Berryville council waives bidding for roof repair

The Berryville City Council approved an ordinance waiving competitive bidding to repair the roof at Saunders Memorial Museum at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

The council declared an emergency and read the ordinance three times after discussing a bid of $74,116.52 submitted by Quality Roofing Solutions of Mena. All three readings passed 4-0.

City administrative assistant Jay Lee said the company comes highly recommended.

“We got this name from people who have used him on the square for a lot of their flat roofs,” Lee said. “If you have any idea about flat roofs, they can be problems and can be hard to get right. Every time he has worked on any of the buildings up on the square, he has gotten it right and all those people have been very well pleased.”

Lee acknowledged that the roof repair will be a significant expenditure.

“It is a large figure,” he said. “We realize that, but given this guy’s track record here in town with some other problematic roofs and … he’s the only that’s really gotten up there and just really studied it long enough to really find what he thinks is the problem. I agree with his recommendations as far as what he thinks is causing the leak itself.”

Lee said the contractor will extend the roof to prevent water from running down the inside of a wall and collecting on the flat roof.

“At some point, it finds a way to get inside the museum,” Lee said. “So most of our leaks are running down the wall. What he proposes to do is extend the roof past that to get the watershed off of the whole roof area and then not only go and put caulking and stuff on the existing roof but then totally encapsulate it with a new roofing material.”

Lee said the city has “almost to the penny” in funds remaining that were bequeathed to the museum by the late Burt and Alice George.

The council also voted to authorize Mayor Tim McKinney to execute a lease agreement with Mennonite Disaster Service Inc. to accommodate an equipment storage building in the Berryville Regional Business Park. Under the terms of the lease, the disaster service would pay the city one dollar a year for 25 years. MDS would have the option of renewing the lease for up to additional 10year terms.

MDS provides emergency services, including search and rescue and first responder services, at no cost.

“They’re called out all the time,” said Dean Lee, the city’s economic development director. “They go statewide, into Missouri and around. They’re very passionate about it. It’s a tremendous asset for our community.”

Lee said the expansion of the Mennonites’ Mid-States Specialty Eggs plant in the business park means they will to have to find a new place to store their emergency equipment. The expansion will add 72,000 square feet, doubling the size of the plant. Lee said the expansion will create “50 to 60” new jobs.

The land that the Mennonites will lease from the city is located near a sewer lift station and thus would not likely be an attractive location for other businesses. In addition, Lee said, having the emergency equipment quickly accessible in the business park will help recruit other businesses to the park.

In other business, council member Linda Riddlesperger presented the Saunders museum’s monthly activity report for July.

The museum had 138 visitors in July, down from 158 in July 2023, and collected a total of $826, down from $1,063 a year earlier.

Riddlesperger said the lower attendance this July was probably related to the heat. She also mentioned that several items from the museum are on exhibit through Sept. 20 at the state Capitol in Little Rock.

“We actually had a couple of people come in a few days ago that had seen the exhibit there in Little Rock and came to Berryville to see what we have here,” Riddlesperger said.

Riddlesperger chaired the meeting as McKinney was absent because of an illness in his family.

The Berryville City Council’s next regular meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 20, at City Hall.