City Meeting - Regular Meeting

Everybody, let's go ahead and get the city of Jonesboro City Council for April 28, 2026. Call order, please. Andrea here, Rex here, Clayton here, and Daryl

here. All right, we'll rise and say the pledge of allegiance and be led by ship and prayer will be given by pastor. Chip, if you lead us all, please to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening everyone. Before I pray, I just want to remind everybody that a week from Thursday is National Day of Prayer on May 7th and we will meet at the gazebo at noon. Like to have you come. Everyone is invited to come as we pray for our country.

Yes. Let's pray for our city. Father, thank you for this beautiful day. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for your help, your grace, and your mercy. Lord, we pray your blessing on this meeting tonight and the decisions that are made. to lift up the council and the president and the mayor and everyone involved and our citizens. Lord, we are doing our best to bring peace and prosperity to Jonesboro and we seek your blessing in that process. We commit all this to you in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you very much. of April 14,6 approve the minutes for April 14th. Motion to approve the minutes 14. Roll call, please. Andrea, I Clayton. Hi. And Gerald.

Hi. I don't know if this new business I did have another discussion with Kenny Bucket Castro and we've moved from the wholesale agreement that you wanted to do to a ride of first purchase contract. So if we could I told him we'd start working on that, get something written up. The the only his his concern is that I mean he understands you know that his concern is that the developer would buy it to sell to a developer

and the developer sells it. He must make sure he has that opportunity as well to purchase back so that we go. So, so I totally write something negotiate there. But he's working with us. Um and there was that uh seminar I sent out for May 8. I just registered for that. Good. So I sent you the invoice.

Okay. So was that was 50. Okay. Is anyone else interested and I'll go ahead and approve to send? It's about budgeting basically. But it's by name. What's online? It's May 8th, 8:30 to 12:30. I'm not going to be graduations. Yeah.

I will do that. Okay. So, can I ask for you guys to make a motion and approve the $100 payment to aim for those classes? Yeah, I make motion. Yeah, I make a motion that we approve the funds for them to take the course online each we'll have to get enough question for anybody that wants to go maybe I can do it for 150 but it's 50 a piece so you'll be invoiced for whatever the total would be

but that way I can just go ahead and pay that to wait till the next meeting. So I make a motion that we approve the funds for whichever member of the council three members of the council would like to attend the virtual meeting. I would go. We have graduation.

Yes. Andrea. Hi. Res. Hi. Clayton. I and I didn't look at the federal audit thing yet, but I did look briefly at the payments, but it sounds like we have quite a bit of latitude as long as we have some kind of justification. So, I think we should put our heads together and figure out a way to make these numbers work. And um Mitchell is wanting to come and do a working session to go over anything you guys want. Uh rate studies, the payment schedules, anything. So, you guys let me know a day and he will put it on his calendar.

I advise you to do it quickly because the county council will set some things this coming year and we want to make sure we get our stuff adjusted before they look at the budget

because you know everything coming up. I know I was in the motion. Anything else with the Senate bill there's a lot of changes. They're working a working changing a lot of things but there's a lot of there's a lot of problems with the whole thing and there's some cities are getting rewarded in some ways and other cities are getting harmed and uh they adise us to make sure that we in contact with our county council members because there are some limitations how they can raise or lower our limit. I'm sorry there are things they can do otherwise to help us out but we need to make sure we stay in contact with the community. So thank you for taking the thing because I think that's very important we do hear from the experts and we can easily question. That's a good idea.

Can it be I mean

I mean you want us to make a timer you can. He said he's pretty open. So I mean Monday through Thursday and I kind of got Tuesdays set aside and we don't have anything the first Tuesday usually. So I think I probably do next Tuesday the 5th. Are you guys free? Monday. Tuesday's opening day of the ball field. Okay. I'm not. I've got ABC. Wednesday. Wednesday. Probably do Wednesday. I'm not going to promise, but probably. Okay. Just let me know. Yeah.

Okay.

And six or seven. What time is better for I mean, city council's at 6:30. So, we're going to keep it at 6:30 for consistency. I'll do my best. Let's schedule more meetings while they want to be advised you guys about AI using AI to do our ordinances and like that software program some of the cities are using some of it is really expensive some of it's really cheap They got so many options that would fit us. Some of them actually drive you drive around town and designate potholes and stuff. It's amazing what AI do. It's also a little scary, but I think we might want to look at or because somebody could say, "Hey, I don't understand about trash or whatever and they can look it up right away." We know they can somewhere on the internet.

