CITY OF EUREKA SPRINGS
COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
The
PRESENT: Mayor
Satori, and Alderpersons Jeffrey, Schrader, Stoppel ,Sumpter,
ALSO PRESENT: Kate Allen, Robert McVey, Diane Murphy, Lisa
Liggett, Nikki Cherry, , Ed Leswig, David White, Bill
Earngey, Jeff Pratt, Frankie Green, Charles Thurman, Jerry Ballinger, Don Matt,
Tom Laub, and Clerk Lee. Some of those
attending did not sign in.
PLEDGE OF
ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Satori led in the Pledge of Allegiance.
APPROVAL OF
THE AGENDA: Alderman Jeffrey asked that
Ordinance No. 1818 be put the first item on the agenda
after the approval of the minutes. Mayor
Satori suggested that the item be put just after the vote for the position on
the Historic District Commission.
Council Comments
were put at the end of the items under New Business. Ordinance No. 1818,
Ordinance No. 1819, and Ordinance No. 1817 were moved to one, two and three
respectively under Unfinished Business. Ordinance No. 1820 was moved to item
one under New Business. The motion was made and seconded to approve the agenda
as it was amended. All were in favor,
6/0/0.
APPROVAL OF
THE MINUTES: There were a couple of small changes to the minutes. The motion was made and seconded to approve
as amended. All were in favor, 6/0/0.
COMMISSION,
COMMITTEE AND AUTHORITY REPORTS AND VACANCIES:
Historic District
Commission- Position 2-Expires:
Mayor Satori
nominated Pat Matsukis for Position 1 on the Planning Commission, which expires
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS:
Ordinance No. 1818, prohibiting outdoor
price signs at lodging facilities:
Just
before the City Council Meeting Alderman Jeffrey had made a presentation on
prohibiting outdoor price signs at lodging facilities. The presentation was a combined effort of
business owners and managers who are members of the Resort Association in Eureka
Springs, It is their
belief that the signs are financially detrimental to all of the businesses of
the City.
The motion was
made and seconded to place Ordinance No. 1818 on its first reading in its
entirety and that
Michelle Harrington read the ordinance since she was the attorney who drafted
it for the Resort Association. All were
in favor,6/0/0.
Ms. Harrington
stated that she would be making a minor change in the paragraph of the fifth”
whereas”. She then read the ordinance.
Alderman
Schrader asked Alderman Sumpter, Taylor and Freeland if they intended to recuse
since they all run lodging facilities.
They said no. The attorneys
agreed that there should be no problems since the ordinance would not benefit
any one facility more than another and Ms. Harrington said it was not regulating
the price of the rooms.
Alderman
Jeffrey said that everything is interconnected, and he felt it was absurd to
ask anyone to recuse when this can only benefit the entire City.
The motion was
made and seconded to pass Ordinance No. 1818 on its first reading.
Alderman
Freeland said that anywhere in the
Alderwoman
Taylor was asked if she uses a marquee sign to put her prices out. She said no.
Alderman
Schrader referred several times to a possible law suit if this ordinance was
passed.
Alderman
Jeffrey said that was a scare tactic and that the council should move on with
the ordinance.
Alderman
Schrader said the ordinance was intended to make less than perfect free
competition of trade and that it was a violation of the restraint of trade
laws. He said it was oligopolistic.
Mayor Satori
said that oligopoly is price fixing, Nobody is telling anyone how much they
can charge for their rooms.
Alderman
Jeffrey said that the law allows a City to regulate commercial speech.
Jerry
Ballinger said it is an important ordinance.
He said the City does not have too many rooms, just not enough
people. The signs hurt overnight
business and encourage day trippers, who do not stay overnight.
The vote on
the first reading of Ordinance No. 1818 was
DEPARTMENT
HEAD COMMENTS:
Chief McVey
introduced one of the new employees, Robert Deneski. Mr. Deneski came to us from
Lisa Liggett
from Transit had handouts on the parking shuttle for the Council. Return trips are averaging six to eight minutes,
which is very good.
She said that
someone had offered the City $40,000 for Trolley #1 and asked if they wanted to
sell it. She said that the white tram sold for $30,501.
Alderman Stoppel
mentioned a letter the Council had gotten in their boxes complimenting the
shuttle service. Mayor Satori also had received
calls complimenting the service.
