By Jonas Anderson, Cave City Mayor
Happy Weekend Everyone! It’s been a terrific week to get things done for Cave City, Arkansas. Tuesday night, the City Council gathered for a regular meeting. The only new business was to review and adopt a resolution authorizing me to enter into an agreement with ARDOT to complete several paving projects in the coming months. I’m very happy to report that my application for State Aid Street Funds late last year was accepted, and we have been awarded just over $160,000 for these projects! I’ll have more on where and when as we get closer, but thank you, so much, to the State Street Aid committee for this award; we are grateful, and will make good use of the money.
I also updated members on a few ongoing projects.
1. The current plan is to open our city pool this summer, in some capacity. We still have some further repairs to wrap up, but we do have a plan and are moving ahead at full steam.
2. The park bathrooms now have all new fixtures, and are available for use. We are still waiting on the install of a brand new drinking fountain / bottle-filling station. Please remember my new park mantra: keep it clean, keep it safe, keep it open. Share it with your kids, family, and friends.
The final discussion was on our desire to purchase a mini excavator for the city, to be used in the many smaller water/sewer and street projects we encounter where a large backhoe is almost counterproductive. I shared with members an offer we had been discussing with an area dealer, and we decided to return for a special meeting and final approval if negotiations led to a good deal for the city.
Jim Smith and myself had several discussions with the dealer, and we, along with Payton Wooldridge and Scottie Perkey, were able to demo a Bobcat E35 at our Water-Sewer plant. After checking prices on similarly equipped units, a tentative agreement was made, and the council members met via a Special Meeting conference call last night to authorize the purchase.
This is a 2020 demo unit that had not been sold, so the hours on it are incredibly low; practically brand new. It is fully loaded with every available option and feature. It is fully enclosed, very SAFE for our team, and will be an incredible tool for them to have at their disposal. In the end, we were able to trade-in an old backhoe we’ve considered selling for some time, obtain an incredibly generous municipal discount, qualify for a sales tax exemption, and include a new trailer for hauling it. Our final price was over 50% less than the typical list price for a comparable machine!
I am incredibly proud of the way this entire transaction was handled, grateful to the council for their enthusiastic support, and very happy to continue a tradition of our team having the best and safest equipment available, while also making sure we spend city resources in a very responsible way. This is a big win for a city of our size, and I’m just really thankful we were able to make it happen.
Don’t forget that the Spring Citywide Cleanup starts on Monday. Get your things set out before they begin picking up.
That’s all for now. I hope you enjoy a terrific weekend!
