City Council - Regular Meeting

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know I said, "Bring me outside. They'll figure it out. However many candidates camera.

It is 6:30 in the evening on September 16th, 2025. I'd like to call this meeting to order the Ward City Council. Would you stand, please? Miss Stacy, would you give a prayer, please? Dear heavenly father, thank you for bringing us all together here. Please watch over those that are unable to attend tonight because of health reasons and other concerns. Look over them. Lord, during this time, I really would ask that you put it in everyone's heart here that we work together and close the divide and we understand that we are working for constituents for everyone in the city regardless represent. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Please join me in the pledge of 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. Remind council to turn your mic on when you are speaking, please. And madam clerk, would you call the role, please? Council member Hall is absent. Council member Chapman here. Council member McMahon here. Council member Hefner is absent. Council member Brooke here. And council member Ruple

here. Both me both council members Hall and Heer are out sick tonight. So like I said, we'll keep them in our prayers. Getting started. I'd entertain a motion to approve the o the August 19th, 2025 meeting as presented. Motion. Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Any comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Next on the agenda is the Department of Reports and Financials. Get a chance to review. I'd entertain a motion to approve as presented. Motion. Have a motion with a second. Second

and a second. All any comments hearing none. And all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next on the the agenda is the planning commission report. Miss Aaron. Good evening. Uh we had probably a record short meeting last month. So, uh we had one thing on there and that was the final plat for Crescent Cove. It's a little one street neighborhood off of Moon Road. Um and they didn't have any changes from the preliminary plat that staff approved and so we went ahead and approved that. Absolutely. No changes, no contingencies, no nothing. This wasn't very nice.

Very easy, smooth. Any questions from Aaron? If not, entertain a motion to approve the final plat as presented. Motion have a motion of a second. Second. Any comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you,

Miss Stacy. Do you have any uh water? We were told it was canceled by the mayor. Okay. Yes, I did. Yeah. Um you're right. We need to uh make a motion to approve the planning commission report as presented by Aaron. We have a motion with a second. Second. All of in favor say I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank Casey. Next on the agenda is old business. First one is ordinance 202517 on its second reading. Madam clerk, would you read the title, please?

An ordinance authorizing the Ward Fire Department to charge for fire responses and other emergency responses outside the city limits of Ward. Council, if you recall, this is a three-month process we're doing and uh possibility of of start charging after the first year. I haven't been in discussions with the association Arkansas association counties attorney and the AG's office about how to fix this, but unfortunately, it won't be fixed until the 2027 session. So, this will go into effect for our particular fire department. Any comments, questions? Hearing none, I'd entertain a motion for the second reading. I got one question.

Yes, sir. The um what are they anticipating in 27? Did they say we're working we just started working with them possibly changing the language that allows citizen we'll, you know, do away with this and then go for fire dues. But until then, this is the only mechanism we have to reimburse for fighting outside the city limits. Motion. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Chapman. Yes. Council member McMahon. Yes. Council member Brooke. Yes. And council member Rubold. Yes.

Orders 2025 17 passes. second reading at uh 4 to zero. We'll move it forward to its third and final reading next month. Next on the agenda is ordinance 202518. Madam clerk, if you read title, please.

An ordinance repealing and replacing ordinance uh 2022-02, an ordinance establishing a procedure for the purchasing, sale, or exchange of property in the city of Ward for other purposes. council. This was brought for you last month and tabled uh for Bruce to be here. And what we brought forward was the discussion about uh increasing my spending authority on water and wastewater uh items only, not general items item, but uh uh there was a little discussion about raising $25,000, but then it was tabled. I'll open the floor for discussion. Mr. Bruce, you want to come forward?

Sure. I think he can attest to the fact of the uh increasing amount of uh how much things cost him anymore and uh the need for them. And you'll see on the agenda later on in a new business is a $24,000 uh item that if we'd had raised money, we can go ahead and put that on order. Yeah, basically the cost of uh so much of the stuff in the water wastewater system has gone up drastically especially since uh postco um I mean about the cheapest pump we can get you know was around 11 to 12,000 now um we have several pieces of equipment on the plant blowers motors VFDs um all of which are um for the most part in excess of 15 grand. Um, and the issue with a lot is it's it's time sensitive, you know, stuff when it does go down cuz it's so critical. And I mean, just like our core main orders, you know, if you go back 5 years ago, you know, um, what would a normal order that was probably $4,500 is, you know, closer to 10,000 now for, uh, just to have a, you know, bit of inventory for, you know, four to six weeks at a time. So, um, yeah, cost of everything's going up drastically and continues to do so. I mean, if we got, you know, control panels and stuff, you know, those those things are running, you know, not quite 10,000, but, you know, 8,500 plus, you know, stuff that used to be quite a bit cheaper. Used to you get a 10 horsepower pump for, you know, $8,500 or so. Um, just everything keeps increasing. And these are all these are all sensit you know things that we like need relatively quickly. Our our plants still

are relatively new but you know uh things are aging. You know we've had uh like this blower. Uh we got to get a motor. We got to get uh the VFD replacements recently. You know small V, you know, we got I don't have any of those tons of VFDs there at the plant. um your smallest one is, you know, in excess of 10 grand. And just there's so many things that are that are critical that we would need in a pinch that are far in excess of $10,000. Just like we discussed, this just gives me as management a little better opportunity to make decisions as we need them for items up to 25 or whatever the council decides to do or keep it as it is. And uh uh this particular one that's on a new business tonight, had this meeting not come up within a day or two of finding out, we'd uh I'd have to call a special meeting.

