Lonoke council approves generator and facility repairs, vehicle fix and engineering agreement

The Lonoke City Council approved several infrastructure and maintenance expenditures during its meeting, including repairs to a pump-station generator, security and HVAC work at the jail evidence room, a squad-car wiring repair and an updated engineering agreement for a water plant project.

Anthony Smith reported water operations had higher-than-normal pumping (about 13.2 million gallons) and elevated water loss near 17% for the month; he told the council a repair quote for a generator using Caterpillar parts was $8,200. The council approved a motion to authorize spending up to $8,500 so the vendor could proceed with repairs without delay.

On the police department request, council members approved a $24,129.30 bid to build two walls and install HVAC in the evidence room and an adjacent jail area to improve security and allow relocation of evidence storage. The council discussed the need to complete the long‑standing project and approved the expenditure on a motion and second.

Council also approved a $4,616.56 repair from Red River Dodge to fix wiring damaged in a squad car rather than scrapping the vehicle; members cited vehicle service life considerations when approving the repair.

Separately, the council approved an updated engineering services agreement with PMI for the water-plant aerator project; the change added "Build America" language and otherwise left the agreement intact. Council then approved payment of the city's bills and moved to adjourn.

All motions reported in the transcript were adopted by voice vote; exact roll-call tallies were not recorded in the meeting transcript.