City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you and welcome. Welcome to all who are watching online and all that are here. We will call this Thursday, June 25th, 2026, full council meeting to order at this time. Ms. Swindell, would you come up and we will have prayer. If you would, after prayer, would you remain standing for a 30-second moment of silence and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Father God, we come to you tonight as a grateful people of the city of Russellville. We know that we are blessed indeed that we reside here and that we can call you our God. We know that we are privileged that you will bend an ear to hear our joys, our concerns, our sorrows. And Lord, tonight, our concern is the business of our city. Lord, I pray that as decisions are made, the issues that are clear would be made concisely, and those that are in question would not be made in haste. Lord, we want to honor you in our community, and it is in your son's name we pray. Amen.

All right, please join me in pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Ms. Skelton, can you give us a roll call, please, and thank you.

Mr. George. Here. Ms. Wetzel. Here. Ms. Young.

Here.

Mr. Olsen. Here. Mr. Bradley. Here. Mr. Pearson. Here. Mr. Gray. Mr. Keller. Mayor Teague. Here. Mr. Smith. And myself. Do you have a quorum?

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you've had an opportunity to look over the minutes for the meeting from May 21st, 2026, I will entertain a motion. motion to approve have a motion and a second to approve the minutes from May 21st all in favor any opposed all right thank you all right at this time we will direct our attention to the screens for a finance report from finance director miss Brady Baker

General fund revenues for the month of May totaled $1,532,887. Of that, $1,180,107 was sales tax and state turn back. $83,731 was franchise fees and permits. $269,049 was all other revenue. This is a breakdown at the year to date tax revenue comparison. The half cent city. Year to date is $2,467,175.53. The counties was $2,956,913.32, both of which are a bit above last year and above budget projections. General fund expenditures for the month of May totaled $2,350,687. Of that, $2,101,907 were personnel related expenses, $248,780 were utilities and other. At the end of May this month looks a little bit escalated simply because we're on a biweekly pay schedule and there's three pay periods in the month of May. Street fund revenue for May totaled $1,044,306. Of that, $624,289 was street sales tax. $325,048 was state turn back and ad valorem. $83,207 was interest. $1,500 was street cutting permit. $98.22 was all other revenue. Street fund expenditures for May. Operational expenditures totaled $273,314. Of that, $207,018 was personnel related. $65,504 was utilities and other. Capital expenses totaled $2,028. That was for forklift equipment. Street sales tax spending totaled $752,421. That was towards drainage maintenance, pavement preservation, downtown improvements, U.S. 64 East pedestrian improvements, and the Muskogee Trail. State turn back street projects totaled $361 towards Russellville Trails and the RDOT Highway 7 project. Economic development, May revenue was $174,617. Of that, $156,072 was sales tax, $18,545 was interest. Expenditures totaled $274,260. Of that, approximately $5,975 was for equipment, and that was the AED enclosures that we appropriated last month. $50,000 was for the Arkansas Valley Alliance Agreement, $215,085 was the airport equipment shop and $3,200 was airport apron improvements. Below is the various balances at the end of May for the economic development funds. In totality, those are $5,502,447.83. Capital assets, my revenue was all in interest, and it was $439. Expenditures totaled $4,152. $3,399 was towards capital miscellaneous. This was for airport hangar door brackets. $753 was towards network infrastructure, and that's the implementation of our fiber optic. Blows a breakdown of the one cent sales tax. Its inception was in 2021. It renewed this year. And the balances for each of those four funds. In totality, those four funds' cash balances at the end of May totaled $20,895,922 and a penny. If there are no questions, that concludes the finance report.

Thank you so much, Ms. Baker. All right. And the mayor's report this this month, a couple of things I wanted to address. Last Tuesday, as we sat here as a as a council during agenda prep, I received word that local restaurant, local iconic restaurant that has been here for so long was on fire. And I was. uh texting back forth with chief vick getting updates as we were sitting here and i just do want to say thank you to the community of russellville i want to say thank you to rfd rfd firebase dms russellville police department russellville public works i want to say thank you to atu public safety who was on site arkansas state police were there sheriff elect sean harris was there making sure we were covered and What are we looking at? City Corp, yes.

They provided the water.

