CITY OF EUREKA SPRINGS
COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
The
It
was held in the courtroom of the Western District Courthouse.
PRESENT: Mayor
Satori, and Alderpersons Jeffrey, Schrader, Stoppel,
ALSO PRESENT:
David Anderson, Bill Earngey, Joe
Zickmund, Tom Lapping, Todd Saufferer, Ron Latimer, David Caudill, Kathy
Harrison, Kelly Simon, Bruce Levine, Jack and
PLEDGE OF
ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Satori led in the Pledge of Allegiance.
APPROVAL OF
THE AGENDA:
Ms. Dickens
asked that the following items be added to the agenda.
No. 5 under
Unfinished Business, Sunday liquor sales.
Under New
Business, Discussion of others using the video camera and a City employee.
Ordinance No.
1850, Waiving Bidding for the purchase of Tents for City special events.
Add Good
Shepherd Animal Shelter at the end of the budget amendments line.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve as amended.
All were in favor, 6/0/0.
Alderman
Schrader asked about the Zoning Ordinance being on its second reading when it
was not voted on at the first reading. Ms. Dickens said she had consulted an
attorney because she was very upset about reading the whole long ordinance, and
then it was not voted on. The attorney
said the Council does not have to vote after every reading. They must vote on the third reading. If an ordinance is read and the vote is not
taken at that meeting, it goes into the second reading at the next meeting.
APPROVAL OF
THE MINUTES:
The motion was
made and seconded to approve the minutes of the September 7th, 2000, City
Council Meeting. The amendments were
noted. The motion to approve was 6/0/0.
COMMISSION,
COMMITTEE, AND AUTHORITY REPORTS AND VACANCIES:
There were no
nominations.
DEPARTMENT
HEAD COMMENTS:
There were
none.
CITY ADMINISTRATIVE
ASSISTANT’S REPORT:
Ms. Dickens
reported that she and Diane Murphy had gone to Little Rock to ADEQ for a
meeting regarding the wastewater treatment bonds. The determination was made that the City’s
water rates do not meet ADEQ’s criteria, which is a formula mandated by the
Federal Government. Our water rates are
not high enough to qualify for a loan.
The rates would have to be a great deal higher to meet the government’s criteria. Consequently the formula they use will not
work for Eureka Springs.
Instead, the
City will go to the Bond Council and the bonds will be sold publicly. The City will have plenty of money to pay
back the bonds. That was not an issue
with ADEQ. Some time in October the
Council will be reading an ordinance to sell the bonds. The bond reading will be read three times
with an emergency clause. The
engineering costs were a whole different criteria for the state. We will probably save money on engineering
costs. Our water rates would have had to
be raised to between two and three times what we are paying now to meet ADEQ’s
standards.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS:
Consideration of Ordinance No. 1849,
purchase of property at Wall Street,(First
Reading):
The motion was
made and seconded to place Ordinance No. 1849 on its first reading in its
entirety. The vote was 5/1/0 with
Alderman Schrader voting no.
Ms. Dickens
read the ordinance in its entirety.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve.
Alderman
Schrader questioned whether the City passed Ordinance No.1819. His research seemed to show that the
ordinance was never passed. Ms. Dickens
went downstairs and pulled Ordinance No.1819 which had been passed on September
16th, 1999, and brought the yellow book from the clerk’s office that
shows vacated streets. Alderman
Schrader’s map was correct as far as that portion of Owl Street is concerned.
Kent Crow
spoke as council for Mr. Green. Mr. Crow
said that Owl Street was interupted when Nebo Street was vacated, and that was
something that happens in many towns and cities all of the time. He said that in the case of the property in
question, it would still be green space.
He said that Ms. Quinn does not own property abutting the property in
question.
Alderman
Jeffrey said that Owl Street was open throughout unless the back portion had
been vacated.
Kirby Murray,
Director of Public Works, said he had been accused of giving Mr. Green
erroneous information, and said he had not done so.
Chairman Bill
Earngey said he was concerned that the City would be setting a precedent for
vacating green space if they vacated this property to Mr. Green. He explained how difficult it had been to
write the green space ordinance. He was
against this piece of City property being taken out of the City’s inventory
forever.
Mr. Crow said
that Mr. Green wants to maintain this piece of property as green space, and
relieve the City of having to maintain it.
It is in the proposed ordinance.
Alderman
Jeffrey made the motion that there be a clarification of the legal description
to say “between Wall Street and the center line of the formerly vacated South
Nebo Street”, since it does not say specifically where the vacation takes
place. The motion was seconded. The vote on the amendment was 5/0/1, with
Alderman Schrader abstaining.
The vote to
approve was 5/1/0, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
Consideration of Ordinance No. 1848,
amending Chapter 86, signs, (Second reading):
The motion was
made and seconded to suspend the rules and place Ordinance No. 1848 on its
second reading by title only. The roll
call vote was 6/0/0.
Ms. Dickens
read the ordinance by title only.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve. All were
in favor, 6/0/0.
