All right, good afternoon, everybody.

It's four o'clock.

I'm gonna call today's Finance Administration Council Committee meeting to order.

Um please record your attendance by pushing the appropriate button.

We do have a quorum today.

Um next up is approval of minutes from the committee meeting on Tuesday, January 13th, 2026.

Move to approve unless there's noted change.

Second.

Motion second to approve any comments on the minutes as presented.

If not, please record your vote on whether or not to approve the minutes.

All right, we'll move into new business.

Um, this first item, the title is um is different.

Um so it should have read a resolution to accept the bid authorizing the purchase of three buses for the transit department jet, or as the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas through its Jonesboro Economical Transit Operations has an ongoing need to maintain and improve safe, reliable, and ADA compliant transportation services for the public, and whereas staff performed extensive research to locate vehicles to replace current vehicles that need to replace in our current fleet, and whereas the city has identified the need to purchase three low floor buses to support transit and mobility services, and whereas a quote has been received from ARBOC specialty vehicles LLC for three RBOC type K low floor cutaway vehicles, and whereas a quoted vehicle is still is available for purchase through the state of Oklahoma contract number SW0797C FY 2026, which qualifies as a cooperative slash state bid procurement method permitted under under applicable purchasing laws and policies for 211,000 dollars 211,074 each or 633,222 total, and whereas the whereas sufficient sufficient funds have been identified and are available for this purchase in the appropriate budget or grant accounts now, therefore be resolved by City Council of City of Jones for Arkansas.

That's number one, the City of Jones World hereby approves the purchase of three RBOC type K low floor cutaway vehicles from RBOC specialty vehicles LLC, utilizing the reciprocal bid for the state of Oklahoma contract number SW0797C FY 2026 in accordance with the submitted quote dated January 21st, 2026.

Number two, Mayor Harold Copenhaver and City Clerk April Leggett are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jones for execute all documents necessary to effectuate the purchase this purchase.

Moving forward to full council.

Second.

Motion second forward full council.

Any questions or comments regarding this item?

Uh if to uh to prove that with that accepted, we need to go back and uh change that up.

Okay.

Title.

Can you tell me what the title needs to be?

Yeah, it should just the title should read a resolution to accept the bid authorizing the purchase of three buses for the transit department.

So take out the waiving.

Okay.

I make a motion that we uh exchange that with with the uh uh update of the what that term needs to be in that motion.

Second.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Anything else, Dr.

Coleman?

That's it.

Um Mr.

McLean.

Uh yeah, I do have a couple questions.

Um are we replacing current vehicles or is this in addition to what we currently have?

It's actually a little bit of both.

So we do still have some of our older fleet vehicles that we have in service.

Um I don't know the specifics right off the top of my head, but I believe it's two of them will be replacing two of the ones that we have.

Uh, but then also there will be one that will be in addition to what that's helping us do is to get to our surplus amount.

So the FTA does require for the number of routes that you have, the number of vehicles that you have in service that you have 20% in a reserve, so that way if one of them were to be offline, you would be able to have that backup vehicle and not lose service during that time.

Is this are the so these are the ADA vans?

They're not vans, they are actually buses.

This is a slight departure from the buses that you've seen previously.

This uh RBOC uh company that makes their low floor.

Um they are actually a front load, uh similar to what you'd see in a traditional transit bus at one of the other cities.

There's only one entranceway.

That same entranceway is both for the walking public and for any of those that are ADA.

Um, your uh securement locations are right there by the driver.

Um, what this is gonna allow is it's gonna allow the drivers to not have to get out of the vehicle into traffic, walk around the vehicle, operate the lift, and be able to load those customers whenever we have them.

They can actually step from their seat directly into where the customers are, assist those customers as they are loading, and then be able to secure them right there by where the driver's seat area is uh and still have all of the same amount of room that a standard cutaway bus that we utilize does.

So it's just a a better format for what we're been using.

So you said how much will we get for a trade-in?

Does it because I know we're gonna spend 633, but do we have a number on that?

The standard process with the FDA is it's not like a trade-in like what some of the other departments do where they'll trade in an old vehicle.

Um, once a vehicle has met its useful life, which is so many years and or so many miles, which the ones that we're looking at replacing are all way over their exceeded life.

Um, what that is is that value for that vehicle is no longer enough for the FTA to account for it.

So, what are our vehicles?

What typically happen for those is they will go into an auction whenever that auction comes around.