Any discussion? What does your bench stock look like on your parts? Do what? What does your bench stock look like on your parts? Cuz you're saying that in a pinch and they seem like always in a pinch. So, what do you have in bench stock that'll carry out?

Well, we got like the normal stuff like you know like the normal like water wastewater inventory items and pieces like that. Um, as far as inventory, as far as, you know, um, like the big items, you know, like blowers and motors and stuff, we we do have backup ones, not not necessarily to install, but we have multiple ones in case, you know, something goes down. Um but as far as large inventory um other than the normal water wastewater stuff, you know, fittings and you know, all those all those things, you know, we we we try to keep all that stuff on hand. But as far as um pumps and whatnot, we try to keep as little as possible um because that, you know, that warranty period, you know, starts when you buy it. So, you know, you don't want to buy a $15,000 pump and, you know, it set for 6 months or longer.

I thought we had I thought we had said several months ago that we had extra pumps from replacing pumps that wasn't completely down. Do we not have those anymore? Yeah, we we've we've used up mostly most of what we have other than some some small stuff. Um but we don't have any um good good largesiz pumps on hand. And this resolution coming for you in a little bit is for a blower which we do not keep in stock.

Yeah. And we and we try to we try to of course we try to maintain everything and and as best that we can but you know you're typically going to look at you know we got you know say 25 lift stations two pumps a piece you know 50 you know you're going to look at um you're going to replace about 10% of that a year under normal circumstances. Um so you're going to average five five pumps a year. Some years you may do really good, not have to do any of them. Other years it could be, you know, a lot worse, you know, but you got to understand those things are in like the worst environment possible. Um, you know, we pulled one here a couple weeks back and of course full of wipes and stuff which, you know, completely clogs them up which can destroy them. I mean, um, it's pulling plastic out of there, toys, dinosa toy dinosaur, um, all kinds of stuff for those things and it's just it wres havoc on them.

The old pumps that you're replacing or that you replace, do you get them refurbished to have them on hand on back stop or what do you do? Yeah. So, typically um so so there's an issue with these pump suppliers and it's it's not just the pumps, it's it's other expensive items, too. So, often times when there is an issue with the pump and it may need a rebuild or whatnot, they generally are going to send you a quote higher for the rebuild than the cost of a new one intentionally. And there's no good local places like there used to be that would, you know, like like Herald and Jacksonville that would actually, you know, legitimately, you know, look at your stuff and give you a fair price and fix it. Um, most of these places are these large companies that, you know, you know, they sell pumps. That's how they make money. So, uh, often times they're going to give you a quote for, you know, more than the cost, you know, of a new pump for a rebuild. that's rebuilt wouldn't be under warranty, right?

Yeah. I mean, if it's uh so I think uh if I remember correctly, what's a what's Barnes? Is it is it three? What's Barnes warranty? Yeah. Yeah. It depends on the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're gen They're generally one to three years depending on uh the size. I want to say they're three years on those, aren't they? That's the last I remember. Yeah. And they generally last longer than that.

Yeah. And you can you you know, typical lifespan of a pump, you're looking at you know um some can go for a very long time, some you know, 7 to 10 years on average. So these pops aren't something that goes down weekly. These are you randomly have one over here and you correct? Yeah.

And it's and a lot of it's due to just the the stuff that they they pick up. You know, we we try to use uh you know, scythe pumps made by Barnes, which have cutter blades on them, which do a pretty good job of chewing stuff up, but um some of that just wipes and feminine products and other stuff that collect in those stations. It's it's just so much that sometimes it just it just chews it up.

Council, what would you like to do? My suggestion is raise my spending limit to at least 25,000 for water wastewater material. 35,000 if you're feeling good tonight.

And for the most part, it would only be for like those types of items. Yeah. Those those uh those important, you know, timesensitive items like that. My only concern or question or I guess concern I have is if you know that you're going to maybe replace pumps 10% of them a year but you don't have any on stock back stop or bench stock to replace them then why is it emergency on our end to get things approved? Well I mean if you want us to keep some on hand we can. It's just like I said when typically that warranty period starts when you purchase it. So

if you have a ro if you have a maintenance schedule already you already know which pumps are going to may go out here soon cuz you said anywhere from 5 to seven years warranty is anywhere from 1 to 3 years. Yeah. So if you purchase a pump within the oneear period of that maintenance pump going out then you still have pump warranty. Right. My question is is why isn't this a budget item? If we know we're going to have to most likely replace 10% of them every year, why is this not a line item on our budget? Well, we we we do have depreciation and I I think it's um it it's

this is not outside our budget as far as material. This is outside my authority to buy it without coming to you. I want to say monthly there's something like, you know, 35 to $40,000 for depreciation for for those items uh those those capital items like that that go down aging items, wear items. So we uh it it's budgeted for outside of our you know normal expenditures. So it's not a matter of not being in the budget. Yeah, it's their the spending authority.

I personally don't have a problem with it if it's specifically for water because we're going to hear a whole lot more if it gets cut off and we have to wait a day or whatever to have a quorum to get it done. So, I feel like that you guys are using it but staying within the budget. It's just a matter of expediting it. Right. And it's mainly wastewater stuff. Water. Water. Yeah. Mason mainly wastewater. I'll make a motion to increase the spending limit for wastewater to 25,000. A second.

