Board of Directors

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CITY OF SILOAM SPRINGS, BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, HELD JANUARY 17, 2023 The City of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, met in regular session at the City of Siloam Springs Administration Building on January 17, 2023. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Judy Nation. Roll Call: Allen, Carroll, Hunt, Rissler, Blair- Finn, Wiles, Smiley— Present. City Representatives Present: Phillip Patterson, City Administrator; Renea Ellis, City Clerk; Chief Jeremey Criner, Fire Department; Chief Allan Gilbert, Police Department; Steve Gorszczyk, Public Works Director; and Kevin Moore, City Engineer. Opening prayer. Director Wiles led the opening prayer. The mayor led the Pledge of Allegiance. Director Hunt made a motion to move" Presentations" to this time on the agenda which was seconded by Rissler. Motion passed unanimously. Presentations A. Recognition/ Police Department and Officer Christopher Ramos. Director Rissler read a prepared speech expressing appreciation for what the Police Department does for the city including, the recovery of a comfort" Bunny" belonging to her daughter by Officer Chris Ramos; gave bio of what the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs provide to the citizens; and announced that a$ 250 donation would be given by her to the Rotary Club and that the Lankford family would also give a$ 250 donation to the Kiwanis Club to help further their efforts. Her daughter Aubrey and Officer Ramos presented a$ 250 to Stanley Church with of the Rotary Club and announced the club would be using the money toward its " Healing Garden" on behalf of the police department to be located Parks& Rec facility. B. 2022 4th Quarter Reports History Museum Main Street Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce Each entity had presented a written report that was included in the Board packet. Mary Nolan, on behalf of the Museum; Scott Jones, on behalf of Main Street; and Arthur Hulbert, Chamber of Commerce reported on the highlights of each organization in 2022 and announced proposed events upcoming in 2023. The mayor asked if there were any comments from the audience regarding an item not on the City' s agenda. No one came forward. Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Page 12 January 17, 2023 The mayor asked if there were any comments from the audience regarding an item on the Consent Agenda. No one came forward. Director Hunt announced she would like to address the" elephant in the room" as it related to the Main Street contract. Discussion included the legality of the contract and possible remedies to clear potential issues with the same. A motion was made by Rissler and seconded by Blair to place the contract back on tonight' s agenda. Motion failed by a 3- 4 vote with Wiles, Hunt, Carroll and Smiley voting no. Further discussion about putting the item on the February 7th agenda. No motion was made. It was announced that as it stands, the contract with Main Street is approved and enforced. A motion was made by Rissler and seconded by Smiley to allow a recess. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was reconvened. The next item on the agenda was the Consent Agenda. Consent Agenda: C. Regular Meeting Minutes/ January 3, 2023 D. Dedication of Utility Easements/ 22000 Block of Davidson Road E. Grant Application / Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA) Airport Terminal Apron Reconstruction/ Airport/$ 900, 000. 00 A motion was made by Allen and seconded by Carroll to approve the Consent Agenda. Nation announced Director Smiley had to leave due to a medical issue with her husband. Nation asked for a roll call vote. Motion passed unanimously. F. Resolution 04- 23 / Contract/ Prosecuting Attorney/ 2023 Budget Amendment/$ 10, 839. Phillip Patterson announced at this time that this item be tabled due to David Bailey being unavailable due to Covid. A motion was made by Wiles and seconded by Carroll to table the item to the February 7th agenda. Motion passed unanimously. G. Purchase/ Public Works Department/ Solid Waste Division/ 2023 Rear- Load Trash Truck Arkansas Municipal Equipment/$ 205, 360. 00. Steve Gorszczyk briefed the item. A motion was made by Rissler and seconded by Hunt to approve the item. Motion passed unanimously. H. Purchase/ Public Works Department/ Sanitation Division/ 2024 Mack Day- Cab Truck/ Bruckner' s Truck& Equipment/$ 155, 428. 00. Steve Gorszczyk briefed the item. A motion was made by Allen and seconded by Rissler to approve the item. Motion passed unanimously. I. Ordinance 23- 01 / lst Reading/ Amending Ordinance 20- 01 / Annexation Correction. Ben Rhoads briefed the item. As this was merely a" housekeeping" item, a motion was made by Allen and seconded by Rissler to place Ordinance 23- 01 on its first, second and third reading, suspending the rules and reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously. Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Page 13 January 17, 2023 An ordinance entitled: An Ordinance Amending Ordinance 20- 01, With Respect to Accepting the Annexation of Certain Territory to the City of Siloam Springs, Arkansas; was read on its first, second and third reading. A motion to adopt Ordinance 23- 01 was made by Allen and seconded by Rissler. Motion passed unanimously. J. Ordinance 23- 02 / 1st Reading/ Vacation of Drainage Easement/ 500 Block of Highway 412 West/ Hammer Williams Co. Ben Rhoads briefed the item. Don Rose, on behalf of Jiffy Trip, requested that this item be placed on its first, second and third reading. Hunt made a motion to place the item on its first, second and third reading. No second was received and the motion died on the floor. A motion was made by Hunt and seconded by Allen to on its first reading, suspending the rules and reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously. An ordinance entitled: An Ordinance Vacating and Abandoning a Drainage Utility Easement right- of-way Within Lot 2 of the Siloam Warehouse Addition; was read on its first reading. K. Resolution 05- 23 / Appointing settlement representative in Lockhart litigation matter. Jay Williams briefed the item. Several directors indicated they preferred no settlement be paid and no admission of guilt be a part of any settlement if settled. A motion was made by Allen and seconded by Hunt to appoint Phillip Patterson as representative for settlement negotiations. Motion passed unanimously. Director Hunt made a motion to recess, which was seconded by Allen. Motion passed unanimously. Meeting was reconvened. L. Resolution 02- 23 / Procedures and Organizational Matters of the Board of Directors. Patterson briefed the item. Director Blair' s motion to add language addressed in A.C. A 21- 8- 304( a), which was seconded by Wiles was voted on. Motion passed unanimously. Next was the motion of Allen, which included a list of amendments, all of which were addressed, and was seconded by Rissler. Several grammatical errors were addressed. Hunt made a motion to reduce the number of days that the packet has to be posted to the website, from seven to six, which was seconded by Carroll. Motion failed 2- 4, with Blair, Wiles, Rissler and Allen voting no. Allen amended his motion to allow the for the start date to begin with the March 7th agenda. It was agreed by the Board that" draft" minutes from the various commissions could be submitted for inclusion posting. Rissler made a motion not to change section B.4, which was seconded by Allen. Motion passed unanimously. At this time all proposed amendments had been addressed. The next motion was to strike the" general election" language from section A. 1 by Hunt, seconded by Rissler. Motion passed unanimously. The original motion made by Director Smiley was ready to be heard. Director Carroll restated his second of the motion. Motion passed unanimously. Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Page 14 January 17, 2023 M. Administrator's Report. Patterson reviewed the Administrator's report attached hereto. The mayor extended her condolences to the Anglin family, said Milfred and Sue were great citizens and Sue was her mentor; congratulated Criner on his appointment by Governor Hutchinson to the AR Fire Protection Services Board for a two-year term; stated it spoke volumes as to the amount of respect he has across the state; pointed out he was serving as president of the NWA Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association; that he was named Fire Chief of the Year for 2022 at the AR Fire Convention; and said how very lucky we were to have him working for the city and the citizens. Directors reports: Hunt thanked those who attended the meeting and reached out regarding the Main Street contract and that we all have the best interest of the city and its citizens in mind. Wiles stated he was saddened to read about the Anglin family's loss and congratulated Criner. Blair reminded the audience about the taxi service the city offers to the elderly and disabled. Rissler congratulated Criner; offered condolences to the Anglin family; and asked for prayers for Director Smiley. Carroll said the AML Conference was a good meeting and he enjoyed meeting all the people from around the state; stated how blessed we are as a city; said the unity among the communities in attendance was very welcomed; he gave exhortation to a new mayor; and that when the state succeeds, Siloam succeeds. Director Allen said: I want to express my condolences to Penny Dee and Randy Anglin and the entire family for Milford's passing. His wife Sue served on this board longer than anyone else had before. I believe it was 27 years that Sue Anglin served, and we