Yeah, we have the that is online now. It's for writing new ones is what AI would be helpful for. But the the firm uses that's written for lawyers. It's just fantastic. You upload the whatever bill from Congress and it'll go through. You just it'll prompt you, you need to ask these questions and it'll come out of everything you need to know. It'll help you write letters. It's really if it's used right AI can be a very powerful

but I think it's worth looking into there are there's there's possibly some funds the for coming back talk about talk to him There's some funds that the state has found. All right. Anybody else do business? This might be new or old. Have we talked anymore or thought about any more? You brought it up about the future of doing our own payment plan for fines in the city. like traffic.

Yes. I want to investigate that for speeding tickets before the bridge before we get into this mess from the bridge. Yeah. And you write a local ordinance where you can either give them the option of paying like $50 for a little bit more. I guess you can do that by special without that disclosure to the county right now. Right. Correct. I'm just I'm concerned about for everybody is either shut down or

compromising the gas city. How are they going to go across bridge where buses are coming across? 29. Hey, it was 1964 a few days ago. Yeah, I'm just being a little proactive. Yes, I'm still thinking about it. If you feel like it's something you want to bring up, you know, look, let's go for it.

I think we should look into it and move on if we do it. first.

It's terrible.

I've been watching sitting on main it's it's kind of like it's I'm not

but I understand I did message him and Mr. Street will bring his attention again. Anything else under new business? All right. Move on to old business. Have we heard any more about people putting electric? No, I have not. I called that number and nobody's answer last two times. I haven't really talked to the plan about it. They kind of knew a little bit about

I think he's waiting on us to approve it. Yeah, I already talked to him that we had no problem. So, it's right now the the gas station there is open. Yes. Um and hopefully we'll have hot food in the next week or two, they said. And I saw the liquor license application up in the window. You might want to talk to him about I said something to guy who's mostly in there counter where we were discussing about our alley there and how bad it was over there. They act like they're going to do something. You might want to talk to them.

He said, "I think we're going to fix that over there." I said, "I know we got some." I said, "You might want to talk." He said, "We're going to do something, too." So, I was going to bring it up to you. You might want to talk to him. Yeah, I've talked to him several times all the painting everything. It's redevelopment, but have you had a chance to talk to Mitchell Wheels down here? Whatever sign

Great for $400. We were able to help out with that. Receipt and he was very very happy. Thank you. All right. I don't have anything else.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Community building. Somebody just text building. So, I don't know if I saw the rules last time. Maybe it was here. I just didn't look. It's 8 ft. The state for smoking. I think it is. I thought it was higher than that, but it's just Oh, I don't I don't I just want to make sure we're consistent with state. I think he is.

Okay. No rice inside or outside the building. It's they're old old rules. We can take it out. It's because the bird throwing rice away. Yeah, but it's like if I want to have a carry in like rice.

Well, no. I mean like but it says no rice. I mean like dry rice.

We're not that intrusive. I don't even know if the counsel needs to be brought into what the rules are, but it probably should be looked at. Sure. So, I would say keep the rice and the little sparkly confetti stuff they have now. Do away with that. Never. You see how many hours it takes us to clean? I'm a confetti girl. You can't scoop them up. No, they stick to the flow. I know what you're saying, Qu. They stay with you forever. Yes. Whoever come up with that idea to put this

Yeah. I don't love the rules, but I think those can probably be changed by you guys for whatever. So, I can move almost pass on the second reading. And for good the good of those watching are here. This is to increase the charge to $100 per day for nonprofits or 125 per day for forprofit to get kind of more in line with the cost of other venues around here. Plus the deposit now

because we took the deposit away years ago and we need to bring that back 50 which has returned just to make sure people fulfill their damage. to your approval of this. I'll make the motion that approve ordinance number one 2026. I can have a motion, a second to approve general ordinance number 1226. Roll call, please. Andrea, I reex. Hi, Clayton. Hi,

and Gerald. reports and safety, please.

Good evening. Um, the water treatment plant. There is a small punch list to do. Basically a plaque. They did all the grad last week. Actually, this last week weeks are flying by. Um I guess to to talk about the um credit again. Um I did have a clarification from Ken just now because I was a little confused on that. We do have a $17,000 credit um I say credit a balance um that was given back to the state. Those that balance should or was originally to go to the contractor to do this additional work, but we pulled that money back. So, it's a win for the city. We do get that $17,000 back. But

Ken's going to put a spreadsheet together showing that credit and and what they've done. And it's a little confusing, so I can't really explain it, but this in a nutshell, the city is getting a $17,000 credit, which hopefully will be uh put back into the we can get that. So that that would be my question. Is it going into our bank or is it staying at SRF? They're saying Ken's asking if it can go back into the water fund where from there the city can then take that money and pay for the cameras and some additional things that we would like to have.

