City Council - Regular Meeting

Alright, everybody. Good evening to City Council Jonesboro, Arkansas. This is 01/06/2026. Hard to believe the New Year is already here upon us. So last year went by very quickly, we accomplished a lot and obviously we're looking forward to 2026 and being prepared for that year and moving forward. So let's go ahead and move on. I'll open this with pledge of allegiance. We'll all stand and councilman Porter's gonna lead us in prayer. I pledge allegiance to the flag of

The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands. Please pray with me. Dear kind and loving father, once again, we thank you for your mercy towards us. We thank you for the gift of life. Please forgive us when we are ungrateful. Tonight, we ask you, the source of all wisdom, to guide us as we attend to the business before us. Micah six eight tells us that you require of be in in

midst

councilman. Alright, we'll move on to item number of three and this is roll call. To If you would please check your ballot, your presence. And we do have 12 members present this evening. So we'll move on to item number four. There are no special presentations this evening. So we'll move on to item number five. And these are items on consent agenda.

Move to adopt unless there's an item to be removed.

Second.

Mayor, can we pull 25,217?

I'll amend my motion.

Twenty five thousand two hundred and seventeen. Motion has been amended. All in favor say aye to approve the consent agenda. We'll go ahead and move on to resolution 25,170 that's not on the consent agenda. Two Oh, 17. Excuse me.

I was about to say I pulled up the wrong one. Resolution of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Axon Incorporated for prepared assist communication services for Jonesboro emergency services. Where the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas and Axon Incorporated desire to enter into an agreement for Axon Incorporated to provide prepared assist communication services to aid dispatch in handling calls and radio traffic and to ensure quality and consistency in the protocols and information provided in calls. In addition, this product will provide translation services to aid dispatch in providing real time assistance for persons for whom English is not their first language and will transcribe the conversations in real time for the dispatcher to better understand the emergency. And whereas said agreement is attached here too and the terms set out therein.

Now therefore be it resolved by the city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, city of Jonesboro approves the agreement with Axon Incorporated to provide prepared assist communication services for Jonesboro emergency services that the term of the agreement shall be for a period of three years, the payment to Axon Incorporated shall be $211,565 for the first year and $199,006.65 for the two subsequent years. All other details of the agreement, including the scope of services to be provided are set out in the attachment. Number two, that the agreement has already been approved by the Craigie County nine one one board. Number three, that there is no requirement to bid this agreement because Axon Inc is on the NASS post state contract list. Number four, the mayor of Covenhaber City Clerk April Leggett are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jonesboro to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this agreement.

Move to adopt. Second. You have motion on the floor to adopt. Now any discussion by council?

Mayor, could you just have somebody walk us through that a little bit if you don't mind?

Sure, I don't mind at all. Ronnie, I think he's in the back, but I'll also go ahead and

Here you're councilor.

Yeah, he's Johnny on the spot. If you would approach and talk about it, but before you do that, counsel, I actually was very fortunate obviously to see this in action real time. It would be the only city in the state Arkansas to implement the full impact of what this AI will generate for us. Also with that, the other mayors in the county and the county judge have also approved this through the commission, nine eleven commission. And then there are some other things that Ronnie can go in further detail, but it will allow us services that we're currently using we won't have to utilize anymore because we'll implement that.

So there will be an additional savings off the additional investment that we have originally. It was really important for us to be able to do secondary phone calls away from our nine eleven center from the standpoint of emergency phone calls. Now they can be really delegated quickly. This AI will generate if it says the word shot or anything in the conversation or automatic is, that that question is is the

ahead. Was there a question or did you just want

to He just wanted you to step you through it a little bit, kind of give us an overall summation of the product.

Be glad to. This prepared system is basically new technology, AI technology. This this technology didn't exist probably a year ago. It just came into effect and into being. But what it's gonna do, there are several different features that are associated with this system.

What it's gonna do is one of the things we're gonna be using is what they call the automated non emergency call answering side of it. And what that's gonna do is take the non emergency calls, what we call non emergency calls that come into that center. Right now, we're we get about a 180,000 non emergency calls every year into the center. We're using a what I call an antiquated or an old old fashioned way of handling some of those calls. We're using just a call tree that if you come in, the caller can punch one if you need records, punch 2 if you need warrants, punch 3 if you excuse me, I'm sorry, 3 if you need the county jail and that takes about half of those calls, about 50% of them.

So we get about 90,000 of those calls that get routed through an automated call tree system. Unfortunately, that still leaves 90 something, a little over 90,000 calls that still come into our 911 dispatchers that it's taking them away from being able to handle what they need to handle, 911 calls, work emergency radio traffic. So that's gonna eliminate because this system will handle 100100% of the non emergency calls coming in. It will take it as it comes in. It will accept it.