ended up naming a street for her. Milford always was behind the city and a big supporter of the city and it's a sad loss to lose him. I wanted to say, I've seen an awful lot of negativity on Facebook about, now I'm vice mayor I' ve got all these board rules I'm changing. I can assure you any board rules that I brought forth are practical applications simply for transparency and informing the board and the public. Some of the stuff is just utterly ridiculous that's being said. I thought it was really sad that some cowards have some fake accounts on Facebook, and they can attack a six- year- old girl who received her bunny back. Because it was a crime that was committed it was witnessed by 10 or 11 people at least, at a restaurant and the police didn't give that little girl or her mother any more special treatment than they would any other citizen trying to solve a case. And as we heard earlier our Case closure rate is 98 percent! But to attack this family, to state that there was any special treatment that our police were being taken away from wrecks or solving drug crimes or sex trafficking or anything, it's just sad and it's very sickening. Now I'm going to ask something that administrator Patterson told me to bring up. I asked that the widening of Villa View be addressed because it was not really being widened. It was a side path being added with curb & guttering that would have locked in the width of that narrow street. It would have been no more than 20 foot wide, while our code for building a city street for a developer, even a cul- desac is 26 foot. So I asked administrator Patterson to consider looking at what the cost and requirement would be to actually widen the street. I believe the majority of any right-of-way could be gotten on the south side of the street because so many homes on that side are far off from the street. This was supposed to have been done 20 years ago when Mr Latham was administrator and it never got done and there was not one tenth of the development out there 20 years ago. This street needs more than just a side path. I'm glad we're doing a side path because people have been walking in the streets and biking in the streets for years and it's dangerous especially when you have a street that is crumbling on both sides. I did ask Mr Patterson to go and investigate and to come back to the board and give us a report on what it would take to widen that street to a decent width. Hunt said she had heard from citizens regarding  Page 5 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes January 17, 2023 widening Villa View for the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists, and the delay due to Covid, and the potential of putting in a sidepath. Patterson briefed the board on proposed changes and said it could move forward tomorrow if they agreed with the proposals. Directors agreed that they would like to research the information given; learn more about the NWA Land Trust proposal; were in favor of preserving the land; and would give direction to Patterson at a later date. With no further business, a motion to adjourn was made by Allen and seconded by Rissler. Nation called for a vote. Motion passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned. ATTEST: APPROVED: Renea Ellis, City Clerk, CAMC/ CMC J y N ion, yor ou aa uwinaiiii, CI 9 S/LQA Ili• o SAL *_ SARI • J* 1 r" inrnnnnm„„„,,\ oiimmRmmm""'  Siloam SpringS Administrator' s Report January 17, 2023 1. Expenditures: Water Treatment Plant- Two 350hp vertical motors( City' s river intake station was struck by 40, 029. 92- lightning on 010223 and both vertical motors were damaged and need to be rebuilt) 32, 422. 26- Water Department- 8" Gland Pack, Tap Saddles, Valves, Swivels, Fire Hydrants/ Inventory/ General Line Extension Per Resolution 43- 22 62, 700. 00- Water Department- 3000 8" C900 DR 18 Water pipe/ Inventory/ General Line Extension 2. Jiffy Trip# 2- Since approval of this project by the Planning Commission and Board of Directors on October 1 l`h and November Id, respectively, the final submittal contained changes to the grading, primarily to the trickle channel, which was not acceptable to staff as the grade was too flat to be constructable or maintainable since the trickle channel was located on a shared property line. Through conversations between staff and the developer, a solution was agreed upon to install reinforced concrete pipe. Per City Code 54- 26, this change is a minor variation and does not exceed l0% of any measurable standard, and does not substantially modify the use, character, or density of the approved plan. 3. December Sales Tax Receipts cift Month- up 10.2% YTD- up9. 3% County Month- up 13. 3% YID- up 3. 5% 4. Utility Commission- the Id meeting of the Utility Commission is scheduled for January 26th at 5: 30 pm at City Hall.( This was previously reported as being on January 28h)