City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome. We proceed each council meeting with a word of prayer and a pledge of allegiance. If you would like to, would you please join us? Mr. Hawks, could I get you a word of prayer, please?

Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for the opportunity to be here, and we thank you for this wonderful city that you've blessed us with. Father, I pray that you be with this council meeting tonight and guide it for extended purposes. May everything that we do glorify you. In Christ's holy name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

I'll call this meeting to order. Ms. Hurd, would you call the roll, please?

Yes, sir. Mr. Hawkins? Here. Mr. Grimes? Here. Mr. Ledbetter? Here. Mr. Hawks? Here. Mr. Jones? Here. Mrs. Here.

Okay, you should have received a copy of the May 12, 2026 City Council meeting. Any corrections, comments, or changes?

I make a motion for approval as submitted. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes as submitted. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's a six to zero. All right. We have monthly financial report. Mr. Winningham, come tell us something good.

Good evening, everybody.

Good evening.

We are looking at the month of April. So our general fund is looking a little beat up right now. Mr. Spurger's mentioned at the last council meeting, is it typical for it to look this way? It is maybe not to this degree, but it is. Uh, and I just wanted to, I listed out a few of the things, the kind of large bills we have earlier in the year, just to kind of point out, uh, what could get us to this point. So for instance, uh, our workers' compensation, uh, program insurance, whatever it's referred to as. We pay that in January, that's about $700,000. Our legal defense fee that we paid to the Municipal League, we pay that in March, that was $200,000. We have a lot of software renewals that are due January through March. That can be close to about $250,000 for those all total. So everything adds up. And then we've also, the 911 radio project that we took out the loan for last year, we've had several large payments on it earlier this year, totaling up to about $700,000. So it adds up. And payroll now costs the general fund about $1.6 million every other week. And it's $2 million total. And in January, starting off the year, we had three payrolls. So we got hit cash flow-wise there. The next month with three will be July. So we'll just keep an eye out for that. And we're still on the revenue side. We're still waiting for the first big property tax receipt. We'll typically get that in May, and that should be about a million and a half. So that'll help a lot when we get that. Our sales tax is tracking well so far. We're right on number as far as actual compared to budget. I think this month we were up around 3%, so we're doing well there. And then for cash flow, we're just going to kind of keep an eye on that, you know. uh, last, uh, since the beginning of the year with appropriated, not appropriated. Council has approved us buying some things for the public safety, the police and fire departments, and then to be repaid with that tax once we collect, start bringing it in. So we'll just keep an eye on that closely to make sure we don't put the general fund in a, in a real pinch. The, uh, street fund, it's not looking too pretty either. Um, They've had some pretty big outlays first year, and I'll mention those. So the street fund is where we're recording the expenses for Connect Conway, because really all that's going on right now is street and pathway engineering. So the street fund is paying that, and then they're being reimbursed by the grant when we get those reimbursements. So right now it's out about $325,000 is what it's paid up front for that project. And then other large outlays we've already had this year, same stuff you see in the street fund every year. It's paving, traffic signal maintenance, sidewalk repairing maintenance. So everything's common. We've just started off the year doing some bigger things. But I'm not concerned about it at all. Overall, revenue and expense-wise, I'm not anticipating this to be off of budget or anything, so It should be good there. We'll just, it'll get, yeah, it'll get a big property tax receipt in May as well. So that'll help a lot. And then our sanitation and airport numbers look good. So that's all I've got, Mr. Mayor.

Todd, before you step away, though, given everything you said about the general fund, I would like to point out, however, at the end of April, we still had over $2 million in operating cash plus our $2 million reserve, so it was $10 million in cash, and the fund balance is still over $16 million, so still very healthy. Yes.

Any questions for Mr. Winningham? I'll take a motion.

Make a motion to approve the April financials.

Second. I have a motion and a second approving the financials that ended April 30th, 2026. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

And Tyler, thanks for giving us a heads up on all of those big things that had came out. Yes, ma'am.

