City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat.

really. Okay. Committee meeting. Chief, which one of you chief slip coins and who's first? I'm going to go I'll give him 29 minutes. So, we're going to start with a with an update from the Conway Police Department. And Chief Harris, you're up.

Okay. Hey, good evening council. So, just like I said real fast, I don't know what all we can do in 15 minutes, but I want to update. So, on our staffing right now, I believe it's we have eight openings. Um, where we fell in the last couple years is in a retirement where a lot of the people start at the same time. So, we've had a in the last two years we've had um seven officers retire and two medically retire. So the problem is obviously as you know it's once they retire that day they retire um that vacancy is right then well it takes roughly nine or 10 months before with training and everything before that officer gets on his or her own. So um last year just at the end of the year we had 51 over 51,000 calls for service. Um right now year to date we're a little over 16,200. um our crisis response team, which we're very proud of that. And y'all I've discussed that with y'all. Last year they've um last year they went on 1535 calls dealing with mental health type issues, which one in itself is that's good. And two, it takes the load off having those teams take the load off of regular patrol officers. So year to date so far, we've had 561 calls. um our victim advocacy program, which y'all approved that position last year. Um she has last year um met with 877 victims of crime. So was either met with or talked with on the phone. And as y'all know, that just guides the victims. Often times they get they fall through the cracks unfortunately once we arrest a suspect or something. And nobody used to ever reach out to the victims. this way. Our victim advocacy, excuse me, coordinator, she calls, she, hey, do you need anything? Walk them through the process, the judicial process, or just need something. So,

she's worth her weight and gold. This year so far, she's met with 306 people. Um, on our main budgeted items, um, we had, at last I looked, we had 69% of the budget remaining for the year. Our fuel, surprisingly enough, we're we have 75% of our budget remaining. So, we're we're up on the up on that budget. Our overtime, which is one of our next biggest, is we're at 72%. And then our vehicle maintenance, which is we're at around 59%. And the reason why is it obviously that'll get fixed with the Enterprise that we've gone with and everything else. But right now, just for our fleet, we have 134 vehicles in our fleet. Um 60% of those vehicles have over 125,000 miles on them. 20% exceed 170,000 and 81% of our vehicles are 10 years or older. So right now that'll get fixed once fleet starts going in. But also too I like it for the fact that you know we keep vehicles for a long time. But that keeping vehicles with 10 years plus obviously the maintenance is going to come in and everything else. So, we're hoping by the time these vehicles come in, and we just got the seven that y'all approved last year, it'll start to even out. Um, real quick, our future goals, um, our school district relationship, it's real good with the schools. As y'all seen, the last two incidents we had worked real well with the schools. Our future goal is to have a school resource officer in every school. Right now, we have 10. Y'all approved 12. Um, I'm waiting to fill those until I'm waiting to fill those two spots until patrol gets a little more up to date. Um, our shooting range, still need a shooting range. We're working on some things on that. An extension of our building and then obviously vehicles, but that's already been taken care of here towards

the end of the year. Um, let's see. Now, I know I kind of went through that fast. As I was telling some of the people, y'all hear about police all the time. One of the things I want to discuss with y'all about is the hot topic, at least one of them right now, is our flock cameras. Okay. Um, as y'all know, y'all approved to use asset forfeiture money, which is not none of that money came from the general fund, right? That came from drug dealers basically. So, right, no taxpayer money. Um, we used we got 20 cameras for three-year contract. So, it's already paid for for the next three years. There's been a lot of a lot of misinformation out there about them. They are fixed cameras, license plate readers only. Okay? They take a photo of the back of the car. The license plate, if they don't have a license plate, still takes a photo of the back of the car. There's no facial recognition. We don't have access to any type of facial recognition. Um there's nothing that there's not live cameras. Now our cameras I believe have the capability to go live view. We didn't pay for that. We don't we don't need that. We talk we don't need that. Our cameras captures just the license plate or if it's an identifying marker such as somebody said this suspect had a black four-door car looks like a Honda with a bumper sticker in the right back. We can go on our flock system, just type in black four-door car, maybe Honda bumper sticker, and it'll search the cameras, and if that anything meets that, then that one um picture will pop up. Okay, we've used them for a lot of things. Um we obviously y'all saw our social media post to do some of that. Um Flock does not have access to which is RACI, right? When we run a license plate, we can get who that returned to. Flock does not have that capability. Um, we have the

capability to keep images for 150 days. We only keep them for 30, right? You know, it's um ours are some of our cameras are a lot of them were placed on the state highways. That's what took a long time just to get the permits from the DOT. Um, but a lot of them are on state highways. Some of our cameras are two-way like Dave Ward, right? You go two-way. um some Salem Road, some are one way. Just depends on where they are. Um they've been worth their weight and gold so far um since we've had them. And I mentioned this before to y'all last year, but there have been times that we have caught two homicide suspects in our city that weren't ours. They were hiding out in our city. We have caught a wanted fugitive by the US Marshalss out of Oklahoma who had flot cameras. They typed in the suspect's vehicle. It popped up in our city, hit one of our cameras. That way our officers knew to drive around and look at it and we found him hiding out in the local motel, right? So, um, not everybody at our police department has access to it. Your supervisors will and your investigators will and dispatch does for obvious reasons, right? So, let's say somebody were looking for an elderly person that has dementia that left in a car. What somebody can do is they can dispatch or whomever takes that call can type it in just the license plate of this vehicle. If that person hits one of our cameras, it sends off a tone and dispatch can let the officers know, hey, this vehicle hit this camera at this time. Um, there's been times we had a a I think he was 16 juvenile runaway. I believe he had some type of mental I don't know if he was autistic. I don't know, but he had some type of deficiency. But as we followed him, followed him up. You could follow him up through the flock cameras and state police caught him right before

