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School safety at top of list |
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Tuesday, 24 July 2007 |
The Bryant City Council has invited Benton and Saline County officials to meet about safety issues connected with Bryant’s new Hurricane Creek Elementary School on Alcoa Road.
“We want to talk with Benton and Saline County before we take any action,” Alderman Ken Green said at Monday night’s council meeting at Boswell Municipal Complex.
Green, who served as acting mayor in the absence of Mayor Larry Mitchell, said the city “has a responsibility not only to our citizens, but to our neighboring citizens as well.”
The new school, which Bryant Superintendent Dr. Richard Abernathy said is expected to open sometime this fall, will serve students living in both the Benton and Bryant city limits. The school is inside the Benton city limits.
Abernathy said concerns about the school’s entrance and exit along busy Alcoa Road have many residents and community leaders wondering about potential safety problems.
“This is about the safety of school children and it concerns both Benton and Bryant citizens,” Green said, “so we will be contacting the [Benton] Mayor [Rick Holland] and [Saline County] Judge Lanny Fite.”
Council members also addressed attempts to get a new post office in Bryant. The concern is that some residents might be confused with recent comments about who would purchase a new facility.
“We have been fielding calls lately from citizens who believe that the city is buying a new post office,” Green said. “Private business interests are involved with the possible buying of a new postal facility, not the city.”
In other business, the council adopted four ordinances, with all but one passing unanimously in 8-0 votes.
The following ordinances passed unanimously:
•Rezoning from R-2 to R-1 property owned by resident Herb Green at 405 NE 1st St.
•Separate clarifications on the rezoning of property at Woodland Park and Penfield Real Estate’s Tract C in Westpointe Addition subdivision.
The fourth ordinance passed by a 6 - 2 vote. Aldermen Larry Smart and Danny Steele opposed an ordinance to restructure and establish an eight-member Parks and Recreation Committee and to appoint committee members.
Steele expressed concerns with a section of the ordinance that reads, “Notwithstanding this provision, the City Council may approve to appoint up to two (2) members of the Parks Committee from electors living outside the corporate limits of the city, but within the recorded planning jurisdiction of the city.”
The objection was that someone outside the city can be appointed to the committee, but Alderman Rick Meyer said the proposal gives the city a chance to reach out to residents outside the city limits.
At the next council meeting on Aug. 9, updates are expected on storm water drainage improvements for the Forest Cove area watershed project.
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Razorbacks
