Council approves $112,000 bulldozer purchase for landfill, citing contaminated-soil project to fund it

The Helena-West Helena City Council on Tuesday adopted Ordinance No. 10, 2026 to waive competitive bidding and authorize the purchase of a bulldozer for the city landfill at a listed amount of $112,000. The motion passed on a 6–0 roll call vote.

Director Wilson told the council the landfill expects a contractor to deliver 15,000 tons of contaminated soil at $35 per ton and that proceeds from handling that work would pay for the used bulldozer. "Once we start getting the revenue from Thompson's Petroleum, I'm going to pay the dozer off completely," Director Wilson said, adding he expects payments on the project to begin July 1.

Wilson described the operational need for a smaller commercial dozer with a six-way blade to clear mud, maintain runoff ditches and allow trucks to reach dumping areas during rainy conditions. He said the city's larger dozer is used for pushing trash and that the new machine would be assigned to road/runoff work and the contaminated-soil phases.

A committee member who reviewed the landfill statements told the council the year-to-date statements in the packet showed improved gross profit compared with the prior year and said that strengthened the financial case for the purchase. (The transcript of the meeting contains some unclear figures reported by that speaker; the packet was referenced by council members for exact numbers.)

Council discussed compliance status: Director Wilson said the landfill currently has "zero violations" from its most recent inspection and that the city is awaiting a follow-up inspection by an official named Ryan to be removed from a consent order.

The ordinance language read at the meeting referenced Arkansas Code Annotated section 1458303 and authorized the mayor to enter a contract to purchase the described equipment. The clerk called the roll during the adoption and recorded the following responses as read at the meeting: Mr. St. Columbia — yes; Mr. Msina — yes; Dr. Miller — yes; Miss Davis — yes; Miss Miller — yes; Mr. Ely — yes. The motion passed and the council instructed staff to proceed with contract completion in time for the project start.

Next steps noted at the meeting: staff expects the contaminated-soil project to begin July 1 and said the dozer should be in place by then to support first-phase operations.