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The Berryville City Council voted at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 7, to authorize Mayor Tim McKinney to proceed with the purchase of 15-plus acres adjacent to the city’s industrial park for $300,000.
The council voted 4-0 to permit McKinney to move forward with the purchase.
“It basically has us landlocked there,” McKinney said. “… To build a street in there, you’d have a real thing.”
The land is owned by Kirk Powell. McKinney said the purchase price will be $300,000.
“It’s more than we want to pay and it’s probably worth more to us than anybody else in the world,” McKinney said.
McKinney said the city has money available in its general fund to make the purchase.
Also at the Nov. 7 meeting, Berryville police chief Robert Bartos presented his department’s monthly report for October.
Bartos said officers wrote 99 tickets for the month, down from 132 in October 2022. The most common citations were for speeding (14) and failure to pay resgistration (11).
Offenses were down from 87 to 67 and the department’s clearance rate was 82 percent.
Offenses reported in October included nine incidents of aggravated assault and battery and eight thefts.
Police responded to 15 accidents in October, one fewer than the previous year. The department took in $2,745 in fines and bonds.
The council approved the second and third readings of an ordinance rezoning multiple parcels on east side of Arkansas Highway 21 South from C-2 Highway Commercial to R-O Residential/Office, approved an ordinance waiving competitive bidding for the costs for installation of a radar detection system on the traffic signal at Arkansas Highway 21 and Freeman Avenue on three readings and invoked the emergency clause to make the measure effective immediately.
McKinney explained that there was an equipment malfunction that caused the traffic signal not to function properly.
The council also approved a resolution expressing the city’s willingness to use state funds on a paving project. The state will pay up to $300,000, with the city responsible for any additional costs.
In other business, the council voted 4-0 to deny a bid from the owner of a business on the Berryville Square to have a dedicated parking spot. McKinney noted that parking citations around the square are extremely uncommon, although there is an ordinance regulating parking.
“If we wanted to go up there and start chalking tires, there’s lots of people who park up there for more than two or three hours,” he said. “But we just have it in there in case it becomes a nuisance.”
The next meeting of the Berryville City Council is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 21, at City Hall.
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