Arkadelphia directors question appointment of committee members

By JOE MAY | The Southern Standard

The potential appointment of a non-city resident to the water committee caused some directors to express concern at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Arkadelphia City Board.

City Manager Gary Brinkley submitted the names of Bobby Jones and Ricky Arnold as appointees to the city’s water committee, pending board approval. Jones was a reappointment. Brinkley said that Arnold, the city’s former fire chief, is a water user but resides outside the city’s corporate limits. Arnold’s appointment would be as a representative for those who are on the city’s water system but are not actual residents, he said. Arnold lives on Boyce Road in Curtis, which is served by the Gum Springs water service and administered by the city of Arkadelphia.

Directors Taylor Chaney and Reo Cummings moved to accept the appointments, and during the ensuing discussion Director Jason Jones said he was “uncomfortable” with the idea of a non-resident serving on a city committee. Jones suggested that Brinkley research the matter further to ensure that it was legal. Vice-Mayor Roland Gosey agreed, saying it could “set a precedent” and allow for those outside the corporate limits to serve on other committees as well.

Brinkley said he simply felt Arnold, as a water user, would be a good representative for those on the system who live outside of town. He noted that some of the airport committee members are non-residents due to the difficulty of finding qualified members. As the discussion was being held, Chaney looked up the city’s ordinances on his computer and found two that barred non-residents from serving on city committees.

After some discussion, Jones moved to table the issue to allow the ordinances to be amended to allow for non-residents to serve on select committees.

The board then turned its attention to the large “Welcome to Downtown Arkadelphia” rock that sits at the end of 10th Street at the former location of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Brinkley said the new bypass will going through that location. He said that plans call for the rock to be stored at the airport until the new roadway is completed.

The city manager said the rock is buried about 2 feet in the ground, so moving the huge slab will be a mammoth undertaking.  To that end, he said the city received a low bid of $10,620 to move the rock to the airport and reinstall it at a later date in a new location.

“What if it breaks?” Mayor Scott Byrd asked, jokingly. 

“Well, I guess we’ll deal with that. We’ll pivot,” Brinkley replied.

The cost of moving and re-installing the rock will be borne by the Arkansas Highway Department, Brinkley said. At the motion of Jones and Cummings, the motion carried.

The board next heard from Lt. Don Cleek, the city’s code enforcement officer. Circuit Judge Blake Batson had entered a court order to remove three buildings and their contents from 121 Clinton St., which was badly damaged by fire several years ago.  The city tried dealing with the owners, who were not able to comply in a timely manner with the code requirements to repair the property and opted to use the location as a “test case” of the city’s power to condemn and then raze a property and place a lien on the land.

Cleek said the low bid was $22,500 to demolish the properties, and $5,800 for asbestos removal. The motion to raze the properties passed with Jones and Cummings moving to carry out the work.

In other business, the board:

• Heard a report from Housing Authority manager Bobbi Partain on improvements to the housing projects and voted at the motion of Cummings and Jones to allow the authority to keep its $9,060 in tax funds and apply the money toward improvements. Partain said the apartments are 80% rented with 14 apartments vacant due to ongoing renovation.

• Voted to approve the airport keeping $100 in petty cash for its register on a daily basis.

• Voted to appoint Sandy Henry, Kadin Walker, Johnny Conine, Avi Leeper and Allie Harris to the Parks & Rec Committee.

• Voted to appoint Mary Bell, Wendi Boyles, Gary Hunter and William Jeffrey Colgate to the Housing Authority Commission.

• Placed on its first reading an ordinance that would reduce the number of members of the Planning and Zoning Committee from nine to seven. Brinkley stated that the action is being requested because, at times, it has been difficult to get a quorum at the meetings and, with a smaller committee, it would be easier to have a quorum. As three members’ terms are up, the city manager said he would simply just make one appointment to the committee and allow the others to be discontinued.

• Approved the appointment of former City Clerk Samantha Roybal as the new member of the Planing and Zoning Committee.

• Heard Brinkley give a recap of the city’s projects in 2023 as part of his state of the city report, noting that all 20 of the items were completed, many of which had been carried over from the previous year due to supply chain issues.

• Heard Byrd request that the city look at additional lighting on Feaster Trail from 26th Street to 15th Street, pending the approval of the city’s tax issue in the March election.

• Heard Jones express concern at the number of advertising signs that have been showing up around town. Cleek said he has called the businesses and warned that — if they don’t first — he will remove any signs in violation of a city ordinance.