The meeting was filmed in its entirety and the video is available after the photos below this article.

Dorsey Askew, the city’s code enforcement officer, presented a slide show to the board with pictures of several houses, trailers and other structures that were in visible states of disorder.  He and new code enforcement officer Jennifer Ghormley took the photos on recent inspections.  The buildings were located at the following addresses:

·       227 East Greenwood

·       408 Henry C. Yerger.  Askew said this building could likely be renovated.

·       421 North Elm

·       611 West Division

·       702 East Beech

·       903 North Walker

·       1515 Allen.  The owner, who was present, spoke to the board, saying she still planned to rehabilitate the property.  Askew agreed to meet at the property with her and her contractor.

·       2206 North Hazel. This is the former KXAR building, which has sustained fire damage and has large holes in its roof.

Structures at 1614 Bell and 605 Heyward have already been demolished by their owners, Askew said.  He displayed a slide with a list of twelve structures condemned last year.  Five have been demolished by their owners.  Two have been scheduled for demolition by a city-paid contractor.  Two of them have expired permits for renovations.  One is being remodeled and one has been purchased and is being remodeled by New Testament House of Prayer.

Mayor Still said the condemnations were part of a process whereby owners of the properties concerned can apply for permits to renovate and then have their properties inspected for possible removal from the condemnation list.  

City Attorney Randal Wright read the ordinance containing the condemnation list. It passed unanimously by vote of the board.

Next came a presentation by Assistant City Manager Daniel Shelman and Hope Parks Superintendent Summer Chambers who, with citizen Jodi Coffee, went on fact-finding missions to recreation and aquatic centers in Pine Bluff, Benton and Bryant.  As Shelman explained, “The intention of this trip was to see other similar facilities to what we're building in Hope, how they operate, how they're laid out, what they did right, and what they did wrong, and maybe spark some discussion while we're still in the design phase for Hope.”

Their slide presentation featured pictures of the facilities and emphasized what they learned about seeing the facilities that may be incorporated into the process of building the one at the intersection of West 16th and Spring Hill Road.

The two spoke to managers of the centers and took tours.  The use of different colors of striping on the floors of the courts that could be used for different activities was noted. The center in Benton had an ample supply of shower stalls and used the therapy pool for volleyball.  The one in Bryant had its pool in an enclosure that had a glass, retractable roof, but these made it difficult to keep the area cool in summer months because of a lack of air conditioning. 

One facility had a couple of open showers at walls around the pool, so that people could wash off before and after using the pools. Shelman noted that the centers also have jumbotron scoreboards which sponsors helped pay for. “They all used them for advertising the program, swim lessons, swim meets, hours of operation, all that sort of stuff.”

All the centers had concessions areas, with the one in Benton having a full kitchen.  The Pine Bluff center had a gift shop.  

Also among their findings was a need for more storage at the centers they visited, since equipment and belongings were being stored in some surprising places.  They spoke with the manager of the facility in Benton about the difficulty of keeping evaporated chlorinated chemicals from corroding the inside.  The Benton facility has three systems, a dehumidifier, a heat and air system and an extractor.  Even with these in place, Shelman said there was visible corrosion.  Benton’s facility has had to replace their pool heater three times in the past ten years.

Summer Chambers spoke on the events held at the facilities they visited, showing a slide with the summer schedule for the Benton facility. Its manager Joshua Adam has been helpful about providing information about everything from activities to pool chemicals, she said, and will likely send more information soon.  

To Director Trevor Coffee’s question about what they found regarding costs for use of the facilities, Shelman gave an assessment of the averages charged.  “At this point, we've averaged rates from about eight different aquatic facilities in Arkansas that are similar to ours, but all of them will maintain a five or six dollar daily entry. All of them have that, and then most all of them have a monthly, three-month, six-month or annual pass. Some of them will sell ten passes for this price, or 20 passes so you can use them when you want to use it, rather than it timing out. And that varies. I think the average annual pass is probably going to be somewhere between $150 and $200.”

In other business, Airport Director Darrell Allen presented photos of the newly constructed hangar at Hope Municipal Airport.  It is 55 feet wide and can accommodate larger aircraft.

City Manager J.R. Wilson reported on dealings with the engineering firm of Harston and Associates.  The Hope Depot Museum Roof bid opening will take place at 2:00 p.m. July 30th with a prebid meeting on the 28th.  The Splashpad bid opening will take place at 2:30 p.m. on the 30th.  The project for restrooms for the splashpad will have a bid opening August 6th at 11:00 a.m.  The bid process for the tennis/pickleball court is still ongoing.

Wilson said Clay McGill from Bild Architects, the firm handling Hope’s fire department and recreational aquatic center projects, will be present at the next city board meeting to present the 30 percent designs.

Clean-up day in preparation for the Watermelon Festival is scheduled for Saturday July 26th.  Volunteers are welcome. 

The traffic count information at the intersection of East Third and Hazel requested by board members found that vehicle sightings there increased from 6,800 in 2022 to 7,200 in 2024.  

The State Aid Program has closed its involvement in the Sixth Street Project.  Wilson complimented the board on its decision to use city personnel and equipment to help finish the project. This resulted in a savings to the city of about $190,000 which was placed in the Street Department fund. Some work at the site has been done recently, causing pavement to have to be displaced, because of the contractor’s decision to close a sewer line that a resident needs open.  Wilson said the city will make an effort to recover the resulting cost from the contractor.

Wilson explained to the board an arrangement that he said will help expedite the sale of property on 16th Street that the city and Hempstead County received when real estate previously leased by Wadley Regional Hospital was given to the two government entities.  This would allow any potential sale to proceed under less restrictive rules for municipalities rather than those that apply to sales by counties.

The Southwest Arkansas Regional Medical Center has had difficulties with its climate control system recently, which may necessitate the city and county approving expenditures over a certain amount to fix the problems, Wilson said.

The application by the city for state grant funding to purchase equipment for the hospital is now in the hands of the Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District and it is anticipated it will be processed and sent to the state office by the end of this week. Both Hope and Hempstead County are applying for grants from the same entity.  Hope is applying for funds to buy equipment.  Hempstead County is applying for funds to finance roof repair.

Summer Chambers was asked about attendance at the Sparks Fly in July event on July 5th.  She said a service that pings cell phones in the area found that 3,900 were in use at the airport.  The same service found 2,600 at last year’s celebration.

The meeting was adjourned at just after 8:10 p.m, having begun at 7:00 p.m.