No, I'm just kidding. Chief Sloan, no, I'm just kidding. City Corp was there to provide the water. Summit was on site. Entergy was on site. There were so many different people that showed up and did so many things as a community. Walmart sent out water and granola. Walgreens sent over water. McDonald's donated cheeseburgers. You know, there's so many people that showed up and did such amazing things. And the community has rallied once again behind a tragedy in our community. Starting this past this past Monday, people who worked at Check H were able to go into the one roof facility and get their bills paid because of our community. You rallied, you know, Mr. uh... zach summits here he understands more than anyone because we took a terrible loss uh... at the old south and so he understands what it's like when your employees are without income and uh... so we're grateful for that i just want to say thank you that we live just in an absolutely amazing uh... community and we all should be grateful and thankful for uh... the fact that all of that stuff happened in that one night it doesn't happen everywhere like that i promise you in other communities all of that cooperation doesn't happen yet at here you had over crow mountain and uh... possible fire departments there supporting us until is really amazing so thank you to the community and how you responded during the fire and after fire uh... i don't use going to be uh... i'm too is uh... after thirty four years of uh... service to the rest of the fire department uh... you can stand up chief if you'd like in sicilian if you want to come up and say something uh... chief sloan will be retiring this month uh... he's given thirty four years cecilia cecilia is given a little bit there to those wives give a lot you don't uh... you're not a fireman without the backing or or a police officer without the backing of an amazing wife but uh chief and i go way back it's long before i was mayor but i did want to recognize him publicly and say thank you for your years of service i know you've seen a lot i'm sure when you first started you were probably riding tailboard and now we have some of the best equipment in in the state of arkansas we do want to say thank you And tomorrow, whoever's watching this, on Friday at 2 p.m. at Central Fire Station, we will be saying so long, farewell. We'll have a little bit of a presentation for Chief Sloan tomorrow, but I did want to publicly acknowledge you in a formal council meeting and say thank you. If you'd like to say a couple things, I'd be happy to.

I do, and first off, I want to, you know, when you're a firefighter, you learn to value water.

Yeah.

We could have all that equipment there and not be able to do anything without the water. No, um... You can blame or credit Ms. Vaughn for this because she called me this afternoon. She said, hey, have you prepared a speech? Are you going to talk or do anything? And, of course, that hadn't occurred to me because, you know, I know you don't like to take up time.

Oh, you're fine. Yeah, we got your timer on.

I'm going to be really quick. Do any of you need a bathroom break before I start?

No.

No, really, I thought, well, I might as well have one opportunity. What's he going to do, fire me? So... Real quickly, I just want to skim. I'm a very team-oriented person. When I hired into the fire department back in the early 90s, I was hired into a very good group of people that were already here, firefighters, including Mr. Keller's dad, Captain Keller. And I was hired along with a big group of young, progressive firefighters that had a vision that we worked together. And we made a lot of changes through the years. a lot of positive changes with the support. We had a chief at that time, Chief Hobby, that kind of gave us a little slack and let us kind of lead and do some things and expand our duties and help the citizens in any way that we could. Fast forward to 2016, under the leadership of Mayor Horton, he gave us the opportunity to lead the department, those of us that were hired back in the 90s. And Again, I was a battalion chief. I'd been battalion chief 16 years, along with battalion chief Brent Ham, battalion chief Kirk McBride, Captain Fire Marshal Richard Setian, if any of you have heard that name. And we had the opportunity to promote a young battalion chief, Chris Vick.

Not so young anymore.

And I'm going to tell you... I'm going to tell you, that was an opportunity to put a dream team together. I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about the team. And we had a shared commitment. We had a shared vision. 34 years has been a long time. And we worked together as a team for, to this point, 10 years. They've gradually dropped off, some of them. But we couldn't have done it without all of us. We literally were a team this entire time. And we've accomplished those goals. We've accomplished that vision. And I looked around with Chief Perry passing. It was an opportunity for me to kind of look around and decide where we needed to go. And it was Chief Setien, you guys have put so much on him that he's busy all the time nowadays. So it was me and Chief Vick, and that's all there was. And it was a time that I thought, well, we need to start building another team. And I really assessed, I really evaluated my position. And I thought, you know what? It would probably be a better opportunity to allow another dream team to be put together. Young energy, young vision. We have accomplished our goals. I'm excited to see what they can do, where they can take us. I really didn't think I was going to get emotional, so that's pretty good, because I am really happy about this, and I am really excited, and I'm excited about what this new dream team can do with this department. With your support, with the support of, you know, we couldn't do it without the support of the council, particularly Mr. Westcott and Mr. Keller, who hold the keys to the checkbook. That was good, but we couldn't do it without your votes either. The leadership of Mayor Horton, the leadership of Mayor Harris, and the leadership of Mayor Teague. and i can't i mean i'd be remiss if i didn't mention the finance directors you know jerry mccallan helped us tremendously early on in our ten years robin came along and really helped us and supported us and brittany's been been excellent since she's been here in big support we couldn't do it without them i am I don't even know what else to say except that I'm gonna tell you right now that Chief Vick is highly qualified and ready for this. We've got some really good people. And when I looked around and I thought about, is it time for me? Do I even have another 10 years to put into another dream team? And I just compared to stepping out of the way, giving them the support that they need to put together that team and carry this department. I knew which was the better decision. So thank you all for your support. Thank you for this opportunity. The people at the city, I was telling Lynn today that I lived at home for 18 years. I've lived with you guys for 34 years. So you guys are my family. I'm actually originally from Texas and I don't even have any other family besides my in-laws in Arkansas. the firefighters, the city employees, the citizens of this community have been my family. So thank you.