It will go to the they call it the bot. It will go to that robot. It will the system will answer the call. And I'm telling you, the mayor did get to sit in on some of the demos. I was skeptical at first when this first I first heard about and started researching AI. I'm telling you, you can't tell that it's not a human being talking to you. It's it's almost impossible. And it will take that call. The system will and based on and ask the questions, it will answer it, start asking the questions. As the caller answers those questions, it will determine what that call is and will automatically route it wherever it needs to go.

The nine one one dispatcher will never have to take a call that they don't need to answer. Never. It handles 100% of the calls.

Ronnie would you clarify that those are when people call the non emergency number not when they dial 911? I think that's a big

We're not talking about 911 right now.

This is not an emergency.

I just

wanna say that again because I think that freaks people out.

That's good. I appreciate that. Now what it will do, and let me say this, there are emergency calls that do come in on that non emergency, those non emergency lines. We actually all of our alarm calls that come in from the alarm call taking system or answering services, if you have an alarm at your house, say you have ADT at your house and I'm just using that, that call center that calls us is not located here in Jonesboro. If they get an alarm, that call center is located probably in Denver, Colorado or somewhere else.

There's like each company has a different location, but there's like seven or eight alarm call centers. So they can't call 911. We have to provide them that non emergency number law that they call in on. So we get all those calls over this. Now the thing about it, keep in mind, the system is gonna reroute the nonemergency calls that don't need to go to the dispatcher to wherever it needs to go.

But the flip side of that is it's going to take the calls that do need to go to that 911 dispatcher and just send it straight into them. So if we get an alarm call, it will instantly recognize that, send it straight in to a nine one one dispatcher. It will trying to think of everything. There's so many things it will do. It will also one of the things talking about savings features.

One of the things the call system will also do is it will handle all of our text to 911 calls that come in. We paid a lot of money for a text to 911 system that we utilize. So once this is all installed, it should eliminate that. There tree that we're using, we currently pay quite a bit of money per every month for that. It'll eliminate that system.

So there's a lot of cost savings that's gonna come in to this one system that we're putting in. As far as then what the the other features, some of them, I'm not gonna go into great detail, but the what they call the call taking assistive or assistive call taking, that will actually help and handle 911 calls that come in. And what it's gonna do for the dispatcher are a couple of things. Not only is it helping to answer those calls and handle them, but where it's gonna really be a benefit for our dispatcher and a cost savings, again, is the translation service. There is it has real time translation, real time.

As that call comes in, when that dispatcher answers the phone, the system automatically recognizes what language that caller is talking in and it transcribes it immediately. The call taker is looking at the screen. It's transcribing that into English. As they speak back to that caller, the voice to text system kicks in. It takes the English that the call the 911 operators speaking back in and it translates it for that caller.

So they're getting real time translation back and forth. Now we currently, as you know, use a language line that we have a service. It's it's definitely good. It's better than not having anything. But the problem with it is it's time consuming. We've timed some of them when the call taker gets a a language barrier caller. Once we hit that button, we connect. By the time we get the correct translator on the line, we go through the questions back and forth with the translator and them with the caller. We go through that. We've timed it.

Sometimes it takes eight to ten minutes before before the dispatcher can actually get all the information they need to be able to process that call and dispatch it appropriately. So again, this will be in real time. It's instantly the call taker can get that information in real time and deal with that problem. So versus eight to ten minutes, you're talking sixty seconds or somewhere in that range, they can probably be processing that call and getting all first fire EMS whoever in route. Again, that will be some cost savings because we will no longer need that language line.

Then there's the call the assist dispatch. It comes with this or several different features where that's gonna help the dispatchers. It transcribes everything. All the radio traffic that's coming in from officers and others, firefighters, whoever, it will take that and transcribe that so that if there's a difficulty and dispatchers have to develop what we call radio ear because it's they're hearing a lot of background sometimes and it's hard to understand what's being said over the radio. So it'll it eliminates question as to what they're hearing.

It's being transcribed exactly word for word what's being said. So that's kind of the call the call assist or assistive dispatching. I'm sorry. One of the other features and then if I'll answer any questions anybody has, but it comes with the automated QA system. We're required to QA a certain amount of calls that come in our center.

