The Conway City Council accepted a bid for the construction of a roundabout at the College Avenue and Farris Road intersection and approved the hiring of another airport line technician at its April 11 meeting.

City Engineer Kurt Jones asked the council to approve JCI Construction’s bid to build the new roundabout.

“The bid did come in a little bit over what our expected dollar amount was, but … prices have gone up significantly on a lot of construction materials and also contractors have plenty of work right now, so it’s tough getting competitive pricing at this time,” Jones said.

The department initially expected around a million-dollar bid, but the bid came in at $1,127,860. Jones thinks it will end up costing less than that.

“We’re pretty confident we can bring this in under a million when it’s all said and done,” Jones said.

Jones said he expects the project to last around 150 to 180 days and that it will get started before school lets out, without disrupting traffic.

“We’ll hit it hard during the summer and have it operational — maybe not completely finished, but at least operational, when school starts,” Jones said.

Airport Director Jacob Briley asked the council for an extra $35,210 to be given to the Conway Municipal Airport at Cantrell Field.

The airport had two line technicians, including Briley, but he said the airport needs a third because the airport’s been used more than usual.

“We are about 35,000 gallons more this first quarter than we were last quarter,” Briley said. “This will help us fill those gaps for the weekends and the tougher days that we have.”

The council also approved proposals from six artists to be on-call for mural services.

Mayor Bart Castleberry said, “This is something that we’ve looked at for some time. We would like to paint murals on some of our city buildings: City Hall, some of our fire stations and bring a different look to downtown.”

The council’s next meeting will be April 25 at 1111 Main St.