic staffed advance life support.

The ambulance fee structure sets the base rate for ALS1 at$665 and establishes mileage and extra service charges comparable to area ALS services.

Approved was Ordinance 12-06 setting new water and sewer tap fees and street cut fees.

The water tap fees are determined by meter size and range from $1,000 inside the city for up to 3/4” taps to $3,300 for 2” taps. Outside city fees range from $1,300 to $3,000.

Section 4 of the ordinance states that “in Water West, if atap has been previously made, the customer shall pay a water deposit of $75 for property owners or $150 for leaser/renter. If no tap is in place, the customer will pay a tap fee as noted above plus the appropriate water deposit before water service will be provided.”

The section would amend an existing ordinance, approved Oct. 23, 2008, which set waterfees for Water West customers.

The vote for all ordinances was unanimous.

The on-call addition to the personnel policy states that such employees will be compensated at the rate of $35 per week to carry pagers and, if called for service, the compensation will be a minimum of two hours regular pay per call.

The adjustment to the police department budget amounts to $75,041 forthe balance of the year.

A budget adjustment in the amount of $11,372.04 for salaries of department heads from hourly to salaried until the end of the year was approved, with James Denver voting no. Denver had moved the motion be tabled until further discussion at the council committee meeting. His motion did not receive a second.

The 300 radio-read water meters for Water West were officially approved as proposed at the all council committee meeting earlier this month.

Prior to the business session, Mayor ByronWarren signed a proclamation designating May 2012 as National Heritage Month in Gravette which states, “The Gravette Historical Museum invites the citizens of Gravette to visit the museum and view exhibits that depict the rich heritage of our city.”

Museum commission chairman John Lee Mitchael invited the council, and all citizens, to visit the museum Saturday, May 5, when special “Collections” exhibits will be on display from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Bank of Gravette will be hosting a luncheon benefit for the museum.

News, Pages 1 on 05/02/2012