At the April 22 city council meeting, Public Works Director Simon Wiley said the sludge pump was working and the sewage treatment plant is back to normal. He said he met with McClelland Engineering, and in the old maintenance building they found the missing plans that McClelland scanned and Wiley said would be available for council soon.
Wiley also said that Public Works has applied for grants regarding water leak repair. He said the Planer Hill leak has been fixed, and the leak at Main Street is possibly associated with the building next to Basin Spring Park and they are working on it. Work on the leak in front of the trolley station will start next Monday.
Wiley told aldermen that trees need to be removed from Flint Street before that wall can be repaired and parts of it rebuilt. The chosen bidder said their estimate to rebuild the wall was off by several hundred thousand dollars, and alderman Terry McClung asked him to repeat the number because he wasn’t sure if he had said hundreds or hundreds of thousands.
Extra trash pickup until August
Alderman Autumn Slane asked at the last meeting to emend Ord. 2348 to allow people two 30-gallon bags of trash and any additional bags, $2 each. The ordinance was given a sunset clause last meeting that this change would last for four months so people could adjust to the single 30-gallon bag ruling.
There were questions from the city attorney Forrest Jacobi and aldermen if it would be better to just remove the sunset clause and allow people two bags. Alderman Harry Meyer said the change Slane proposed was because larger families struggle to keep all of their garbage to one bag and that it’s unfair to charge them more for having more family members.
Alderman Steve Holifield rebutted that he wants to allow the four months for people to adjust, but then go back to people only being allowed one bag in order to encourage recycling. Meyer moved to remove the sunset clause and Slane seconded, but the rest of council voted against it. Ordinance 2350 was read three times and passed. Due to the sunset clause the ordinance will go into effect on April 23 and be revisited August 26.
Ordinance 2351, banning the use of confetti in parades, passed. No confetti made of pieces or strips of plastic, paper, Mylar, or metallic materials can be used on public property, McClung wanted it made clear that this does not include candy. Anyone caught violating the ordinance will face a misdemeanor charge and pay $50 for a first offense, and no greater than $100 for second and subsequent offenses.
During council comments, Holifield urged Eureka Springs citizens who have questions, issues, or fears concerning sewer or water line problems to get coverage with Service Line Warranties, which he has used himself, to cover the sewer, gas, and water lines in their homes.
Holifield also shared that the CAPC meeting to vote on a director had been cancelled but should be voted on at the meeting scheduled April 24.
Meyer spoke of the history of Earth Day and his feelings concerning wind turbines. Despite the issue being on the agenda, Berry said at the beginning of the meeting that wind turbines would not be discussed. During public comments a man did ask council to pass a declaration that cryptocurrency mining and wind turbines not be allowed within one mile of the city.