Prescott City Council

The Prescott City Council met in the Senior Center dining room on Tuesday (1-21). Mayor Terry Oliver talked about a new facility and parking spaces going in for truckers between US 371 and AR 19. 195 parking spaces will be installed initially with a building of over 3,000 square feet. This building will contain a fitness center, showers and TV room. Later, another 135 parking spaces will be added.  Mr. Mike Edi has big plans for the old Split Rail site and conversation has been going on for a year and a half.  A fishing pond will also be going in.

A new council member, Tony Hillard was seated. He serves in Ward 4.

In response to questions he has received, Mayor Oliver said he would continue to run the city for as long as he was able to. This was met with applause by council members.

Mayor Oliver applauded City Council members for being proactive by attending an event run by the Arkansas Municipal League in Little Rock. Attendees learned about Leadership and Ethics, Municipal Finances, Disaster Preparation, Conflict Management, Strengthening Cyber Security, How to Get Grants and many more topics.

There were three leadership candidates: Francisco Shabadia, Shanta Wiley and Shytavia Hopper.

Shanta Wiley, the “City Employee of the Year” manages the office well, does conflict resolution for the electric department, is the water site administrator, the Prescott Youth Center website administrator, and is the Mayor’s personal assistant. Wiley thanked the Mayor for the opportunity and said instead of holding them back he encouraged them to grow.

Shytavia Hopper was said to be excellent at customer service and works full-time for the city while being a full-time college student. The Mayor said he knew her from coaching but didn’t realize she was so knowledgeable. Hopper thanked the Mayor for the opportunity.

There was a resolution approving the industrial park improvement. This was requirement to receive the $700,000 grant from the state.

The city council approved keeping the times and dates the same for the meetings as this year.

The audit was approved.

The police inventory list was discussed and needs to be updated. While there appear to be a lot of vehicles, only 4 are functional.  Many of them are high mileage and worn out requiring frequent repair. One vehicle has had the computer replaced, a new transmission installed and now has motor issues. Another vehicle was wrecked in a pursuit and hit three deer.  The three new vehicles are working well but have 150,000 miles on them. With the wear and tear on police vehicles from the type of use required this mileage is excessive.

The police department wants to be able to bring the information the council needs for the next meeting and the department wanted to make the city aware of the issues and vehicles potentially available. The costs were said to range being possibly as much as $36,000-42,000 plus over $10,000 to “rig out” the vehicle with striping and lights.

The number of officers working for the department was discussed.  While there is one currently in the academy and one getting ready to go, for the department to be fully staffed they will have three shifts with the 1st and 2nd having a 4-hour overlap.

Chamber of Commerce director Jamie Hillery attended the Fair Manager’s Commission and said she received a lot of useful information. Hillery wants to get started on planning the chamber banquet and the nominations for the “citizen of the year” award.

Ivory Curry from Curry’s Outreach Ministry talked about an event on Saturday (1-25) where people can get warm and have some nice food.

The meeting adjourned.