PRAIRIE GROVE -- The low bid on a major city project to extend Viney Grove Road from the middle school to Buchanan Street was about $300,000 under the engineer's cost estimate.
The Prairie Grove City Council accepted a bid of almost $2.8 million from Sweetser Construction at its April 17 meeting. This is Phase 2 of the Viney Grove Road project. Phase 1 was reconfiguring the intersection of Bush Street and Viney Grove Road for a construction cost of $1.25 million.
The city is paying for Phase 2 with money from its street improvement bonds and the street fund.
The Viney Grove Road extension will curve southwest from the middle school, cross a creek with a culvert and then connect to West Buchanan Street, lining up with Blunt Street on the other side of Buchanan. The city's master street plan shows that eventually Blunt Street will connect to the bypass.
As part of this project, the council also approved a contract with Olsson to provide engineering services overseeing the construction of the Viney Grove extension, for a price not to exceed $243,742. This contract shows that construction will start in early June with an anticipated completion date of March 31, 2024.
In other action, the council approved the purchase of two 2023 Dodge Durangos for the Police Department for $38,495 each from Landers Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram through the state of Arkansas bid system.
The council also approved an ordinance to increase the payout of unused sick leave to police officers from 480 hours to 720 hours.
Police Chief Chris Workman recommended this change to help the department be competitive when recruiting new employees. Prairie Grove cannot afford to pay the salaries of larger departments, but it can be more competitive with its benefits, Workman said.
If an officer retired with 720 unused sick leave hours, that would cost the city an additional $6,000-$8,000, said Larry Oelrich, administrative assistant.
In addition, the council passed a resolution to add a new section, "Unauthorized leave or absence from work," to the personnel policies for city employees and the fire and police departments.
The new section says that any employee who leaves work without authorization, misses an assigned shift or misrepresents sick leave or other leave benefits falsely will be terminated by their supervisor or department head. An employee terminated under this section is able to appeal for reinstatement within one work day of the termination notice.
Examples of misuse of city time cited at the meeting included employees who called in sick and then posted a photo from the lake or somewhere else or employees not even showing up for work that day.
Mayor David Faulk said department heads are in favor of the new section on unauthorized leave. Faulk said he wants to build structure within the city, remove any employees who are not performing their duties and give benefits to good employees.
City Council member Brea Gragg wondered if the city should consider moving away from designating vacation and sick days and instead use personal time off (PTO) days that allow employees to take time off for whatever reason. The trend by companies is to use PTO for days off, she added.
Faulk said city department heads continue to discuss the issue, and PTO is one option that has been discussed.