Mayor Tom Farmer writes an open letter to citizen of Benton, detailing projects and funding. He also gives insight to the effort that went into helping people stay warm and well-fed during the extreme cold temperatures in early January. The letter:
Jan. 31, 2024
Dear Bentonites,
January came in with a Bang with Frigid Cold Temperature and snow, but I hope all of you were able to stay warm. We had a meeting on Tuesday, Jan 9 to establish the best way to aid people in need during the frigid weather conditions. There were 24 people in attendance at the meeting from all walks of life that had been called just 24 hours prior to the meeting. It was very impressive that everyone in attendance came to a unanimous plan of action within an hour of the meeting. This itself says a lot about our slogan of “together we can do more.” There were 7 churches represented from all different denominations and yet all of them worked together for the betterment of people in need. Again, I am not sure this would be the case in a lot of communities, but this is the case in Saline County. What a great community we live in!
The warming center was located at Northside Church of Christ was scheduled to be opened Sunday through Wednesday but due to the change in weather and the compassion of all the people involved the decision was made to keep it open to Sunday. We even had a local business, Olive Garden, get involved by supplying dinner to all in the warming center. We truly live in a great community.
Moreover, Benton Utilities did an outstanding job of keeping us in electricity and water during the winter storms. And Our City and County Street Departments worked alongside ARDOT to clear the main roads, keep them sanded and salted, and removed as much as they could. While most of you enjoyed time off they were all busy working.
We also need to brag on animal services, fire, police, and the street department that works no matter what the weather conditions are, to offer protection and services to everyone within our community. Our city government had a 2 hour late start each day to ensure that your needs were met throughout the freezing weather.
As the mayor for the last 5 years, I have been expected to present a state of the city to the council at the end of the January Council Meeting. I really thought it would be great to include this information in this month’s letter since not all of you watch the live broadcast of the council meetings.
This past year we have grown about 2% in population, added 10 new businesses, and gave pay raises to the employees in June of 2023 which cost us $110,000 additional money per pay period, since we had 14.5 pay periods remaining in 2023 the total cost was $1,540,000 plus holiday pay for a total of $1,650,000 out of the general fund (our most valuable resources are employees because they provide the service to our citizens.)
We also had some additional cost out of the general fund for
- a new roof on city hall ($200,000)
- A new HVAC unit ($49,000)
- Foundation repair at fire station 4 ($48,000)
- Clean ups around the city by ordinance ($81,000)
Between the salary increases and other expenses as you can see, we spent $2,028,000 from the general funds. We still carried over to 2024 about $800,000.
As always, we are moving forward with the 2040 plans to offer many different opportunities for the quality of life that each of you are looking for.
Since we were able to carry over from the 2022 budget 2.2 million dollars, the council approved:
- the transfer of 1.1 million from the stability account to a
- restricted account to build a new animal service complex.
- $250,000 to be placed into account for new animal service.
- $400,000 to be placed into account for new city hall renovation.
- $477,576 to be placed in an account for Salary Reserve fund.
We have a little over 2 million dollars in the account to build the new complex that we hope to begin on in early summer. The great news is when we open the doors of the complex it will be paid for in full without owing or raising any taxes but instead by utilizing the funds, we have by saving money over the years.
Last year we also ordered a new ladder truck which when it comes in will be paid for because we set aside funds to pay for it.
It is our belief to utilize the funds we have by saving and paying cash so that we do not put the city in debt, nor do we want to raise any taxes. We are working on paying off the bonds that we also have in the books as soon as we can.
As we always say we want to be better today than we were yesterday, but we want to be better tomorrow than we are today and the only way we can do this is by working together with everyone. We truly believe that together we can do more!
Thank each of you for choosing to live in the City of Benton, which is the 12th largest city in the state according to the state records. One piece of news that we just received was that Benton, Arkansas was ranked 2nd in the nation for first time home buyers.
Have a blessed day!
Tom