Okay. We have a motion, a second on the board to increase uh my authority under section three or section two, excuse me, um up to $25,000. So that's on a motion. Roll call, please. Council member Mcmmin, yes. Council member Brookke, no. Council member Rubble,

yes. And Council Member Chapman, yes.

3 to one. I'll vote in the affirmative to make it a 4 to one vote. and council. This is on a first reading. Um, I'd entertain a motion to wave the suspended rules for second third reading. Hearing none, it'll pass on to next month for second reading. Okay, moving along. Ordinance 202519. Read the title, please.

An ordinance repealing and replacing ordinance 2002-02 establishing a general penalty where no specific penalty is provided or where adopted by reference and for other purposes. Council, we had talked about this last month and through motion the first, second, third offenses were reduced from a,000, 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 for fourth is down to 250, 500, 750, and a,000. Uh, Clint, you want to come forward, please? Um, you don't have Clint. It's not Clint. Not Clint. I called you Clint. Sorry.

Did you? Oh, I didn't even hear that. You know, maybe someday you'll be held. You might hold that same position someday. Who knows? Maybe I knew what you meant. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What you were saying on this? My contention is that we need to go back to a,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 for first, second, and third offenses because it gives the judge that flexibility.

Say that one more time. My my contentions is we need to go back to a,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 for first, second, third, and fourth offenses because it gives the judge the flexibility to impose those fines if needed or lesser obviously. Um, but hog tie in, if you will, the judge at the lower levels does exactly that. And I don't really take a stance on the amount of the fines. My position from the prosecutor standpoint is these ordinances that don't have a fine in them, this is a stop gap until we can get one. When we come across one, such as the stop work order ordinance that didn't have a violation penalty in them.

Well, by the time we come to council, I can't go back and retroactively put that fine on that person that we cited. That's illegal. And by the time we get it past here and wait six to eight months or how long is it taking to get into contact? Sometimes usually can be up to three, four, six months sometimes just on this is this would be a band-aid to get us until if we find one of those ordinances then we can come back and fix it. We could use this as a band-aid until we get to that point. The fine amounts are up to you guys. $8,000 up to $1,000 per Mike.

Sorry. Can we put just $1,000 per offense up to Well, that's $1,000 per offense. Not Not I say second, third, or fourth offense. Just say up to $1,000 per offense and leaves up to the judge to whichever wants it. I think once you get to the third and once you get to the third and fourth offense, I mean, you you're just kind of blatant at that point. You're really egregious. Yeah. And then and I think at that point and the judge may or may not he could you know impose that you're right because at at the third and fourth they are just they're not obeying the law period. Whatever whatever it is they're thumb their nose at us.

In my eight years prosecuting in front of Judge Mcu I've never seen him find anybody the maximum amount on the first or second offense. No he does not. He just doesn't. uh most time they wind up on a payment plan anyway and we're struggling to collect what we can on a monthly basis and anyway uh so yeah whatever you guys want to do on on that we just need to the stop gap the band-aid to get something in place so that we can

right you make that a motion Sure. Okay. We have a motion on the table to uh set the fine penalty for $1,000 for the first offense, 202, 3,000 fourth or third, and 4,000 for the fourth. Any subsequent office uh offense beyond that? We get a second. That's up to up to Yes. And that's judge's discretion, obviously. You have a second. Okay, we have a second. Roll call, please. Council member Brooke, no. Council member Rubble, yes. Council member Chapman, yes.

And council member McMahon, yes. Okay, that that motion is just to set the fines. Now, I would entertain a motion to approve on its first, excuse me, second reading ordinance 20259. Motion second. Motion second. Roll call, please. Council member Chapman. Yes. Council member McMahon. Yes. Council member Brooke. Yes. And council member Rubble. Yes.

Ordinance 20259 has passed. It's second reading and we place on third reading for next month. The fines were not changed. Yeah, they changed a thousand,000 2,000. Yeah. Did you vote? Did I need to? Okay. We back up just one bit. The fine I failed to vote affirmative to pass the fine. Okay. Everybody agree with that? That I didn't vote affirmative to pass to approve the fine, but we agree with that. Good. Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Uh, ordinance 202520. Read the title, please.

An ordinance adopting the unified development ordinance, the future land use map, and the official zoning map for the city of W, Arkansas, amending the city of Ward Municipal Code, and for other purposes. Council, this is as we press through um reading this ordinance uh the full three months. This is to implement the UDO, the official zoning map and the uh um zoning codes. Any discussion? I'd entertain a motion to approve uh ordinance 2025 on its second reading. Motion. We have a motion with a second. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Rubble. Yes. Council member Chapman. Yes.

Council member McMahon. Yes. and council member Brookke. Yes. Ordinance 202520 has been approved on a second reading. Be pushed forward next month to his third reading. Next on the agenda is ordinance 202521. Read title, please. An ordinance amending ordinance 2025-05 establishing parking rules for the city of Ward, Arkansas concerning vehicles exceeding one ton and semi-trailt type vehicles, establishing penalties and for other purposes.