entering the Missouri board. So that that's the type of things that we do. We can find hit and runs, hit and run accidents when they see things. So, you know, as you see out there, there there's no and I want to reiterate, there's no facial recognition. You don't even see a face. I'm not saying it's, you know, never happened. I'm saying, but as we see it, and I would love for y'all actually just to come up and and look at that for for your own um your own self, it's when we type in that, you just see the back of the license plate. Um trying to go try not to go as fast. I want to give the chief some time, too. Um we don't have any of the flock products, right? Just those cameras. Um they're in different parts of Arkansas, Chief.

They are all over the nation.

Okay. So, I know like and when I started looking into them, right, I met with the the flock representative reached out just like a sales call. Okay. So, I met with her and we were talking and she was telling me all about it and I told her I said, "You know, these cameras can be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I need to call around to the other law enforcement entities. I need to see what they're using because they have the experience, right?" And so when I called around and all the the central Arkansas entities that we do most of our communications with and everything, they all had flock campers. So when you see about why there wasn't a bid process or anything like that is because no other entity can integrate with flock. So So how we do it is we have our flock system. Other entities will reach out, let's say Little Rock and say, "Hey, we would like to have access with you." We grant it. So, case in point, probably two and a half years ago, y'all may remember had a shooting, a shooting at each other. Two vehicles at the new Walmart. I say the new Walmart, it's been a new Walmart forever, but the Walmart on Dave Ward, right? So, what happened is we go up there, the cars have already left and the Walmart cameras, surve cameras caught a picture of the license plate. We didn't have flock cameras at the time, but I knew a friend of mine with US Marshalss, they had access to it. So, I sent it to him and I said, "Hey, could you run this in the flock system?" He runs it, calls me back and says, "Yeah, it's hit all these times in Little Rock. I'll call you back." Said, "Okay." Within 30 minutes, they called me back said, "We have three of the four in custody. That's why we use it." So, um, you know, technology, this technology doesn't replace just good oldfashioned law enforcement, right? just because it's a tool. Um, we still need to, you know, do some investigation on things. We need to do other things. It doesn't replace, you know, the search warrant and everything

else. So, I just wanted to touch on that since it was a hot topic and let y'all know. And Yes, sir. Oh, absolutely. So, at some point between now and hopefully at the end of the year, beginning of next year, I'll be back up here, right, and asking probably for 20 more. Um, that's how much we believe in it. That's how much they believe in it. Law enforcement across the nation. And not only that, as our city, I mean, our state and our city. It helps. It's just, it's another tool, like I said, to keep the citizens safe. Um, I can't reiterate it that we're not using it for mass surveillance. As I told y'all, you know, at the beginning, we had over 51,000 calls for service last year, and that's about the average. So, there's no, we don't have the capabilities nor the time. So, Chief, who has access to to do those searches and do you keep a log of who does it logs? Okay.

Just like anything like just like our reporting system, right? If somebody goes into a certain police report, it'll keep a track of who everybody that's been in that that police report. So everybody like obviously our supervisors have access to that, our investigators, our our uh not only our narcotics but our detectives, but not every officer just run-of-the-mill patrol officer has access to that.

Somebody and and you you said this it just takes pictures of the um license plates, but somebody on Facebook sent to me where somebody was walking along the street and could see the the camera flashing and taking pictures. I am not an IT person, but people talk to me say, "Yeah, it was an infrared and it may flash." Like I said, I don't want to sit up here. It does not take a picture of people. So, it takes pictures of, like I said, I I I encourage y'all to come by at some point just to see. I would like to come see

just just to see um you know how it works. Like I said, you literally go in, you can type in license plate for a suspect vehicle that we're looking for. And we get them all the time. Um we get calls from other places says, "Hey, we're looking for this vehicle. We typed it into our system. It hit on your camera system. Chief, two questions there. Um, question one, what happened? You mentioned that it keeps a log of anytime anybody searches anything. What's the department's policy if one of our people is using this inappropriately? It's just like anything else. It'll be an investigation and disciplinary action, especially if you're using it for personal. It's just like ACIC, right? If you're using it personally, it's actually against the law. Yeah. So, and and and like I said,

we take that very seriously. Absolutely. We've actually people have been in trouble for that. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I was talking with talking with an officer the other day who mentioned this and was talking about it. He's like, uh I won't repeat the profanity use, but he said, "My rear would be fired so fast. Not worth it." And and and the funny part is it's not even that it I mean, yes, you'd be fired, at least our department, right? But let's just say somebody did that and was not fired. ACIC can actually still come in and say, you know what, no, you don't have access to ACIC anymore. Well, then that officer is pretty much not isn't worth it.

