After the opening prayer, pledge of allegiance and approval of minutes, a report was given by Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Director Mary Godwin in which she said the city collected $80,000 more in sales taxes over last year. She also asked that people interested in the subject come to a meeting pertaining to the Arkansas Broadband initiative to take place in the Prescott/Nevada County library at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. The topics will include how to go about educating county citizens in the use of broadband and making sure of the accuracy of the state map of current broadband service availability. 

Mayor Terry Oliver recognized the winners of the 2023 employee of the year Shanta Wiley and the 2023 newcomer employee of the year Eric Stovall, reading comments from other city employees about the quality of their work and their value as colleagues. 

After time was taken for photos of the winners, the next agenda item was the 2024 budget, which was passed unanimously. Mayor Oliver noted that it contained “a little bit of surplus, which any city should have.” 

Then the city council moved to approve a financial audit which was based on the state of the city in 2022. Mayor Oliver said the city had come out well in the audit. 

A list of meeting dates over the 2024 year was submitted by the mayor to the city council for approval.  Mayor Oliver noted that the meeting dates would fall on the third Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. with the exception of January and February. The council voted to accept the schedule. 

In Citizens comments, Mayor Oliver asked a resident if she was still hearing loud dog barking at her residence. She had spoken last month of this issue and in this meeting said the matter was improved but she had had to call the sheriff on Christmas Day about the barking and was satisfied about how the issue was dealt with. Mayor Oliver told her to call City Police Chief Ann Jordan or himself if the barking persisted. 

Parks Department Superintendent Carlos Van Hook brought attention to the state of the city’s Little League Field, which has persistent drainage problems that he said makes the field unplayable. Discussion followed concerning how funds could be obtained to improve the field in time for the games, which would ordinarily begin in late March.  Mayor Olver suggested looking into the Parks Department applying for a loan from a local bank, if that was legal, and advised that legal advice be sought from the Arkansas Muncipal League as soon as possible. 

The meeting adjourned at about 7:30.