C. We had a long discussion about this last month and made some changes about the language uh exceeding one ton versus one ton larger. And then uh there was a motion and approved for a period over parking a a large vehicle for a period over 24 hours. I I um if you've read it, I hope you have, I bring forward an alternative to that. Um would say commercial vehicle parking, it shall be unlawful for any person to park any commercial vehicle exceeding one ton on any street in the city for a period of time except for loading and unloading. And council, I forgot to upload them. I apologize. I can send it to you. Last Sunday, I took pictures of out Oakland Grove, two dump trucks parked in front of a house and a large semi-trail truck parked in front of another house. Um, and that's just the one portion of city and there's other portions. We need to pass this for that reason, but also because they're routinely driving on our streets. If they're driving our streets for delivery and things like that, that's what they're supposed to do. But these people who parked their dump trucks in particular in this large semi-trail truck in the street are effectively destroying our our streets with me. Um I think the alternative that I did commercial vehicle parking I think I think it answers the question. I think it addresses it. Any discussion? I'd entertain a motion first to uh use the alternative that I added about the commercial vehicle parking.

Read it one more again. Okay. Says alternative add section five commercial vehicle parking. It shall be unlawful for any person to park any commercial vehicle exceeding one ton on any street in the city for a period of time except for loading and unloading. Motion. A motion for the um second. Okay. Add that. Uh, any discussion? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. I'd entertain a motion to approve ordinance 2025. Make a motion to approve. Wait a minute. This will be the U second reading. Second reading. Okay, we got a motion for second reading. Second.

Okay, I'm in a second. Roll call, please. Council member McMahon. Yes. Council member Brook. Yes. Council member Rubble. Yes. And council member Chapman. Yes. Very good. Ordinance 202521 has passed its second reading and will be brought back up next month for its third reading. Next on the agenda is order 202522. Read the title, please. And Hang on a second. Excuse me. I want to table this. We're doing some more research on this one. So, this one.

Yes. Yeah. So, orders 202522 is going to be tabled. We'll bring it back next month uh if we do. Okay. Next on the on the uh agenda is resolution 202532. I'd like to skip this for the moment. There's some discussion concerning this process. I' like to come back to this if that's okay with council. Any objection? What do you mean by skip? You mean by table it for next? No, skip it till later in in the meeting tonight. Yeah. Flexible agenda. They call that. Um, so moving on to new business. And clerk, would you read the title?

A resolution authorizing the mayor andor city clerk to enter into a contract with Cosmic Construction LLC to install 6 in waterline. Bruce can ask questions need, but we had originally planned we were going to do this in house and and council's already approved the the material that we've bought for this, but we just don't have time. And with the tank project right now, we need guys that are available for that for for emergencies and things like that for that. So, we need to uh outsource this and outsource they had two bids and the lowest one is 32,355. How long on how long of a line is it,

Bruce? I have to measure it out. It's approximately goes from um Mil Creek to Sweetwater. It's about 2,000 square about 2,000 ler feet or so. Yeah, some somewhere in there. And it uh we may end up using it during this tank project to to feed back that direction. And it's also part of our master street plan. It's one of the the main things that's um on our master street plan to be done or master master water plan sorry this also completes a loop which aids in firefighting on sweet water and down correct

moon any further discussion hearing none I'd entertain a motion to approve resolution 202534 I'll make a motion a motion Do we have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you, council. Next on the agenda is resolution 202535. Read title, please.

A resolution authorizing the mayor andor city clerk of the city of Ward to enter into a contract to purchase an Omega 63P blower for the wastewater treatment plant. That's what we talking about earlier. Cost of this is $24,80.

Motion. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. In a second. Any comment? Hearing none. All those in favor say I.

Any opposed? Resolution 202535 is approved. Thank you. Next on the agenda, last month we had a long discussion about the um natural resources division's loan that um we we've got we haven't we've accepted the fact we have the loan. We haven't accepted any money yet. And that ties back into that checking account we talked about uh in discussion. And Steve's not here tonight, but Steve said last week or last month that um you know, we have the funds available in reserves to pay for this. Why are we getting this loan? And um I just want to open this for discussion. What is uh what are y'all's thoughts on this?

I'm completely against the loan. I second that. Any further discussion? I uh would Okay. I um I don't I don't disagree with you. Uh we have the funds available and I think we could do this. Um with that in mind, I'd entertain a motion to uh reject the loans by ANRD. Motion. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Okay. To formalize this, here's resolution 202536. I'll hand it out or she can just read it in the total if you'd like.

A resolution rejecting financial assistance from the Arkansas Natural Resources Division and authorizing the mayor and/or city clerk to sign appropriate documents needed to reject the loan. Whereas in March 2024, the governing body of the city of Ward authorized the mayor to apply to the Arkansas Natural Resources Division, ANRD, for $791,516 in financial assistance. And whereas the amount requested from ANRD would be coupled with a $500,000 grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission to remove the remaining houses off the antiquated sewer vacuum system. And whereas on July 17, 2024, the ANRD approved the amount requested in the form of a 20-year loan at 4% interest peranom. Whereas the governing body of the city of Ward after discussion has decided to reject the loan amount from ANRD and utilize reserve funds to fund the project. Now therefore it be resolved by the city council of ward Arkansas hereby declares section one rejection notice that the mayor and/or city clerk is hereby directed to notify ANRD that the city rejects the loan from ANRD and to sign any and all documents as needed.

With that council I entertain a motion to approve the resolution 202536. I got a question. Yes sir. So in the verbiage of that resolution, it says that we approved using funds to go ahead with the removal and you did you accepted loan. We accepted loan as as No, I mean using reserve funds to go ahead with the removal of the vacuum. Is that not what that resolution said?

