Highfill authorizes police, radio purchases

HIGHFILL -- The city council on Aug. 13 handled a slate of ordinances and resolutions ranging from planning for sidewalks and bike trails to authorizing funding to purchase a new patrol vehicle and begin the purchase of new digital radios and pagers.

The council passed an ordinance (on three readings with a single vote and with an emergency clause) authorizing short-term financing with Grand Savings Bank to purchase a new Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck and to purchase and install the necessary equipment for it to be used as a patrol vehicle for the police department. The ordinance allowed financing in the amount of up to $47,500, with the financing not to be finalized until the vehicle is ordered and ready for delivery to the police department to avoid paying interest while waiting for delivery of the vehicle.

The council approved the transfer of $15,000 from the police department equipment fund to the fire department to make it possible for the fire department to order new pagers for all the firefighters. The action is part of a longer-range plan to be ready when Benton County begins using a new digital radio system for police and fire departments, now scheduled to be operational in February 2020.

Related to this, the council approved a lease-to-own plan for radios for its police and fire departments in the amount of $168,865 with Motorola Solutions to acquire the radios through Smith Radio which will be necessary to have when the county implements its new digital radio system. Without the new radios, the city police and fire departments would no longer be able to be dispatched through Benton County's central dispatch. The term for the agreement is for five years at an interest rate not to exceed 3.88 percent. The lease-to-own plan, which was required to be approved by Sept. 1, gives the city approximately $40,000 in trade-in discounts on the radio purchase, according to Police Chief Blake Webb.

Also approved by ordinance (on three readings with a single vote) were uniform sidewalk, driveway and driveway approach standards for the city, as well as amending value-based permit fees in the city.

After it was brought to the council's attention by Don Nash, a member of the planning commission, that building permits had been issued to Schuber Mitchell Homes without final plat approval, a motion of Chris Holland was passed which stated that all construction must stop unless Schuber Mitchell Homes completes all requirements and has a final plat approved by the August planning and zoning commission meeting. A representative from Schuber Mitchell Homes said plans are in place to meet that requirement as long as the weather does not interfere with those plans.

After hearing from Elizabeth Bowen of the Northwest Arkansas Planning Commission, a non-binding resolution was passed which includes plans to incorporate the community bicycle and pedestrian plan prepared by the Planning Commission into the planning of future highway and street projects in Highfill.

The Northwest Arkansas Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan was adopted in 2015 and is considered part of the master transportation plan for the region. The full plan document can be viewed at www.nwabikepedplan.com. The plan is a regional network of bicycle and pedestrian on-road and off-road trail facilities and routes within 32 communities of Northwest Arkansas in Benton and Washington Counties, according to the Planning Commission's website.

The council approved accepting the bid and completing the overlay project on Holland Avenue rather than cutting it down to the amount to be received through the state -- $250,000. The bid was approximately $284,000, meaning the city would be responsible for $34,000 to complete the project. The state project is funded through the temporary 1/2-cent fuel tax approved by voters in 2013. Cities applying for funding with projects were eligible to receive up to a maximum amount of $250,000 per year from the tax money.

Frank Holzkamper, of Centerton's water and sewer department, told the council he had monitored sewage flow into Highfill's sewer system and filed an appeal with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and with the Arkansas Health Department and was hoping to get an additional 1,000 homes allowed under the Highfill's current system to give the city more time to meet the demands of growth and possible connection to another sewer system. Centerton was recently contracted to manage Highfill's water and sewer systems.

General News on 08/21/2019