Code Enforcement - Regular Meeting

Okay, good afternoon, everybody. It is officially five o'clock and we're gonna go ahead and call to order the Public Safety Council Committee for the City of Jonesboro. At this time, we'll go ahead and we'll take roll call. And so if you don't mind to mark your attendance on the device in front of you. Okay, and we do have five members present, so that does give us a quorum for today. So we will move on to the next item on our agenda, being the approval of minutes from Tuesday, July 21st of 2026.

Move to adopt.

Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second to adopt the minutes from the previous meeting. Do I have any questions or comments from anybody on the committee? Any from the administration, and any from the public in attendance? Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and call for a vote on the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. Okay, and that motion does carry. Moving on to the next item on our agenda, being new business, we only have one resolution to consider tonight. That is resolution 26101. A resolution agreeing to the permanent closure of the airport road at grade intersection with the Union Pacific Railroad upon the completion of a grade separated highway crossing at this same location. Whereas the Arkansas Department of Transportation has entered into certain agreements with the Union Pacific Railroad regarding the construction of an overpass to replace the existing at-grade railroad crossing on Airport Road in the corporate limits of the city of Jonesboro. Whereas the Arkansas Department of Transportation is required by these agreements to provide proof of the Union Pacific Railroad via a resolution passed by the local municipal corporation that it agrees with the removal and permanent closure of the at-grade crossing upon the completion of the new grade-separated crossing, whereas the Arkansas Department of Transportation has constructed said grade-separated crossing at this crossing location and wishes to finalize its obligations to the Union Pacific Railroad regarding this work. Now therefore be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas that one, upon completion of the grade separated crossing by the Arkansas Highway Department described above, the City of Jonesboro hereby agrees to the removal and permanent closure of the former at-grade railroad crossing at this location. And two, the Mayor and the City Clerk are hereby authorized to take further steps and actions on behalf of the City as necessary or appropriate to accomplish the purpose of this resolution as stated above.

I make a motion to recommend to the full council. Second.

Okay, I have a motion and a second to recommend this item to the full council. Do I have any questions or comments from anybody on the committee? Okay, any from the administration? And any from the public in attendance? Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and we will call a vote on this item. That motion does pass and is forwarded on to full council. Thank you, everybody. Moving on to the next item on the agenda being pending items. I know of none. And moving on to number six, other business. Everybody had received a copy of the vector mosquito control report for the previous month. If you didn't take a look at it, it's a good read. It seems like we had a lot of aerial sprays that went on, and even more impressive, probably a lot due to the weather that we've been having, but the number of mosquitoes are down considerably from the previous year. Anybody have any questions, comments, or anything regarding vector mosquito control? Yes, sir.

Not specifically related to Vector, but I'll just be the broken record, particularly since two of y'all are on AMP. Has AMP talked to you more about, I know they had some interest in mosquitoes. Has AMP talked to you more about that?

It's been a conversation that we've been having. However, nothing has moved forward as far as talking to county, just because that would be an inter-municipal relationship that we would have to go on. You know, we had talked about doing a study of, being able to do additional spraying on the outskirts of the city limits where we're specifically seeing a lot of this mosquito, where a lot of the mosquitoes are being bred in these farming communities and all the fields that are surrounding the city. But at this time, nothing's moved forward on that.

Maybe Craig Rickard or Jerry or somebody want to come talk to us at one of our meetings about it. Here comes Brian. I feel like before you know it, it'll be winter and we'll forget about it and it'll be spring and we'll talk about it.

Yeah, we've actually, I've spoke with Craig Rickert, and we've worked with our finance department, and there is going to be an RF, issued for potential companies to maybe come in and do a study to see what they think could possibly be done and that would kind of be the first step. I think A&P allocated some money for that. So we've been working with A&P, with Craig Rickards specifically on issuing that RFP or RFQ to help find suitable vendors who might be interested in doing a study to see what next steps would be. Good, thank you.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Moore.

Yes, just one item, Mr. Chair. Could Craig or somebody come and give us a rundown of what happened on the building on Main Street and where we're at on that and where the contractors are or if the sidewalk's going to be open back up soon? You're the only engineer, Craig.

I was looking for Tim. He's not here, though. So what had happened was on the building on Main Street, there was a brick facade and it had started coming away from the building. It had fallen off. It was actually holding up a lintel that holds up the second story of that building. So there was some concern about it. They had a structural engineer come in and look. And from the inside of the building, it looked worse than it did from the outside. So he recommended that we evacuated the building. And the road was shut until the building could be stabilized. The following Monday, a contractor came out. Ramsons came out. under the direction of the owner of the building and his representatives, and they shored up the building along with the structural engineer. We met out there, I believe it was on Tuesday when they had it stabilized and got the road back opened on that afternoon. Unfortunately, I don't have any other updates on it since Tuesday when it was opened back up. So I'll need to check on that and let you guys know. I know that their plan is to come in and put steel columns in and redo the storefront on the building to make it fully secure.

I noticed the temporary shoring they have down there. Did they get Jordan or Jason or somebody to look at that?

Yes, Jordan was there when we all, we met at the site on that Tuesday before the road was opened back up and everybody was satisfied with the temporary shoring that was done.

Good deal. That was the only thing I was concerned. It didn't look like a major repair down there, but I just wanted to make sure an engineer had put his eye on that because... We don't need another repeat of something big.

Like I said, Jordan Lane with North Delta Engineering was the structural engineer. He submitted some drawings to the city for us to look at on the proposed shoring plan. And then they modified that, but everybody signed off on it before the road was opened back up. And there are some drawings showing what they intend to do. I just don't have the timeline of when they're actually going to do that work. But we'll get that and get it to you.

Thank you, Craig. That's all I have.

Thank you, Craig. Thanks, Mr. Moore. Anything else from anybody on the committee for the Public Safety Commission? OK, seeing none, this brings us to our next item on the agenda, being public comments. This is an opportunity for anybody from the general public that would like to come and speak about anything that was not on the agenda tonight. Dr. Coleman? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and we'll move to the next item being adjournment. So moved. Motion and second to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We do stand adjourned. Thank you all very much.