Thank you, Chief. And Cecilia, thank you to you and the boys. I know that's a sacrifice. Now at this time, we'll roll right into the rest of the fire department's two minutes and two seconds of department report.

Are you going to follow that? I can't. Wipe the snot and tears off. We appreciate the opportunity. I did not expect to be emotional about that, but it was a little blurry from the back there. I couldn't see it. So I will try to move faster than Chief Sedian does. I'll give it my best. Last year we talked a lot about impact, so I felt like it would only do justice to continue that, and so here we go. So last year I introduced Dunbar's number, and when you enter a counter, somebody, they have five really significant loved ones, 15 good friends, 50 friends, meaningful contacts, 150. So I took that. Last year we had the most calls we've ever had in our history at 4,677. So we resulted in over 23,000 loved ones were impacted, 70,000 friends, and over 233 affected friendships. So when you're talking about community reach, we're really making a difference. Again, I like to put this up there. It kind of puts it in perspective for visual. Each one of those dots represents somebody that we came in contact with last year during an emergency. So as you can look in the community, we're out there all the time. And so we talked about that a little bit, and I really want to talk about measuring the impact of people. We've lost five really good ones this year, four to retirements and one that passed away. But if you look up there in the amount of years of service, it's very difficult to replace that. 145 years of combined experience have left us in the last three months. Right? So to put that in, just when you think about that. So then I started thinking about Chief Sloan and his checking out. And I wanted to take a snapshot of his career because you'll never see it again. The way that we live now and the technology and things that we use compared to where he started. So he started in 1992. I just finished kindergarten.

At least you were born.

When he started, firefighters still rode tailboard, right? Station three and four opened in 1993 and 94. RFD started having EMTs and he was one of the first EMT instructors for the fire department and ran the EMT calls. In 1997, technical rescue and first special operations team and he was privileged to be on that. 97, we started providing paramedic response. And then in 2004, we become classified as a weapons of mass destruction team. Since he's been chief, I highlighted all these things in yellow. We became an ISO class two when it was told that we would never happen. He did it in his first year. Fire building and safety was formed in 2020 while going through a pandemic. And then RFD and RPD began using drone program in 2021. There's no doubt how many lives we have impacted with drones. In 23, we opened up a live fire training facility and we'd been a fire department since 1905 and never had that capability. In 2023, we also started EMS transport, which is an impact that we'll never be able to fully measure. And then in 25, we started providing code enforcement. So when you take a snapshot of his career, you look at all the things where we started from riding tailboard to now that we're providing advanced life support on an ambulance transport, you'll never see that in somebody's term ever again. And he got to experience that all in a really quick moment of life. And so instead of passing the torch, we kind of call it passing the nozzle. As you move from a rookie on the nozzle, you go to the backup behind them to see everything. So we say thank you to Cecilia and the rest of those that shared their loved ones with us. They built the foundation, mentored the recruits, and established the culture of excellence we know. And though they leave behind vacancy, we owe them so much gratitude that I don't know if we'll ever be able to feel, but they don't leave us empty-handed. They left their knowledge and their discipline and the grit and the ranks. Again, we're losing nearly a century and a half of dedicated service. As the veterans step out, though, a surge of raw passion and fresh energy, and the youngsters are coming in. If you walk into the station, there's a lot of excitement for some of the young guys that have gotten promoted into leadership positions, and they're ready. They're highly trained, they're tech savvy, and they're deeply enthusiastic about the future. And this promotional cycle that we just went through has brought an infectious wave of morale and renewed service to the neighborhood. They're not ready to just fill the boots. They're ready to run. They're ready to answer the call. So as we look to the future, the wisdom from the old guard has been transferred to the energy of the new guard. We don't lose their tactical expertise. It's staying here. And it's just going to be carried by younger, more energized hands now. So the future of the city's public safety is incredibly bright. We've got a season of renewal. We're not losing. We're just transferring. And so when we look at our upcoming objectives that were taken off, obviously an accelerated officer development. We have to give advanced leadership tracks to those and convert that into seasoned tactical command as fast as we can. A new battalion chief, that was his first fire last week. There's a lot of seasoning that he's already received as of that. Modernizing tactical workflows, empowering incoming officers to overhaul technology and use data driven decision making. Upgrading the fleet and expansion of services and driving efficiency through technology. So the big goal is deploying the state of the art tools that you guys have empowered us to have. Upgrades in paramedicine, new cardiac monitors, we're finding heart attacks faster. So now these new monitors every two minutes are measuring heart attacks on the way in. It was a normal EKG and before they even got to the hospital it already alerted and found that the heart attack was in the process and started and alerted so we get them to the cath lab that much faster. Blood transfusion products, next month we will be the first in Arkansas to provide blood on a ground unit. Six graduated from paramedic school a couple months ago, and then as of today, the fifth ambulance in our fleet was certified by the Arkansas Department of Health. Again, there's a look at the cardiac monitors, and there's the blood cooler. Special operations has been another one. We're expanding our drone capabilities. We're going through an enhanced and renewal of technical certificates, hazardous material training, and then we now have 10 medics that are K-9 trained to help RPD in the case of an issue with one of their K-9 officers. And again, just some pictures to wrap it up. We just finished some training up at Sam's Throne. So the goal is to be able to deploy with Arkansas Task Force One for natural disasters. We've readied our hurricane deployment, so we're ready for hurricane deployment now. We've already had 15 guys sign up for that. Ready in less than a four hour deployment for 30 days. And again, thank you for your continued leadership and trust. Your ongoing investment in us is making the difference. We're not facing a crisis of experience anymore. It's just a season of renewal. And again, as promised, I was going to move fast. Any questions?