Consideration of Ordinance No. 1844,
water rate increase (Second reading):
The motion was
made and seconded to suspend the rules and place Ordinance No. 1844 on its
second reading by title only. The roll
call vote was 6/0/0.
Ms. Dickens
read the ordinance by title only.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve. All were
in favor, 6/0/0.
Consideration of Ordinance No. 1816,
Zoning , (Second reading):
The motion was
made and seconded to suspend the rules and place Ordinance No. 1816 on its
second reading by title only. The roll
call vote was 5/1/0, with Alderman Sumpter voting no.
Ms. Dickens
read the ordinance by title only.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve.
Ms. Dickens
said, again, for the record, that the attorney said if you read an ordinance at
a meeting and you don’t vote on it, it automatically goes to the second
reading. The Council does not have to vote
after the first two readings, but they must vote on the third reading.
Alderman
Freeland passed out two pages of
objections to the ordinance handed in by Ron Latimer.
Alderman
Schrader said several people had called that day and he had a list of their
concerns.
Ms. Dickens
said that the citizens have had two weeks to get their objections or changes to
her so that the land use attorney could address them.
Mayor Satori
said that no matter how much we work on our ordinances, issues will continue to
come up.
The vote on
the ordinance was 4/2/0, with Alderpersons Schrader and Taylor voting no.
Packaged liquor sales on Sunday:
The city’s
alcoholic beverage sales only include alcoholic beverages by the drink. It does not include packaged liquor
sales. After some discussion by the
Council, the motion was made and seconded to place “the sale of packaged
alcoholic beverages” as stated in State Statute 3-3-210, on the November
ballot. The vote was 4/1/1, with
Alderman Stoppel voting no, and Alderman Jeffrey abstaining.
RECESS:
The motion was
made and seconded to recess. The vote
was 6/0/0.
The recess
began at 8:39 p.m. The meeting was
reconvened at 8:54 p.m.
NEW BUSINESS
Consideration of Ordinance No. 1845,
pertaining to parking:
There was no
discussion. This ordinance has been
postponed to the October 5th,2000, meeting. There will be a workshop on the ordinance on
September 26, 2000 at 2 p.m.
Discussion on a policy for a City
employee to use City equipment to broadcast for an organization other than the
city:
Alderman
Sumpter said that the City needed to discuss a policy to allow certain groups
to use the City’s broadcasting equipment and a city employee to televise things
like debates and other events important to the citizens. He explained that the Eureka Springs
Improvement Committee (ESIC) had asked to use our equipment and our employee to
broadcast their debate of the candidates.
Mayor Satori had said no. The
County Judge had said that the organization could use the courtroom.
Mayor Satori
said his reasoning was to use non-political groups to sponsor debates for the
candidates. He did not consider the ESIC
group to be non-political. He said that
in the past candidates have been concerned about being set up at these
meetings, which serves no good purpose.
He said the meetings need to be fair and impartial. He said, generally speaking, that most
candidates only do one or two debates.
That was why he said no.
Tom Lapping,
Chairman of the Eureka Springs Improvement Committee explained to the Council
that the group had asked to use the Courtroom and the City’s recording
equipment and Cable station to broadcast a debate between the candidates. He said that they had contacted several
people to be the moderator, and they finally talked to Alex Haynes, who they
had been told was fair and impartial as a moderator. He said their sole intent was to get as much
information to the citizens as possible before the election.
After a long
discussion the motion was made and seconded to have the two newspapers to bring
a joint proposal to the Council to hold a debate for the candidates.
Planning
Commission Chairman Ed Leswig said he is running for City Council and he isn’t
sponsored by any group. His point was
that he is unaware of any group that would sponsor a meet the candidates night
that does not have bias. He feels that all debates can only be helpful to the
citizens.
After more
discussion Alderman Sumpter made the motion to amend the motion to allow ESIC
the use of City equipment and a City employee and television channel for their
October 3rd, 2000 debate.
After more
discussion, Alderman Jeffrey called the question on the amendment.
The vote on
the amendment was 4/2/0, with Alderpersons Schrader and Freeland voting no.
The vote on
the amended motion was 4/2/0, with Alderpersons Schrader, and Stoppel voting
no.
Alderman
Sumpter made the motion that the City would impose a fee for the use of our
employee’s time and equipment to broadcast the debates, and that the fee be
fair and equitable. Alderman Jeffrey
seconded.
An amendment
to the motion was made and seconded for each group to get written permission
from Cox Cable to use the City’s channel.
The vote on the amendment was 2/4/0, with Alderpersons Taylor, Sumpter,
Jeffrey and Stoppel voting no.
Alderman
Jeffrey said that the City attorney could get permission for all of the groups
from Cox Cable Company with one phone call.
The motion was
made to amend the motion to limit the number of debates to three, and that the
maximum time should be three hours.
There was no second.
The motion was
made and seconded to amend the motion to limit the number of debates to four,
and limit the time of each debate to 2 hours.
The vote on the amendment was 4/2/0, with Alderpersons Freeland and
Schrader voting no.
