Hope City Board
The Hope City Board met in City Hall on Tuesday evening. After the invocation, pledge, and approval of the minutes for two meetings, an ordinance was discussed implementing a marriage provision for members of the Hope Local Fire Pension fund. With the transfer of management of the Fireman’s pension plan to LOPFI it was noticed that one member was married within five years after retirement. In order for the spouse to be covered a provision needed to be passed. After City Attorney Randy Wright read the provision, the board passed it. There are 11 people in the plan. All except two members are enrolled in LOPFI as they have yet to turn in the paperwork. Efforts have been made to contact them and offers have been made to help them with the paperwork. Paperwork needs to be submitted by August 18th.
City Manager J.R. Wilson talked about the progress with the railroads. He stated everybody agrees that the roads can’t be blocked longer than 10 minutes which is legally allowed. The issue is the blockage for hours or days. The worst case was a seven day period a train sat blocking Lewisville road. Wilson said he thought things were going to work out but things returned to the way they had been. He had tried originally to use the “good old boy network” and talk things out and has since been following the law of writing to registered agents. He had to wait 45 days for a response. Wilson received a written from UP but not from KKR. The General Manager from KKR came from Garland to visit the City Manager’s office. Mayor Don Still and State Representative Danny Watson have also been working on this issue and City Manager Wilson said he had probably spent 100 hours in the last month, taking time away from other issues. Wilson said the problem is this is a private line and both parties play a good game and they blame each other. The issue isn’t only with this line though as it is also an issue on Generator St. with trains left there overnight with the gates sounding the whole time and Board Member Mark Ross said he had lost a resident as a result. Wilson said this is a result of the feed mill which Hope wanted and they do a lot for the community and talked about how much feed the mill goes through – emptying a car in three minutes. Wilson said there was a need for everything to work together with the police, ambulances and tucks also bring able to function.
In the departmental reports, Wilson stated dispatch stayed pretty busy and the police doing a great job clearing cases and getting them to the courts. In most cases fire or police can get to the scene before ambulances.
Wilson talked about making sure that citations didn’t get ignored without overburdening individuals.
The Coliseum and Northside Park have been rented an equal number of times – 35. There have been quite a few baseball rentals – 136. The issue of rentals of the Hub was brought up with all of the rummage sales.
The issue of homelessness was brought up with people sleeping on benches. They have been told to move on and they move to another location. It was stated this is a national issue.
325 potholes have been fixed and a lot of drainage work is being done as it is nice and dry.
The pool has been open 6 days a week with Sundays being by reservation only.
The soccer season begins in September. People play every weekend but are not scheduled.
One condemned structure has been removed.
Police Chief Tomlin asked for approval of the replacement of 10 cameras and said she wanted the department to be covered for five years. This involves making an application for the Public Safety Equipment Grant by way of the Arkansas Department of Public Safety. HPD seeks $49,800.55 in this Federal Award. No matching funds are required. There was a motion by Board Member Trever Coffee to approve, which was seconded and passed.
In the City Manager’s Report there was an update on Fire Station #1 and an issue on air conditioning. The upstairs air conditioner went out and had to be replaced.
Parks Director Summer Powell made a report on the Watermelon Festival and stated attendance was up. There were 122 vendors, 17 food trucks, 62 softball teams, 16 Watermelon Olympics and a big crowd with the dog show. It was a year for the books. Hempstead County Economic Development President Anna Powell said around 900 people attended the concert. The 5k race numbers were up and the car show numbers were also up. Lights make Kelly Field look like an entirely new place and the lights even shine up to show the ball. Board Director Mark Ross complimented the Fire Department and all City Workers for the jobs they had done.
The upcoming audit was discussed.
City Manager Wilson said he would be out of office from Wednesday through Friday planning meetings.
One of the city employees just passed away and has been mourned.
There will be a walkthrough of the streetscape project to assess any items left to be done
Anna Powell gave an invitation to the Board Members for a luncheon so they can see what the Economic Development Commission has been doing for the last year.
The meeting adjourned.