Chris Harper, Prescott Streets and Sanitation Superintendent, speaks to the Prescott City Council about noncompliance with debris clean-up ordinance 1625 in Tuesday night's City Council meeting.
The Prescott City Council’s November regular meeting took place Monday night, yielding two unanimous votes to approve motions to amend the budget and start a drainage project. The council also approved a resolution, passed by unanimous roll call vote, that announces the purchase, for $91,600, of a backhoe with accessories from Lift Service Center Inc.
Other business discussed included the Amended 2022 Budget, an engineering services agreement with A.L. Franks for drainage work on streets, and trouble reported by Prescott Sanitation and Streets Superintendent Chris Harper with citizens not cleaning up their properties.
The 2022 Budget was amended to add expenditures to it to reflect the increased cost of insurance for city employees by $132,000 per year. The motion to approve this amendment was passed unanimously by voice vote.
Kiron Browning, Principal Engineer of A.L. Franks Engineering of Texarkana, Arkansas, spoke to the council about an upcoming project to address drainage issues on East Third. He said the engineering planning on the job would be done over the winter time, with on-site work to begin in late spring or early summer. His good weather estimate of the project’s length was 75 to 90 days.
The project will be funded by an Arkansas Community and Economic Development Program grant for $300,000. The council voted unanimously by roll call vote to accept the A.L. Franks bid and start the project.
In the next agenda item, Harper reported on troubles with citizens not complying with Ordinance 1625, which requires that property owners be responsible for the cleanup of trash left on their yards within ten days of contractor work ending at the risk of a $50 fine for every day afterward that the yard is not cleaned up. He said the result of this noncompliance was tree limbs ending up in ditches. During the discussion, city attorney Glen Vasser said it would be best to send notice to property owners asking that the yards be cleaned before imposing the fines. No adjustments were made to the ordinance.
During the time on the agenda allotted to discussion of announcements from the council, Councilman Ivory Curry said he would work with Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jamie Hillery to make city clean-up days more effective. Councilwoman Satarra Williams told about a conference she and other councilmembers attended in which the Pine Bluff mayor reported success in city clean-up efforts by offering recognition to those property owners doing the best jobs.
There were no Citizens Communications. The meeting adjourned.