Got it. Um, second question, one of the concerns that I was sent online from people was that it not how our employees were using it, but how Flock's employees were using that data. Is there, this is probably a homework question. And I don't imagine you'll have the contract memorized, but is there anything in our contract or agreement with them that dictates how their employees have access to our data? And what

and I would have held I know is and like I said, I can look and get a better answer. Right. Um, first I do know Flock only keeps their, you know, storage for 30 days and it just it's a recurring 30-day cycle. But the way I've been told and I'll get clarification on this is Flock goes in there and sees the same thing that we can see, right? Just if they pull up, you know, just our camera, it's just going to show the license plate. So, I was told that if if I go in the Flock camera, right, and system and type up and look at this camera, it just shows me the last nine sure

license plates. So, if Flock supposedly goes in there and says, "Well, let's look at Conway PD's camera on dayboard, right?" It's just going to show the next nine. Now, do I know that 100% that I don't know the ins and outs of Flock, but I do know they don't have access. Flock does it all across the nation. They don't have access to everybody's our Sure. equivalent to our ACIC. Sure. Yeah. Just since that's something that they're doing, I'd love to be able to take something back proving that like this is our agreement with how they have access to our data as well. So, basically knowing that their people are held to the same standards. ask you this, Chief, and because I know the council has been hearing this and so has my office. Would it be possible for the rep to come down and and visit with the council to explain Yeah. Yeah. how it all works?

Yeah. I mean, and like I said, we're we're not anything obviously now. They're getting it all across the the country. And like I said, it's same thing when I'm sure when drones came out and and everything else. But, you know, I can like I said, reassure the council that we use it for 100% law enforcement purposes of just, you know, like I said, getting suspects, criminals that have committed crimes or missing people. Sure. So if anybody sitting at this table, police enforcement or law enforcement is not looking for any of our license plates, it doesn't throw off a signal. It's only if

if we type it or some law enforcement entity types it in. Now, like I said, some law enforcement entity in Houston, Texas could have a homicide and they're looking for this vehicle, the suspect vehicle that they have that have this license plate and if it hits on one of our cameras, right, they're going to know it and that's how we found something. So, they we're not looking for it, right? Because we don't know about it. But, we've had other agencies call us and say, "Hey, this is the crime we have and it hit on your camera and it'll show which camera." And that's how we've had calls before where then our officers or supervisors actually in this case drove around located one of the suspect vehicles staying at one of our local motel and and arrested them.

I'm not an expert on this, but I'm just saying it's kind of like before we had those cameras they put out a bolo and you had to visually get eye contact with who you're looking for and accidentally or whatever run up on the person. This kind of knocks that part out because the cameras are taking a picture of them and you have an idea of where the person is. Now it Yes, in that case it still doesn't take all the law enforcement to Yeah, you're right on the call. But like I said, just because that suspect's wanted for homicide in this truck doesn't mean that suspect's driving that truck anymore at that time. So you can use it for Amber Alerts, Silver Alerts, things like that. They can find me for loss.

I was thinking to myself, he's already in the system. [clears throat] He He's in the system for a silver alert. [laughter] Can I even see it there? All right. Did Did you have anything else, Chief? I'm sorry. No, unless y'all have to. Council, you have any more questions for the chief? If you would uh sometime in the next few weeks, reach out to your rep and I'll reach out. We'll set up a committee meeting. Is that all good with you guys? I'd like for him to be able to set it up at the computer here and let us watch it up there. Would that be possible? I don't see why not. We can get Mr. Lead Better to run a stoplight or something. We can tag him. Maybe I should have asked somebody else that question. Uh, that possible,

chief. A preemptive thank you for, and this doesn't just apply to your employees, also employees, but a preemptive thank you to everybody working so hard this weekend. Appreciate the magic happen. I'll come back to you all for that. [laughter] Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Chief Winter,

he didn't leave you much time, by the way. I had a PowerPoint ready, but I knew since he was going first, I I didn't have time to to do it. Um, good evening, council. Just a uh couple of things I just want to touch on. Uh, in my limited time tonight, um, we entered the year with five vacancies. Uh, through y'all's approval and the mayor's approval, y'all increased our staffing by six. So, we hired 11 firefighters in January. Uh, two of those didn't make the program, so we lost two there. Uh, since then, I've had two other firefighters quit, go to other departments. I've got two more firefighters retiring in May. So, those six additional personnel. Uh, we won't see the benefits until closer to the end of the year. We'll have to go through the hiring process and get them all trained. um one of the uh bigger uh topics just to make you aware, you know, I want to thank y'all for allowing the uh public tax vote to go to the public for a vote and I want to thank the public for supporting that as um it will certainly help their fire department continue to serve them in the future. We've got to get to that point for collection of money. Uh I heard Chief Harris talk about uh his vehicle apparatus budget, maintenance budget. Uh so far, you know, we're not even through April and we are down. We've only got like 46% left in our maintenance budget. Um 33% of our entire maintenance budget has been spent on four units this year.

um a little over $115,000 we've already put into four units and those four units have already have exceeded their date to be replaced you know by two and three years. Uh the thing about it is they've actually reduced the production time on these apparatus. It was y'all remember y'all approved purchase of two engines in 21 and we got them last year. So it was a four-year delay. They've now gotten that down to a two-year for engines. The big aerial ladder trucks, it's still a four-year process. Uh but what that means is if we order today, we're still two years out, which puts two more years of wear and tear on on these engines. Uh so one good thing about fire apparatus with this with this tax is that we can finance the fire trucks and we can pay them out, you know, over over a few years whereas a lot of the other purchases have will have to be paid for in full when we were like our air packs or radios. But um and you know once we start getting close to that 90,000 miles on these apparatus that's when we start having big problem and all four of these are right there at that. Um two of them are engines. One of them is a big aerial truck which we've already spent 40,000 on that this year just to keep it running. Uh and a and our rescue unit or big heavy rescue. Uh, but other than that, I don't I know the money should start coming in next month and I don't I sure it will be up to y'all or somehow I'm not sure how it's going to be allocated. Um, but our like Chief Harris, you know, with his with this enterprise that is certainly going to help. Uh, our staff vehicles are 15 years old and, uh, we're putting a lot of money into those, too. But anyway,

y'all just about um I don't see Tyler here right now. I was wondering if anybody remembered the number, the estimated dollar figure of what the sales tax for our public defenders and and fire department would bring in on an annual basis. 430,000 a month or something like that. I can't remember. Don't hold me to that. Hey, go ahead, Chris. I think it's 6 million annually. Yeah. 6 million annually. Annually. Yeah. after this year. This year, of course, it's partial here. So, do we have any I didn't think it was that much.

