BELLA VISTA -- The purchase of a new fire truck was approved by the City Council on Monday night.
The council unanimously voted to purchase the Class A custom pumper fire truck from KME Manufacturing out of Rogersville, Mo., for $392,974.
The price includes an $80,000 down payment, which is already included in the city's 2014 budget, Fire Chief Steve Sims said.
The truck will replace a 1986 GMC pumper, which had engine failure earlier this year.
Mayor Frank Anderson said plans for a fourth fire station are moving along, after having interviewed three architects earlier in the day.
The city also has entered into a contract with Crafton Tull, Anderson said, for the "general planning" of the land that was purchased for the construction of a Street Department facility off Arkansas 279, south of Rogers Road.
After tabling earlier this summer an ordinance amending the city's fire code -- to adopt the state's updated 2012 version of the code -- aldermen brought the ordinance back to life at the meeting for its first of three readings.
Alderwoman Becky Morgan said she had three issues with the code: the 6-inch requirement for house numbers causing a hardship on residents who must pay to replace existing numbers; requiring a permit for constructing a fence of any height; and the section of code that requires fire suppression in building expansions, particularly that could put churches in financial hardship.
Staff attorney Jason Kelley said the 6-inch requirement is already law in the city by way of the previous version of the state's fire code and is required for all new construction. Allowing by city code the numbers to be smaller than 6 inches would be less restrictive than the state's fire code, and Planning Director Chris Suneson said that is not allowed.
Morgan asked for a definition of "fence," Suneson said is defined as "a barrier constructed to provide privacy or visual separation between one ownership and another." Alderman Larry Wilson said that conflicts with rules set by the Architectural Control Committee, to which Anderson said the city has nothing to do with.
According to the code, if a building expansion project is added to an existing building of 12,000-square-feet or more, or the expansion project creates a building of that total size, both the new and existing structure must be protected by a sprinkler system, or an approved firewall shall be installed between the old and new construction, and the new portion must be sprinkled.
The group will read the ordinance for a second time in August after discussing it again at a work session set for Aug. 18 at City Hall.
NW News on 07/29/2014