Right. I don't believe that's what was I don't believe we we said that we could if we come to do that we had to reserve funds why would we take the loan and we said that it wasn't the right time to do that with all the tanks and stuff did we say that we were going to use I mean that we were going to approve to move forward with removing this right now am I missing something you did on your motion that's what the motion previous was and this just formalizes it. Let's say we didn't want the loan that if we was going to do it, we had enough in reserves to do it. Correct.

I don't remember anybody saying that we were going to move forward with the removal at this time. Council, is that what we said? That's what you just said in your motion. Do you approve? What is we still have not got what the total cost of taking the rest of the people off the vacuum is going to be. No, we don't have bids yet. So that's one of the reasons why one do we need to set this. It may come in a lot lower than what this loan is. It may Well, you also remember we got 500 $500,000 from ADC against this also. Okay. But now that's a that's a grant.

Okay. But by doing that, even with the grant and with this loan, that's $1.2 million, correct? That's the estimate. Estimate. But you have not taken off the bids yet. So the bids may come in at 800,000 or maybe cheaper or maybe more. I I I don't know cuz I'm not doing the bid. But that's one of the pieces of information that the council probably would like to have before we do anything else on this. And that's what we asked for past council meeting to get it done. But because you wanted to open a checking account, we said, "We're not open checking accounting account until we get more information on how much it's going to cost to get the bids in." And bids have not came in yet. So, no, we haven't done

Why are you Why are you pressing this for when we don't have all I was hoping for discussion. Well, I mean, all I'm saying is we don't have all their information. We need all their information before making a good decision. And the majority of the discussion was this was a want, not necessarily a need at this time. It really is a need. It really is. It's not just a one. You know, we we need it. Bruce has stood up here multiple times and said it operates correctly. That it would be nice to remove that, but I mean,

we've done a lot of work to it or specifically Brian has to to make it operate. The issue is is is a lot of that stuff's going obsolete. So, like the station itself, the vacuum station, um you just can't get that stuff anymore. So, we've had to modify and, you know, do stuff in house to to to make parts and pieces work. Um, but it's really outdated. Yeah, it's working, but that station is it's old and it's pretty rough. It works, but um if we were if we don't take it off vacuum, eventually we're going to need a uh massive upgrade of that station, which would probably be pretty costly. the the electronics and the wiring and everything in there is just it's it's just old.

It's a 35y old system. It wasn't designed for what we're using it for either. Yeah, we're I mean we make it work but and then then the other side of that too is is being proactive cuz you know if all the overflows would have been reported all these years from that vacuum station um I guarantee that ADQ would have done put us under a consent order to remove it a long time ago. Um, and so the problem is is when it does go down, it's a central station that everyone on there is affected, you know. So, um, essentially a good portion of them are all without sewer anytime it goes down. It's a very inefficient manner, his system.

Yeah, I mean, we're make we we make it work, but it's it's uh it's outdated and really does need to be replaced at at some point in time. I'm kind of with with Rob and Casey. I I think I'm for rejecting the loan because I think it's in the long run it's going to cost us too much money and they wanted mentioned the rake rate hike for the water, right? Which nobody wants, right? Um I say we reject the loan and go out for bids and see what we need to do from there. I don't I don't necessarily because we don't know what how much money we're going to need and I think if we go out bids then we can proceed from there.

Well, we're we're in the process of getting bids, but Okay. And I mean, is this something that can be done in steps instead of pulling the trigger on $1.2 million right out the gate with all the tanks and everything else that we got that is most generally has to be done. I don't think it'd be done phases. That'll be up to the engineers. But even at that, the loans and the grant from ADC and the loans from ANRD was for the entire project, not a breakup of the project. Now, here's

I'm really having a problem with, you know, some from month to month. It's, you know, it'd be nice if we could get rid of this. You know, we got 50 citizens or whatever on it. It'd be nice if we could get rid of it to now, well, we got to it's annodated. But a couple months ago, it was it's working fine and we can move on with it. But now all of a sudden, it's it's a dire need. We need to we need to get it done now. We have been working this issue for over a year now. We got the loan. We got the grant from ADC 223 actually. So this is this project's been on on the books and been working for all that long. If it's not it's not new. If we do reject this loan, does it prevent us from reapplying for a loan?

It doesn't. Uh just a process, you know, it's so get or not is is up. Once we get the bids, then we can reapply if it and we do if we do need a loan, then we reapply for the loan.

You're way behind the power curve by that time. Once you get the bids, then you're ready to go to to a project bid opening and never want to go forward. Um, what could happen is uh you just continue on with the uh taking of the loan, not taking of it, but the approval of it um until we get the bids in and until the pay till the loans papers are signed by me, we can reject them. That's from ANRD. So, we don't have to deny, but you know, the discussion last week and somewhat tonight, we all didn't have a flare for this and we'd rather just get rid of this and pay for it out of pocket. It's probably as safer to keep this on the books that it's available to us and go forward and see what the bids come out to be because we may need this or a portion of it, not the whole thing, which we can do that too.

You can talk with the engineer. I mean it it might could be done in phases but but if the loan if the loan people would allow that that's where did the initial 1.2 2 million body. It's the initial uh project estimate that was put together by bond engineering that we had to put together for the uh application package to ADC and ANRD and we put the package together ANRD. In that application, we showed that we got $500,000 from AEDC. So, there's a partnership there that they're aware of. So, it made it a much more lucrative uh loan to us. I'm sorry.

