Conway council accepts FAA grant

LOG CABIN STAFF WRITER

A resolution to accept a $1.3 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration passed without a great deal of discussion at Tuesday night’s Conway City Council meeting.

The bulk of the money will be used to buy property in the Lollie Bottoms area needed for the planned new airport. Mayor Tab Townsell said one property owner has agreed on a per-acre price for their land and told the council he hoped this negotiated price would also be agreed upon by the remaining property owners.

In other business, the council approved the nominations of Phillip Shell, Jim Rankin, Robin Scott, Jack Bell and Jamie Gates to the reformed Conway Health Facilities Board. This board is tasked with overseeing long-term debt, such as the issuance of bonds, by local health care providers. The board hasn’t existed since 1999, Townsell told the council, because the financial activity of Conway Regional Medical Center did not include the creation of long-term debt that the board exists to oversee.

The council also voted to grant some leniency to a property owner who has run afoul of the city’s Code Enforcement Department. Bill Haynes of the department told the council that he had not been able to make contact with the owner of a property at 2108 Independence Ave. that he said city workers have had to clean up several times this year and in 2008. 

The property owner, who was in attendance, told the council that family and personal misfortune had prevented her from maintaining her property, apologizing to city officials and her neighbors for the state it was in.

The council passed a resolution ordering the cleanup of the property by city workers at the property owner’s expense if the property is not brought up to code standards within 30 days, but Townsell and the council agreed that if the property owner was making progress on correcting the problems, the council would likely extend this period.

Haynes said similar arrangements could be made with violating property owners if they would respond to his department’s communications and explain their situations. 

The council also approved the issuance of $12 million in Conway Corp. wastewater revenue improvement bonds. The money will be used to install new, larger wastewater lines along Little Creek roughly from the Conway Commons shopping center to the Conway Human Development Center and along Tucker Creek roughly from Walmart to Gatling Park.

In other business, the council voted to approve:

• Allowing Cuerden Sign Company to perform vegetation control (mowing) along the highway right of way adjacent to the property owned by Mary Kay Dickens on Interstate 40;

• Resolutions requesting the Faulkner County Tax Collector to place certified liens on properties at 1320 Hairston St., 1505 Western Avenue, 620 First Street, 116 and 118 Barridon Street, 1616 Davis Street, 4 Gwen Lane, 503 Monroe Street, 1515 Freyaldenhoven Lane, 4910 College Avenue, 2530 T.J. Drive, 3090 Napa Valley Drive and 1605 Hosta Drive as a result of incurred expenses by the city;

• An ordinance appropriating $7,000 for operating expenses for the Conway Tree Board;  

• An ordinance authorizing the Parks Department to purchase sports field maintenance equipment through the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Alliance (IPA);  

• Accepting an $898,840 bid for sports lighting for nine fields and security lighting and parking lot lighting for Conway Station Park Baseball Complex;

• An ordinance waiving bids for roof repairs at Station 1 and Station 2 for the Conway Fire Department and awarding the project to low bidder Burgess Brothers Roofing (Conway Fire Chief Bart Castleberry advised the council that the low bidders were his second cousins prior to the vote);  

• And an ordinance appropriating $9,505 for civil service expenses related and police and fire testing for the City of Conway.  

(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by E-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.