Do we have any vehicles like that? We've already ordered due to arrive in the We have none on order right now. Trying to remember. Y'all y'all allowed us to replace the big aerial truck at Central last year. Um, so that one's There was one you you didn't you get a We got a demo. Yes, we we got a we got a demo and that one's we're using it as a reserve, but it's running every day. Yes. But how many how many pumpers have we bought in the last few years, Mike? So, you bought engine seven in 2019, engine two and engine three and 21, truck one uh last year, and then that reserve engine 8.

Refresh my memory on what the cost of those would be. You're looking at a million dollars per engine and two million for a big rig. Two million for a big rig as for a ladder. Four four engines in a truck so far. Yes, sir. So about not halfway. Close. If we can get these four replaced, the next ones aren't due until 2030. Okay. Well, when money starts rolling in, we'll Yes. We'll get after it. Yeah. And your staff vehicles can go through the enterprise program. Yes. The staff vehicles like for our fire marshals, our training division. Yes. Yes. And those are Yes. Good deal. Any more questions of the chief? Finance these engines and truck.

No, sir. I believe the new ladder truck was financed through first service. I believe I think mayor's office asked for RFQ or something like that. That's correct. I like home hometown banking. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, chief. Thank you.

One one question I should have asked the chief that I think mayor, you probably know the answer to, you mentioned that we're, you know, that hiring hadn't caught up to us yet. How many folks do we have test? The last time test was offered, they had a hundred sign up. I think half that showed up to test. So, they had a good number show up. Okay. So, we still got a good pipeline of interesting folks coming in. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Good. Pardon me. Did 24 passed. How many took it?

48. Okay. I thought about half. Okay. Have to ease up on them. [laughter] Council, we've got uh about four minutes and we do have a tornado watch watch, not a warning in effect. Yeah, it does. It does. Humid. Are we going to take a four minute break or no? Yes. No. It is good. Yes.

Everyone, good crowd tonight. Glad to see you all here. We proceed each council meeting with a word of prayer and the pledge of allegiance. If you'd like, please feel free to join us. Mr. Hawks, could I get you open? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for the opportunity to be here. Thank you for this council and uh Lord, their service to this city. And father, I pray that you'll continue to bless this city as you have and uh keep your hand on it and guide it. Father, I pray that you'll be with us tonight and may our decisions uh be all done to glorify you. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Do you have a tornado on? Okay. We'll now call this meeting to order. Missurd. Mr. Hawkins here. Mr. Spurgers here. Miss Mill here. Mr. Lead Better here. Mr. Hawks. Mr. Jones here. Okay. You should have received a copy of the minutes from the April 14th, 2026 city council meeting. Any corrections, changes, or comments? Make a motion to approve.

Second. Have a motion and a second to approve the minutes as submitted. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. Any oppose. Six to zero. Right. Tonight we get to recognize a special group from Conway High School. Another special team. We've got three or four special teams from Conway. This year you guys going to have to build another building just for all your trophies. [laughter] There's there's a couple of special teams tonight that we're going to recognize. Bowling, girls volleyball, and tonight's with us.

Felicia, I think you grabbed the wrong ones. Felicia,

stop talking. Typical 29 special team girls varsity bowling. Come on up here. So, just to know you have Do y'all know how good I am bowling? If I can break a 50, I have done something. Isn't that pretty good? And 50 is okay. Yeah. All right. Conway High School 2025 Conway High School girls varsity bowling team. Let me get my glasses on, girls. You'll understand someday. Whereas the Conway High School girls varsity bowling team demonstrated exceptional skill, determination, and sportsmanship throughout the 2526 season. And whereas through hard work, discipline, and teamwork, these outstanding student athletes have achieved an extraordinary accomplishment by winning their second consecutive state championship. That's impressive. And whereas the Conway High School,

okay, she messed that up. [laughter]

Let me rephrase. Third consecutive third. It says second right here. Third consecutive championship. The Conway High School girls varsity bowling team has brought a great pride and recognition to the city of Conway, serving as role models for young athletes across our community. And whereas their achievement reflects the highest standards of excellence and perseverance, inspiring others to pursue their goals with dedication, integrity. And whereas the support of families, friends, and the entire community has been instrumental in the team's accomplishments. Now, therefore, I, Bark Caspberry, do congratulate and acknowledge the achievements of the 2025 state champion Conway High School girls varsity bowling team. Ladies,

come on out front here. Who's got the highest average? Hold your hand up. How much? What's your average?

How many parents do we have here? Thank y'all. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. Congratulations. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thanks, girls. Keep it up. Now, how many how many are able to bowl this year? Are y'all bowling again this year or graduating? Four in a row.

