Police Department Tries For Accident Reduction Team
2006 budget includes money to renovate square
Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2005 10:37 PM CST in News
By Kristin Netterstrom
The Morning News
BENTONVILLE -- About $100,000 for Bentonville's continued renovation of the downtown square is in the city's 2006 budget, along with a potential grant to complete a trail headed toward the community college.
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The Bentonville City Council met for a second night in a row to discuss the 2006 draft budget, which includes $2 million set aside for a new main fire station.
Police Chief James Allen hopes the council will add two more officers to his rotation. Those officers will concentrate on traffic and accidents, he said.
Hiring them would be the first step toward an accident reduction team, he said. Officers would monitor problem intersections and try to prevent accidents.
The two officers would add $87,830 to the city's budget, which does not currently include 18 positions requested by various department heads. It would also put the ratio of officers to residents at two per 1,000. That's a good number if the city's population is 24,000, Allen said.
City officials expect the population to be higher, so Allen said his department is catching up with growth.
The chief also requested eight replacement cars. The cars would come equipped with digital video cameras. Allen hopes to have cameras in all cars in the next four years.
The proposed 2006 budget includes $130,000 for a replacement ambulance, but no money for new firefighters.
City planners are hoping to finish renovating the square, which had some work done to revamp sidewalks on the inner portion in 2001.
The hope is to improve sidewalks on three remaining outer portions, with Arvest Bank having done its own side this year.
Bentonville will have to use city and private money to make the second phase reality. The first phase cost $690,000 and it was estimated back then that the second phase would be $1 million, Britt Vance, Bentonville's public works director, said in June.
Bentonville will have to kick in about $100,000 of the cost.
"It should complete the square," said Troy Galloway, the city's community development director, of the 2006 allocation.
The city will also have to match a state grant to connect an eastern trail from Moberly Lane to NorthWest Arkansas Community College.
The project will be expensive, Galloway said. Bentonville will have to work with the state to build under Interstate 540.
Council members reviewed departments one by one and still have eight more to go when they meet again in two weeks. They want to have the budget passed by the end of the year.
They did hear from Galloway that building inspection licenses and fees collected next year could drop slightly because of the lack of big building projects, Galloway said.
Cases being heard in Bentonville's municipal court are increasing, and Staff Attorney Camille Thompson asked the council to hire another staff attorney. Thompson has been with the city for five years and is also responsible for handling the city's legal issues.
Hiring a second attorney would give Thompson time to handle bigger legal projects.
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