Hope City Board

The Hope City Board met on Tuesday (6-3). The meeting started with a prayer, the pledge, and approval of the minutes from last month’s meeting.

The board listened to a request from Downtown Network to move tables, chairs and planters from a location deemed unsafe (between Western Auto and the former Tae Kwon Do Building) to alongside Tickled Pink on 2nd Street. The board approved the request.

Members of the beautification committee asked to plant crepe myrtles downtown and were requested by the board to obtain bids from local companies before action was taken. The topic was tabled.

City Manager JR Wilson presented to the board the annual review of sewer rates. Currently the rates are $13.25 per month base charge and $3.50 per 1,000 gallons meter usage charge (minimum 1,000 gallons).  Currently the amount raised by the city fees is less than expenditures. If the debt service charge is raised by $2.75 per month it will cover expenses.  With the treatment plants being 40 years old, unforeseen costs are a concern with the potential of failures of parts of the system.  Wilson also raised the concern about how the sewage rates are calculated isn’t accurate. He talked about different options as to how the rates are assessed.  This presentation was designed to guide future budget deliberations. No action was taken.

City Manager Wilson briefly mentioned 9 different accounts related to the bonds, one account being set aside for the payment back of the bonds.

There was a request for a meeting with Code Enforcement and Wilson said it was in the works and would either happen next meeting or the following one

Orange trash bags were displayed for the volunteers who clean up the city.

Wilson asked for permission to sign an addendum from Weyerhauser that will allow the company to conduct business with the European Union. Permission was granted.

Asbestos testing on the S curve was started and stopped because of the weather. It will continue and the environmental study is already underway.

The topic of the proposed recreational center’s hours, rentals and fees was brought up to be considered by the board in the future with space for public comments.

An ADEM (Arkansas Department of Emergency Management) meeting was attended because of the disasters in April. A 75/25 grant could be applied for to cover the majority of the costs. Hope Water and Light received close to $100,000 in damages during this time.

Permission was asked to open an account specifically for payroll in order to avoid a situation which happened recently with the bank being closed because of a tornado warning. This led to the city struggling to get out payroll. Permission was granted by the board.

For Citizen’s Requests, Thomas Hill spoke about visits he had received from Code Enforcement and expressed his concerns about feeling targeted, mentioning an individual and a business that were parking a number of vehicles on their residential properties. Hill said they had been doing it far longer than he had and should have received more warning letters.

Vice-Mayor Kiffanea Talley expressed her concern about Northside having narrow streets and limited finances in that neighborhood.  Wilson responded to both concerns talking about increased enforcement being encouraged.

Marsha White spoke about Juneteenth with a parade starting at Yerger at 11am and at noon the event kick-off across the tracks.

There will be a meeting about housing.

Arnetta Bradford spoke about the building mentioned earlier with the safety concern. Bradford spoke about caring for the city and efforts that has been taken and plans in the works for continuing restoration. The wall in question has been deemed stable with no bricks falling by the person who repaired it. Some mortar work needs to be completed and they are looking for someone to do the roof. Bradford also spoke about work done on the Foster building.

The meeting adjourned.