Choosing a city director who will be held responsible for keeping City Manager Jimmy Bolt’s personnel file, and considering funding options for building a new Fire Station 1 and improvements to the Youth Sports Complex are topics that the Arkadelphia City Board will discuss Thursday during its regular bi-monthly meeting Thursday in Town Hall.
The first item, placed fifth on the agenda, stems from talk during the City Board’s April 1 meeting in which Vice Mayor Ann Sanders demanded that Bolt provide directors a copy of an apparent disciplinary letter they could have and a copy that could be placed in a safe deposit box, where Bolt would not have access to it. “Mr. Bolt does not need to have access to his own file,” Sanders said. “All the other (city employees) don’t have access to theirs.”
City Attorney Ed McCorkle advised Sanders that choosing a custodian for Bolt’s file would require action from the City Board.
As for discussion of funding options for a new fire station and YSC improvements, a memo from the city’s director of grants and research, Kyle Jones, is included in the packet. “Options are limited for this project but they vary in scope,” Jones wrote. He offered three options.
First: a special sales tax to fund YSC activities. “This option would free up other general operating funds for necessary projects that also receive tax dollars” like the street and sanitation departments.
Second: an Advertising and Promotion tax imposed on prepared short-order meals and short-term lodging. The City Board could pass the tax and appoint the A&P commission members, and that self-governed panel would decide when and how the money is spent (though there are guidelines as to how the money could be spent, split between parks improvements, matching grants and advertising the city). Another method of passage is by a citywide election, which would allow for a 1 percent allocation of the tax revenues to fund YSC activities.
Third: re-allocating usage of the city’s General Fund. “If this option is pursued, it would require that the (City Board) make alterations to the current budget and to cut services or planned capital purchases,” Jones wrote.
There are two options for funding the construction of a new Fire Station 1 that would replace the one that currently sits on the 500 block of Caddo Street. Bolt wrote in a memo to directors that the options are “limited if we want to have a replacement station up and running before 2014.”
The first option is a special sales tax election. “Sales tax bond financing is not an option at this time.” The move would require a seven-month, 1/2-cent sales tax, which would collect an estimated $1.05 million. City staff is recommending that, if such a tax is an option, the City Board pursue an eight-month tax so that any additional funds are used for “public safety programs” or to reduce the debt on the fire department’s new pumper truck.
The second option is using bond financing by pledging franchise fees. This would require “long term pledge revenue” and might allow the city to take advantage of a USDA grant. Bolt said he recommends waiting until 2011 when the Royal Theatre building is paid off.
Stephens, Inc., a bond firm, provided two “scenarios” for bond passage.
The city currently has a balance of $840,000 on principal for its 2003 bonds, with an annual payment of $114,225.
The first scenario would restructure 2003 bonds and produce $1.1 million in construction funds. The city could re-pay the bonds in 15 years at $173,575 per year, or in 25 years at $130,150 per year.
The second scenario for bond issuance is producing the $1.1 million without restructuring the 2003 bonds. This would allow the city to pay off the bond in 15 years at $109,325 per year, or in 25 years at $82,150 per year. All the information, according to the firm, is based on “conservative estimates of today’s interest rates. Please keep in mind that there can be no assurance as to the future direction of interest rates. In addition, this information is preliminary and can be changed to better meet the city’s needs.”
Bolt wrote in the memo that issuing bonds only on the fire station issue “seems to be within our means, but limits other opportunities.” He said this option “does not appear to be in our best interest, because it would impact our ability to acquire capital items from the near future budgets through the year 2018.”
Issuing the 15-year bonds to refinance the current bonds, he said, “seems to be within our means but limits other opportunities such as capital purchases.” Issuing the 20-year bonds to refinance the current bonds “seems to be within our means without limiting other opportunities.”
The packet’s agenda includes other items as well, including the consideration of a third and final reading of an ordinance financing a new 2010 Custom Pumper Truck for the fire department; consideration of a resolution of condemnation for the historic Deaton Cleaners building; consideration of an airport pavement rehabilitation contract change order; consideration of a resolution transferring funds from the Municipal Judges Retirement Fund account; and consideration of bids for a phone system at Town Hall.