We have to QA those. We have to QA 7% to 9% and we have to QA 100% of all the CPR medical calls that come in. We have to do a 100% of them. That takes time. It requires having to sit down, listen to audio recordings, go through call logs, listen to everything on the the radio side, on

from the line first

from Riley, call. I call. Think, think

good And

print a report off and we gotta QA'd and know whether that dispatcher met the necessary standards that they need to meet. So anyway, I'm I I know this has been lengthy, but I wanted to explain the basic concept of it. There's a lot more features involved with it but I'll answer any questions if anybody has any.

Just will you touch on Mr.

Metta, Councilman. I will say that Little Rock has added the feature, correct? North Little Rock. North Little Rock, but they haven't gone to the full capacity of it.

Right. North Little Rock is currently was using They the QA are getting ready to probably launch the entire package, not just the QA. They said it worked so great for them. They wanted to move forward with it. So they're going to launch probably this year the first full package.

With that said, I've told our representative from Axon, I said, and I've mentioned this the other night, I said, I want the bragging rights. I want us to be the first in the state that has this technology. So they pretty much told me as soon as it's already been approved by you guys and budget through the nine eleven board. All we're asking for is the resolution for the mayor to sign to the agreement so we can send it in and get it started. So the sooner we can get that, if you approve it tonight and he can sign it tomorrow, we'll get that appeal and get it sent in and we'll get those guys over here and get them started to work on the program.

Just what we explained QA, you kept referring QA. Quality assurance. Okay, thought so. I just wanna make We sure I

call it QA, QI quality improvement. It takes every call and looks at did the dispatcher go through all the proper questions and steps and meet the policy requirements, did they do all that? So we QA ed and scored.

I do have one question,

Mayor. Ronnie,

so and I didn't ask this in finance, so I apologize, but the time, so once it's purchased to implement or whatever and then learning curve, I'm sure there's probably that how long we're saying from now until that would be full?

Great question. They are telling us that the first phase of it, which we're going probably the most critical to us right now is the automated non emergency to get all those calls off our dispatchers, those non emergency calls. They've told us as soon as they get that back, that signature on that agreement, it goes back. He said within two weeks, I will have a team there, the support team that will come in. They're going to sit down with us and go through a obviously like the QA, they want to know what questions we were going to QA want to ask in what order do we want them ask and all that so they can program that into the system.

They'll have to come in and program if we get a lot of the we about six to eight weeks, we should be up and running with that portion of it. We

Mayor, I think just to summarize what Carol said, I just want to be 100% sure I understand it. On the 911 side, there's no robotic feature. I mean, granted I understand there's assistance of the translation and the transcription, a lot of wonderful things, but there's really no robotic feature just on the 911 emergency side.

No, sir. And that's a great question but this won't replace any nine eleven dispatchers.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was leaning

It will not replace any nine eleven dispatchers, okay. It's simply going to let them refocus what they're having to look at now, the nonemergency side is gonna let them focus on what they need to be doing and talking to that 911 caller, not worrying about somebody calling in. I was just checking to see if I've got a warrant and you know, blah blah, we're having to deal with we have to deal with that all day. You know, so it will eliminate those calls and just let them focus on what they need to do to take care of those calls. And and that's more important even today than it it was six months ago.

Six months ago, if you all remember, we implemented the EMD program, which has been very successful. But the EMD program requires a dispatcher to stay on the phone for but it won't answer nine eleven calls in a timely fashion.

Any other questions by counsel?

Last Tuesday, how many different dialects does this translate? I think I misspoke last Tuesday. I said 80 something. I think it's 30 something languages that it does. I researched it and I apologize for that. But it does about, I think they just say 30, approximately 30 languages. I'm exact to the number. But it will cover all the major languages we have. I would venture to say 99% of our calls are Spanish. What we receive, we've received from other countries.

We've received Vietnamese, Russian, Arabic. We've received several different calls but it will cover all those, 30 of the major ones.

Any other questions by counsel? Anyone in the audience? Okay, counsel. Yes, ma'am. You can come forward. You need you need to state your name and address. You have to come to the podium though.

That's okay. It's okay. Come on up.

Come on up. You can ask a question.

Most certainly. Tell us your name.

State your name and address.

Hi. I'm Sadie Pugh, like my home address.

Yes, ma'am.

804 Sherwood Oaks Cove.

Okay. What's your question?

Say hi. Go ahead. Okay.

Ronnie.

Listen. She's

So you said that some emergency calls do come in on the nonemergency side. Right?

Yes, ma'am.

So how does the AI detect if it's emergency? And after that, does it go to an actual dispatcher?

Great question.

You know you gotta get to that microphone or they're gonna yell at us? Yes,

the non emergency line, what happens at the bot that answers that and we put this through the test. We tried to trick it. We tried to make it fail and couldn't but when it starts asking certain questions depending on what the answers are it will determine that I don't have a resource for what you're asking me and if it doesn't, it's gonna say, know, hold on a minute please. I I need you to talk to a 911 operator and it will instantly send it there. As a matter of fact, I used the example today and this was used mayor in our test.

