Council holds marathon meeting

PRESCOTT – A marathon two-hour session was held by the Prescott City Council at its May meeting Monday night.

There wasn’t much on the agenda, but the council debated the issues at hand, oftentimes repeating itself, making the same arguments and points over and over again.

The meeting began with a 10-minute discussion as to why the council didn’t get its packets Friday. The packets were delivered Sunday, but members of the panel said this wasn’t enough time to go over the budget.

From there, Berry Marks, with UAMS, talked about having a health fair on Sept. 7. He said UAMS has given him $20,000 to spend and he wants to spend it in his hometown. The event, he told the panel, needs to be faith-based with area churches and choirs getting involved. It will be an all-day event. Basically, Marks was seeking permission to hold the event.

However, there is a problem. Marks wants to use the fairgrounds, but they won’t be available as the Nevada County Fair will be underway at the time. His second choice is City Park, and to rent the Ila Upchurch building for health screenings. Plans, he said, are to start at 9 a.m. and have a concert at Prescott High School at 6 p.m. with Tim Rogers and the Fellows performing. He said there will be several free screenings, including screenings for HIV, and free food, with bounce houses for the children.

Next up was a lengthy discussion about the county’s asking the city to help with the cost of repairing bleachers at the rodeo arena. City Attorney Glenn Vasser said to do this the council would have to amend the city’s interlocal agreement with the Nevada County Fair Association and the city’s budget. He said this could be an annual contribution or a one-time deal.

Councilman Susie Meeks went on the offensive saying the agreement doesn’t say anything about money and her opinion was to leave it alone or others would come to the city for money.

The council discussed how much is needed, having problems remembering this was talked about during the April meeting when Justice of the Peace Curtis Lee Johnson told the panel the county needed $3,500 from the city as the county was putting up a like amount.

Discussion circled around whether or not the city was fulfilling its obligation under the agreement and the amount needed.

Nevada County Clerk Julie Oliver said the county provides the NCFA $6,500 annually, pays the insurance on the buildings and sprays for weeds, with Nevada County Judge Mark Glass assisting in other ways as needed.

In the end the vote was 4-4 with Prescott Mayor Terry Oliver ecstatic to cast the tiebreaking ballot in favor of amending the agreement and budget.

The council approved two ordinances presented by Robbie Franks, code enforcement officer. The first dealt with limbs and leaves. Franks said there’s an issue with people putting limbs, leaves and other refuse together for the city’s sanitation crews to pick up. The ordinance now specifies limbs can be no longer than six feet and six-inches in diameter. All leaves must be neatly piled with no limbs or other refuse included. Those who violate the ordinance could be fined.

The second ordinance concerned inoperable vehicles in people’s yards. The existing ordinance gives people six months to do something about the vehicles. Frank’s presented an ordinance to amend the exiting one and allow only 30 days for anyone to take care of an inoperable vehicle. He said this is a health issue as well as an eyesore. The council agreed and approved the ordinance.

There was also discussion on what to do about keeping properties certified to the state cleaned up. Franks said there are several lost certified to the state that are growing up and need to be mowed, but the problem is, the state won’t mow the properties. The city can do the cleanup and put a lien on the property, collecting when and if the land sells, which is another problem in and of itself.

A suggestion was made to hire someone to keep these properties cleaned up and use sales tax money to pay for them. No action was taken on the issue.

Prescott Police Chief Joey Beavers got the biggest reaction from the council when he pointed out the Prescott Police Department is participating in the state’s Click it or Ticket campaign through June 2 and those not wearing safety belts will be cited. He said the PPD did a traffic survey and noticed about 50 percent seat belt usage in the city.