The Holiday Island City Council meeting on August 20 began with a review of the budget, which showed the city was only one percent under what they had budgeted based on last year. Their biggest expenditure for the month was spending $22,000 on a new truck for code enforcement.
Council member Linda Graves asked about $40,000 that had been allocated to pay for new radio equipment for the fire department. Interim chief Gary Martin replied that they haven’t issued any equipment yet because they were told they should have all vehicles equipped, downloaded, and operational and before they begin using them so that the warranty starts at the same time for all units.
Questions from several council members then turned to the low taxes, but Mayor Dan Kees pointed out that taxes aren’t due until October, and council member Lynn Dumas added that since people are having a hard time, if the choice is between paying taxes now and getting groceries, they will put off paying their taxes every time.
Dumas then informed council that he had taken several more applications for short-term rental businesses and had identified three properties not complying with code. Kees said that the code enforcement officer has been very busy, and that his main focus has been short-term rental compliance.
Kees asked the Martin to give an HIFD update. The fire department had taken 48 calls, most of them medical, and both the fire and EMS departments were going through training. Kees pointed out that the department did an impressive amount of training, and that that is a hidden cost most people don’t realize goes into maintaining an active fire department.
Graves reported on the broadband meeting she attended in Fayetteville. Carroll County was in the first group of counties being considered for a government program to install broadband in mainly rural areas that do not have good Internet services at affordable prices. Statewide, 1.3 million locations were designated as meeting the criteria for the program.
In Carroll County, 2939 people, households, or businesses qualified, the rest were considered as served. The next step of the program is to have the state speak with Internet service providers (ISPs) and take bids. Graves said that the decisions should be made and the process put into motion by June 2025.
Kees said he was appalled with their findings and asked how they were going to get to certain houses due to the difficulty of accessing them, and how if one person in an area isn’t being served could they not include other residents or business in that same area, saying the map looked “scattershot.”
Graves said that 18.6 million is the estimate to build a reliable Internet service area for Arkansas and that for an ISP to win the bid, they have to promise affordable service.
Kees moved focus to the status of a part time animal control officer. Although an advertisement for the position has been out for a while, they had received no applications. Kees said they would keep advertising until the end of August and then they would see about reaching out to Good Shepherd No Kill Humane Society and come to an arrangement with them. Secondly, he had Dumas present that the April 18 2023-011 resolution HICPC R24-087 zoning map will be updated and made available on the city website with corrections and additions.
Then a citizen asked for a water meter to be installed on a portion of land they owned where they currently didn’t live so that it could be used as a garden. Council determined that current code doesn’t allow this because of problems with squatters in the past. They decided to consider creating a new resolution to change current policy so people wanting to landscape or garden on their land would have options available, while wording it to prevent people from squatting.
Council then discussed Ordinance 2024-013 about city record retention to create a policy for creating and storing records of city business that would be available for FOIA and council business. Clarifying what constituted important documents and how they should be retained, led to the issue being tabled until the next meeting.
Resolution 2024-009 regarding social media policy and code of conduct, passed. Council also voted on and agreed to adopt a city logo that would be put on employee uniforms and used in advertising.
Council member Ken Mills asked for permission to figure out how to buy and preserve an area of green space that has a great view. The current owner was going to develop it but then decided to sell it for $125,000. He had spoken with Eureka Springs Parks about it and asked them about grants to turn the area into a park.
Some council members had doubts about turning the area into a park, but Kees said Mills wasn’t the only person who would like to see the area preserved and said if Mills wanted to find a way to purchase it he was welcome to proceed.
The next meeting is scheduled for September 17 with a workshop about the Trash Ordinance scheduled for September 26.