Um with the FTA, if we do actually sell the vehicle or trade it in, and again, I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but if we exceed a certain percentage of what the vehicle was originally purchased for, we have to pay back that FTA portion in full.

So what what we do is we use those vehicles basically until they're done done, and then they go to auction.

The the two vehicles in question that we're looking at, they're upwards of 300,000 miles that they have on them.

Thank you.

Yes.

Anything else from the committee?

Anything else from staff or the public in attendance?

Yes.

Uh so with this as an ADA item, I I know it's either 8020 or did we?

I might have to ask Chris to look on that if this one would qualify for the 8515.

Uh typically a capital purchase is 8020, but there are some ADA uh grant capabilities that may allow us to get just a little bit more, but I think this one is at 8020.

I'd have to double check to confirm, but 8020 is still great.

So thank you.

Anything else?

All right, if there's nothing further, um please cast your vote on whether or not to forward resolution 2600 nine to full council.

Next up is resolution 26011.

A resolution to waive competitive bidding and authorized purchase of street lights, whereas the city of Jonesboro mayor's office has determined the RAB A L E D 5T52 slash PCT-LED post top light or equivalent light fixtures and RAB PR 4-11-15 D2 or equivalent light pose to be the city standard for all pedestrian friendly and pedestrian priority streets, or a local distributor can select these fixtures as part of their normal inventory and can maintain an adequate supply of replacement parts as needed.

Therefore, be it resolved by city council or the city of Jonesville, Arkansas that Section 1, the specialized special specified light fixtures and light pose are available from Tech Electric of Jonesboro, Arkansas for the attached quote.

Section two, due to the need to be able to access this fighting and replacement parts quickly for the preservation of public safety in the community.

The city council, in accordance with the terms of ACA section 14-58-303, hereby way the requirement of competitive bidding and direct the purchasing agent to purchase the above described light fixtures and light pose for the price set forth above.

Move forward to full council.

Second.

Motion forward to full council.

Any questions or comments from the committee?

Anything from staff or the public in attendance.

If not, please record your vote on whether or not to forward resolution 26011 to full council.

Resolution 26012, a resolution by the city council of Jonesboro, Arkansas authorizing the offer and acceptance to purchase additional right-of-way on South Caraway Road for the perfect purpose of constructing and maintaining roadway improvements.

Whereas the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas desires to purchase the following describe right away for the purpose of constructing and maintaining roadway improvements.

Legal description follows and follows and follows.

Whereas an offer has been made and accepted to sell the above described property for the price of 154,700, whereas you get tax offering acceptance will be executed upon passage of this resolution, whereas the funding for this purchase shall come from the capital improvement budget.

Now therefore be it resolved by the city council for the city of Jonesville, Jonesboro that section one, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized to execute the documents necessary to effectuate this transaction.

Look forward to full council.

Second.

I was just wanting to get some clarity on where this starts.

So I was just uh the intersection of Lateret and South Caraway.

The lots to the north on the west side of the road.

There's two of them.

They're owned by BC Express, and we're buying frontage along Caraway Road between Ladarette and the bridge on the west side of the road.

So is that I guess this is in addition to what we have already planned through our bond, our revenue bond.

This is part of that bond project, yes.

This is for the South Caraway Road project for the construction.

This is the very last piece of right-of-way for that project.

That's what I was gonna ask you.

How many more we had to go on?

No, you didn't have many.

Yeah, there we were down to two, and they were both kind of expensive, and we were kind of waiting until we knew we had funding for the project before we uh ran them through.

So now that the project's funded, um we know that it's time to buy the right-of-way.

So these are the last pieces for that.

Is there a reason we didn't use the bond funds to purchase this property?

Uh I mean, we're using this capital improvement.

Um I mean it can come from the bonds.

Um, I'm not we can we can modify that, I think.

If that's what we need to do, my I don't know how much was set aside in the bond for this particular project, five and a half million.

So we need to amend something here or we we've not purchased any of the other property through the bond.

It's always been through capital improvement.

Talking about capital improvement for the other properties.

We just don't want to have this on consent agenda or I mean, do we need to hold it or I can make sure it's not on consent.

Yeah.

What?

I can make sure that's not on consent.

Yeah, I do I just don't we'd not put on consent agenda and we can decide if we need to amend it or not.

Yeah, I mean the uh the bond does allow proceeds from the bond are legally allowed to purchase right away in any in any part of the project there and forth.

Um so we can double we can double check with finances to make sure there's nothing wrong with putting this on the capital improvement bond schedule.