You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Winningham. First up, we have an Economic Development Committee, and we will start with the consideration to approve the waiving of all three readings for the ordinance for the May 26 City Council agenda. How many of those do we have today?

Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve waiving all three readings for the ordinances on this agenda. Any further discussion? Ms. Hurd?

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Zero. Next up, we have a resolution expressing the willingness of the City of Conway in partnership with Conway Corporation to apply for congressionally directed spending for the Tucker Creek Equalization Storage Facility Project. I think I said all that without taking a breath. Mr. Carroll, who do you have representing you tonight? Come on up, Brett. If you would, state your name and address for the record, please, sir.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Brett McDaniel, County Corporation COO, 1353 Davis Street.

Thank you, Brett. We know who you are. We just have to do it for the record.

Yes, sir. It's all fine. So as you already said, this is a grant to convert Tucker Creek Wastewater Plant to equalization storage. We've been working on this project for about seven years, and so it's finally about to happen. It's a 80-20 matching grant. Common Corporation will be responsible for the 20%. Any questions?

Can you tell us a little bit more about exactly what it will do?

Sure. So currently, it's a wastewater treatment plant that has a discharge into the Arkansas River. So what this will do is convert it to where if we have excess rainfall like what we just had today, we can put that water into the ponds, and it'll effectively no longer be treatment but storage. And so then when we can handle it at Tupelo Bio, we'll pump it back out of there and send it to Tupelo Bio. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Y'all been working on this about seven years?

Yes, sir. Long time. These projects take a long time.

$4.775 million, is that the total cost?

No, sir. That's the estimated 80%.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

I'll make a motion for the adoption of the resolution in R2621. Thank you.

I have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution to Conway Corporation to apply for this congressionally directed spending funding. Any further discussion? That's a pretty good grant. Nice. Yeah, it is.

We're very fortunate.

It's heard.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

That's a six to zero. Thank you, Brett. Thank you. Appreciate you. Next up, we have an ordinance authorizing the issuance of taxable industrial development revenue refunding bonds for DBG located at 600 Dave Ward Drive. Mr. Wilburn's here. Gordon, we know you too. Would you state your name and address for the record, sir?

Gordon Wilburn. My address, 12 Ridgeview Court in Little Rock. Thank you, sir. Conway Native. You may or may not recall this, but back in 2018, you issued some bonds for DBG to acquire the old Amtran property and rehab it, refurbish it, buy equipment. This is a restructuring of that deal, not an extension, no change in interest rate, no change in maturity. But over the course of the years, in 2024, that property was really into two different plats. And they released, or they came to the city and asked the city to release one, and the city did. They did it back to them, and it went back on the tax rolls. So we're not even really concerned with that part of it. The remainder of the property... was their leasehold interest from the city was assigned to another entity in LLC, but it's Tempus properties basically, and then DBG subleased from them. So after that happened, it got a little bit complicated because this other entity controls the real property, but DBG controls the personal property. And that gets a little messy when you want to dispose of something or maybe somebody wants to sell and somebody else doesn't. in order to kind of restructure that deal to where DBG controls the personal property and the other entity controls the real property, we're asking you to approve a refunding into two different bonds where DBG, an entity associated with DBG owns one and an entity associated with the other entity owns the other. So they could wind up one of those deals without winding up the other. or they may both go to the end. But that's the sole purpose of this. I'm happy to answer any questions. Ms. Hurd's got copies of all the documents. If you've got some insomnia you're wanting to cure, there's a big stack of them.

Was this requested by either the property holder or by the contents holder?

Really both, and they agreed that this was the way to resolve it.

All right.

More questions, Mr. Wilburn? What's this ordinance number?

02633. 33?

Yes, sir.

Thank you. And no emergency clause, so not needed. For adoption of the ordinance.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance to approve the ordinance of authorizing the issuance of taxable industrial development revenue bonds for DGB. Any further discussion?

And just to be clear, there's no financial liability to the city of Conway, correct? No, there is not. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Grimes.

Ms. Hurd.

Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Mr. Ledbetter. Yes. Ms. Melt. Excuse me. Mr. Hawks.

Yes.

Mr. Jones. Yes. Ms. Isby. Yes. Mr. Grimes. Aye.

That passes six. Thank you. Thank you, Gordon. Thanks, Gordon. Next up, Mr. Hawkins, we have community development. This is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First item on this portion of the agenda is resolution approving an agreement for general legal services for the Advertising and Promotions Commission. And someone here for that? Sheila, would you like to talk about that?

Sure, I can go ahead. Thank you. Yes. What the A&P Commission did is we typically, because of the caseload and court and all of that with the city... We run into situations where we need legal advice at our meetings. So what we did is we basically put that up for bid to basically retain legal services for the A&P Commission. We had in our meeting in April the four that had bid to come in, told us about their companies, There was Beckett, which was out of Little Rock. I think they do Conway School Board, some others. And then we had Dustin Chapman, who is local. I think he does some stuff for the county. We had Owens and Parker, who is a local company here as well, with several partners in that And then we had Quattle Bomb Grooms and Toll, which is out of northwest Arkansas. They have and currently do represent A&P commissions. When we looked at what we felt like our need was, is we would probably just need someone that would give us an hourly rate because our A&P commissions come in. We're usually here for an hour, hour to a half. So looking at a company that wanted us to pay a fee per month, that they may not even be doing anything other than coming to a meeting. So the A&P Commission pretty much agreed that we wanted to go with an hourly rate, which would be better served for the A&P Commission as well as our funds. We talked about, Dustin, I think the concern there, while he would have been great and local as well, is the fact that he was one individual. So if something came up or whatever the case may be, it would not, I mean, even though his schedule with the county, they do it in evening meetings, but again, life happens. Owen Parker and law firm, I believe they had six, if I'm remembering correctly, and they are local. So with them and theirs was an hourly rate as well. So we felt like that would be more advantageous for us to go with the company such that if somebody couldn't be there, they had other partners that were there. So the commission voted to send forward to the city council that we enter into an agreement with Owens Parker Law Firm to provide legal services for the A&P Commission.

Any questions on this? Again, just for some clarity, this is for the A&P Commission, which is governed by a board of directors, which is separate and different than the A&P money, which is handled by the city, correct?

That is correct, yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

And one point of clarification, if I could, Mr. Chapman, I believe, does work for smaller towns other than Faulkner County. And he might do some things for Faulkner County, but he is more of legal representation for smaller communities. I'm looking for a motion for resolution R2622.

I'll move. Oh, I'm sorry.

Motion. Do we have a second?

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second to approve this agreement for general legal services for the A&P Commission. Any further discussion?

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Six to zero. Mr. Hawkins. Next item, Mr. Mayor, is a resolution approving the Conway Emergency Utility Assistance Program for the Community Development Department. And Shawana, good evening.

Good evening, Council. How are you all doing today?

Well, thank you. How are you?

Good, good. This is a program that we are looking at implementing here to directly impact our citizens in Conway. We often get quite a few calls as it relates to utility and rental assistance. We were able to successfully administer that program during COVID-19. And apparently it is still online and we get a lot of calls about it. We are constantly trying to find ways that we can directly serve and directly impact our community members. And I'd like to say thank you to Mayor Castleberry for allowing us to kind of look at those ways that we can have that direct impact. And this will be one of those programs that we have for utility assistance to directly impact those community members. We are looking at starting early 2027, and it will be by HUD's guidelines as far as qualification, but it will help a lot of our individuals that are kind of tight during this time. So we are seeking your approval.

And you said this will start in 2027?

Yes, that's when we're looking at it to start January. Okay. And as long as we have the funding, they went rather quickly in COVID. I think it may have taken us maybe three weeks for the amount we had allocated for it to go through that program. And we were able to directly serve about 60 individuals at that time.

How would someone find out about this program?

