The Prescott City Council met last night for the first meeting of 2023.  The full meeting can be watched above but here are a few highlights. 

Mayor Terry Oliver began the meeting by thanking everyone for their hard work and then proceeded with the swearing in of Council Members Howard Austin and Susie Meeks. 

Chamber Director Jamie Hillery’s report was read by Mayor Oliver. He said that six community events are coming up and reminded people to vote for Citizen of the Year and Hometown Hero.  Nominations are to be turned in to the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce or Jamie Hillery 

Blake Rodgers from Turner, Rodgers, Manning, and Plyler of Arkadelphia and Magnolia gave council members a brief summary of the 2021 audit. He listed a few points for them to take notice, but said that with the exception of the SWEPCO bill, it was actually a pretty good year. The audit for 2021 was approved.

Council members approved an increase in the city’s trash haul fee to $15 a month.  Mayor Oliver said that trash haul is no longer economically feasible to maintain services at $10.50 an hour. He said prices on everything have gone up the last few years and told council members “we held off as long as we could.” He also said they checked other citys' fees in the surrounding area and that this new fee was still cheaper than most. The $4.50 increase will produce $56,150 by the end of the year. Citizens should be receiving info about this in their bill.

Mayor Oliver recognized the City Emploiyee of the Year, Lynn "Pookie" Gillard.

City Accountant Carl Dalrymple presented the new budget to council members. He said after doing this for 50 years that this was the hardest one he had ever done. He did, however, share with them that after making some cuts, there is now a protected surplus of $65,000. The 2023 budget was approved.

Kiron Browning from A.L. Franks gave an update on Sewer Project, sharing with council members that he believes the estimate can be lowered which will save the city money.

Electric Operations Manager Larry Jones shared with council members that the big SWEPCO bill from the 2021 snowstorm was still gathering interest every month and that the city needs to come up with a plan to pay the bill. He said there were two ways for the city to recoup this money: recover it through the citizens with a fee in their electric bills, which could get costly for some, or initiate a sales tax that will end when the bill is paid, taking note that all traffic from interstate and tourism would them help pay for this. Dalrymple estimated a one cent sales tax would bring in 680k a year. Council members voted to take the route of the sales tax.

Meeting times and dates for the year were approved.

Mayor Oliver recognized Rosston Mayor Samuel Quarles for taking time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to assist citizens whos had water leaks.

He also recognied Bruce, Bean, Perry Nelson, and Larry Jones for their hard work and dedicztion to the city.

Oliver announced that Leadership Nevada County 2023 had a great opening at the retreat last weekend. He said this group got off to a good start and expressed appreciation to all those who planned and facilitated the event.

He also shared that Loves officially started on ther second Prescott location yesterday. He said he and other city representatives met with Loves representatives and that the estimated date for completion, if weather allows, is August.  

Citizens Wesley Ratcliffe and Tiffany Moore addressed the council with questions about the use of the ball fields and asked for clarification about the agreement between the city and the school, who has jurisdiction over the facility, and if citizens are allowed access. Moore and Ratcliffe, coaches and parents of little league teams, said that they were told that they are not allowed to use any part of the facility. Oliver read the original agreement made between the school and the city back when the facility was built and funded by a grant. The agreement stated the school has precedence for games and school functions, but if the school is not using the facility, then it is open to citizens for use.

To see all remarks at the full Prescott City council meeting, watch the video above.