Thank you, Chief. That's very thorough. Thank you. Anyone? Anyone? All right. I'm assuming personnel doesn't have anything because Mr. Gray's not here now. Mr. Olson, you're going to be, I'll yield the floor to you for finance.

Thank you, Mayor. From last week's finance meeting, item one was a consideration of an ordinance proven private club permit for Los Munchies Social Club there. Looks like we have the second and final reading.

I move that we suspend the rules read for the second and final time by title only with a short explanation.

Second.

I have a motion to read a title and short explanation for a second time only. And suspend the rules and read two times only. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? None opposed. Sir?

North approving the city private club permit for Los Munchies Social Club is required by the state. Private club permit application to Arkansas called beverage control division per ACA section 3-9-222 is admitted for other purposes. This orders have passed would. Issue a city private club on premise consumption, alcohol consumption permit at for Los Munchies Social Club at 2407 North Arkansas Ave.

Motion to adopt? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Motion.

We'll have a roll call.

Yeah, you have to do a roll call.

Mr. George?

Yes.

Mr. Bradley?

Yes.

Ms. Wetzel? Yes. Ms. Young? Yes. Mr. Olson? Yes. Mr. Pearson?

Yes.

6-0.

All right. Passes.

Motion passes. Item 2 is consideration of an ordinance to authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign an interlocal agreement with the county, Polk County, to split the operational expenses for the operation of the recycling facility. This is a second of three readings.

Mayor, I move to suspend the rules, dispense with the formal reading requirement, read by title only, followed by a short explanation for the second of three readings.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to suspend the rule, read with title and short explanation.

for second for the second of three readings i'll get through this in a minute for the second of three readings all in favor all right any opposed sir in order to authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute our local agreement with pope county arkansas for operation expenses the city recycle facility for the purposes towards the past would split the recycling center expenses regarding the removal of recycles at the city recycling facility.

All right, moving on. Item number three is a consideration of resolution to authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign an economic development agreement with TRLLC for the reimbursement of site development submitted by the mayor.

motion to adopt second got a motion and a second discussion discussion yeah i've i've stopped and ate at texas roadhouse just a couple weeks ago on the way back from from little rock great service great food as usual i hope that they do choose to come to russeville but i cannot support this resolution. I don't think that that's fair to our citizens that have poured their life savings into starting a restaurant and have not received this kind of a leg up. I don't feel like a company the size of Texas Roadhouse needs that kind of advantage, and I think it's important that we keep a level playing field for all parties.

Anybody else? I got a motion and a second. Oh, we got some. We got to talk. We got some people to talk.

OK, we do. Mr. Summit, if you would approach the microphone, if you would, and please give your name.

My name is Zach Summit from the Old South Restaurant, as some of you may know. I'd like to start with... Could you speak into the mic a little bit?

Tilt that up maybe a little bit more. Is that better?

Yeah, that's better. Yeah, thank you. Anyway, over the last week and a half, since the last meeting with Jack H. and Bernie, I just want to say I brought back a lot of memories, some bad, some good, but mostly a profound sense of gratitude and appreciation for Some of the people in this room the community in which we live and the people that I get pleasure to serve every day Russell's a great place to be I'm not here to Be against Texas Roadhouse coming to town. I think Pearson said they do a great job In my opinion, they're probably one of the best I sit down full service restaurants in our region. And when I go eat there, I'm trying to figure out what they do that I can do better so that I can compete when they do come to town. And we met with Mayor Teague last month, 12 local restaurant owners and other local businessmen just to express concern. about the incentivation of national change coming to Russellville. We don't mind competing. That's what we do. We're in the business. But when money is used to bring them into our town, it doesn't quite sit right with us, especially this money. From what I understand, it's to use for job creation. We want Russellville to grow. We want jobs to be created. We want good, high-paying industry career jobs to keep people, keep the kids at Tech to stay in Russellville. They have a reason to be here for our kids that are growing up. get big and need a career that they can live here in Russellville with us. I don't think that money is to be used for restaurants. I know the mayor has said, hey, maybe I could use this to help you. I don't think this money was meant for me. Again, with me having the best chance to wrestle it in mind. I'm in the restaurant business, but those are not the jobs that people are wanting to be created when they voted for this money to be appropriated. I probably have more. I don't know how much time, but that's the basic gist.