A whole bunch is coming back next year. They say you told me you think they can get four in a row. A perfect Isn't a perfect game. 200 four feet, man. That's a dynasty. That's all strikes. All right, next month. Uh, next month. Next up, we have the monthly financials. Mr. Winningham got riding in the back. We don't have a basketball one to do. They're not going to be here tonight. Okay, very good. Thought I would ask. Good evening, council winning.

Don't have a whole lot for you this evening. March is not a very exciting month. Uh other than being the end of the first quarter, there's not a whole lot going on. It's early in the year. Um I will report to you, I can't remember if we discussed this last month. Our sales tax was flat um in March. That would have been for January sales. That's nothing unexpected. January is usually kind of slow following up the holiday season. um that did take a hit to our year-to- date average, but then again, you're only looking at, you know, one month out of three if it's significantly different. It's going to cause a change there. But, uh that's not overly impactful as long as that trend reverses, which it did this month. So, we were up uh back up, I think, 4% uh in April and helped our year-to- date average. So, uh, hopefully that continues. And other than that, I just be happy to discuss or answer anything that the council has. That's all I've got. Mayor Council, any questions, Mr. Winningham?

Just out of curiosity, looking at the uh, general fund financials, is it typical this time of year that that expense exceeds revenue? Like we're, you know, a million. Is that pretty typical for this time of year? Yes, sir. It is. It's uh that number can vary kind of widely. Um uh this one was affected by uh we had a fairly large bill come in early in the year for finishing up the construction of the community center. So that's largely why it got it looks this way that uh why it's that degree of a negative number, but it's not uncommon for that number to be negative.

Okay. Well, and it's it's just kind of been an expensive year all around really so far. Turnback money, state turnback money doesn't come in until later in the year. So, I mean, that's a low turnback comes in fairly regular. It's the uh property tax that we won't we'll get we'll get a little bit of it each month, but we'll see our first large receipt on it after uh I guess after March. I think March is when their bills go out. And then a lot of uh folks that have their taxes set up through their escrow through their mortgage company, you know, they'll just automatically send a check for that and that's usually the first large uh income we see on the property tax. You betcha. And

there are a few expenses that we pay up front at the beginning of the year, aren't there? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. So, like our municipal league membership for the legal defense um our software subscription was due at the first year. It was a little over $100,000 for that. So, that that is true. Any more questions from Mr. Winningham? Council, I'll take a motion. So moved. Second. Have a motion and second to approve the monthly financial report which ended on March 31st, 2026. Any further discussion, questions or comment is heard. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

It's a six to zero. Thank you, Mr. Winningham. All right. Next up, we have a public hearing to discuss the vacating of a rideway for the unimproved street west of Sherwood Lane. I will now declare this public hearing open and Miss Anne Tucker will speak to the council. If anyone here would like to speak uh in support of this, when you come to the mic, please state your name and address. Also, if someone would like to speak against this, when you come to the mic, please state your name and address for the record. Mr. Tucker,

mayor, council, how are y'all this evening? For the people at home, I wanted to let I wanted to put this up on the screen. So that little strip of land there that has the little culde-sac at the end of it is what is up for uh vacation. And if it's successful, half of half of that will go to the northern property and half will go to the southern. So we'll see if anybody wants to speak.

Applicant here to speak. Pardon? French Bobby French 1021 Front Street uh represent Halcraft and then Summit Church are both you know that doing some work over there going potentially develop later and they want to close that street to use part of the developments. There was a couple of those over there that never got built and just woods no street ever got down. So you have any questions be glad to answer them. Would anyone like to speak for this? Would anyone like to speak in opposition to this?

Council, back to you. We vote on an Not yet. Yeah, we No, I know. Yeah. No, no. I just going to see if council [clears throat] had any more questions for you. Okay. No one any more questions. will declare this public meeting closed at this time. Thank you, Anne. All right. Next up, we have community development. Mr. Hawkins, this is all you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First item on this portion of the agenda is consideration to approve waving the readings for the ordinances on tonight's agenda. We have six of those to be read, and I'll take a motion for um waving the readings. So, moved. Second. I have a motion and second to approve the waving of all three meeting uh readings for ordinances on April 28th, 2026 agenda. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? [clears throat] Z Mr. Hawkins.

Next item, Mr. Mayor, is a resolution to approve professional certified public public account services for the advertising and promotions commission. And we have a resolution to be read for this item. It's resolution R26 18. 18. Thank you, Hawkins. I see your name on this. Would you like to speak to it or Miss Rogers?

Um I I'll be glad to. Um we uh put out for bids um in March of this year. Uh was it March, February, or March? March. Uh it was open for 30 days. We had one uh responding uh CPA firm and um u so I would move that we accept that firm Hland's hands or is this is H2J out of Little Rock? Uh it is in Little Rock. It is u Karen Garrett Garrett. Thank you. Yeah, they've got they've got several locations throughout the state. Yeah. Okay.

Good firm. A second. What number is it? R2618. 18. I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution approving the services of HCJ CPAs and advisers for the Advertising and Promotion Commission. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Six to zero. Mr. Hawkins. Next item, Mr. mayor's an ordinance appropriating funds for repayment of the loan for the construction of a tea hanger for the Conway Regional Airport. And I'm not sure who's going to talk for this. Mr. Cunningham. Thank you, sir.

