Hope City Board

By Staff, 04/18/18 12:28 PM

The Hope City Board met Tuesday April 17th for their second meeting of the month. Opening the meeting City Manager Catherine Cook noted the Cleve Batte Construction Company was 404 days over on the construction of the new landfill cell. Cook said they held back $141,000 from the job but probably the city needs to settle. She proposed they pay Batte $35,000. Also the city would pay the soil testing firm and extra $55,000 and the engineer $50,450. Cook said it would cost more than the $35,000 to go to court. The city board voted approve the settlement.
The city board looked at reroofing a building in the rear of the public works property between Mockingbird and West Third. The building hasn’t had a new roof since it was owned by the highway department. The city received a bid from John Collins of Van Buren for $30,644 and a bid from Hostetler for $14,750. The board approved the Hostetler bid.
The board looked at the city expenditures for the first quarter of the year. The general revenue received for the first quarter was $1,183,621 and total expected revenue for the year is $4,811,301. The first quarter expenses were $1,184,435. The budget was in the red $813.24, a very minor amount. Sales tax revenue was $844,290.63 and $750, 000 has been utilized for the general fund. The Capital Outlay fund has revenue of $28,460 with expenses of $122,690. The airport revenue was $40,442 and expenses were $48,421. Almost half of the expenses from this fund went to rail spur maintenance. The street fund had revenue of $178,567 and expenses of $193,588. The sanitation fund had revenue of $410,597and expenses of $420,051. The wastewater fund revenue was $334,181 against expenses of $355,141.
Under the City Manager’s report, Catherine Cook noted Saturday April 21st is the city-wide clean-up. She noted the landfill will open at 7am for residents to take their refuse to the landfill. Cook noted Family Dollar will begin taking down their burned building soon and indications are they will rebuild. Also, work on the site of the former Graves/Cox Drug building this week. Also Cook noted the grant being sought to renovate the city rail spur has been adjusted which will allow the city to seek that grant.
The board discussed code violations. Director Mark Ross noted the “yard art” at Third and Spruce may be a code violation and Chief J.R. Wilson said it is being looked at. Ross also noted a metal fence has been put up in the 300th block of California. It is believed to fence, which appears industrial, is hiding cars being stored in the yard. There was discussion on whether there are any regulations on the type of fencing that can be used. Also, the city discussed a broken out, leaning sign on North Hervey.
Under citizens requests Hazel Simpson noted Cave Hill Cemetery needs some fill-in and she asked if the maintenance man is responsible for smoothing this area and City Manager Catherine Cook said she would look at the situation. Cook noted the Rose Hill Cemetery Association usually pays someone to fill in Graves. The meeting then adjourned.