Thank you, Mr. Summing. Don Clark, please state your name if you would.

Don Clark here representing TR, LLC. Thank you all for tabling at our request from the last meeting. We did so because we heard there were some concerns from the local business owners and we wanted to be cognizant of that and so we reached out to the Chamber and told them we would be happy to meet with them to have a face-to-face interaction. We understand the concern. We wanted the community to understand they had the opportunity to talk to us. Although that didn't happen, we still understand. My wife is a small business owner. I spent 15 years in the community doing economic development and had a lot of those same conversations across the dinner table when big box retail was coming in. And what I explained to her is they're coming in here because there's some type of sales tax leakage, otherwise they wouldn't be here. if i'm not mistaken here full-service restaurants this in that category is about fifty five million dollars worth of self-sacred leakage russville straight area so uh... with that being said these developers is not texas roadhouse here asking this t r l c texas roadhouse not a real estate game it requires a developer to come in and do that the curb in do the improvements and then they sign a lease with them for a landlord so this is a small business uh... this invested here before and will continue to invest into russellville uh... hearing from how the community reacted and responded to the tragedy that happened here even speaks to more of a reason why we want to be here in a great community. There's always going to be tension between progress and preservation. We get that. We understand that. So this isn't a zero sum game. What we also understand is from a trade area that has leakage, when there's more opportunity, people tend to stay in that trade area and you know, spend their money throughout, not feeling like they have to leave, spend those dollars elsewhere. So the other side of that is this is a performance-based economic development ask, meaning that we have to commit to certain things that are in that resolution. We even added that if for some reason this was challenged and it was found, we will reimburse the money. There is an extraordinary cost in this situation and typically that happens in secondary communities meaning that The national brand wants to be here. They're only going to pay X amount of rent rate in Russellville, so there's always a gap to try to fill, and that's typically where these deals come into place. So we appreciate your consideration in closing. We respectfully ask for your support, and we still extend that offer to anybody who would like to sit down and talk to us face-to-face because, again, we understand, and if this business opens here, we'll be a part of that business community. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Alan George.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is Alan George, citizen of Russellville, Ward 2. I don't oppose growth. I believe Russellville needs to grow, become better, provide more opportunities for their citizens, but I think we need to be diligent and mindful of the way we handle the taxpayers' money. Public funds should not be used to finance a private, it's my opinion, public funds should not be used to finance a private retail construction because taxpayer money should serve the public interest directly, not subsidize private business that primarily generate private profit. Taxpayer money should benefit the public as a whole. Government revenue comes from citizens and is intended to fund services everyone relies on. such as schools, roads, emergency services, infrastructure. Using those funds to help build private retail development shifts public money away from broadly shared needs and into projects that mainly benefit private business owners. Private businesses should assume their private risk. Retail construction is a commercial venture designed to generate profit. If a project is financially viable, private investors, banks, or developers should fund it themselves. When government steps in, taxpayers effectively absorb that risk. It creates unfair market advantages. When government subsidizes one retail project, it can distort competition, giving one company or developer an advantage over the other. This undermines the principle of a fair market. Opportunity costs, better uses for public funds. Every dollar spent on private development is a dollar not spent elsewhere. Communities often have pressing needs such as infrastructure, affordable housing, public transportation, parks, roads, or education. Those investments typically provide broader and longer lasting benefit to our communities. Promised economic growth is often overstated. Supporters often argue retail developments create jobs, increase tax revenue, and in practice, it simply shifts the revenue from other local restaurants or local businesses to the newly developed establishment. And the temporary construction jobs used to bring these things to our community are only temporary. It's short lived. It can encourage corporate welfare. Public subsidies for private developments can become a form of corporate welfare where profitable companies receive taxpayer assistance that they do not fully need. This erodes public trust, creates expectations of businesses to rely on government to fund their needs. The government should focus on investments that create clear public value and service all residents equally. Private retail construction exists to create profit. businesses pursuing those profits should fund their own development rather than relying on taxpayer finance for commercial ventures we should focus our funds love uh... support growth i do not i don't see the advantage of supporting a private businesses that industry in business that is going to generate it's simply going to shift the wealth of our community from one from already established businesses to someone else if they can compete and they can generate a profit that they should fund their own establishment. Thank you, Mr. George. Thank you.

There's three minutes. Thank you.

