Wednesday, December 11, 2013
BENTONVILLE — The City Council on Tuesday postponed deciding on a proposal to add a digital sign at a busy intersection after one alderman asked for more time to consider it.
The proposal states Ashby Street Outdoor would remove a double-decker, two-sided billboard at the corner of South Walton Boulevard and Southwest 24th Street. That billboard must come down because it stands within the city’s right of way, said Bob McCaslin, mayor.
Surplus Donations
Bentonville's City Council declared about 60 bullet-resistant vests belonging to the Police Department as surplus items because they have been replaced with new body armor. The vests, which are no longer under manufacturer’s warranty, will be given to the Cave Springs Police Department and the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office.
Source: Staff Report
In exchange, the company would be allowed to add a digital sign to the set of two digital billboards at the southeast corner of South Walton and Southwest 14th Street. The new sign would face east on Southwest 14th Street. The deal also grants the company a single-sided static billboard elsewhere on South Walton.
Council approval is required because the proposal is an exception to the digital-billboard ordinance approved in 2010. The ordinance demands for every new digital billboard face a company installs, it must remove four static billboard faces somewhere in the city.
Shane Perry, Ward 2 alderman, said he felt uncomfortable with voting on the agreement to trade four static billboard faces for one digital and one static.
“I’ve got some concerns about the procedure of this,” Perry said. “I would just like the chance to explore this more.”
City Attorney George Spence said he didn’t see a legal problem with the deal.
At Perry’s suggestion, however, council voted to table the proposal. The council’s next meeting is Jan. 14.
In other council business, Alderman Bill Burckart, Ward 3, asked whether there was anything the city could have done to prevent snow and ice from packing so thickly on the roads.
Mike Churchwell, transportation director, said increasing temperatures usually help break up snow and ice, but Mother Nature hasn’t assisted much this time.
“This has been an unusual circumstance,” Churchwell said. “We will take this event and evaluate how we could do some things differently in the future. We’ll continue to work on it.”
He estimated the city has used about 350 tons of sand and salt on the roads since Thursday. The city has about 600 miles of road lanes, he said.
McCaslin acknowledged some residents are frustrated with road conditions.
“I can tell you from the phone calls there are a lot of people who have been stuck in the house too long,” he said.
McCaslin publicly thanked Churchwell and other city workers for the work done since Thursday.