Prescott City Council

The Prescott City Council met on Monday (10-21) in the senior citizens center dining room in Prescott.  After the prayer and pledge the minutes and financial report were approved.

Jamie Hillery from the Prescott/Nevada County Chamber of Commerce spoke about the beautiful weather at the Fall Festival and the upcoming Halloween celebrations. There will be an outdoor movie event (2 movies) at the Papa Stacks Event Center on October 25th at 7pm. The cost will be five dollars. Those attending will need to bring chairs.  Parking is limited. At the Center there will be a haunted house and trunk or treat on October 30th and 31st. Cars should be in the gate by 7pm to participate. Cost is $5 for the haunted house. Trunk or Treat is free.

The giving tree project will begin before the next meeting so people are encouraged to think of families in need of necessities.

Mary Godwin from the Economic Development Office gave the sales tax report and said they were starting to recruit for the 2025 leadership class and showed the application to the council. Godwin also showed door hangers printed out for people who kept their yards maintained and engaged in other positive behavior. She said more could be printed out if needed. Godwin said there was good news coming from Holcim that she didn’t yet have permission to share.

On the agenda was Mr. Robert Lee from the Fire Department but he wasn’t able to attend.

Mr. Ivory Curry was recognized for obtaining 25 credits through the Arkansas Civic Education Hub. This makes him “Civilpedia” Certified. The ACE program is open to all municipal officials and personnel in Arkansas. It includes four levels of certification.

There was a second amendment to the 2024 budget having to do with the landfill needing some work that will cost $24,500. The city pays 54% and the county pays 46%. This was an unanticipated expense.

Resolution #3 for the leasing of a Peterbilt trash truck was approved.  The amount has been $2,389,79 a month and will increase to $3,235.31 per month with the new truck.

Resolution #4 for a skid steer from Caterpillar was also approved. There had been a 3-year balloon payment of $1,161.81 per month. This will increase to $1,941.55 with the new piece of equipment. The skid steer is used for many things by almost all of the city departments. This includes demolition of houses, electrical, sanitation and street work. City departments will be able to use it as needed. The payment will come out of the street fund. It will be used frequently for sanitation. The police use it to push things out of the way.

Resolution #5 passed for a Kubota Mini Excavator. The current one is 10-12 years old. It will be used for water, sewer and rural work. The decision was made to lease at $1,422.05 per month for 4 years and then the city can purchase it for $100. The excavator is portable and can easily be hauled around.

For citizen’s communications Clay Wingfield spoke. In order to speak a yellow card must be filled out for their concerns to be considered at another meeting.

 He is a member of the Fire Department, ran Wingfield Nursery, and worked for the Experiment Station in Hope. He talked about a catastrophic water bill he had of almost $600 because of a water leak and asked about forgiveness when it came to such a water bill.  Prescott doesn’t have a catastrophic water policy. An existing ordinance says households must be billed for the water they use. A concern was raised about the fairness of forgiveness with some being $5 over and others $1,000 so the city has a policy not to forgive water bills. From the city’s side, Prescott has worked hard to fix leaks during storms and keep the water system intact. This has cost the city money.  The Council decided to refer the issue to the city staff and expressed a concern about the issue as well as the desire to help out when possible.  Wingfield said if it was a $100 bill he would simply pay it but for $600 he would like some help. Wingfield was told he could pay other bills while a decision was being made.

Jamie Hillery spoke about the Prescott Fire Department doing a food fundraiser on October 25th at noon. She said Food Share is in need of hlep..

The issue of class 4 trash was raised by Chris Hopper, department head of the street department, sanitation and, the landfill.  It was noted anything that isn’t household trash is class four and needs to be separated. This includes refrigerators, stoves and leaves.

The meeting then adjourned.