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Choosing a city director who will be held responsible for keeping City Manager Jimmy Bolt’s personnel file, and considering funding options for building a new Fire Station 1 and improvements to the Youth Sports Complex are topics that the Arkadelphia City Board will discuss Thursday during its regular bi-monthly meeting Thursday in Town Hall.
The first item, placed fifth on the agenda, stems from talk during the City Board’s April 1 meeting in which Vice Mayor Ann Sanders demanded that Bolt provide directors a copy of an apparent disciplinary letter they could have and a copy that could be placed in a safe deposit box, where Bolt would not have access to it. “Mr. Bolt does not need to have access to his own file,” Sanders said. “All the other (city employees) don’t have access to theirs.”
City Attorney Ed McCorkle advised Sanders that choosing a custodian for Bolt’s file would require action from the City Board.
As for discussion of funding options for a new fire station and YSC improvements, a memo from the city’s director of grants and research, Kyle Jones, is included in the packet. “Options are limited for this project but they vary in scope,” Jones wrote. He offered three options.
First: a special sales tax to fund YSC activities. “This option would free up other general operating funds for necessary projects that also receive tax dollars” like the street and sanitation departments.
Second: an Advertising and Promotion tax imposed on prepared short-order meals and short-term lodging. The City Board could pass the tax and appoint the A&P commission members, and that self-governed panel would decide when and how the money is spent (though there are guidelines as to how the money could be spent, split between parks improvements, matching grants and advertising the city). Another method of passage is by a citywide election, which would allow for a 1 percent allocation of the tax revenues to fund YSC activities.
Third: re-allocating usage of the city’s General Fund. “If this option is pursued, it would require that the (City Board) make alterations to the current budget and to cut services or planned capital purchases,” Jones wrote.
There are two options for funding the construction of a new Fire Station 1 that would replace the one that currently sits on the 500 block of Caddo Street. Bolt wrote in a memo to directors that the options are “limited if we want to have a replacement station up and running before 2014.”
The first option is a special sales tax election. “Sales tax bond financing is not an option at this time.” The move would require a seven-month, 1/2-cent sales tax, which would collect an estimated $1.05 million. City staff is recommending that, if such a tax is an option, the City Board pursue an eight-month tax so that any additional funds are used for “public safety programs” or to reduce the debt on the fire department’s new pumper truck.
The second option is using bond financing by pledging franchise fees. This would require “long term pledge revenue” and might allow the city to take advantage of a USDA grant. Bolt said he recommends waiting until 2011 when the Royal Theatre building is paid off.
Stephens, Inc., a bond firm, provided two “scenarios” for bond passage.
The city currently has a balance of $840,000 on principal for its 2003 bonds, with an annual payment of $114,225.
The first scenario would restructure 2003 bonds and produce $1.1 million in construction funds. The city could re-pay the bonds in 15 years at $173,575 per year, or in 25 years at $130,150 per year.
The second scenario for bond issuance is producing the $1.1 million without restructuring the 2003 bonds. This would allow the city to pay off the bond in 15 years at $109,325 per year, or in 25 years at $82,150 per year. All the information, according to the firm, is based on “conservative estimates of today’s interest rates. Please keep in mind that there can be no assurance as to the future direction of interest rates. In addition, this information is preliminary and can be changed to better meet the city’s needs.”
Bolt wrote in the memo that issuing bonds only on the fire station issue “seems to be within our means, but limits other opportunities.” He said this option “does not appear to be in our best interest, because it would impact our ability to acquire capital items from the near future budgets through the year 2018.”
Issuing the 15-year bonds to refinance the current bonds, he said, “seems to be within our means but limits other opportunities such as capital purchases.” Issuing the 20-year bonds to refinance the current bonds “seems to be within our means without limiting other opportunities.”
The packet’s agenda includes other items as well, including the consideration of a third and final reading of an ordinance financing a new 2010 Custom Pumper Truck for the fire department; consideration of a resolution of condemnation for the historic Deaton Cleaners building; consideration of an airport pavement rehabilitation contract change order; consideration of a resolution transferring funds from the Municipal Judges Retirement Fund account; and consideration of bids for a phone system at Town Hall.