Go ahead. Yes, sir. You said you're saying this pot maybe could be done in phases. In my opinion, I think it probably could be. But so if it can be or could be done in phases, then that could give us time to use our reserves what we need it for instead of taking this loan. Correct. Yes. That's potentially, but we don't know that for a fact and we don't know what AEDC uh might have to say about that. And if I know, but NFS and buts and stuff like that, that's how we operate.

Well, I'm going to stand firm on against this loan because it's going to cause a rate increase as it is. If we take this loan, it's going to raise the water and sewer rates or sewer rates, well, however you want to word it. It's going to raise them. And so, I'm stand on this loan. However, I don't want to make a make a decision that, yeah, we're going to go ahead and go forward with this when we don't know what it's going to cost. So, um, do you want to somebody make a motion to withdraw the motion to reject this at this time and just sit on it for right now? Make a motion we table this until a later time.

First made motion has to withdraw. The first person made the second has to withdraw. Thank you. Who made the motion? I have Brooke as um made the motion and Chapman made the second. I'll need you to withdraw your motion. Yeah, that's what you want to motion to approve. Okay, withdraw my withdraw my second.

Okay. And that effectively kills the motion that was approved, right? Okay. So, we're back to square one. Um, now we now we're back to the checking account. ANRD wants us to to establish a checking account for when we do receive the loan. if we receive loan, but I've got to turn paperwork into them showing we have a checking account just part of the process. So, I need approval to open a checking account. I make a motion for to open the checking account. Uh there's a resolution number something we without accepting the loan.

Yeah. Resolution 202532. Would you read the title, please? A resolution authorizing the use of a separate checking account for Arkansas Natural Resources Division grant fund in their paperwork. We got to do this. So I'd entertain a motion to approve resolution 202532. Motion a motion. May I have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Roll call, please. Council member Brooke. No. Council member Rubble. No. Council member Chapman. Yes. Council member McMan.

Yes.

Resolution 2020 2532 has been disapproved for lack of a positive vote. Okay. We'll press on see what happens. Next on the agenda is discussion use of grant and city funds for electric vehicles and uh electric vehicle charge stations. Again, the conversation last last week or last month was why do we want to buy electric vehicles and spend money for electric vehicles, electric chargers? We have the grants, $10,000 a piece for two vehicles. Um uh which means we probably end up spending roughly $40,000, $30,000 I guess for the vehicles. The charges may pay for themselves. Uh may not. Uh the first bid that came through, I rejected all the bids because they were too high on the cars. It wasn't the right vehicle anyway. And uh because we rejected the vehicles, I rejected the Chargers also. But we can also turn this money back in or turn this grant back in.

Motion to turn it back in. Okay, that's one at a time. Let's go with the electric vehicles. Do we have a motion to uh reject electric vehicles? Motion to reject electric vehicles. We have a second. Second. All those in favor say I.

Any oppose? Okay. Resolution 2024 39. This is out of order, but anyway. Uh, if you would read title and I can give you a copy of this if you'd like. Read the entire thing, please. a resolution rejecting the EPA CPRG EV fleet replacement funds awarded by the Metro Plan Board and authorizing the mayor and or city clerk to sign appropriate documents needed to reject the funds. Whereas in December 2024, the governing body of Ward authorized the mayor and/or city clerk to make application to Metro Plan for a $20,000 grant to purchase two new electronic vehicles. And whereas in March 2025, the Metro Plan board awarded a $20,000 grant to purchase two EVs. Whereas the governing body of the city of Ward after discussion has decided to reject the EPA CPRG EV fleet replacement grant and not to purchase EVs at this time. Now therefore, it be resolved by the city council of W Arkansas hereby declares in section one of rejection notice that the mayor and or city clerk is hereby directed to notify Metro Plan that the city rejects the awarded EVs fleet replacement grant and sign whatever documents are required to formalize the process.

Hey council, I'd entertain a motion to approve resolution 2025-39 as read. Motion. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Motion carries. With that, I'd entertain a motion to um reject the electronic vehicle charger uh grant also. Question. Yes. The ones we have out here. Are we making anything off of those? No, not at all. That's that's we we provided space for that commercial. And if we accepted these other ones, how many would they be and where would they go? Two. But they would be for city use only. City use only. Correct. Okay.

So, got a motion. Do we need Well, we're going to reject. I need a motion to reject. Motion. We have a second. Second. All those in favor say I. Motion carries. Please read resolution 202537. a resolution rejecting the EPA CPRG EV charging station funds awarded by the metrop plan board and authorizing the mayor and/or city clerk to sign appropriate documents needed to reject the funds. The whole thing?

Yes. Whereas in December 2024, the governing body of the city of Ward authorized the mayor and/or city clerk to make application to metrop plan for $14,500 grant to purchase two EV charging stations. And whereas in March 2025, the metrop plan board awarded 14,500 toward the purchase of two EV charging stations. And whereas the governing body of the city of Ward after discussion has decided to reject the EV grant and not purchase EVs. Therefore, would not need the EV charging stations either. Now therefore, it be resolved by the city council of W Arkansas hereby declares in section one, the rejection notice that the mayor and or city clerk is hereby directed to notify Metrop Plan that the city rejects the awarded EPA CPRGEV charging station funds and sign whatever documents are required to formalize the process.

Here you go. Entertain a motion to approve resolution 202537. Motion motion have a second. Second.

