Tuesday, the City of Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency held its first meeting since the Go Forward Pine Bluff Tax election and Executive Director Chandra Griffin started the session by responding to concerns about URA regarding transparency.
Once the meeting began, The board discussed the topic of invoice approval for a secondary commissioner to approve invoices as a second option in place of Commissioner Lloyd Franklyn Sr. or Griffin if they are absent and can give a signature. All commissioners except Franklyn, who joined later, approved the secondary signee as Kirby Moser unanimously.
The next topic up for discussion was the housing report by Griffin. She stated that last Monday she met briefly with Pines One Development LLC and EJ Construction for downtown housing 6th & Georgia to Convention Center Drive. She added that they are “progressing in a positive manner”.
URA Chair Jimmy Dill asked when the groundbreaking would take place and Griffin said this.
On another subject, the next topic of discussion was 216 S. Main roof change order requests from the contractor for the roofing, Elijah Hampton Enterprises. Griffin advised the commissioners that the request amounted to $30,000 for change orders that were requested after the accepted payment of $84,000 was signed-off.
Unanimously, the commissioners approved a motion to deny that request due to the payment already being accepted by the contractor.
Next up for discussion were the Go Kart Track RFQ and the Contract for the design, engineering, and construction of a go-kart track with Amusement Products and Amusement Construction. Griffin explained the request to the commissioners highlighting that they were over budget and decided to focus on the go-kart track with room for further development later.
The commissioners voted to move forward with Amusement Products and Amusement Construction on the RFQ and Contract.
Go Forward Pine Bluff CEO, Ryan Watley presented the next topic of discussion in regard to the Neighborhood Enhancement Act (NEA) to approve Angela Smith to join the program. The commissioners did approve the request without contest.
Commissioner Franklyn joined the meeting via Zoom and presented the financial statements from January, February, March, and April of 2023 and the commissioners approved those statements.
During the executive report, Griffin gave updates on the mural designs recently completed by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Art Department.
She went on to give an update on 6th and Main.
Griffin also made the commissioners aware of being offered a donation of property that has been condemned and that could possibly be rehabilitated.
In light of keeping things transparent, Griffin closed by mentioning that there is an investigation underway with the agency and stated that a statement is being prepared in reference to that but there aren’t any updates as of yet.
