Alert-center lease up for board vote
The Little Rock Board of Directors will vote on an agreement Tuesday that would give the city’s Oak Forest Alert Center a new home on South Tyler Street.
Alert centers, located throughout the city, are facilities where residents can access city resources, such as code enforcement and police.
The Oak Forest Alert Center was removed from its previous location on South Harrison Street because of federal restrictions on houses built or renovated through certain federal programs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified the city that the alert center had to go in February 2012 because the house needed to be used as a home for a low-income family.
The alert center activities moved to the Willie Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center on West 12th Street until a permanent home could be found.
In July 2012, city staff members announced that they had begun negotiating with the World Services for the Blind Inc., formerly known as Lions World Services, to rent a house the organization owned at 2823 S. Tyler St.
Almost a year later, the city has negotiated a proposed lease for the property that would guarantee the center a home for the next 10 years with an option for a five-year extension in one-year lease renewals.
The monthly rent for the city was to be $500, but improvements to the building are needed before the alert center operations can be fully moved to the house.
The contract up for a vote Tuesday would pay as much as $49,000 up front to renovate the building in exchange for free rent until that money is paid back.
The resolution specifies that after the renovation costs are paid back, the city’s ability to continue renting the property would depend on the money to operate the alert center being built into the annual budget.
The city has 11 other alert centers. Sixteen centers were opened in the 1990s to help combat crime and better connect residents with city services and operations.
Four of those centers were closed in recent years because of budget cuts.
Panel to decide
paving contracts
The Little Rock Board of Directors will vote Tuesday on two proposed contracts formore than $6 million in paving projects.
The first contract, for $6,393,511, would be awarded to Cranford Construction Company for asphalt resurfacing in all seven wards. That contract would include an 18 percent contingency fund for about $5,418,000 in asphalt work. Cranford was the lowest of two bids submitted, staff members said.
The second contract, for as much as $300,000, would be awarded to McClelland Consulting Engineers Inc. for inspection services of the overlay projects.
The projects will be paid for through the first round of funding from the capital improvement property-tax extension approved by voters in September. The streets were chosen from a list of projects requested by residents during a multitiered public hearing process.
There will be a second round of projects in a few years.
The projects were divided by ward and by year so some work would be done in each ward during 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Arkansas, Pages 22 on 06/16/2013