Y'all may have heard about the caller that called in. It was well publicized about the pizza, that they ordered pizza, and the nine one one dispatcher realized that it was actually not their ordering pizza. They had an issue that needed to be addressed. We tried that. And we asked we asked the the representative, what about the the pizza? What happens if somebody asks for a pizza?

Ronnie, get in the mic a little more, please. I'm sorry.

He said, let's try that. I'm sorry. I can't I'm having trouble with my throat tonight anyway. He said, well, let's see what happens. Called in. He said the bot answered and he said, yes, I'd like to order a pizza. The bot instantly said that I don't I don't have a resource for that. Let me transfer you operator. So, send them straight to the operator. So, it can I'm telling you, was skeptical at first but I'm so impressed with the system. Yeah. I wish everybody could see the demo. It was just amazing what it can do. But yes, it will recognize a non emergency call.

That's great. Thank

you very much. All right. Anyone else in the audience? Don't see any. Right. Counsel, I if you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot. And that does carry. So next, we'll move on to a resolution that's not on consent agenda. That is resolution twenty five one seven o.

Resolution to the city of Jonesboro requesting approval of the budget for the Craighead County Solid Waste Disposal Authority as outlined in act six seven seven of 2021. Whereas the board of directors for the CCSWDA has submitted the proposed 2026 budget for review and approval to the Jonesboro City Council, and whereas act six seventy seven of twenty twenty one by the Arkansas General Assembly entitled an act to amend the joint county and municipal solid waste disposal act to require that county and municipal members have budgetary approval authority and for other purposes reads as follows. Within the last ninety days of each calendar year, each authority shall prepare and submit an annual budget for the next calendar year to the governing body of each municipality and county that are members of the authority for review and approval by the majority of the governing bodies before the annual budget receives final approve of by the authority. Now therefore be it resolved by city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, city of Jonesboro accepts the 2026 budget as proposed from the board of directors of the CCSWDA. Section two, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized by city council for the city of Jonesboro to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this agreement.

Move to adopt. Second. We have motion and second on the floor. Any discussion by council or questions? I don't see any anyone in council chambers. I don't see any as well. If you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot. All right. And that does carry. So next we'll move on to items on new business. We do not have any so we'll move on to item seven. These are items on unfinished business, and these are ordinances on the second readings. We'll begin with ordinance 25,041.

Ordinance amending the membership of the stormwater management board.

May I have any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any, so that'll move on to its third reading. Now we'll move on to ordinance 25,045.

Ordinance to amend chapter 117, known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from R1 to PDRLUO for property located at Cordobella.

Any discussion by council or questions? I don't see anyone in council chambers. If you would, please come forward, state your name and address.

Yes, Patty Lack, 4108 Forest Hill Road. On this, ordinance for rezoning is that I noticed when it went to the MAPC that it did not have the certified, receipts to notify the neighbors. I did email Daryl, and that was on the ninth when it went to the MAPC. And on the fifteenth, I got a message back from him saying that it was a new rezoning and the letters were mailed out to the adjacent property owners. Usually, those letters are listed resolution or the ordinance right here for the people to see.

When I went to the city site talking about the procedures to make sure that this is something that we do on a regular basis, which it is, and I know I brought up this rezoning process right here. It says that they have to put the pretty blue signs out there, but it doesn't say anything about mentioning providing a public notice. But we all know that it's there because I decided that I was gonna Google it. And Google says that for all zoning changes in Jonesboro, Arkansas, you must provide public notice, which includes publishing in a local newspaper and providing due notice to the parties of interest, also requiring a certified mail or similar proof of notification to ensure that it's part of the official record and meets legal requirements for the hearing. We don't have it for that.

Even though that Daryl says that it is, it needs to be listed. And the only thing that I'm saying to all of you is that until those notices are published, whether they are or not, the receipts that they were sent out, they usually are listed on that. One, it's not fair to those residents if, by chance, if they weren't because they don't know whether to come in here and say, I'm for it or I'm against it. And so it's just part of the procedure that we do. So I hope we can follow that procedure. So I hope we can maybe table this until we get those receipts listed because that's only fair to those people that live around there. So thank you.

Anyone else in the audience for comments? Anyone else? Alright, that item will now move on to its third reading. Next we'll move on to ordinances on the third reading. First ordinance, I gotta get my right glasses on. I'm sorry. First ordinance is twenty five thousand and thirty seven. '7.

An ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen article eight section one seventeen three twenty four g to remove the requirement to have a valid registration or license on a boat trailer or recreational vehicle parked outdoors on residential lots in the city of Jonesboro.

Move to adopt. Second. We do have motion in the second council. Any questions by council?

Mayor, I just wanna make a quick comment. I think removing the registration requirement will eliminate accountability. We've seen some dilapidated trailers throughout the city. I know we've seen them on the North Side. Know there's Scott, I could be wrong, but I believe there's one on Ray Street close to the Ray Street market. But I think this is going to cause us to have some unhealthy problems in terms of people living out of these. We've seen that. And so I don't think this would be a good decision, but just want to let that be

known. Any other comments by counsel?

Yeah, I have one quick one. What are we hoping to gain by this? What's the benefit to the city?

Seventeen three twenty four gs to remove the Like that was me, but I'm not AI

talking. AI.

I was about to say and I don't sound like Carol. First of all, the overriding purpose is current state law does not require registration of vehicles that are not utilized on public streets. And so right now we have just some minor conflict that if I want to store a vehicle or I want to store a trailer, then our city code requires that it's registered, where state law does not require that it's registered. And it just causes some burdens when it comes to the enforcement related to this provision as well as just some unnecessary red tape that's a part of the process for code enforcement. So again, current state law, if you're going to utilize a vehicle on a public street, that you register it.

If you're going to not utilize a vehicle on a public street, then it does not require that registration. And so we do have instances where vehicles are operational, but they may be in a repair state or they may be in just a storage state. People never want to put them on a roadway, but they're stored and they're operational. And it just gives them the ability to not be forced to register vehicles when the law does not require them to register, state law does not require them to register the vehicles.

Any other questions by counsel?

I'd to like make a comment. I applaud Director Roper's efforts to simplify our city code and remove unnecessary restrictions. He stated that he has the tools he needs to achieve his objectives without this and I have no reason to doubt his ability to access assess that situation. Thank you.

Can I add to that council councilwoman? Yeah, our our rules currently tells you where you can store the vehicle, when you can store the vehicle, and and and it also addresses those properties that are nuisance. And that's in another section of our code. This section of code solely has to do with parking of where a vehicle can be parked, and how a vehicle can be parked as a part of zoning law. But as far as habitability, livability, you can't live in a trailer in the city of Jonesboro.

That's current law. Alright, our rules say that you can't habitate a trailer, RV or a vehicle that's on your property, and they have tools to in order to deal with that. Our current code has a standard for what a property should look like, or what a trailer should look like, or RV should look like. It tells us that that RV has to be operational. I have to be able to crank it, I have to be able to move it.

You don't have to move it onto a public street, but you have to be able to move it and store it on your property. It changes nothing. I know we got a couple of calls in regards to where individuals could store their RVs, their boats, and their trailers. And this does nothing to change that. This only has to do with being consistent with state law which says that if I opt to only use my four wheeler on my property and not put it on a public street, then I don't have the ability.

I don't have to register it via the state. So again, we're just trying to consistent with state law and we're going through a process right now with all of our building processes where we're trying to reduce duplication and reduce the burden that some people think is out there. So we're doing our due diligence in going through all of our sections of code in order to ensure that we're doing the things that we need to be doing, but there's no burden to the taxpayer in that regard. And this is just the beginning of that. I think you'll see some other things that will come about as we complete our study in regards to areas of code that can be streamlined, areas of code that can be revised in order to be more user friendly.

Mayor? Yes. Could the city attorney sort of weigh in on the living in an RV thing? Mean, I know you can live in an RV park but like what does it look like if you wanna live in an RV in Jonesboro?

I think you can. I think there's a I don't know what section it is off the top of my but there's a code section that says you cannot do that.

Correct. We got like RV park on the interstate. That's different.

I mean if it's zoned as If an it's RV

for that purpose. Correct. But your single family home

Cannot have an Is RV not zoned for that purpose. Yeah. They can't live in it.

That's why, again, this is zoning. This is in the zoning section of our code. This is not dealing with property maintenance, this is not dealing with those type of things. This is in the zoning section in regard to where you can park and how you can park a vehicle in certain zoning sections.

Any other questions by council or comments? I don't see any. Thank you, Tony. Anyone in the audience? Anyone in the audience? Okay, If you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot, counsel. And that does carry. So next we'll move on to ordinance 25,040.

And an ordinance to amend ordinance 17,026 relating to towing services in the city of Jonesboro.

Move to adopt. Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor. Any discussion by counsel? Anyone in the audience? Anyone in the audience? I don't see any. If you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot. That ordinance does carry. Now we'll move on to ordinance twenty five zero four two.

An ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from I one to c two for property located at 213 North Main as requested by Shamim Welkins.

Second. Do we have a motion and a second on the floor? Any discussion by counsel? Anyone in counsel chambers? Yes, ma'am. If you would, please come forward, state your name and address.

Patty Lack, 4108 Ports Hill Road. I was wondering if Daryl could tell me from what I remember at the MAPC is that this building is gonna be converted into six six rooms and a couple bathrooms, and it falls under the c two rezoning. I was wondering if Daryl could say, is this gonna be considered an apartment or is this considered under a hotel?

Darrell, did you hear the question? Right

now, we're just looking at zoning. So, I don't know because they haven't submitted anything yet. Both are allowed in C 2. So we'll just we'll make that decision once we actually see plans on it.

Thank you. Anyone else in the audience? I don't see anyone. If you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot in council. And that does carry. Next, we'll move on to the next ordinance, twenty five zero four three.

Ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen article three known as the zoning ordinance of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas providing for changes in zoning boundaries from r one single family medium density district to c three general commercial for property located at the 2000 Block Of West Matthews, Washington, Jonesboro, Arkansas as requested by Ron Craft.

Move to adopt. Second. Do we have a motion on the floor to adopt counsel? Any questions by counsel? I don't see any. Anyone in the counsel chambers?

Yes. I'm Jim Grambling, Grambling Law Firm. I represent the family for this and the next application. I don't want to take up a lot of time but some of you know that I'm a big fan of the neighborhood meeting to try to gauge if people are in agreement or if there's any objection. We did that in this case and nobody showed up. And I have not since then. I invited people in the letter to contact me if they weren't able to attend. Haven't heard anything from anybody. So I'm happy to answer any questions. Anybody has any?

Thank you. Alright. I don't, I believe we're good. Anyone else in the audience have any statements or comments? I don't see any. If you would, counsel, go ahead and cast your ballot. Thank you, counsel. And that does carry. Next, we'll move on to ordinance twenty five zero four four.

Ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen article three known as the zoning ordinance of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas providing for changes in zoning boundaries from r one single family medium density district to c three general commercial for property located at the 2000 Block Of West Matthews, Washington, Jonesboro, Arkansas as requested by Andy Kraft.

Move to adopt. Second. Do have a motion on the floor to adopt council? Any discussion or questions? I don't see anyone in council chambers. Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any as well. If you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot. All right. And that does carry.

Thank you, Jim. Next we'll move on to the next item and that is the mayor's comments. So happy New Year, everybody. Let's all pull together and greet opportunities with enthusiasm and optimism. I want to start by congratulating our employee of the month who was just named yesterday.

It's Chris Petty out of the Human Resources Department. Again, saying thank you to First Security Bank sponsors as they donate a nice goodie bag to the winner. Chris plays a vital role in our HR department, and we're glad he is with us. Speaking of personnel, all city emails have now migrated to the required address of at jonesboroughar.gov. The city website officially transitioned to jonesboroughar.gov last year and our IT department has been working tirelessly to complete the transition of employee email accounts to the new domain.

Meantime, many of us will be attending the Arkansas League Convention next week in Little Rock where we hope to learn all about the trends in the state and tips on how we can continue improving our service to the Jonesboro residents. But I must tell you, we already know of several awards we will receive, one of which we are just announcing tonight. The first place in the trendsetter award for infrastructure. This achievement is specifically for Jonesboro's connectivity plan with the goal of connecting all the city through pedestrian and bike paths as well as public transit, as well as making the streets and intersections safer. The other first place award is our E nine eleven emergency response program in the category of technology and security.

I'm sure you all proud of these programs as I am. We've also received honorable mention in the unique City Park Ranger program in the category of tourism, development, and creative culture. Plus, Jonesboro has been named the volunteer city of the year for the Mayor's Advisory Youth Council. So again, this is a wonderful month in December, and I appreciate everybody and their activities this past year, and especially through the holiday activities. I want to say thank you to many of the volunteers in the community as well as our paid staff who made the event safe and fun.

A special thank you goes to the Brooklyn Junior ROTC for generously donating a large amount of food to the Jonesboro Animal Services. Winter can be rough on these furry friends who have been kicked out of their house, sometimes abandoned or neglected. Our animal control personnel work tirelessly to help those puppies that may have seemed like a great Christmas gift, but all too often end up in the animal shelter. On a happy note, I'm glad to report we have nine new firefighters hired. We're looking forward to seeing them through the academy and keeping our department staffed and well equipped as we prepare for the future growth in the most safe and secure way.

