Cleanup discussed at Rosston council meeting

By Staff, 01/14/20 11:12 AM

ROSSTON – January’s meeting of the Rosston City Council, Monday night, was the first where the meeting was recorded.

The Arkansas Legislature passed a bill, later signed into law, requiring all cities to record their meetings for public access. Last year, first class cities were required to begin recording their meetings. This year, cities of the second class had to start.

Otherwise, the main topic of discussion was a community cleanup later in the year. Rosston Mayor Dale Quarles said he’s been talking to people about it in the community and there seems to be a lot of support. The idea, he said, is to break the volunteers into groups and send them to different areas to pick up trash. At the end, the idea is to have a hamburger lunch for the volunteers.

Quarles said this will be educational for the young people and get them to buy in to keeping the community clean later one. In addition, he’d like to do clean ups periodically in the cooler months to avoid snakes and bugs. Adults will be on hand to chaperone the different groups.

Quarles reminded the council the application for a grant to renovate city hall was denied, but he plans to reapply again this year. In fact, he said plans are to apply for grants as they come up. “I will apply for all I can,” he told the panel. He added the city doesn’t need to rely on grants, but needs help from the community as well.

One of the main topics of discussion was the need for a police substation as it takes roughly 15-20 minutes for law enforcement to get to Rosston. Quarles said he’ll be talking to Nevada County Sheriff Danny Martin about it to see what the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office can do.

Councilman Johnny Kelley suggested using the former fire station as city hall, adding the council doesn’t need all the room at the station. Quarles agreed, but began talking about using it as the location for a possible substation, saying it won’t require much room.

Councilman Leigh Ann Gray suggested contacting Airmax to provide internet service to Rosston. She said the community needs a better internet provider. Airmax, she told the panel, said it would locate in Rosston if it’s allowed to use the water tower. Quarles agreed to look into it, saying he needs more information. Gray pointed out Willisville uses this provider and hasn’t had any problems with it.

The city’s latest water project will get started soon, though there was a problem with the advertising for a project engineer and bond counsel. The city will advertise for bond council, with the ad to run for 30 days. This will change the council’s February meeting to Feb. 17 when a public hearing will be held concerning the project. The city has already hired A.L. Franks Engineering.