In Tuesday night’s first regular April meeting, the Hope City Board dealt with more preliminaries to the use of a sales tax approved last November to build an aquatic and recreation center, build a new fire department headquarters and make major improvements to the parks facilities.
The meeting can be seen in its entirety in the video below the photos accompanying this article.
The Hope City Board heard briefings from Jason Holsclaw of Stephens Incorporated on the sale of bonds to allow Hope to receive $31 million in funds to build its Hope for the Future projects including a new fire department headquarters, a new recreation and aquatic center and major improvements to parks. He said the sale was a success and the rate Hope will pay to the bonds is 4.5 percent.
Holsclaw said he estimates that at present rates of tax collections Hope will pay off the loan in 18 years. The sales tax began being collected April 1st with its first receipts coming in starting in June.
Taylor Marshall of Friday, Eldridge and Clark informed the board about a 30-page ordinance legally required to be approved by the board. Collections of tax revenue in excess of what is needed to make loan payments will be provided to the Hope Parks Department for improvements and maintenance to the parks facilities.
In other business, citizen Willie Walker asked that the city pay for the maintenance of a sewage back-flow preventer installed on his property by the city years ago to prevent the imminent flooding of a house. City Manager J.R. Wilson explained to the board the rules the city must observe regarding sewage projects, including a prohibition from working on privately owned sewage lines. The rules were not observed in the case of the installation of the back-flow preventer.
Walker accepted an offer to have city wastewater employees show him where the back-flow preventer is located so that he can have it serviced.
The rezoning of a site on Hazel Street from Heavy Industrial to Highway Commercial was approved so that Hendry Oil can build a truck stop/convenience store. Several at the meeting said a business that dispenses diesel is well needed in the city. The proposed rezoning had already been approved by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission.
Union Pacific the owner of the Hope Depot Museum property, now that the city's 30-year lease for $1 has expired is asking for $2,590/year and requiring the taking out of several insurance policies by the city. Wilson informed the board of this. UP is also not allowing for track to be repaired until the matter of the lease is settled. More research will take place.
In City Manager's report, Wilson said a letter had been sent to Windstream regarding the deterioration of a box it owns near the Hope Public Schools building. He also asked Hope's Parks Superintendent Summer Chambers to show a series of slides with photography of splash pads constructed by a company based in northwest Arkansas.
