Hope City Board

The Hope City Board met in the City Hall Boardroom on Tuesday (4-2) for their first meeting of April. While there was a lot information given and discussions during the meeting, due to only five members being there the board could only vote on one item – the approval of the Aeronautics Grant. A motion was made to accept it which passed. $37,045 will come from the Airport Fund and $333,405 will be received from the state. This is for the building of a new hanger at the airport.

Other items on the agenda included the consideration of amending of the animal control ordinance to accommodate the Hope Public Schools.  Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Crossley, Maurice Henry, and Christina Smith from the Hope Public Schools addressed the concerns the board members had. One issue was how long the animals would be on the high school campus.   The school plans from spring until November or December for goats and 2 years for rabbits. Another concern was possible odors from the activities with the response there wouldn’t be any since the waste would be removed every day. A privacy fence will be installed. Cows and chickens will not be at the facility. The board was unable to vote on this measure due to several board members being out.

The next item was the revision of franchise and video service fees. The city has had an issue with companies tunnelling and damaging services. The proposed ordinance requires companies to get a permit from the city and put up a bond. There will be an inspection to make sure the job is done correctly with 60 or 90 days for the company to correct the issue. After 90 days the company will be charged $200 a day if they haven’t corrected the issue. The question was asked if this amount was a limit and City Manager J.R. Wilson responded it wasn’t. The city could seek redress in court.  Again, no action was taken.

The board discussed the full repeal of ordinance 1741 which has partially repealed.  Again, no action was taken.

For the City Manager’s Report, Wilson talked about the Cave Hill and Rose Hill clean-up effort and said it went well with a lot of participation. The improvements included some paving.

The next clean-up day will be April 27th.

Wilson talked about having spoken with Glen Spears and Wastewater Superintendent Scott Ross. Spears made mathematical projections and stated if the city installed an automatic valve it wouldn’t need to do a planned filtration system. Wilson spoke about this saving the city $2 million.  With the question of whether or not the city would then need to adjust the rates or build in new projects, the recommendation was not to change either of those at the moment.

The city has a meeting with McClellan Engineering this week to discuss possible projects.

Trevor Coffee asked about any reports on 6th Street and Wilson responded none yet but ARDOT doesn’t perceive any issues. Eventually, ARDOT will proceed anyway.

Marcia White asked what time of day the next clean-up day began and was told 7am but it was noted people are free to come at any time. White also asked about the trains cutting off traffic and who can be contacted. Wilson stated he can provide the number of the companies involved but the issue isn’t nearly as bad as it was with delays now limited to an hour or less as opposed to previous blockages for 3 days. As long as the companies are actively switching trains instead of parking them the city doesn’t have an issue. Mayor Still stated Tyson goes through 125 cars twice a week and those can’t simply be done in 10 minutes.

The meeting adjourned.