So we do plan on doing the social media posts, getting the word out through our nonprofit organizations and sending it through those channels to let them know that this program is available and that we are accepting applications. And we do have some people that have come to City Hall asking about rental utility assistance. I've personally spoken with those individuals and have given them my card and kind of given them a roundabout timeline when we will be starting the program.

This program will assist people who really need some help. And, Shawana, I appreciate the hard work you've done in making sure that CDBG funds are used here in Conway to help the people of Conway.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for allowing me to do the work.

I will make a motion for the adoption of the resolution, R2623. Second.

I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance approving the Conway Emergency Utility Assistance Program for the CDBG Department. And for those of you watching on TV, CDBG is the Community Development Department for the City of Conway. Any further discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you, Council.

Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hawkins. Next item, Mr. Mayor, is a resolution approving the application of to apply for the Love Your Block Grant Program for Neighborhood Engagement for the Community Development Department.

Good evening. I'm not Shawana. You are not.

How many miles have you ran this week?

Oh, not that many. Maybe six. Maybe six. I would like to drive six. This program actually pairs well with CDBG. It's similar type projects, but we're looking for your support and approval for applying for this grant. It's a two-year grant program that will help kind of connect city leadership and residents together to really revitalize neighborhoods. And so you can do projects such as just trash and debris cleanup. You can put in a community garden, implement art, or just sprucing up a park, or just a few examples of what this program can fund. But it's a great program. It's a non-matching program as well, so that's always a good thing. But we would love your support and approval for us applying for this grant. Is this federal or state? It's private, basically. It's a philanthropy-type grant, so it's not a government grant. Okay.

We'll be used to assist our local nonprofits and some of our neighborhoods. It's a good use of the money. Good job, Robbie. Thank you.

So do we know if we get this grant when we would actually get it?

I believe on the website they mentioned an August award announcement date. Oh, okay. So we would know before the end of the year.

End of the year. Okay. Great.

Also back to you.

We'll make a motion for the adoption of the resolution R2624. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve this resolution, approving the application to apply for the Love Your Block Grant Program for Neighborhood Engagement for the Community Development Department. Any further discussion? Ms. Hurd.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

That's a six to zero. Thank you, Robbie.

Thank you.

Mr. Hawkins. Final item here, Mr. Mayor, is a resolution approving the application to apply for the STBG grant program for the Connect Conway project. Kirk?

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. This is a surface transportation block grant program administered through Metro Plan. What we're doing is applying for a It's an 80-20 match. It would be a $3 million grant. The city's portion would be a 20% match, so an additional $600,000. would go towards the cost of our connect conway project which we do anticipate some potential construction overruns on that project as it moves forward we've we've made uh we've made great efforts to try to uh minimize those impacts we're in the property acquisition stage right now so uh We have done some things with the project to, like I say, to reduce the cost, but we do anticipate that there will be some potential overruns over that original close to $25 million grant that was received by the city. So this would help supplement the cost of that project moving forward.

Where are we on property acquisitions, Kurt?

so we uh i know several uh because i've been i've been reviewing and approving them we've sent out you know a couple dozen or more actual offer letters i had some contact today with the uh with the agency that is handling that uh they are They've gotten some acceptances because they've asked me to review the actual acceptance package letter today that they should be sending out. But as far as how many actual parcels we have acquired in this process, I can't tell you the exact number right now. But I do know that we are well into the process and have sent out several dozen actual offering acceptances.

passed by one day I was driving to work and I noticed you and some other people were in some front yards with some flags and looked like you might have been having a prayer meeting of some sort.

That's a good way to describe it.

And how is that situation?

That particular situation? Yes, sir. I'm waiting on some revisions to the plans. In talking with our consultant that has been doing the design, we think we have a solution worked out that will have a minimal impact on the property owners. In fact, what I was told was that we have an option that probably won't require any right-of-way acquisition in that area. Thank you very much.

And just a quick question, just for clarification, because I know you had mentioned, of course, and as we know, typically a lot of times what we anticipate, there sometimes are overages. Can you clarify? Is there a particular area in this process that the overages are occurring in or? Is it acquisition? Yeah.