So we haven't gotten that approval yet, but that's what we're asking. So it's until we get this worked out. We'll get you out of this. So, anyway, um the water tower there are still um the fence is still damaged and the shed roof still needs repaired. I'm still in contact with Viking. That's the general contractor for the painting. Um he's assured me he's going to get that done this spring still. So, I'm I'm calling him every week to what it is. He's calling a contractor out of Fort Wayne. It's just hard to get a fence contractor in here to do it. There's just not one locally. But again, that's in his contract to fix the they damaged it when they painted it, so it has to be repaired. So hopefully that'll be wrapped up in the next couple weeks. Um the board of works did approve the CCMG 2026-1. That's um 4th Avenue, Void Street, and Gulick Street. Um the low bidder was Brooks for $194,000. Um looks like they'll they're going to get that in yet this summer. So we'll get those streets paid probably midsummer. Um and then the 2026 CCMG, which is the water street tomorrow morning. The crews coming in to start cutting. You probably seen the paint lines. They're going to sulk up the pavement and then the pipe crew will come in and do the underground and then they'll start ripping sidewalks out.

Probably in the next week or so. So So how did you get them in there? You know, funny enough, I had talked to one uh superintendent, he said it was going to be a while and the next day I get a call and say, "Hey, we're coming in." Thank goodness. I know last meeting you was telling us. Yeah. So I'm I'm glad to announce that. They're here. So, and then Rex, I did contact Center Point for the restoration pipeline. Yeah. Only thing they did. Yeah. No more pipeline. Only thing they did. I'll wait and see if they just come back with their hands again. Okay.

Well, let me know if it's not done. We'll call them back again. cuz he got mad at me because he called me cuz I called him and he kept saying this and I said, "Well, you told me yesterday afternoon here it's the next day after." And he kept giving me excuse. I said, "Oh, more excuses." He got mad at me. Well, if we if Miller pipeline doesn't do it, we'll go straight to Center Point. And they're subcontracted by Center Point. So, okay. That's all I have. You guys have Thank you.

I don't have any re recommendations or comments other than pay hard for us. I advise you to look at their website and take any training you can for the future. It's going to be it's going to be uh fiscally responsible that we look into the aims and do our budgetary things because it's things are going to change real quick around here because it's getting really tight some favor. All right, clerk treasure.

The only thing I have is a quote to repair the struts and saddlings on the charger. The um for $793 to talk to street. Okay. Actually surprised the straps aren't more expensive than that. I'll second please. Andrea I

Clayton hi and very good Mr. tonight. The last meeting uh the issue was raised about the uh personal injury claim settlement the city was partially responsible for. I talked to the insurance defense attorney about that case and uh that involved the stop sign the act six of pearl pearl

and the uh claim of negligence against the city uh was uh negligent maintenance that was claim uh the vegetation according to the plaintiff that obstructed her view of that stop sign. So I guess so saying that Bob that visitation's off property at the corner that we're having trouble certainly not guys that live there

according to the attorney uh they determined it was the vegetation was in the right way. Yeah, and I understand he did make reports to you. I never saw anything about that. Oh, okay. I I don't know. You said there was a report right before mediation that would have uh addressed those issues. Well, but didn't you say you couldn't view it? You couldn't view some of that?

No. So, the attorney that I had been working with I So what happened? We switched attorneys. The new attorney, it was a couple weeks before they went to court. He asked me for everything that I had. I sent that. Um and then I all I heard was settlement reached. So I don't know if something was sent and I didn't get it. I don't know.

Anyway, the was represented by Ken and the uh defendant, our codefendant who I guess blew the stop sign paid 25,000 for the settlement city.

So was this like Pearl Street and East? So the the person that filed was on Pearl trying to either cross or turn on to Maine. The person that hit the claim was going main toward the light. Okay. And she just kind of blew the stop sign and hit the driver on Maine who didn't have a stop sign. Okay. You're saying that because of the vegetation in the and so forth. So, what can we do?

Is that our because it's his hill that goes up into his house and he'll get all that tree and vegetation. I don't know. We tried to cut it before cuz we said it was bushes and stuff or just weeds. He says it's actually flowers and stuff that he's planted, but we don't think he's there anymore, right? We haven't seen all his cars are gone, but the two that's broke down in the drive and that old truck has there. All the rest of them are gone. But question,

since we didn't find, can we go back after him because it's his vegetation hanging over fence and all that? to reclaim some of our money because it be like my tree in my yard hanging over stop sign. Who's responsible? City or me? Maybe. That's why that's why I'm asking.