Next, I want to provide an update on our park system, and I'm going to ask interim director Jim Stearns to go into detail about some upcoming events and programs. But before I do so, I want to add that I have talked to several members of our Parks Advisory Board, and I know Jim has talked with most of them, if not all of them, well about our youth sports programs. There are some great folks on this committee, including Doctor. Coleman. And they are looking forward to increasing their role as a committee in serving as oversight of our newly incorporated youth sports programming, formerly managed by City Stars organization. Jim, if you would please go ahead with your comments.

Thank you, mayor, thanks to the council for giving this opportunity. Just real quick, we have our advisory board meeting tomorrow at noon at Parker Park. If any of you are interested in attending, give the park office a call so we can make sure we have lunch for you but that's at noon tomorrow at Parker Park. Welcome anybody from the council. Be welcome to come and attend.

Real quick, I've been on board with Parks since May, so I'm about as new as you get. My responsibilities include youth sports, the community centers, Miracle League, the pool operations, and shooting sports complex. And the parks team will tell you that I challenge them every day to be a little bit better. Question a lot of stuff because I'm new. And I really want to challenge them every single day to make improvements.

Our goal is to meet the needs of the customers of people that use our parks, the citizens of Jonesboro and everybody that visits our city. And so that's really our focus in parks at this time. With that, that means ensuring that the restrooms are in great shape, the property is well maintained and improved, and that we continue to develop inclusive spaces so everyone regardless of ability can play, walk, run, cycle or just simply enjoy the outdoors. Our to grow our business and

We're

business and growing our with the existing programs that we have currently and also developing new ones. And I'll mention some of those in a bit. Our goal is simple. Every child who wants to play should have the opportunity at no cost, low cost chance to play whatever sport that they choose. And that is going to be our focus going forward.

From the moment December 2 occurred, the parks admin team has met and began planning. Our immediate focus was to ensure there's no interruption in new sports. We gather feedback from staff, work closely with city's finance and administration and legal teams to create a process that align with existing HR and city policies while still meeting the operational needs. Multiple city administrators review drafts, provide revisions and feedback throughout this process. Our objective was to our business and and

to of our our the

We '25, are we had 7772 kids that participated with us in youth sports. And we're going to be greater than 2026. Our focus is to grow those programs. Some of the highlights since December 2, we had Miracle League disc golf day. We had Miracle League Christmas party with activities and games. We had the Doctor. Troy Bartels basketball tournament with over 100 teams here in Jonesboro. We have Winter Soccer Academy going on currently with over 190 kids. Recently, we have the JHS Nettleton Basketball League with 23 teams. We have the JHS Nettleton Basketball League Tournament this past weekend with 63 teams across five gyms.

And we're hosting currently the NEA Future Elementary Basketball Tournament that started tonight with 107 teams over the next six days. Upcoming programs in advance, we have the Icebreaker Junior Olympic Volleyball Tournament on January 17 with 90 teams registered. We have the Weekhare Junior Olympic Volleyball Program February 7 with 60 teams registered and registration is still open for that. We have the NEA Volleyball Academy spring season with 302 already signed up. Registration is open for the rest of these events.

Winter basketball currently has 750 signed up. We have flag football, spring cheerleading, miracle league basketball, the winter soccer academy, spring soccer registration currently has 432. Junior high soccer has 32 teams signed up. Junior high softball has 23 teams signed up. That's a lot.

Adult and youth recreation softball league is open right now. First softball tournament this year will be January 17. And so those are the things we currently have going on. We are also working this year to add youth track and field this spring, early summer. We're also gonna add a Miracle League Pickleball this spring with final details should be completed in the next couple of weeks now that Arkansas State is back in session.

With that, I just want to summarize and say that youth sports makes up a significant portion of what we do in parks. While I cannot say today that we have a perfect final solution for our youth sports operation, there's always room I can say this with confidence. My team has rallied. They have worked tirelessly. They've done everything asked of us and continue to do everything they can to serve the use of the community. I mean, our focus is the kids. We want them to get out and play. If anybody wants to play, we want to provide an opportunity. And if we need to add additional sports and programs to do so, we're up to that challenge. Our team is committed to being accountable, transparent, and delivering safe, accessible, high quality parks programs to the citizens of Jonesboro.

We want you guys to trust us and be proud that we're doing our due diligence. And I would be certainly glad to meet any committee with more details. You're so interested or want to, be glad to do that for you.

Jim, thank you very much to you and your staff as we move forward, and I appreciate your comments this evening. Thank you. You're welcome. You bet. That's the end of the mayor's report. So next we'll move on to city council report.

