Updates were the name of the game at Monday night’s city council meeting with Parks Executive Director Scott Miskiel in attendance once more.
Miskiel explained the increasing issues at Basin Spring Park that Parks had become aware of after originally being awarded a grant to replace stonework underneath the fountain. The problems include a broken drain culvert running beneath the park for rainwater, the sinking of the fountain, continued degradation of the bandshell and other problems that Miskiel said would require the plaza to be redone.
Miskiel said that Parks had an unsigned contract with McClelland Engineering to do the design work for the park that still needed approval from the commission. While he said he expected the contract for the design work to be approved, he said Parks has had discussions about how to pay for the exorbitant amount of money it will take to make all the repairs required at all its parks, including Lake Leatherwood City Park, saying “funding is going to be a real issue.” Miskiel ballparked Basin Park repairs at half a million dollars. He said that the scope of the project at Basin Park needed to be made before funding requests could be made.
Aldermen were receptive to giving funding assistance to the Parks Department, wanting to find solutions as soon as possible. Nick Roberts mentioned that the City Advertising and Promotion Commission should be able to assist in funding the bandshell and park area due to it being used as a venue area. There was even some discussion of an additional half cent tourism enhancement tax with a sundown clause to pay for repairs at Basin Spring Park and Lake Leatherwood, although Miskiel said that the hope was to not have to go there.
Audits on track
In May, there was heated discussion during a council meeting due to the Water and Sewer department audits being several years behind. Michael Akins gave an update on that audit. The Water and Sewer Dept. audits are completed by a private CPA firm, BKD, and Akins said that the 2017 audit has been completed with the overall opinion being fair in all aspects. He said that he had reached out to BKD about the 2018 Water and Sewer audit and had given them everything that they had needed to complete that audit, as well.
Akins also said that BKD does another single audit that must be completed every year that the city uses a certain threshold of federal funds. They are working on the 2017 audit and still determining whether a 2018 audit will be required but have all the pertinent information needed to complete it if necessary.
Akins explained that for each type of audit, they must be completed consecutively, and it is not uncommon for them to be a year or two behind the legislative audits. Even so, the Covid-19 pandemic played a role in causing BKD in being behind due to them being a private firm and losing manpower over those years. He said that they are working on catching up.
Other updates
- Alderman Harry Meyer offered council an option to replace parking meters in city lots along Main Street with a new single electronic meter in each lot. Old coin meters would be used to replace broken ones along Spring Street. Installation and replacement would cost around $9,000 and while some aldermen were receptive, Mayor Butch Berry said he would talk with Finance Director Lonnie Clark to run figures on how much money is being lost by broken parking meters each month.
- Aldermen discussed the issue of vandalized public restrooms in Eureka Springs. Berry said that he is seeking a general contractor to do repairs and aldermen discussed changes to the bathrooms to make them less susceptible to vandalism.
- Alderman Bill Ott read a letter into record of a resident on East Mountain requesting further speed tables along the street, saying that there are still vehicles speeding along the road. Berry said that speed bumps have been placed and he has asked officers to patrol the area as much as they can to help curb speeding.