The North Little Rock City Council amended a recent agreement to purchase property at 3919 and 3921 Pike Avenue where a new Levy fire station is to be built, citing an error in the survey completed by the city.
The City Council voted 8-0 Monday evening to approve a resolution correcting the dimensions of the property the city is purchasing and amending the purchase price to $356,000.
The resolution states that a "mutual mistake" regarding the property's survey modified the agreement, which added another small section and an additional $6,000 to the previous agreed-upon purchase price. The city council originally approved the transaction Feb. 11.
Bobby Brant, the seller, will also have an option to lease a building on the site to store his business equipment for no longer than six months at a monthly rental rate of $100 for the first three months and $500 for the second three months, according to the legislation.
City Attorney Amy Fields told the City Council that there had been a "misunderstanding" between the city and Brant about the size of the property.
"It was a mistake by our surveyor," Fields said. "The price is still below the appraised value of the property."
The property had been appraised at $390,000, according to the previous legislation.
The purchase is conditioned on there being a satisfactory Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, according to the resolution.
Replacing the 55-year-old Levy fire station, 3500 Camp Robinson Road, was a part of the 2017 special election in which North Little Rock voters approved a 1 percent city sales-tax package. The cost for repairs or replacement of fire stations will come from one-half percentage point of the new tax.
The one-half percentage point of the tax is also to fund a new police and courts building and street and drainage improvements. The five-year, one-half percent tax is projected to produce $40 million in revenue, with fire stations scheduled to receive $10 million of that total.
Revenue from the other one-half percentage point of the sales tax is to go into the city's general fund budget. Collection of the tax began Jan. 1, 2018.
An evaluation of all city fire stations in 2017 found that the Levy station had the highest number of deficiencies and its replacement became a priority. The Levy station is the city's busiest, having responded to about 2,900 calls last year, according to Fire Department statistics.
Metro on 03/26/2019