Putting those funds more towards industry manufacturing that generate long-term growth.

That would be all that we had signed up. Mr. Olson, anybody else?

Hey, can someone remind us what the, I remember if they don't do certain things, they have to give the money back. What was that? How many jobs?

60 60 full-time jobs if i remember in that 60 full-time jobs all right i have a motion and a second to approve the resolution to uh authorize mayor city clerk sign an economic development agreement with russellville trllc for the site development all in favor Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Roll call.

Mr. George?

Yes.

Mr. Bradley?

Yes.

Ms. Wetzel? Yes. Ms. Young?

No.

Mr. Olsen?

Yes.

Mr. Pearson?

No.

You have 4-2. Four yeses and two noes.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry. We're just having some discussion up here. Okay. So we have a 4-2 vote right now. I i can cast a vote at this point in time to pass this i feel like with a short council without not having everyone here that has been elected to vote for their constituents we have two council members that are not here right now i don't feel necessarily With a short council that we I need to cast that vote I would ask TR LLC to bring this back next month to Council if they would like to or we would have a full council here that could actually that the representatives that were elected to vote for their constituents can voice Can voice their opinions I do realize I'll probably catch some flack on this, but that's the reality. That's why I get to sit in this chair. If we had went forward a month ago, I feel like this would have passed. I felt like we were going to put ourselves in this position when we got here, but at the end of the day, I feel like the people in the four wards have elected their counselors to speak for them, and I will not cast a vote. I just kind of wanted to explain my position there, whether... where you support that or not that's where that's where i feel like i need to be i do support growth i will say the only way this money can be used is for job creation i'm not gonna we'll have a discussion later on that one so but uh i'll give the floor back to you mr olsen is it possible to make a motion to table it now to the next since it's already it's already it's already been voted on but they can bring it back it can come back to next weeks or next months um they can bring it back they can bring it back to council next month that's that's where i feel like um i feel like we can do that with as much contention as there is on this issue i don't feel like my vote is the one that needs to swing the swing the vote even though I am supportive of it. I'll publicly say I'm in support of it, but I don't feel like it's the people's wish for them to have a short council up here. So I think it would be the same thing as tabling, Mr. Olson. I think if you bring it back to the council next month, can we ask him to come up? You want to speak real quick, Don? Mr. Clark.

Thank you, Don Clark. So what we were discussing is we have a pending closing date that we're going to be bumping up against. So that's kind of the concerns. We kind of talked before that we didn't want to close until we knew we were going to. So we'll have to have some discussions. I mean, that council date, do we know when that council date will be?

That'll be a month from now. We were just having a discussion that that closing day got pushed back in the back right before, and that weighed on my decision. That weighed on my decision, the fact that you stated to me in the very back that the engineers had pushed some stuff back, and we were back down there, so.

No, Jordan Ligon representing TRLOC. No, that's not exactly clear. The extension date has, there is no extension date at this point. We are already up against the gun because of some delays with engineers and everybody there. So we do not have an extension as of right now on our real estate contract.

But you did state to me that you were going to get an extension date. Is that, am I correct?

I'm sorry, yeah, I'm sorry if I made it.

In my conversation with you back there, you did state that you were going to have to get an extension date because of some differences in the engineering. So that was a factor that actually we could come back next month on the 23rd of July.

Yeah, as of right now, no, we do not have an extension date. Okay.

I just want to clarify, there's two parties to this. Whether or not the other party agrees to an extension is still yet to be seen. So that's what I want to make clear.

And I hope you know that I support you. But at the end of the day, the... the constituents of Russellville, and this has been a contentious, it's definitely been something contentious. I'm the one that actually brought the fact that we could use that economic development funds up. Like I was saying.

Yeah, no, yeah, we understand that, and then... to the comment from mr pearson earlier i want to be clear this money does not go to our tenant uh... who's being named here and i'm trying to be conscious and respectful of them uh... that that we are negotiating with that none of that money goes to to them yes there a big casual diner out there that we're talking to, but just like Academy, Olive Garden, other deals that we've done here, that money goes to us as a developer to try to help bridge that gap to make that business possible to be able to negotiate the lease there. So no matter them or whoever that is, and they've already actually put in a lot of money to help bridge that gap. I want to be respectful again of them, and I'm not going to name any numbers here, but a substantial amount to want to be here.

Mr. Olsen. All right. Moving on to item number four, health. Item number four, an appropriation to purchase security cameras at City Hall and the Police Department in the amount of $28,692.35. Mayor, what can you tell us about it?

Where are we at? We got City Hall cameras that are end of life. We're having in and out. We're not being able to record. We're not being able to have cameras on. And so we have some cameras at City Hall and the Police Department that are end of life. We're just trying to rotate those in and get new ones.

About how many cameras are we talking about? That's such a significant amount of money.