Nikki Cherry
said the first Sportsplex Citizens Advisory Committee met Tuesday night. It
went very well. She applied in April for
a Highway Transportation Trails Grant to do some work in
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS:
Ordinance No. 1819, opening of
The motion was
made and seconded to suspend the rules and place Ordinance No. 1819 on its
second reading by title only. All were
in favor, 6/0/0.
Mayor Satori
read the ordinance by title only.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve the second reading. After some discussion the vote on the
ordinance was
The motion was
made and seconded to further suspend the rules and place Ordinance No. 1819 on
its third and final reading by title only.
Bill Earngey
was of the opinion that the City was setting a precedent by not making the language
more clear about the pedestrian easement.
He then realized that this is an ordinance that deals with this
situation individually, and is not the standard set for every street opening that
may come up.
The vote to
read for the third time was
Mayor Satori
read the ordinance by title only.
The vote to
approve was
Ordinance No. 1817, amending parking
provisions, (Second reading):
The motion was
made and seconded to suspend the rules and place Ordinance No.1817 on its
second reading by title only. All were
in favor, 6/0/0.
After a long
discussion, it was decided to vote this ordinance down, and go back to start again. The vote on the second reading was 0/6/0, and
it failed.
Committee on Speeding Report:
Alderman Stoppel
read the memo from the Committee on speed bumps. They listed several things that could be done
to slow people down:
1.
More speed limit signs in problem areas such as
2.
Making existing speed limit signs more visible by trimming
tree limbs and brush away from them.
3.
Increasing the amount of marked cross walks in the down town
area and making the cross walks more visible or brightening them.
4.
Extend Officer Dale Grunwald’s position from a part time to
a full time position. With the
additional manpower to answer calls, the police department could assign an
officer to full time traffic enforcement without interruption at least 20 hours
per week.
5.
Raise the fines in Municipal court on all hazardous traffic
violations. This would have to be
accomplished by passing an ordinance which names the offense and gives a
minimum and maximum fine for the Judge to impose on those found guilty.
6.
Place a stop sign on
Alderman
Jeffrey thanked the committee for their work.
There was
quite a bit of discussion, but there was no action taken. Mayor Satori said that Department Heads are
always available to ask if there is a question, and they come and give their
comments at council meetings.
NEW BUSINESS:
Ordinance No. 1820, changing the number
of Park Commissioners from 5 to 7:
The motion was
made and seconded to place Ordinance No. 1820 on its first reading in its entirety. All were in favor, 6/0/0.
Mayor Satori
read the ordinance in its entirety.
Without much discussion
the ordinance passed on its first reading, 6/0/0.
Transportation Meeting, date and time,
(Bill Freeland):
Mr. Freeland
explained that he felt that it would be beneficial to get all of our licensed and/or
franchised businesses that involve transportation, along with our City
transportation together and discuss how each of these entities work in tandem
with the others. The Mayor said that
there needs to be some information gathered before this can happen. It was decided to work further before a date
and time are set.
Resolution No. 464, Rural Community
Grant (Fire Department):
The motion was
made and seconded to read this resolution.
It had been passed once, but for some unknown reason it was never
numbered. All were in favor of reading
it, 6/0/0.
Mayor Satori
read the resolution.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve. All were
in favor, 6/0/0.
CITY COUNCIL
COMMENTS: No comments due to the
lateness of the hour.
MAYOR
COMMENTS:
Mayor Satori
was asked about his new computer which seems to have stirred up some controversy.
For the first
6 or 7 months the Mayor used his own personal laptop computer for City Business,
along with his own business. He purchased
a laptop which is a McIntosh Laptop that is like the one he has at home because
that is what he is familiar with. It
cost $3300. He added memory to it which
made it $3500 and two modules at $200 each which made it $3900. He is building the City data base on it. He put about $2000 of additional software on
it at his expense. He explained the City
data base that is being built has years of City data. He expects to be using it for the next thirty
nine months. Then it will be turned back
to the City.
He said that
L.J. Smole has been separating the City’s accounts out and getting them into
the new computor. He will bring it to
the meetings once the new data base is built.
The motion was
made and seconded to adjourn. All were
in favor, 6/0/0. The meeting was adjourned
at
APPROVED:
___________________________________
Beau
Zar Satori
ATTEST:
_____________________________
Mary
Ann Lee, City Clerk-Treasurer