By Ray King
A special meeting of the Pine Bluff City Council’s Public Safety Committee Monday gave members a chance to hear from a representative of Receivables Management Corp., about the company taking over the collection of past due court fines and fees for the Pine Bluff Division of District Court. No action was taken by the committee and they will meet again Wednesday to discuss the idea further.
Attorney Maxie Kizer said the company currently collects fines and fees for the Jefferson County Division of District Court and according to a sheet made available to council members and the media, during the period from November 2019 to August 2020, the company had collected $166,616. They were paid 30 percent of the total collection fee, meaning that the county received $118,031.
Council member Ivan Whitfield voiced his opposition to the proposal for several reasons including the fact that Kizer did not have a letter of support from Pine Bluff District Judge John Kearney or the court clerk, and also the fact that even if the fines are paid in full, there will still be a failure to appear warrant that will have to be taken care of.
Added to the agenda Monday were a number of resolutions authorizing Mayor Shirley Washington to enter into contracts with companies working on the Merrill Center restoration, bike trail infrastructure and construction of that part of the University Park Streetscape, and raising the fees for opening and closing graves.
Regarding the Merrill Center project, Sports Flooring Inc., submitted the lowest bid to replace the gym floor with a bid of $66,794.95Wagner General Contractors submitted the lowest bid for a ventilation project at the Merrill gym, bidding $53,971 and Matthews Construction submitted the lowest bid for painting the gym with a bid of $12,000.
Ecological Design Group was awarded the contract for providing professional landscaping services for the bike trail including observation work during construction. The company bid $4,500 for basic services plus hourly rates to be paid for architects, engineers, designers, botanist, biologist and technical/clerical work. Gerald E. Prince Construction Company was the low bidder on infrastructure work for the project, bidding $332,000.
A resolution was also approved allowing Washington to sign a contract with Buie Funeral Home to perform work opening and closing graves and an accompanying ordinance set out the prices the company will charge to perform the work, ranging from $400 for internment of adult graves, $125 for opening graves for children and infants, and the ordinance stipulates that the rates apply whether the service is performed on a holiday or weekend and regardless of the hour of the day.