All those in favor say I. opposed. Motion carries. All right, moving on. Let's have a discussion about additional streets to overlay. Uh we have some good funds still in street fund and we need to uh think about overlaying some things. Uh we just finished the cross um Campbell and Milin Street overlay. It turned out beautiful. It was great and it came in um relatively cheap, $91,000, which a low bid if you remember. Um, let's see. There we go. This map, as rudimentary as is, shows the um things that we've done since 2015, the streets we've overlaid. And this next slide is a slide I put together suggestions in cost of $50 a square foot, which is uh or $50 linear foot, which is um what the bids came in for the camel mile and cross street bids. lot of streets there and also city hall. Fact is I had city hall a quote for city hall put in with the company that was doing the overlays on mile cross and his quote came in higher than the state allows without going out for bid so I couldn't accept it and bring it to you for a u uh you know to get it done while they were here. So my suggestion is overlay uh city hall parking lot is the front of it and Steven Street if you not if you're not familiar where Steven Street is u it's over here across from Shamrock Station. We did cross Campbell. We've done North Street. That's a lone street over there that hasn't been done. Uh just to complete that area over there. This would be a good idea to do this.

Sure. And I'll make it bigger. There you go.

How much is there? How much? Oh, we got we got probably um Well, I'll tell you exactly what we have. I wrote this I wrote this down.

Right. Right. And let's see here. There we go. Street department. We have um in checking account uh right now we haven't spent the $91,000. They haven't sent us an invoice yet, but $77,000 and we have a CD with $444,000 in it. So easily we could do several streets. Um, now you might have noticed on a previous agenda we were going to talk about a potential tap project to widen Moon Road. Unfortunately, that that particular project would not fit into the TAP criteria. So, we rejected that or did not I didn't even bring it up to you uh for approval. But, at some point in time, we're going to need to look at widening Moon Road. So, we need to kind of keep some some heavy reserves on that. But we do need to spend some money, if you will, uh, to improve some streets and we have them we have the funds available.

I would rather see a city street done than a parking lot to be honest. So, well, I I don't I don't disagree, but I also think that I mean, we're putting, you know, a lot of money in the city hall and that's that parking lot's horrible and you can use street funds to pay for a public parking lot. But, Pentar is pretty bad and so is aerial. Yeah, Pentar really needs to be widened, too. P off. You if you widen that, you got you're going to be in people's front yards. Well, you got you got a lot. You got the water line right there. We couldn't we couldn't probably widen Pentar for a million five on its own with all the ditches that those big ditches. So, let's um I have a suggestion. Okay. I like suggestions.

All right. So, we got our wonderful police chief sitting back here. And we have police officers that drive this city in day in and day out. Which street when let's find out and see which streets are in the worst shape. I know Pentar is pretty high on that list. Well, we could actually you want to if you wanted to, we could go out on Google Maps and go to street level and take a look at them yourself. I know Pentar is really high on that list, but I don't know about the rest of them. Some of the dead ends

and you can't there another thing is on the street aid that we get through the state that we do a lot of them. You can't do dead ends. They won't approve dead ends. So dead ends could be done in house with in-house money if you will. So we get so basically sorry. So basically, we can do all the dead ends and it'd be around 350K. Yeah. What we'd do if we if we went out for bids on all them, they'd be the bid package would be set up that we could, you know, if we had all these streets in, but it came in more higher than what we wanted, then we pull out a particular street out of the bid package.

But okay, bid package to where to overlay streets. I I get but you said that dead ends can't be we use our funds our funds but we can't use the state funds or whatever it is they won't approve dead ends on on the street aid street aid right but all these other ones they can approve yeah the uh Spencer and and or the parking lot they won't pentar those are those are through street so yeah they would they would prove those so I would I would suggest just using our city funds for the dead ends get that taken care What's the wall?

Another one's in pretty bad shape. It's It's a It's curved, but Farah is pretty rough. Farah is, but I'll tell you, Farah's going to Farah and the others that are in subdivisions like that will have to be um evacuated first before they can be overlaid. So, that's a district. These are pure just straight overlays because the ones that you're talking about, that's a curbs road. Yep. Exactly. So, I don't know if anybody's been down Austin over there in their uh that shadow creek. Well, that was a mess. They had to take it down to the bedrock and go back up with it because it was curbed. But the first part of Sweetwater that's actually in our city limits is is pretty rough as well. Oh, agree. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. She said $328,50 for the dead end roads. Do we make a motion on this or Yeah, I mean make a motion to do all the dead ends. I make a motion the all the dead ends be done with city funds. The dead ends that we have the dead ends that we have here. The dead ends we have on the list here be done with city funds. Street funds. Sorry. City street fun. You need to read those reporting. You want to read? I'll read them all. Steven Street, Langford, Kirkland, Hillburn, Grant Street, and Circle P Drive. Okay, that's a motion. You don't want to include the the uh city hall.

You you get a better deal if you put that on. Yeah. Well, and also again, it' be we can pull them out separately when we get it. And also city hall front parking. All right. We have a motion as stated by Mr. Casey. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I entertain a motion to uh u allow me to engage in bond engineering to work up an overlay project for the streets that are named. Did we get a second? No. Second. Okay, we now have a second. I'll make a motion that that you talk contract with bond or whatever you need to do. engineer.

So, okay, let's back up. We have a motion to allow me to get with bond engineer to work up a bid a overlay bids package for the streets that are named. Correct. Okay, we have a second on that. Second. Okay, all those in favor say I. I. Any disc any nos?