I think what they say is that it's our right of way. I think the uh uh what they may be saying is the vegetation that was uh growing out of the property owner's lawn, you know, grew out over the rideway and the city has the right to what impedes on the other like if someone else's stuff impedes on yours.

Yeah. If I said to the tree hang our worst sound question is in the police report I thought it said she admitted to stopping at the stop sign so she seen the stop sign she stopped pulled out in front of a car that hit her. It's still her liability to stay stopped until traffic's clear because it is a terrible corner and you have to pull out because of his vehicles

but information.

Thank you. How much will Yeah. So, I did have Teresa, our rep look into it. She hasn't gotten back to me yet because I I want to know if it's going to raise our liability for next year. It probably will.

It's so Wait, our job was 7500, but the whole claim was 17500. If it's going to raise our rates, we might look at just paying it ourselves. It's already paid. That's the problem. I got it late before I could do anything about it. Thank you, Mr. I will bring you the report of how that corner is next meeting. Okay.

No special committees approve of claims $44,4458 in front of you for approval. So that motion $44,445.

I'll second. A motion to approve the general fund city. Roll call, please. Andrea, I reex. Hi, Clayton. Hi. And hi. Item 11, public comments or questions. Seeing none, council comments or questions? Yeah, I've got two. Uh, number one, I should have asked Brad earlier. When specifically does the five-year timeline for JC Knight, when does the clock start? Do you know?

When the close out paper Okay. When when it's closed out. So, so probably in a week or two. By the way, we've been talking. Okay. Yeah. I I just let Amy know that we're approved and done. So, great. Next week. Okay. And then again kind of more redevelopment but we only meet once a month. So you spoken with Miss Studebaker and got papers signed or not yet. I was waiting on you that we that's what I was saying in my text. We approved. You can sign. Oh yeah. We made a motion. We passed that I will contact her tonight.

Great. Thank you. So, yeah, I'm hoping the apartment greenway people will come down and look at that and see if they'll give us some help cleaning that property out there. Yes, that reminds me. Um, so there's discussion about the bridge to Gas City. It needs replaced desperately and I'm being told the greenway is not helping the walking bridge. Yes. So, I don't know if that's something we need we want to discuss with Gas City, maybe going in on a grant to repair or replace because the greenway is not and we need that bridge. Yeah, I said let's talk to Gas City, see if there's any grants out there.

There's got to be something that we can do jointly or if it's like I know how they got the money if our state rep will just go back and ask for the one. Yeah, the one we were talking about that reached out to me that you said you work maybe she could help us and gas city possibly some funds. So I'm not saying we don't. I'm just ignorant. Make the explain to me why you said we need that bridge like as a city just to events. Yeah.

Tons of people use that bridge especially at River Rally in Ducktale. our local the rails to trails committee. They raise funds all the time to try and put money into repairing that bridge and they're just not coming up with the funds. I can get a figure from Kathy or I can have her come to the next meeting and discuss it. It's up to you guys. I know they got a thousand. Well, they're they're wanting to replace the whole thing. That's what I'm being told. That's going to be a lot of money because when they first $100,000 state rep got

well when they first built it $100,000 um I don't know the company but you could ask George Kamacho because he was one of the engineers on it who came for you I don't have it put in was it was it no I do not know that answer here's what happened Somebody come up with an idea and our state rep at that time was Eric Turner.

He went to ways convenience committee the last day he was in said I need $100,000 for a project in my district and by midnight he got his phone call and he got his $100,000 and that's how the bridge went out. That's how the bridge went from gas. It was an idea of doing it but no money and then the money popped up. Yeah. So, a grant would be great. I mean, we want to look at options. Does seem strange to replace all the steel so soon. But another reason why we brought up the student maker thing, if they're going to be coming and cutting, we want them to be able to cut there, too. Um, but yeah, we approved last redevelopment up to a number that is less than what she said. So, we're ready to sign. You're ready to sign. whatever you need from me. But

yeah, I'll take care. One thing about the greenway, there is some we got to look at the structure down there a little bit. Talk to them about next time it's is coming in. There's some places down there where it's just it's washing out and have look at it tomorrow. They cannot they cannot run away from this one. It has to be something has to be done. Can't let the green go. So, a lot of people use that. Yeah, that's nice. So, anything else?

Nothing else. Question is in order. So, move.