Pulaski County notebook

Accountant hired to advise on audits

Pulaski County has hired a Hot Springs accountant to advise county officials on complying with state Legislative Audit Division requests.

Last year, the Legislative Audit Division reported that the county had omitted several documents from its 2012 filings submitted to the agency for review, though it otherwise met the agency’s standards.

Earlier this year, the county invited bids for a consultant who was familiar with Legislative Audit Division requirements and also offered to pay travel costs to county offices.

In March, the county awarded a contract to Amanda Meyers Epperson, a certified public accountant who recently left her job at the Hot Springs Housing Authority.

The contract is for an estimated 200 hours at a rate of $100 per hour, amounting to a total of $20,000. The contract also pays for $1,850 in estimated daily travel costs during the course of six months.

Contract to finish family trail project

A Bryant company has been awarded a $59,000 contract to complete construction of the Family Sculpture Trail - an island in the middle of a Two Rivers Park traffic circle.

JCon Inc., which submitted the lowest bid for the job out of several companies, will do the construction for the landscape plans on the island, including sod, plants, irrigation and stone veneer.

The island will include a bronze sculpture of parents playing with their children. Artist Kevin Kresse completed the sculpture last year, and the county received it from an Oklahoma foundry in February.

Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines has said that the Family Sculpture Trail project is the last major development in the overhaul of Two Rivers Park that began a few years ago.

Replacement urged for Higgins center

A proposal is set to go before the Pulaski County Quorum Court on Tuesday to fund a new Higgins Community Center building to replace the currently “inadequate” facility, including a kitchen that does not meet health-code requirements, according to a memorandum that County Judge Buddy Villines sent to the Quorum Court.

Villines has requested that the Pulaski County Public Facilities Board set aside $200,000 to match funds that the Quorum Court would appropriate.

The money would come from the capital maintenance and technology reserve fund and the unappropriated general fund, each contributing $100,000.

“It will resolve a serious health and safety issue,” Villines wrote in the memorandum.

4 picked for panel on health facilities

Four people have been reappointed to the Pulaski County Health Facilities Board, and the Quorum Court will decide whether to confirm them this month.

County Judge Buddy Villines has reappointed E. Ralph Cotham, Arthur P. Hart, M. Jane Dickey and Harrigan Wortsmith. If confirmed, their terms would last five years.

Vacation, sick days on meeting agenda

A Pulaski Quorum Court proposal to extended paid leave time benefits to county employees is back on the table for Tuesday, along with an amendment that takes away the limit on the number of sick days that county workers can accrue.

The ordinance back on the table would increase paid sick days by one per year to 13 and increase paid vacation days, which vary by years of service,by at least three per year. For example, employees with less than three years’ experience would go from 10 to 13 days, and employees with more than 20 years of experience would go from 22.5 to 26 days. Vacation days would be capped at 300 accrued hours.

Any employee with a year of experience would also get 24 hours of “discretionary time” to be scheduled in advance, under the ordinance. It cannot accrue after a year.

Expanding NLR firm requests incentives

The Pulaski County Quorum Court will hear a proposal Tuesday to approve a North Little Rock company’s application for tax benefits and refunds for expansion at its 4950 Northshore Lane location.

Advanced Cabling Systems has applied for the Advantage Arkansas and Tax Back incentives.

The technology company employs 125 people and plans to add 35 employees with hourly pay of $28 as a part of the expansion, an investment it estimates at $935,000.

The company plans to build a facility next to its existing one.

Advanced Cabling Systems describes itself as a “technology integration company installing fire alarm, cameras, security” equipment, according to its application.

Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/05/2014

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