Motion carries. All right, we'll get working on that. Thank you, council. Uh, next on the agenda, put on your calendar, 2026 budget workshop with the CPA will be November 10th at 6 PM. We have started working uh budget issues and had a meeting with the CPA yesterday and today about different things. Also, I can make announcement that uh our chief clerk, court clerk, Beth Glover, is retiring on October 17th. We will have a lunchon on the 16th that you all will be invited to if you'd like to come. And also like to introduce Angel Williams. Come on up to the mic.

And you like to introduce Angel Williams. She is going to be our new chief court clerk. Uh in conjunction I've had with the judge. It's uh she actually works for the judge. That's how this works through our system, but she works for judge and for judge and judge recommended her. So, Miss Angel will be our new chief clerk upon retirement of Beth. So, with that, I'd entertain a motion to accept Angel as our new chief motion. We have a motion for a second. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Get an opinion on it.

Yes. What's your opinion? Next on the agenda, and I didn't put it up there. Did we pass our resolution 28 for uh Thank you, ma'am. Thanks, Angel. Talking about the checking account. The checking account. Yeah. Or the checks for the district. Yeah. I'd take it motion. Well, hang on. We got to read it. Read title. Just retitle. Retitle. Here you go. Just read that title. There you go.

A resolution authorizing personnel to sign I'm sorry to a resolution authorizing personnel to sign Ward District Court checks. It names Angel, myself, and the judge. A motion to approve resolution 202538. Motion to approve. Second. Second. All those in favor say I.

Any oppose? Motion carries. And I did not bring me a copy of my report. You got one for me? Thanks. I always do that for some reason. All right. Mayor's report. Let me go back to this. There we go. Okay. Uh SRS four construction project sidewalks down chancelier to caston ar has finally approved that project go out for bid that should be going out within the next few weeks. Uh s five the sidewalk project down brewer street art has finally approved a scope change but now we have to do what's called a cultural resource survey which is going to cost us about $4,000. Had to do one for it's something new. I don't know. Uh Six has been submitted. Have not heard anything about that. Wastewater rehab. We've talked about that to nauseium the way the water tank rehab project has begun. Um Bruce and Brian are managing that real well. We have not I think we had one if I understand one person call about low water pressure

and so Huh.

Yes, it has. It has. We knew that. But um you know it hasn't gone below the standard and all that kind of good stuff. So they're managing it real well. They've started on this. It should be a twoe process for that tank and then they'll move to the hydropillar tank and we'll make notice to everybody and let everybody know. So that's working along real well. We still have a grant application from AEDC to um we asked for $200,000 from them to help pay for this project. Street funds for 2025 street aid has been submitted as you know and we're waiting for that. Uh the 2025 sports complex LED replacement program has been submitted. the uh city hall ADA upgrade the grant application has been submitted and the 25 225 HVAC update project uh has been we awarded $200,000 from small cities and counties. Uh we're waiting for the energy office on their $249,000 grant. Hopefully we get that and if so then we're only going to be out about $30,000. live feed camera. We're still waiting for deployment in October. And last month, Rob, you brought up discussion about the fire chief's vehicle, and you were correct. I didn't I wasn't I wasn't sure, but you were correct. It was from the Randy Stale. Uh I'd like a And then chief has fire department has the funds available. I'd like a motion to uh approve for us to uh get him a new Dodge Durango.

A new one like 100% new, not used. 9% new. Motion second. All right, we have a motion second. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Motion carries. We'll get working on that. Yeah. Okay. Is there any um

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I almost forgot this. Put this on record. Each of you have received a copy of the ward water and sewer system financial statement for the years ending 2000 uh December 31st, 2024 and 2023. It was a clean audit. Uh unlike the legislative audit, I don't have to read it to you, just present it to you. So I would entertain a motion that you accepted and received this motion that be accepted the order. wastewater report. Second. Second. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Do we have any anybody sign up to speak?

Council, do you have anything you like to talk about tonight? Go ahead. Go ahead. Seriously, go ahead. Go ahead.

Okay. Keep fighting. Hey. Um I was wondering if we could do a little um exploring into like um there's I know that you've probably seen it where they have apps. Like a city has an app um and it it you can utilize it to send out messages. You can use it to get any updates on water and everything like that, but it's an app on your phone. Um I saw some things through um I don't know if it was Metropan. I don't know where I read it, but I I've got it marked in my office because there's some smaller cities that are using it and um and it's working well for them. I just think in our efforts to try to communicate with the community better, I think this would be an option that we could look at.

I think it's a great idea. I think uh if you'll I'll find it. I read all about it because it gave specifically like like a bigger city like Bentonville or something and then some a smaller city that was like a 3,000 population. some like it could be in our I'm I'm perfectly fine with that. Uh as our as we all know, we've talked before our our medium age is 27.9. Uh they do everything online. So to kind of piggy back on that, can we also use a QR code around the city also and people just have to um a lot of times on our water and wastewater stuff, we send out QR codes. No,

we like we have the ordinances posted up there. Oh, that's true, too. Yeah, we can look at that. Anything else you'd like to talk about? All right, some announcements. Uh, planning commission, September 22nd, Harvest Fest. There's a flyer right there. October 11th out at the Ward Sports Complex from 5 to 8. And our next city council meeting is October 21st. With that in mind, I'd entertain a motion to dismiss. Motion. Second. Second.

All those in favor? Let's go home. Thank you, council.