The Board of Directors don't want residents to face a property tax increase to pay for rural ambulance service.
On Tuesday, directors voted 6-0 to oppose a plan to increase property taxes for current residents in order to pay for rural ambulance service.
In other business, directors approved:
• The first reading to repeal an ordinance that restricts people younger than 16 from playing pinball
• To spend up to $141,917 for a new ambulance chassis and mounting an existing ambulance box onto the four-wheel-drive Dodge chassis
• To authorize the city administrator to convene a museum advisory commission
• To purchase a John Deere backhoe tractor for the water department for $101,788 from Stribling Equipment
• Haying lease for the airport
• Destruction order correction for 2007 and 2008 documents inadvertently destroyed in 2013
Also, directors voted down a proposed ordinance addressing boating on Sager Creek, City Lake and Siloam Springs Whitewater Recreation Park.
Benton County Quorum Court is considering two proposals to pay cities for ambulance service. One is the property tax increase for all county residents. The other is a $40 fee for rural residents in the service district. County residents previously voted down an $85 fee to pay for the service.
"The citizens of the community are already paying for ambulance service through their rates," City Administrator David Cameron said. "For the county to be considering a .2 mill increase to our current residents is asinine."
Cameron said there was a newspaper article on Tuesday that the county would be talking to city officials about the tax plan, and he wanted the city to make a statement in advance. Cameron asked the board to place an item on the agenda in order to discuss the city's opposition to the property tax increase. The board voted to do so. And it later voted to oppose the plan for the tax.
"I just can't believe they're entertaining that thought," Director Carol Smiley said.
In other business, Cameron updated the board about the negotiations with Allens regarding handling its wastewater.
"A very good dialogue continues," Cameron said. He said it is face-to-face dialogue in which he and his staff are involved.
The company's hauling of wastewater to the city by tanker truck had ceased while a repair was made at the Country Plant, but it has resumed, he said.
Regarding the negotiations, the plan would be to send the wastewater by pipeline to the wastewater plant, Cameron said. Provisions would be needed to pre-treat the waste before it would be sent to the wastewater plant.
General News on 05/25/2014