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PBFD REQUESTS FUNDS FOR NEW TRUCK

By AmyJo Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:42 AM CST

A proposal to spend up to $500,000 to acquire a new fire truck for the Pine Bluff Fire Department will be before the Pine Bluff City Council today.

The request seeks to put a newer fire truck in service, ultimately replacing the city’s 49-year-old reserve aerial, a ladder truck that has become an antique, according to information provided to the aldermen by the fire department.

“If one of our primary trucks was to go out of service, we don’t want to continue to look at that as an option,” said Lt. Shauwn Howell, the fire department’s spokesman.

In addition to safety concerns — the ground ladders, for instance, aren’t used because of their unsteadiness, fire officials said — there is a concern that keeping it in service will affect the city’s Insurance Service Office rating. The rating measures the quality of the city’s fire services and is often used to calculate property insurance rates.

The city’s rating is a Class 3 now. Improving the rating to a Class 2 was one of the top goals set earlier this year by the community visioning process known as the Pine Bluff 20/20 Initiative.

“At some point, we’re afraid the ISO will tell us it doesn’t meet the qualification to be the reserve truck,” Howell said.

According to the draft ordinance given to the city aldermen, the money to pay for the new truck, if approved, would be paid in installments of $110,000 beginning in 2009 for a period of five years.

Of that amount, $50,000 would be diverted each year out of the fire department’s budget from an account used for various capital purchases. The remaining $60,000 would be paid each year out of the city’s general fund budget, said Steve Miller, the city’s finance director.

Although the city has been struggling to find money for city services and capital improvements, Miller said the city would be able to afford the additional $60,000 per year using money that was set aside last year to make loan payments on computer software purchased by the police department.

The city recently received a grant that will allow it to pay that loan off, Miller said, freeing a total of $140,000 for next year’s budget.

The proposed ordinance seeking approval to spend up to $500,000 contains an emergency clause, meaning that although it is scheduled for its first public reading today — the first of three chances usually provided for public comment — aldermen could decide to vote on the proposal tonight.

Also on the council’s agenda for a first reading, with an emergency clause, is a proposed ordinance that would require electronic record keeping by scrap metal dealers within the city limits. If approved, the dealers would be required — like pawn shop dealers — to record each scrap metal purchase transaction and any purchase of copper so that the files can be reviewed by the Pine Bluff Police Department to check against reports of stolen items.

Only three scrap metal dealers are listed in the Pine Bluff telephone book.

Also today, the council will consider a recommendation by the Planning and Development Council Committee to send an ordinance seeking to rezone 10 acres along Grider Field Road for multifamily housing back to the planning commission for further action.

City officials told aldermen Friday that the planning commission was given inaccurate information regarding the original zoning of the land and that proper public notice was not given regarding the public hearing that was held on the issue. The city attorney recommended that the council ask the planning commission to rescind its 7-0 approval of the rezoning, and start the process over again.

The rezoning was requested by the Housing Authority of the City of Pine Bluff.

The council will also consider whether or not to approve a proposed $23,877 amendment to the city’s 2008 budget, sponsored by Third Ward Alderman Derwood Smith. Smith is seeking to restore money cut from the city’s parks department budget by Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr.

The money was earmarked for raises for eight employees.

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