Is part of that reinstalling? Is that in the packet? You should have the backup documentation in your packet. I'll have that right with me. Who? Well, we don't have Barnell here with us.

That's exactly what we talked about at the last meeting.

All right, do I have any motion? This was addressed last week, was it not?

Yeah, correct. Correct. Okay, so we, Finance Committee, present this as a motion to approve, sorry. This was last week, so the Finance Committee passed this as a motion. We present this as a motion to approve.

All right. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Item five, consideration of a resolution to authorize a mayor and city clerk to execute an agreement with Time Striping Inc. for paint striping services for the annual striping maintenance project for the city of Russellville and for other purposes. This is for downtown.

No, this is for the striping that's for all of them.

That's right. We present this with a motion to adopt.

All right, we have a motion to adopt. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

All right, I'm going. Item 6 and 6A together, the consideration along with the appropriation for resolution to authorize the mayor city clerk to execute a historic preservation grant Agreement with the Arkansas Department of Parks heritage and tourism be used on City Hall renovations and for other purposes The appropriation is for the sum of three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars two hundred fifty thousand from federal grant revenue 125,000 carryover That's where the revenues come from then expenditure so totals three hundred seventy five thousand dollars and And we present this as a motion to adopt.

We have 6 and 6A. 6 and 6A. 6 and 6A to motion to adopt. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

All right. Item 7, consideration of resolution authorized the mayor and city clerk, treasurer to execute an easement agreement with Arkansas Tech for the purpose of widening Reasoner Lane at the intersection of Highway 7 and Reasoner. for other purposes. And we present this as a motion to adopt. all right have a motion to adopt all in favor aye any opposed all right item number eight consideration of resolution to authorize the mayor city clerk to execute a grant with mksk to create a preservation plan for the city of russellville submitted by sustainability and resilience department and we present this as a motion to adopt all right got a motion to adopt all in favor any opposed Item nine, consideration of resolution to accept the lowest responsible bid and to authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign a construction agreement and associated paperwork with Bowden Specialties Inc. for the construction of signal and pedestrian improvements at North Arkansas Reasoner and for other purposes. We present this as a motion to adopt.

We have a motion to adopt. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, sir.

All right, item 10, consideration of a resolution to accept the lowest responsible bid and to authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign a construction agreement and associated paperwork with Curb Time Solutions for the construction project of Schoolhouse Trail. That's the Muskogee Avenue connection there by Sequoia. We present this one as a motion to adopt.

All right, I have a motion to adopt. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right.

All right, from tonight's earlier meeting, we have item one, consideration of resolution authorizes the mayor and city clerk to sign an extension lease agreement with Citicorp for the operation of the city of Russellville water and sewer systems and for other purposes. And we present this as a motion to adopt.

All right, I got a motion to adopt. All in favor? Any opposed? All right.

item number two we have appropriation of five thousand dollars to from the general fund carryover balance to extend the community independence day fireworks display improvements and we present this as a motion to adopt a motion to adopt all in favor any opposed all right all right items yeah all right three items three and four together it's the resolution and the appropriation for uh the rpd rfd training center authorized mayor city clerk to execute an engineering agreement with mcclellan consulting engineers for geotech and site design uh appropriated out of the sales tax capital fund some of 85 000 um and we present that as a motion to adopt

I got a motion to adopt. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes.

I yield the floor back to you, Mayor.

Thanks, sir. Moving on to unfinished old business. Consideration of an ordinance accepting dedication of right-of-ways of easements to the City of Russell, Arkansas, the Platte of Damascus Road addition. Minor subdivision, Platte for 118 to 120 Damascus Road and other purposes. Submitted by Barrett & Associates on behalf of D&T Investors, this will be the third and final reading.

Move that we suspend the rules, read for the third and final time by title only with a short explanation. Second.

You have a motion and a second on suspended rules to read for the third and final time by title only with a short explanation. Oh, all in favor, I'm sorry. Any opposed? All right, sir.

Nor accepted the dedication of right-of-ways and easements to the City of Russell-Arkansas on the Platte of Damascus Road Edition Minor Subdivision slash Incidental Subdivision Platte for Damascus Road and for the purpose of this ordinance, if passed, would adopt. Would adopt any easements and railways dedicated to the city as shown by D. Platt that is labeled as Exhibit A, made by Barrett Associates, March 20th, 20th, 26th, attached to this ordinance, herein by reference.

I have a motion. Motion to adopt. Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt. We have a roll call. Oh, no, it's a roll call. It's an ordinance.

Mr. George?

Yes.

Mr. Olson? Yes.

Ms. Wetzel?

Yes.

Ms. Young?

Yes.

Mr. Bradley?

Yes. Mr. Pearson?

Yes. 6-0.