I prepared the ordinance since this was a general fund appropriation. It's not coming out of the airport fund. Uh this is something we've discussed multiple times over the last few months and years. And uh as the old saying goes, it's now time to pay the piper. What is this amount on this Mingham? 600,000. 600,000 even. Okay. There will be some interest due as well and the interest will be paid by the airport fund. Okay. Do we typically appropriate funds for debt service? Yes. It's an expense to a governmental fund. Is that typically just in the in the budget or do we typically it would be in the budget and this we just decided to do ahead of cycle missed it.

It was going to be a fund balance appropriation one way or the other. There wasn't enough general fund revenue in the 26 budget to cover this. We could have put it in the original 26 budget, but it would have shown up as a fund balance appropriation. So, it's the same either way. It's just we're doing it during the year. I didn't recall voting on a on a debt payment ordinance yet, so I was just curious that it was something we typically did, but it just just appropriated differently, basically. Right. Got it. Cool. Ordinance number, Missurd. O2626. 26. Thank you. I would make a motion to approve the ordinance 026-26.

Second. I have a motion and second to approve this ordinance appropriating funds [clears throat] for the repayment of the loan for construction of the tea hangers at Conway Regional Airport. Any further discussion? Missurd. Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Mr. Led Better. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Spurs. I. Mr. Hawks. Yes. Miss Mill. Hi. Thank you, council. Thank you. That passes six to zero. Mr. Hawkins. Next item, Mr. mayor is a resolution to approve the architect and the use of community block grant funding for the airport park improvement project. And Shana, good evening.

Hello. Good evening, council. Um, we got the RFQS back for Airport Park. We had four um individuals that put in those bids and we are asking today for the approval of WER Architects to do that project for us. What are some of the ideas? Are you going to wait to see what they bring or We are excited and curious to see what they are going to bring and we can't wait to share what that looks like with you all. I'm excited about it. And for people who This is the old near the old airport, right? Yes, it is. It's used to play church league softball.

It's right across from the Knights of Columbus. Um, there's new duplexes and across from the Hudson's and our community center. It's got some sculpture there, too, if I remember right. It does end of it. Is it unicycle? Is that the name of it? Yeah. Yes, I think I do remember. That had the turns on it that made all the noise. I remember that grand revealing of that. I make a motion to approve this resolution. B 19 19. I have a motion, a second to approve the architect and usage of CDBG funds for the airport improvement project. Any further discussion? Just one stupid comment. There's a mailbox at the roundabout at

Oh, wiped out just wiped out once a month. And for the county it sixth time, it has bricks everywhere. Yeah, people kind of miss that curve for some reason on Saturday nights. And it's always an interesting discovery through there. I I don't know why they needed to make that comment. I thought I could do that. I lost count. So, it's six. Six. Okay. Six total. That's total destructions. There have been a couple of minor vendors. Oh, this one was total. Oh, I was totally It's all over. Thank you all so much. Missard. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Passes six to zero. Thank you, Sean. Thank you, council.

Thank [clears throat] you, Mr. Hawkins. Next item, Mr. Mayor, is an ordinance to vacate the rightway for the unimproved street to the west of Sherwood Lane. This is We had a public hearing on this a little earlier this evening. And uh Miss Tucker, you would you like to say something else about this? Well, she's settle she's settling in. She won't be here for a while. Here we go. I'm ready now. Good.

Okay. So, the applicant is seeking to vacate a rideway as it's currently platted as an unimproved street. It culminates in a culde-sac and they want to incorporate the easement into the into the two neighboring tracks land. Transportation has agreed to this change and it's unlikely that that's street would ever be developed. So that's not cutting off the only access to that parcel of land in the upper left quadrant, is it? That has the pond on it. No, sir. There's there's other ways to get to that. Yes. Okay. Very good. I'll make a motion for the adoption of uh the ordinance on this 27.

27. Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance to vacate the rideway for the unimproved street to the west of Sherwood Lane. Any further discussion? Miss Mel. I. Mr. Le Better. Yes. Mr. Hawks. Yes. Mr. Spurgers. Hi. Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes, that passes six zero. Han, you're up again. Yes, I think I'm here for the rest of the night. Next Oh, you are welcome. Set up shop. Next item is an ordinance to reszone property located at 1355 Sherwood Lane. It presently is A1. The requested zoning is R2. And Ann, take it away.

So, we're talking about the same piece of property that's outlined in yellow there. And the applicant is asking to uh reszone it from A1 to R2. and he I don't know yet what he's going to build, but it's either going to be s single family homes or duplexes. He will be required to um improve Sherwood Lane up to the property line at to the north and it would go through subdivision and uh development reviews. This passed 9 to zero with the planning commission. Yes, sir. And the abetting land land uses supported.

This is ordinance 028. I'm sorry. No, you're you're good, Mr. Hawkins. Any questions for Miss Tucker? That a motion, Mr. Hawkins? Uh, yes it is. And I will second it. Have a motion, a second to adopt this ordinance reason property located at 1355 Sherwood Lane from A1 to R2. You knew what I was thinking. Any further discussion? This is ordinance 02628. Mr. Led Better. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Miss Mill. Hi. Mr. Hawks. Yes. Mr. Spurs. Hi. Mr. Hawkins

passes six to zero. Mr. Hawkins got an annexation next. Mr. Mayor, we have an ordinance to annex some property approximately 5.43 acres. The location of this is at 226 Sturgis Road. And uh Ann, would you tell us about this one? Yes, this is 5.34 acres at 226 Sturgis which will allow um for additional ingress and ingress in the developing Gold Creek Falls subdivision. All city services are agreeable to this and the county has formerly surrendered the land and this item passed 9 to zero from the land commission. Correct.