The motion was
made and seconded to amend the motion to have Ms. Dickens to set a fair and
equitable fee for each debate to offset the cost to the City for the employee to do the broadcasting on
the City’s Channels. The vote on that
amendment was 6/0/0.
The vote on
the amended motion was 6/0/0.
Bill King said
the Lovely County Citizen will host a debate on October 24, 2000 at 7 p.m.
Consideration of banners (12) for
Corvette Weekend, October 5-8,2000:
The motion was
made and seconded to approve the twelve banners for the Corvette
weekend,October 5-8, 2000. It is McBride
Distributing sponsoring the banners and they will be put up at the same
businesses as before. The vote on the banner approval was 4/2/00, with
Alderwoman Taylor and Alderman Schrader voting no.
Consideration of Ordinance No. 1850,
Waive bidding on tents, to be purchased by the CAPC:
The motion was
made and seconded to place Ordinance No. 1850 on its first reading in its
entirety. All were in favor, 6/0/0.
Mayor Satori
read the ordinance.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve.
The discussion
covered the fact that the CAPC will be purchasing the tents and they will be
used for special events. The ordinance
is just waiving the bidding, because the tents that have been chosen are the
best for the City’s needs.
The vote on
the ordinance was 5/1/0, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
The motion was
made and seconded to suspend the rules and place Ordinance No. 1850 on its
second reading by title only. The vote
was 5/1/0, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
Mayor Satori
read the ordinance by title only.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve. The vote
was 5/1/0, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
The motion was
made and seconded to further suspend the rules and place Ordinance No. 1850 on
its third and final reading by title only.
The vote was 5/1/0, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
Mayor Satori
read the ordinance by title only.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve. The vote
was 5/1/10, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
The motion was
made and seconded to read the emergency clause.
The vote was 5/1/10, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
Mayor Satori
read the emergency clause.
The motion was
made and seconded to approve. The vote
was 5/1/0, with Alderman Schrader voting no.
Consideration of budget amendments for
Transit, Planning Commission, and the Good Shepherd Humane Society:
The motion was
made and seconded to budget $500 for the Planning Commission. The vote was 6/0/0.
The motion was
made and seconded to budget $1000 to the Good Shepherd Humane Society. The vote was 6/0/0.
Diane Murphy
went through the Transit Department
budget. She explained that the
1999 revenue is running neck to neck with the 2000 revenue. The big difference in the revenue side for
2000, is that in 1999 a trolley was sold for $30,000. So far a sale like that has not been approved
for this year. The budget for this year
was budgeted $30,000 over 1999’s actuals.
If things continue on as they are going, there is no reason to believe
that revenues will surpass last year’s actual revenues. That generates a $30,000 shortage.
In addition to
that there will be another shortage, because last year the City sold a $30,000
trolley, and this year we haven’t done that.
After further
discussion the motion was made and seconded to approve amending the City’s
budget to allow $40,000 to Transit. All were in favor, 6/0/0.
COUNCIL
COMMENTS:
Alderman
Stoppel reminded the citizens that it is very dry and there is a burn ban on
until we see a substantial rain. Please
don’t throw burning cigarettes out the windows as you are traveling.
MAYOR’S
COMMENTS:
On September 8th,
2000, Carroll County received a grant from the Department of Arkansas Heritage of $12,000 in 1999 for the
restoration of the tower. That was in
addition to the $10,000 the City Council alloted and the $20,000 that the
Quorum Court had budgeted. This year,
there was a grant awarded from the Department of Arkansas Heritage to the
County of $37,750 for facia, downspouts, gutters, soffits, etc. The Mayor thanked Don Matt, the County Judge,
Phil Jackson, and the Quorum Court for making it happen.
Mayor Satori
said he had a four hour meeting with Floyd Hornaday with SWEPCO, Butch France,
Kirby Murray, James Clark, and Alderman Jeffrey. They discussed burying the utility lines, and how it could
be done, what needed to be done right away.
The plan is to bury utility lines down Planer Hill to the Museum. Then they discussed burying them along North
Main Street and applying for grants for sidewalks along North Main St.
also. There was interesting dialog on
continuing burying the lines one section at a time. James Clark
filled them in on the kind of conduit that was buried under the highway
and at which points they were buried.
They were happy with that and where it was placed.
Most cities
run on 12 kilovolt. Eureka Springs runs
on 34 kilovolt. It allows us to run on
strong currents, and smaller wires.
SWEPCO upgraded the City during the 60’s and they wanted to experiment
on going to 34 kilovolt. In the event of
any calamities, since Beaver Dam is connected directly to us, we should always
have power. Southwestern Bell already
has 9 conduits buried now. Alderman
Jeffrey said the next time we drive through the top of Planer Hill try to
imagine all of the poles and wire not being there.
Green space
was to be put on the agenda.
The motion was made and seconded to adjourn. All were in favor, 6/0/0. The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 p.m.
APPROVED:
______________________
Beau
Zar Satori, Mayor
ATTEST:
____________________________
Mary
Ann Lee, City Clerk-Treasurer