Monday night’s Eureka Springs City Council meeting focused on continuing struggles with water and sewer leaks and how to pay to fix them. Public Works Director Simon Wiley said that clay sewer mains were replaced at Spring Garden, a manhole cover was replaced at 144 E. Van Buren, and pressure reducing valves had been installed in the sludge storage basin at the treatment plant, where it was filled with water from a hydrant and the tank held with no signs of leakage.
Wylie said that the contract with Dale Bryson was underway, trenching a new decant line and sludge draw pipeline. Plant improvements could include a floating aeration valve, but he didn’t have prices yet. Leaks were repaired at 155 Main St., Hwys. 62 and 23, on Mill Hollow Rd., and at 6 Douglas. Wiley said Public Works is trying to build a database of the problem areas. He said he was hoping for the enaction of Act 605 so funds to replace some water lines would be available. This called back to the only public comment, which was a plea and question about whether council could request an exemption from Act 605 because of the city’s historic district status.
Act 605 is a 2021 law regulating how water providers operate and manage their water, and requires they provide rate studies every year. Alderman Susane Gruning spoke of last winter’s water leaks and asked what was being done to prevent the same chaos, and if something similar was also being done for the water lines.
Wiley said they didn’t have the capital improvements list for the water and sewer systems, that it is something McClelland Engineering is putting together for the city. He said the data on where the water and sewer leaks are and knowing where sections of clay pipe are located will be on a five-year remediation plan.
Alderman Harry Meyer said that six black rats had come through the sewer line and that there was a need to know where there was a hole for them to get in those lines. Wiley said that the sewer lines have inflow and infiltration when groundwater gets into the sewer system. They will be having a company come in and do a smoke test to detect the leak or leaks.
Smoke testing in the past had been focused on downtown, but Wiley said he wants the next smoke test to expand to the entire city. Wiley had an estimate on smoke testing last year because they had done a $30,000 smoke test on the water lines, but had been told for the sewer it would be $180,000, and they held off.
When Mayor Butch Berry asked about financing verification of the sewer plant, Wiley said McClelland was gathering information to make sure they made the most fiscally responsible purchase and were working with the independent consultant to make sure all of McClelland’s recommendations were necessary.
Meyer said that if they didn’t put something in finances to cover sewer leaks, the system could get overwhelmed during a busy weekend or a lot of rain could cause an overflow.
Wiley replied that although that’s a possibility as the sequencing batch reactors have a failsafe mode, so if there are high levels they are alerted, and the system will shut down the SBR and switch it to another. They only way they might have a problem is if they don’t have sufficient sludge storage – which they currently don’t, with shutdown of the sludge basin.
Finance Director Michael Akins suggested discussing the rate study and increasing residents’ rates on water and sewer, but Meyer wanted to table that until they’d heard from McClelland and Wiley. Berry had Akins give the update.
Akins said they were in the middle of the rate study and almost finished. He said that McClelland will have all information by the end of November and will present a report in early December.
Preliminary numbers for new equipment and repairs, looking at where the system currently is and what needs to be done will impact costs and expenses to be funded by the rate hikes. Akins said Act 605 says a city must be self-sufficient and make enough money to run the water and sewer departments without asking for loans.
The city is looking at raising the rates over the course of five years, the first being the end of 2024 at a 20 to 25 percent increase, and another ten percent in 2025 to reach the rate the study says the city needs. Council is considering whether to base the rate on the size of the meter, or how minimum water usage is 2000 gallons and changing that to 1000 gallons.
It will be a management decision, and Akins said not to worry about raising the rates too much, it would be a gradual and continuous process.
Alderman Steve Holifield asked about the public comment about making some kind of exemption to 605 because of historic district status. Akins said he thought 605 was misunderstood and that it does a lot of good by making cities fiscally responsible for their water departments instead of relying on state and federal loans to run them.
Alderman David Avanzino asked how often other cities throughout Boone and Carroll counties have raised rates, and Akins replied that they had raised them in 2023 and 2024, with most cities usually doing so in January, giving residents 30 days’ notice. Gruning asked how much Eureka Springs had raised rates, and Akins said the city had been “eating it” because of citizens’ resistance to raising rates.
Berry said that in trying to make it easy on the citizens they had ultimately hurt the city. Akins said they were talking about raising water 25 percent and sewer a little bit more to make up for lack of raising sewer rates in the past. Council read and passed Ord. 2360 by title only for the third time.
Final items
- An ordinance to amend Parks Commission membership passed its second reading with dissent from alderman Autumn Slane.
- An appeal from the Bed and Breakfast on 8 Washington, that has been having issues impacted by the Planning Commission, was heard. Due to a technical error, Planning had missed a meeting on Oct. 8 and the commission had inaccurate information that caused the owners to lose a Conditional Use Permit. The owners came before council to appeal council approved the appeal for the permit to be reinstated.
- Council approved the Planning Commission’s Area Development Plan for up to one mile outside Eureka Springs so that in the future if there is a need for expansion, the plan will allow them to move forward. Planning Commission Chair Susan Harman stressed that this was not a vote to expand the town, only to put a plan in place should need arise.
- After several workshops, Eureka Springs citizens in attendance said they did not want more Bed and Breakfasts, so Planning came up with six specific points: B&Bs cannot be run by a manager, the owners must live on the premises; B&B properties cannot be sold until the seller is current on taxes to CAPC; the business license must be listed in descriptions of the business in all advertisements and the city can revoke a permit for any violation of conditions; a unit is defined as one bedroom that can sleep up to two people and must have one parking space per unit; no new B&Bs will be allowed and when B&B properties in residentially zoned areas are sold and turned into private residences. they cannot be turned back into a B&B. If an owner in the commercial zone wants to have a manager run their B&B, it converts to the designation of tourist lodging. Section six stresses that the owner must reside on the property. The Ordinance was assigned the number 2364, amending 14.08.130, regarding zoning districts. It was approved on its first reading and will undergo a second and third reading.
There will be only one city council meeting in November and one in December, with those normally scheduled at the end of those months cancelled due to the holidays.