Hope City Board

The Hope City Board met in City Hall on Tuesday (8-20). After the prayer, pledge and minutes, city attorney Randy Wright spoke on the Hope hospital. The hospital’s parent company, Steward, has filed suit against MPT for funds allocated. This puts Hope on the back burner in terms of priority. On the other hand, this might help Hope get a better contract.

The board discussed a Bodcaw city employee being put on the city of Hope’s health care plan. Hope has been informed they can discontinue the coverage of the employee at any time. The board approved the plan.

Hope Assistant City Manager Daniel Shelman presented a report on the Watermelon Festival. According to Shelman, the festival had a great turnout with a slight increase in parking from last year. 1,000 tickets were sold for the concert  and the t-shirts were sold out. The Kiwanis pulled pork dinner did well.  93 cars entered in the car show and 42 youngsters participated in the fishing derby.

Cindy Clark presented the Financial Report.

City Manager J.R. Wilson presented his report. He noted the landfill remediation plan for the city of Hope’s closed portion of the landfill is in Department of Environmental Quality review.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation approved a request for memorial signs. The street department will work with ARDOT and the utility companies to install them.

The Hope Tourism Commission has funded $10,000 for marketing the “Hope for the Future” ballot initiative. This is on top of the $2,000 the city has already approved for the project.

The board heard that building services/code enforcement officer Carl Conley will be retiring in October.

For the landfill, the board discussed numerous issues. The bulldozer has stopped working and will cost $20,000 to get running again. As another $80,000 is needed to fix the undercarriage and $150,000 has already been put into it, the board discussed various options including purchasing another one.

The board discussed the need for a bulldozer for the street department and noted “mini tracks” are used when possible.

Under Citizens’ Requests, Mark Silvey spoke about a public safety concern connected with the farmer’s market and his family. Silvey talked about a man that recently got off the AMTRAK train in Hope and caused concern at the farmers market.  The man even walked to Bodcaw.  Silvey said his family had made a facebook post and people responded either with vigilante feelings or accusations of bias. Silvey expressed concern about what the police were apparently not aware of and expressed a desire for more public dialogue as the private citizens are on the front line.

Mayor Still acknowledged the importance of the issue.  The meeting then adjourned.