Um either which way, I mean, this was a it was a budgeted project, but if we can charge it back to the capital improvement bonds, that's fine too.

Um we can check and make sure that that's that there's no issue with that.

Any other questions from the committee?

Any other comments from staff?

Seeing none, please cast your vote on whether or not to forward resolution twenty-six zero one two to full council.

Resolution 26013, resolution expressing the willingness of the city of Jonesboro to submit an application to the U.S.

Department of Transportation for the FY 2026 better utilizing investments to leverage development grant, whereas the application process is now open and is accepting proposals for the U.S.

Department of Transportation FY 26 2026 Bill Grant, and whereas the project would complete a makeover of the busy caraway road commercial corridor, complementing city and R Dot projects along the I555 interchange corridor, and whereas this project would improve vehicular traffic on two roads leading to a new 2003 203,000 square foot ridge athletic center complex scheduled to open next year, whereas the ridge would was conceived to address local and regional demand for large-scale amateur sports venue with an economic impact estimated at 43 million dollars annually, and whereas the ridge's long-term success depends on one widening caraway road, two expanding the intersection at race, and three accommodating pedestrians in route to the ridge with sidewalks and side paths, and whereas the city of Jonesboro is requesting up to 21 million and bill grant funding to widen Caraway Road, expand the intersection at Race Street and accommodate pedestrians in route to the ridge with sidewalks and side paths.

And we're asked the city of Jones requesting up to 21 million and bill grant funding to widen Caraway Road, expand the intersection at Race Street and accommodate pedestrians in route to the ridge with sidewalks and side paths.

Now therefore be it resolved by the city council for the city of Jones for Arkansas that section one, the Jonesville City Council supports the submission of the FY 2026 build grant application to the United States Department of Transportation.

Section Two, the Mayor and City Clerk are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jonesville, Arkansas, to execute all necessary documents to effectuate this application.

Section three, the grants and community development department is hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to submit all necessary documents for this federal aid program.

Section four, the city council does hereby authorize the mayor and his examinee to shoot all agreements and contracts regarding any future award of bill grant funds.

Moving forward full council second.

Um we'll go ahead and let you all want to hear it.

Yeah, yeah, before we ask description of what we're talking about here if you want.

Um so this is you know in years past, and I guess the last couple years it's been the raise grant um and it's gone back to to be called the build grant now, and that's the raise grant was the rebuilding American infrastructure with sustainability and equity, and they've uh this administration has gone back to build, which is better utilizing investments to leverage development.

And uh, I think the last couple of years that's been the application application has been for um trails that we can you know connect with Brooklyn and Paraguld and and here and uh after we got the notice uh funding opportunity, it was released uh I believe five o'clock the day before Thanksgiving is when that came out, and uh when we got that and we read through that uh application.

I mean, the first thing that stood out was that nowhere in that notice was the word trails.

Uh and so uh it's definitely a shift in priorities.

There was an emphasis on uh vehicular capacity, building vehicular cap capacity and things like that.

And so we and also in being able to tie in to uh existing investments or maybe even completing a project.

So we started looking for something that we could tie into larger investments, uh, and then also where there was a need uh, especially to help with traffic and uh and then also with pedestrians with them being able to be out of the flow of traffic, and so that's how we came up with uh this intersection there at uh race and caraway, which leads to uh the new ridge complex.

So we've got this uh investment that the city is making there, um making a large investment there.

Uh there's a lot of traffic that goes through that um that intersection, and so when you're gonna have events there and you're gonna have tournaments and all those things, it's gonna just increase that traffic, and so being able to put work into that intersection, you know, to help that, and then also the pedestrian accommodations, and then being able to take it over 555, which we talked with the um highway department about uh department of transportation about being able to do pedestrian accommodations across the overpass and then connect with South Caraway, and that allows us to connect it with the investments the city's making in South Caraway.

So there's an investment of 5.5 million or so in South Caraway, and then we're gonna connect that uh to North Caraway over the overpass to this intersection uh there race and caraway and have pedestrian accommodations, and so that just allows us to we're making an investment, the city's making an investment in this uh complex and also in South Caraway.

Um the state is making an investment in the things that they are doing on 555, and so we can tag on to that to try and uh strengthen our application uh to be able to get this grant.

