246 on bonus list if resolution passes
Almost 250 city employees will each receive a $500 bonus in December if a resolution authorizing the payments is approved Monday by the City Council.
The resolution refers to full-time, nonuniformed employees who aren't scheduled to receive a step-pay increase this year and are still employed Dec. 1. The bonuses are in lieu of pay raises for the eligible workers.
Mayor Joe Smith had announced in June his plans to ask for the bonuses when the City Council approved pay increases for uniformed police and fire department personnel under new union contracts.
Bonus payments will be made to 246 employees, according to the legislation. The cost to the city will be $132,409.50, which includes the city's requirement to pay a 7.65 percent share of FICA and Medicare benefits. There are 850 full-time city employees.
The legislation excludes the bonuses being paid to full-time elected officials, which are the mayor, City Attorney Jason Carter and City Clerk Diane Whitbey. All three have said they would not accept the bonus if aldermen considered adding their names to the list.
Christmas parade set to strut Dec. 7
The annual Christmas parade is scheduled for Dec. 7.
The parade, which traditionally runs the length of Main Street and ends outside the City Services Building downtown, is sponsored each year by city government, the city Visitors Bureau and the North Little Rock Sertoma Club.
More information and entry applications for floats are available by contacting the Visitors Bureau at (501) 758-1424.
Tugboat Hoga still waiting on a ride
Where's the Hoga? The Pearl Harbor-surviving tugboat has been due to become part of the city's maritime museum since the city took title to the historic boat in 2005, but efforts to transport it from the West Coast have failed.
A Save the Hoga Committee, which is raising funds for the transport, is still active and working to move the boat to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum, Chairman Steve Owen said last week. The effort is an endeavor started in 2002 by former Mayor Patrick Hays, who is a Democratic candidate for Congress in the Nov. 4 election.
"We're kind of in a holding pattern," Owen said. "We're waiting on a tow of opportunity. That's when we can have a big barge coming down the Pacific Coast with four to five other boats on it, and it will have room to stick the Hoga on there. I think we might get a quote in January on one that will be within our price range."
The Hoga was transferred into the city's physical custody in August 2012, when it was moved out of Suisun Bay in California, where it had been stored as part of the Navy's inactive ships program. The tugboat was towed to Mare Island near Vallejo, Calif., where it has undergone repairs and where it remains.
The Hoga is designated as a National Historic Landmark for its crew's efforts to rescue the wounded and fight fires during the Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack. It also was able to move the damaged battleship Nevada out of a harbor channel that would have blocked the remaining U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Metro on 10/26/2014