Make a motion to adopt the ordinance 026-29 29 second. I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance annexing of certain lands compromised of 5.34 acres located at 226 Sturgis Road. Any further discussion? Missurd. Mr. Jones. Yes. Miss Mill. I. Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Mr. Spurgers. I. Mr. Lead Better. Yes. Mr. Hawks. That passes six to zero. Mr. Hawkins.

Next item. Mr. Mayor, an ordinance to reszone property at 2270 Rosemary Drive. It currently is zoned R1. The requested zoning is R2. This was reviewed by the planning commission at their meeting on the 20th of April. And at that time, the commission voted 8 to one to send this to city council with a recommendation of approval. And uh Miss Tucker, there was one nay vote. Uh can you enlighten us?

I can not at this point. I don't know who the nay vote was. We did have one um person uh community member that spoke against this and probably is here tonight to speak against it as spoke in opposition to this request stating he does not want the density to increase from single family as it abuts his property. Right. I thought you wanted to know about the vote. Sorry. No, we did have one citizen Yes. speak against it. Okay. Would it be all right if we heard from that citizen tonight? Absolutely. You're here. Council okay with that? Yeah. Is he here, Felicia?

Did not stay. He actually told me this afternoon that he was not going to speak, but then I saw him here, so I thought he might. I I saw him leave right before we walked in. Would anyone else like to speak uh to this particular item? I don't see anyone else that wants to talk about this. So, uh, we have an ordinance to read ordinance 02630. I'll take a motion. Move. Second. I have a motion, a second to adopt this ordinance to resone property located at 2270 Rosemary Drive from R1 to R2. Any further discussion? Heard. Mr. Spurs. Hi.

Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Miss Mill. Hi. Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Hawks. Mr. Lead Better. No,

that passes 5 to one. Mr. Hawkins. Next item, Mr. Mayor, is an ordinance amending the Conway zoning code to reszone property at 2800 College Avenue. It presently is zoned R1. Requested zoning is an MF3. This was reviewed by the planning commission at their meeting on April 20th of this year and at that time the commission voted 9 to0 to forward this to city council with a recommendation of approval. Uh Miss Tucker, that's a fairly sizable move of zoning.

Yes, sir. The applicant is requesting this zoning. That lot has never been developed. Um, and the comprehensive plan does call that out as residential, but as you know, that entire area has uh sort of redeveloped as office and and low commercial. Um, he's asking for MF3, which can support 24 units per acre. This lot is right at 3/4 of an acre, but the entirety of the lot is either in the flood plane or floodway. So there's going to have to be a lot of work done to it for for it to support anything at this point. But he's asking for that. So

questions of Miss Tucker regarding this. This was also an 8 to1 vote. This was 9 if there's something built there. And how is all that? I'm not the engineer, but Kurt Jones, I'm I I promise you, we'll figure it out. If anything can be built on it, he'll figure out how that is going to happen. Go through the process. Absolutely. Nothing can be done until it goes through side development. The map we have has office and multifamily all around it, right? So, it's not

residential. different the difference in zoning is not a huge stretch for that area, but the thing that is going to hinder that side is the the flood area. Bobby, you want to talk?

Bobb's here to talk about this if you'd like to ask him some questions. Bobby French 1021 Front Street uh representing uh any development. I think just want to put the the idea is to replplat it in with the apartments to the north. We're going to replplat it in and just to the north of the existing building. They're going to put the other side over there will stay green the east along the creek stuff. The floodway they won't be able to do anything in the flood plane. they can fill get a permit and fill in the flood plane, you know, and uh just as long as they don't get in the flood way. And that's that's the plan right now. I think they've looked at it and had engineer look at it and they think they can do what they what their plan is.

Though this would support what 18 units I think it's I I think he said they're just going to build one building. Okay. It's just going to be one building. What they're going to be I don't know exactly know how many units it's going to be. probably as many as they can get in it, I'm sure, you know, and and stay inside the zoning, but it'll just be the plan is just to build one building there and uh and some parking, but it will be limited by the flood plane and building it up, but we feel comfortable that they can they can do it and, you know, not hurt anything in the area around town on their bikes or walking and there's places to eat.

Great. They've had good outside there. Is the owner or the rep for this building here? Yeah, they've done a they've done a great job keeping that complex really nice. Walking by there on the trail, it always looks great there. A lot of people would like those apartments want want more, you know, they could rent them out easy. I'll make a motion for adoption of the ordinance. Second. Have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance to reszone property located at 2800 College Avenue from R1 to MF3. Any [clears throat] further discussion? 2631. Mr. Hawks. Yes. Mr. Jones.

Yes. M. Miss. Hi. Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Mr. Spurgers. Hi. Mr. Lead Better. Yes. That passes 6. I just have a quick question and an before you leave. Going back to this property. It's already passed on Clarence Drive 1320. What does that property next to that house uh that where the individual spoke against is that open area there? I'm sorry. Tell me again what you're talking about. Uh Bobby's property. Is that what is what is next door to him? It's all housing. I mean like single family housing. Let me get back to it. It culminates at this at this uh culde-sac. And these are all single family homes,

I believe. Bobby, those are duplexes along the bottom there along. Yes, right here they are. These are all single family homes over here. Okay. That that's just for me to know. They just didn't want any more. Okay. Back there if they could help. That's just for my personal knowledge. Yeah. Right now we that that lot is the buffer between the single family and the and the duplexes. Okay. Thank you, Ann.