All right. Thank you. all right item two is consideration origins amending the current zoning code for the city of russell arkansas dot ordinance number two four four three this will also be the third and final reading motion to adopt or motion for suspend the rules sorry suspend the rules read by title and short explanation only for the third and final time And a motion and a second on reading by suspending the rules, reading by title only with a short explanation for the third and final reading. Sir? All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right. Thank you. Orders to make the current zoning code for the City of Russell, Arkansas, which adopted by Orders Number 2443, and for the purposes of the Orders to Pass, would make the following amendments to the current Russell zoning code, which was adopted by Orders Number 2443. I made Section 3, excuse me, Article 3, Section 23, Subsection 1, sidewalks, accountability, and adding a definition in Article 12, dwelling, townhouse, or row house. All right.

Will I entertain a motion? Motion to adopt. Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt the roll call, Ms. Kelton.

Mr. Olsen?

Yes.

Mr. George? Yes. Ms. Wetzel? Yes. Ms. Young? Yes. Mr. Pearson? Yes. Mr. Bradley? Yes. 6-0. All right.

Moving on to new business, item one is a public hearing. I will now open up a public hearing. As no one will speak on that, I will close the public hearing. I don't want to use consideration ordinance vacated and abandoning a public utility easement at 3100 East Main Street, City of Russellville, Arkansas, and for other purposes, submitted by Planning Commission. This is requesting that this be read one time only with no emergency clause. This is a... Oh, they did not sign up? There was no sign up vote. Would you like to speak? Well, if you'd like to speak, I mean, I'm not... Go ahead. I'm not going to... If you're showing up, I'm going to let you speak. That's your... I appreciate that. Well, that's your... We're here to serve you some. I would be honored. I am here to complain. Okay. Now... Okay. Complain about this right-of-way vacation?

No.

Okay, no. Okay, okay. Okay, so this is... You can only speak on what we're talking about. Okay. Okay. So what were you wanting to speak about...

I thought we had an open, there's an open forum at some point.

No, no, this is, that is an agenda prep. There's no, I'm sorry, the public hearing was for this vacation of this right-of-way. That's the only thing we can speak on. I'll be happy to, can I speak with you afterwards? One-on-one, and then I'll kind of guide you a little bit on what we need to do. Okay, thank you. I do apologize about that. Okay. All right, so this is requesting one-time only. This is the vacation right-of-way inside of ConAgra property.

Motion to approve.

Motion to adopt. Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt. Ms. Galton, will you give us a roll call?

Wait. It's an ordinance, so we have to read it.

I'm sorry. Motion to suspend the rules, read by title and short explanation, one time only. Second.

I have a motion and a second on the reading of the ordinance. I got a little bit sidetracked there. Reading one time only by title and short explanation for one time only. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Norris vacated abandoning a public utility easement at 3100 East Main Street, City of Russell, Arkansas, and for the purpose of this order to pass would vacate the utility easement at 3100 East Main Street, also known as ConAgra.

Motion to adopt. Second. And I have a motion and a second to adopt. Ms. Gil, will you give us a roll call?

Mr. Olson? Yes. Mr. George? Yes. Ms. Wetzel? Yes. Ms. Young? Yes. Mr. Bradley?

Yes.

Mr. Pearson? Yes. 6-0.

All right. Thank you. Moving on to item two is consideration ordinance rezoning certain realty in the city of Russellville-Arkansas for other purposes submitted by Josh Spence unanimously recommended denial by the Planning Commission.

Motion to deny. We don't have...

I think you might want to read it just to line up your ducks in case it goes forever.

Your parliamentarian recommends that you probably want to read it and then possibly deny it after you read it.

I'll go ahead and make a motion to suspend the rules, read by title only, followed by a short explanation for the first of three readings.

Just one reading?

Just one reading, excuse me. Do what?

just do one reading that way you can go make your motion afterwards move for one just for one okay so okay so do i have a second on that i have a motion and a second to read by title only with a short explanation after suspending the rules with one time only go ahead i was asked by uh our councilmen that are absent to make sure that we did the full three readings or at least two readings so that they would be here to vote on this I think the outcome is going to be the same either way, but I just wanted to make you aware of that.

We do have a motion on the floor, but we have not voted on that motion. Correctly so.

I know that they asked me to do at least two, so I don't know if that matters, but I had the same request.

Mr. Mayor, just in the interest of showing respect for the other council members, I will amend that to first of three readings.

And then you can modify that at the next council if you want to do second to final. Okay. All right. So I have a motion. Do I have a second to that motion?

Second.

I have a motion and a second to suspend the rules, read by title only with a short explanation for one of three readings. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, sir.

Horses are certainly a city of Russell, Arkansas. Their purposes or to pass would result in property currently zoned C1 Central Business District to C2, which is located at 120 East Main Street in Russell, Arkansas. Further shown and described and depicted by exhibits A&B attached with this ordinance as incorporated here and by reference.

All right, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to adjourn. We are adjourned. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.