So far, again, it's a little early in the acquisition process to gauge that, but just in my cursory review of some of the numbers that have been coming across my desk, I've been pleasantly surprised. I guess surprised with some of the lower values that we're sending out offers for and so forth that we're not acquiring as much property. Again, we've made some changes in the project to try to minimize the impact on property owners and try to minimize the right-of-way acquisition. Just overall costs. Construction costs continue to escalate. With fuel costs continuing to increase, I don't see any change in that trend in the near future. Again, we've made some modifications to the plan recently. the design overall, trying to reduce some of those costs. I think we've been successful in some areas, but there haven't been any big surprises really. In fact, everything that we've done and everything that we've really encountered with the project has gone towards reducing that cost. It's just from the initial cost estimate, when we engaged engineers on this project i i think i feel like we've brought it down significantly um it's just you know in that time frame from when the grant was actually in the fact that we you know the grant was applied for without without design without a final design or anything and just the cost increase that took place from that from that time period until we were actually approved to proceed with the project, you know, costs went up significantly. So we've been kind of fighting that issue from day one.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

One other comment. While I certainly appreciate you being mindful of the cost and increasing cost, let's make sure This is the only shot we'll ever get at this. So let's don't cut it so far to the bone that's not what we want and not what we originally wanted.

And we have certain requirements that we have to meet in order to maintain the grant, so we're not going to be able to cut it to the point where it would sacrifice the actual functionality of the system. Thank you.

Other questions?

With that, I will... Make a motion for the adoption of the resolution R2625. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve the application to apply for the STBG grant program for the Conway Connect project. For the folks at home, would you help break out the acronym for me one more time on the STBG? Surface Transportation Block Grant. That is one of my wife's pet peeves. people who understand acronyms, but we don't tell everybody else, so I'm trying to make a point that we use the full name. Any further discussion? Ms. Hurd?

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

That's a six to zero. Thank you, Curt. Thank you. It looked like we got a big rain downtown, didn't we?

Wow.

Yeah. All right, next up. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Yes, sir. Thank you. Next up, we have the Public Service Committee. First, we have Mr. Thames. President Jeremy Langley from CBC contacted me. Oh, it's probably been six weeks ago. They are going to sell some of their property. One piece that I thought the city should really look at is where the big parking lot is right straight across from the baseball fields, because on our weekends, that's where our overflow is. We had – we got – he had a – sorry, a survey, and it came back – not a survey. What's the word I'm looking for? Appraisal. Thank you. Had an appraisal, and it came – the first one came back at $500,000, and then we – it's getting bad, Mr. Hawkins.

I can simplify.

We had a second one, and it came back at $350,000, so we went with a third one. And it came back at 512. So I called Jeremy and said, well, they were not going to be able to go with the first one. And I said, well, the council's probably not going to go with the second or the third. So he agreed that they would take $450,000 for this property. So that is what we're bringing to y'all. And I'll turn it over to you at this point, Andrew.

I appreciate it. Good evening, Council. So this, just like the mayor said, is the approval to acquire a piece of land on the corner of Center and Robbins directly across from Conway Station. The acreage is 2.33. And as the mayor said, parking is a premium when we have as many tournaments and rec league games as we do. So this is a valuable piece of land for us, easily accessible for any of our parking. right now we're looking for 460 000 from the parks impact fee fund and that'll cover closing costs and anything um that comes with the purchase of this piece of property mr winningham you got a second please sir for the folks at home would you explain where these funds will come from

So the parks impact fee, and you can look at the very back page of this month's financials and verify the balance that's there that Andrew mentioned. The parks impact fee, along with the street impact fees, they're collected by the developers in town And it's for the impact on the areas that they develop. So the parks impact fee is used to, we can only use it to expand existing parks or by, you know, make parks more accessible to more citizens. And I think this perfectly fits that bill. It's going to allow us to accommodate more folks coming to the park for those events. Thank you, Mr. Winningham.