And uh, you know, we think it's uh I mean it's it's taken a lot of work in the last couple months to try and figure out you know, it was kind of like uh nailing gel O to the wall, as our grant writer Mark said a few times as we were working through this process, and uh Craig and his department really helped us get the information we need uh to be able to we think we we were able to put together a strong uh proposal, strong application that reflects the priorities of the current uh department of transportation.

uh to be able to get this grant and uh you know we think it's a I mean it's it's taken a lot of work in the last couple months to try and figure out you know it was kind of like uh nailing jell o to the wall is our grant writer Mark said a few times as we were working through this process and uh Craig and his department really helped us get the information we need uh to be able to we think we we were able to put together a strong uh proposal strong application um that reflects the priorities of the current uh department of transportation so that's that's what we whip for yeah thanks for all your work on this sure be great to get it any questions from the committee just just wanted to make sure I'm understanding I'm looking at it correct it can you email us this diagram I think so yeah okay yeah just so I can see um now north is gonna be north is to the right yeah north will be to your right and then to the left I'll see all the red lines yes are those explained to me is that sidewalk side path a side path one is which one's side path the red the red from what I see blue is sidewalk in yeah now I can see it and then yellow what is yellow is it anything the yellow section down by who can bother who can botham bottom creek see that going all the way down to the storage units yeah or is it that's just the uh oh the the center lines of the road so you can see the it's multi-lane roadway so the yellow is the yellow lines making it five lane down to three lane well this doesn't even go there this is actually this this actually goes to what Parker Road or Phillips that's showing what the city's already going to do south gotcha gotcha gotcha South Caraway yes gotcha so we're actually just I'm just I should be looking at Parker Road going north yes to Ray Street going west correct I believe so yes there we go zoom in for it there you go there you go all right okay yeah that's right okay and then you're so we're going the other way so scroll the other way there we go there it is street and yeah caraway got it and making improvements there on Phillips Drive so it's Phillips Drive and Caraway race street caraway yes okay and going all the way up to highland that's good yeah okay yeah the and the highway department or department of transportation I always still want to call them the highway department uh we've talked to them and they've they're gonna work with us on right away and different things uh to be able to get those pedestrian accommodations done so that and that's that's a big deal uh for them to allow us to do it across that overpass.

And that's I mean that caraway is a state highway correct no it's not okay no but that overpass going um Harrisburg Red Wolf.

Yeah 555 that's them letting us put a pedestrian accommodations there.

Okay.

All right thank you.

Yep sure anything else from anybody on this one mr Mr Richardson similar to the comments I made earlier today the the grants department and engineering department refused to brag on themselves but um to be able to turn around from a a notice of funding the day before Thanksgiving to completing this project and doing all the research involved is a pretty Herculean task um when you're putting together a bill grant or a raise grant um that's that's really data driven and you just like to to thank them for all their hard work and that staff and there's a lot of research that goes into it and thankfully we had a lot of traffic studies and stuff related to the ridge athletic center that we're that we're able to kind of piggyback off of but um you know there's there's a lot of work that that's went into this and um you know at the end of the day we're improving intersections or identify that are already performing below optimal um preferences so you know if we're able to to get this I think that between the work the city's doing south of the interstate and combine this with north interstate we're really preparing Caraway Road for kind of a revitalization and a redevelopment a lot of the properties that are still undeveloped and I think that investment in the corridor city between that and the ridge athletic center will will really pay dividends for a long time so I I like the fact that the pedestrian accommodations are coming in at this point rather than after the fact because we've done that you know later having northern more northern part of caraway later it will work it's without sidewalks for a long time then after the fact some time after some time finally got sidewalks there and uh so it's good to have it early on in the early stages.

So we finally with Carewake finally accomplished it using grants for public transportation for jets because of the stops there on Caraway, using some of that for capital improvement, but that shows how long Caraway and that portion of carryway was without sidewalks.

Infrastructure is expensive.

So this will be a great boost to that.

All right.

Well, if there's no further questions or comments, um please cast your ballot or your vote on whether or not to forward resolution 26013 to full council.

All right, last time under new business is a municipal lien.

I'll just read it by title only.

Resolution 26015, resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesburg, Arkansas to place the municipal lien on property located at 2404 Brazos, parcel 01-144-281-29400 on by Kingdom Assets LLC, the amount of 275 dollars.

Move forward full council.

Second, any questions or comments on this item from anybody in council chambers?

Tell you none, please place your vote on whether or not to forward resolution 26015 to full council.

All right.

That's the last time under new business.

I'm not aware of any pending items.

Does anybody on the committee have any other business for us today?

If not, we'll move it into public comments.

Gives the chance the public a chance to comment on something that was not already discussed on today's agenda.

Any takers?

Next items adjournment.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Any opposed?

We stand adjourned.