Mr. Hawkins. See, Mr. Mayor, number 10. Next item is conditional you are a consideration to do a conditional use permit to allow religious activities in the A1 zone for property at 2275 Victory Lane. This was reviewed by the planning commission on April 20th of 2025. No, 26. 26, I'm sure.

Okay. 2026. And at that time the commission voted nine to zero that the request be forwarded to city council with a re recommendation of approval. And we have uh have this conditional use for us. Uh Miss Tucker, would you like to talk about that?

Yes. The 5acre site on Victory Lane, which is off of Lower Ridge Road, is currently zone A1 and it requires a conditional use to support religious activities. There is a building on the site which they intend to repurpose for church services and probably build more at the at some point in time which will go through site development and all the things. Good. Any questions? Anybody? Motion second. Have a motion and a second to approve a conditional use permit to allow religious activities in the A1 zone for property located at 2275 Victory Lane. Any further discussion? It's

heard. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Six to zero. Mr. Hawkins. Final item here, Mr. Mayor's consideration to approve a conditional use permit to allow single family residential use in the O2 zone for property at 1511 Caldwell Street. Um we don't often see this.

We don't this is this is this is this is a reverse. [laughter] Yeah. This is a Yeah. So, the conditional use to allow for the house at 1511 Caldwell. It was formerly used as an office and uh is they're asking to revert it back to a single family dwelling. The home is in the Robinson Historic District, so any outside or structural changes would require the approval of the HDC. At this point, the client only intends to lightly remodel the interior. It used to be a law office, didn't it? I think so. It's quiet office. Believe it. I'm glad somebody wants to live in it.

It is a cute little house. I make a motion to approve. Second. Have a motion and a second to approve this conditional use permit to allow single family residential use and O2 zone for property located at 1511 Cwell. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. Any opposed? This is six to zero. You can go sit down. An I'm done. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Next up is new business. It's a resolution. We have one item resolution to establish a list of qualified vendors for outside legal representation for the city of Conway. Mr. Finen Miner and I have discussed this uh as well as folks from my office and department heads. This is something you're seeing in in cities our size as workloads are increasing both for the city attorney and for our offices. Uh so we'd like to have uh the ability to bring someone in specifically like for uh civil service commission things like that. Uh AMP's probably got their own, but I just threw that in there because lot things for like that specifically civil service, but also uh they also help us some FOI request. We have Felicia and Tiffany here for any questions you have. Did we get an hourly rate from from either of these people or did we just get the qualifications?

We just got the qualification so that they are eligible to be on our list and so for whatever services that we need them for, we'll negotiate a rate with them that will be negotiated at the time of services services prior to I'm hoping for sure. And that will come back to the council for a vote or how's that work? No. What happens if it's needed in a hurry? That's fine. So this this this is the process so that we can u process. Yes. This [laughter] it's a good process. I do love the process.

I can help out a little bit here, Mr. Hogan. Legal services is one of those um types of professional services that's that cannot be competitively bid. It's prohibited by state law. Instead, requests for qualifications have to be sent out to firms in in this case, legal firms to state what their qualifications are to do the proposed job. Um, one thing that cannot be mentioned in the RFQ is price. If price is mentioned at that stage in the in the in the RFQ process, it invalidates the entire process. What this does is it allows the city if it approves and you're just accepting the RFQS and saying okay these people may be qualified um once the then the mayor on an as needed basis would select a firm and then negotiate um a certain price if that makes sense. So it does

it's it's very different than the competitive bidding process and it's one of those times where the legislaturator has prohibited competitive bidding in the acquisition of these types of services, legal, architectural, engineering, that kind of thing. Thank you. Don't you love the process? Process I love. And this would allow us to work with them this year. Is that right? I'm sorry. Say it again. Yeah. This would allow us to work with them this year. Is that right? Like it's not open-ended forever. Okay. Um, do we do we have a way to in the future I understand this was already already done. Do we have a way in the future to like to try to narrow it to Conway firms so we keep the money here?

Run that by Mr. Finener. That's probably a question for him. Sorry. Understanding this one's done. Do we have a way in the future on RFQS to narrow that to like firms in the city to trying to keep the money here? I

I think the city could solicit bids from local firms only. Um the better practice is to because the city is free to select who it wants to negotiate with. So basically they're they're ranked at the in three the top three and the city can just go down that list and is not required to accept any particular firm. So there's a number of different factors that the city could consider and one of those could be that this is a local firm um in the sense that they may be able to quicker provide for short term as Mr. Hawkins was was asking about. It's a very good question. It may be an immediate need that a local firm would be would be better suited to fill, for example. But

hope that answers your question and with a lot more information probably than anybody asked for. [clears throat]

Council, back to you. Make a motion for adoption of the resolution. Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt this resolution to establish a lift of qualified vendors for outside legal representation for the city of Conway. Any further discussion? Missurd. It's resolution 2620. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That passes six to zero. Thank you ladies. Council uh Felicia handed out Conway transit study for each of you. If you would take a look at that. That is all we have for tonight. I will take a motion to adjurnn. Before we do that, do we have our other vans in yet? Do we have what?

Don't we have two more vans coming in? Alicia. Okay. Actually, the two vans are here from what I understand. Yeah. What was the question? We have two more vans. We do. We have vans for microtransit. Um the issue is drivers. So, um, we're working on that and you'll hear more about that when we come before you to talk about not only microtransit but a fixed route. I love fixed routes like you love. It's it's process. It's interesting. It's looking good. Council, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. Moved. We are journed.