Yes, sir. That'll still leave us with about $750,000 in that account, if my math is close.

No, sir. No, it'll almost deplete it. Coming out of Parks Impact.

Parks Impact. I was looking at the wrong one.

My fault. No problem.

Thank you.

Just a point for clarification. You had mentioned $460,000. That would take care of closing costs. But on our ordinance here, it's got $450,000.

$450 is the cost of the land itself, so we need to... Oh, okay.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes, Section 1. I'm sorry. Excuse me. I stand corrected. I will say, driving down through there all the time, particularly on weekends, and I mean... people parking in grass, people parking across the street, people. And I will say recently, I was actually visiting with someone in Little Rock and they actually commented about our parks here. And they said that they travel with their kids here, even from Little Rock, because the only option they have there is Burns Park. And they were very complimentary of our fields and everything here. So,

And I think acquiring this piece of land will help us to kind of dictate how we want people crossing streets and stuff like that.

Yeah, and two, if this corner lot develops as something besides parking, it will negatively impact the usefulness and functionality of that field because people won't even want to park and it'll be a big problem.

Right.

Correct.

There's two parcels there. We're going to get both of those.

It's the area there where the trailers used to be, and it's a big parking lot that we've been using.

No, I mean, I've got the area where there's...

You want my glasses?

I mean, that's got to be. I mean, there's more or less. I would just make sure. Okay. I had stuff sell on Markham Street and over a parcel. it up later, but it's just easier to do it on my own.

I feel like there's a small parcel behind the houses that are on South Boulevard. Okay. Would you check in that, Jeremy? I will. Jeremy, I'm sorry.

I don't want to give you an answer and tell you something wrong, but yes, I will check in.

It's happened to me personally before.

Sure.

Andrew, I'm sorry. Never mind.

I want to be sure before I give you an answer, but I'll check in and get you an answer.

You got to laugh, Mr. Hawkins. That's all you can do. Any further questions of Andrew? Council, back to you.

I'll make a motion for the adoption of the ordinance 02634. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve this ordinance appropriating funds for the purchase of property located at the corner of Center and Robin Street for Parks and Rec, and you're going to follow up on the parcels there. Any further discussion? It's heard.

Mr. Grimes?

Aye.

Mr. Hawkins? Yes. Ms. Bisbee? Yes. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Mr. Jones?

Yes.

Mr. Hawks?

Yes. That's a 6-0. Thank you, Andrea.

Thank you.

Thanks, Andrea. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Yes, sir. Last, we have Public Safety Committee. We have Chief Weedore here to bring before the council ordinance authorizing personnel changes within the Conway Fire Department. Chief, if you would state your name and address for the record, please, sir.

Kenny Weedore, 1401 Caldwell. So what we're looking to do is just reclassify a position from engineering staff position to a captain's position in the training division.

This is the one we talked about last meeting, right? That was in the fire marshal's division.

This will bring the rank structure up the same way. It'll even it out with the rest of the department. Yeah. Move for adoption of the ordinance.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve this change within the Conway Fire Department and this ordinance. Any further discussion? Refresh my memory, Kenny, on how many people tested for a firefighter last time.

I want to say we had 50. We had several sign up, but only, I want to say, 50 showed up.

They had a little over 100 sign up. Say again? They had a little over 100 sign up. Okay. But sometimes it's tough if you've got another job to make it during testing.

And sometimes I think we get some duplicates on there that we don't know until the day they show up. But I think we had 50 that actually tested. Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Any further discussion? Ms. Hurd.

Ms. V? Yes. Mr. Jones?

Yes.

Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Mr. Grimes?

Aye.

Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Hawkins?

Yes. That passes 6-0. Thank you, Chief. Yes, sir. Council, that's all the business we have tonight. If y'all would make a note, we're going to move to our summer schedule starting next month. So we'll meet once a month. It'll be the fourth Tuesday of each month. So it'll be June 23rd, July 28th, and August 25th. With that, I will take a motion to adjourn. Second. We are adjourned.