Minister Street?

Yes, mayor in accordance with our procedures and organization at the first meeting. We have to nominate a mayor pro tem and I would nominate Chris Moore. Second.

We do have a motion on the floor. Any discussion? Don't see any. Counsel, if you would, please go ahead and we'll voice vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's all I have, mayor. Alright. Thank you, councilman.

Mister Miller?

Nothing.

Mister Bryant? Mr. Haffner?

No thanks.

Doctor. Anthony Coleman?

Happy New Year everybody. Mr.

McClain? Nothing.

Mr. Gibson?

Yes, nominating and rules met or some of nominating and rules met this afternoon just enough to have a quarrel. So those of you that are on that committee, be a little more attentive and try to be here in time to do business. We did decide this evening that we are going to reinstate the Public Services Committee as a standing committee of this council to meet quarterly. April, I think we probably need to get something on the schedule probably within the next few weeks in order to organize. We also discussed to build on the mayor's comments as well as Jim's comments to enhance the involvement of the Parks and Recreation Community Advisory Board so that both the Public Services Committee and the Community Advisory Board are actively and structured resources for the Parks and Recs department to help you in whatever you may need as we move forward.

And I would ask that every member of this council email me in the next couple of days which committees you want to be a part of. There will be finance, public works, public services and public safety and we need to get those organized as quickly as possible. That's all I have.

Thank you for your comments. You.

Ms. Williams?

I just want to mention, because I've been an advocate for a push for providing plenty of swimming opportunities, public pool expansion, and the importance of children growing up learning how to swim and have an opportunity to do so. And I don't want us to neglect when the focus on sports to involve the ball, the importance of children learning how to swim for safety and health reasons. And I I wish that we would stay focused on that as well as these other these sports that involve a ball.

Well, and and I'll just add to that, Councilman. You know, with the Hawk Light that we're gonna be adding at Parker Park that's gonna allow the youth to access that pool to greater accessibility. And then obviously with the new sports edition in a year or so, then we'll have additional opportunity for the youth entirely in this community for swimming opportunity.

So we have a brand new pool coordinator and plan next year going forward, we have swim lessons available at both pools. And they're going to be available a lot there'll be a lot more opportunities. He's already working on his water safety instructors, lifeguard people. And so our plan is to have swim lessons available at both facilities the entire summer.

Because of Thank you. Another benefit of having lessons for kids is that you train future lifeguards. And I know that's always been an issue as far as having enough lifeguards that's been mentioned in the past and the side benefit of starting a swimming lessons early in the communities is that then you will have a generation of black bars.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, councilman.

Mister Moore? Mister Mayor, could you have somebody from the A and P Commission give us an update in the next meeting or two about the new aquatic sports center on the Bypass.

Sure.

I've had several people call lately to ask where we're at and how it's going. I think a little presentation to the council might be just what

we need. Absolutely. It'd be good to see it from inside, wouldn't it?

Yep. That's all, sir.

Thank you. Doctor.

Charles Coleman?

Yeah.

Brian Emerson?

No, thank you.

Miss Porter?

No, thank you.

Alright, thank you, councilman. Next we move on to item 10. These are public comments. Anyone can come forward and make a comment about things that were not discussed earlier in the evening. You do have five minute allotted time for that to do so. So if you would please state your name and address.

Patty Lack, 4108 Forest Hill Road. And I agree with you, Chris, is that we need to move forward. And I know last week at the finance meeting, I bring up again that we need to go cashless or at least 90% cashless. And I think just the benefits of all that is handling little to no cash, less waiting in lines, reduces the crime, lowers the operational costs, it has transparency. And I think all of us are interested in the importance of checks and balances.

I say mostly cashless because there's some seniors like myself that carry cash when probably not real efficient at using the computer. But I did a little bit of homework, and I'll give this information to Donna. You know, the systems that are out there is the GoFan page that most of the schools and all that, but also to a lot of the community and cities use. And then there's also a core cashless. And so I've gotten all the emails and questions and all that that they can go to.

And I think it's really important that we go toward that because I think eventually everybody is. But I started thinking about this, and I think the benefit of having the mayor's advisory committee with the youth is that they are smart. They are smart at computers. Have them have this as a project. That would be great. They know computers. They know how it is because because in high school, they use it, and that would be a great project for them to do. So I think we need to do it sooner versus later and eliminate any type of question and just keep on that transparency. So I'm gonna give this to Donna and I hope that we can eventually go to the sooner versus later. So thank you.

Alright. Is there anyone else in the room that'd like to make a comment? I don't see any. Next, we'll move on to item of adjournment. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?