The board’s work also concerned choosing a site for the new fire department headquarters, determining parking policy on important streets, deciding whether or not to take out a $3.7 million 4 percent annual interest loan from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission to pay for wastewater system work and several other matters in the two-hour meeting.

The meeting, which can be seen in its entirety on the City of Hope’s Facebook page, began with City Manager J.R. Wilson setting the context for the decisions to be made concerning the city’s building of a recreation and aquatic center, making improvements to its parks and building a new fire department headquarters. These projects are to be funded by a one-cent tax passed by Hope voters in November 2024 General Election.

He said all work completed up to that evening was preliminary: “We used all that as a basis to try to determine the cost of something that you were wanting to try to accomplish.” He further explained that while the description of the projects included on the ballot would have to be carried out, the board would still have some leeway to make decisions about the projects.

McClelland Consulting Engineers, Inc. which had produced the designs the city board approved, recommended to City Engineer Jeremy Stone the hiring of an architectural firm to oversee the recreation and aquatic center project and take on the responsibility for coordinating the work of several engineers and contractors, Wilson explained. BiLD Architects is a firm Stone recommended but the board could choose another if it wished.

Regarding the park improvement work and the fire department headquarters, Wilson said McClelland would not undertake this either.  But Wilson recommended the board contract with Harston and Associates of Hot Springs for an overall six percent commission.  Stone is one of the engineers on its staff.  Wilson said parks work is within Stone’s expertise and as city engineer he would also help the city with the aquatic and recreational center’s project as well. 

The goal, Wilson said, was to find the best engineering service for the parks improvement and the fire department headquarters possible at the lowest cost. 

Stone then spoke to the board, explaining he would not charge the city for preliminary work on the fire department headquarters since there has not yet been a site chosen for it.  Each project, the fire department, the pickle ball courts, the splash pad at Northside Park, would be done with a separate service agreement. He said the park projects could be started this summer since they were relatively simple to engineer. He pledged to keep the board informed as things proceeded.

Wilson said his goal was to begin with the splash pad and the pickleball/tennis courts but the soccer field may have to wait because of its expense.  

“What we're thinking is we can do a couple of small ones, make them pop, work on this recreation center, get all the costs figured in on it, give us a little room to have some contingencies, and then we can start working on the soccer fields. It would be done before the rec center, but we'd have all this calculation done to know where we need to be in the money to protect that, that jewel of a project,” he said.

The splash pad and pickleball/tennis courts, Wilson said, should be completed at the end of 2025. The fire department headquarters would be finished in early 2026 with more precise financial figures also becoming available on the recreation and aquatic center at that time.  The soccer field work could begin shortly after. Later, Wilson said the recreation and aquatic center would take about three years to complete.

Vice-mayor Kiffinea Talley asked how the basketball courts at Northside Park figured into the plans.  Wilson noted that basketball courts were not in the ballot language, but the board could certainly see that they are also included. “I have no issue putting the basketball court and the refurbishment needed for the basketball court in there. Board tells me that's what they want, that's what you all get,” Stone said.

Talley and Director Ross spoke of the need for the board to provide all it had represented to the public that it would provide, lest criticism arise about the city making a switch without community input.

Stone stated that the projects would be advertised for bid in publications and the contractors submitting bids would only be shown to the city board if they were qualified.  He said Hope had never had problems attracting bids.

To Ross’ question of whether the city had reached out to potential investors, Wilson said Hope High or UAHT had been discussed as well as businesses that might be interested in naming rights or advertising rights.  A deal has been proposed, Wilson said, whereby a recreational fee could be charged to UAHT students that would be provided to the city in exchange for students being able to use the park and recreational facilities by simply showing their student IDs.

Director Trevor Coffee made the motion to enter the city into an agreement with Harston and Associates. After Director Linda Clark’s second, the board voted to enter by unanimous voice vote. The motion to allow Wilson to sign the document also prevailed.

With regard to the recreational and aquatic center, Stone said he had reached out to many places who had completed a similar project and found BiLD to be most recommended.  He had come to an agreement with BiLD which he brought to the board wherein BiLD would charge a six percent commission. Stone said he wants a more reliable number for the total cost of the project based on what the board wants it to include. This would avoid any outstanding costs beyond what the sales tax will bring in. 

Stone said BiLD would likely use an aquatic engineering firm from Tyler, Texas, which had done an aquatic center in Batesville. McLelland Engineering, while it would not lead the project, would be used for a lot of its engineering.  

In answer to Director Steve Montgomery’s question of whether BiLD would pay for the cost estimator, Stone said they would.  Referring to the work Stone had done in negotiations with BiLD, Wilson said, “Let me brag on Jeremy just a minute. This started off at six and a half percent, and they pushed a lot of cost, extra costs, on us. I got with Jeremy and said, Jeremy, I don’t think that's going to work. We need a turnkey job. We need the percentage rate down, and we need them to be responsible for everything. He's negotiated on our behalf. Over the last week, we got them down to six percent total cost. All costs are on them.”

Stone said he would also be on site during construction and would keep the board informed about inspections as well as involve city inspectors and superintendents. BiLD would also stand behind a one-year warranty on its work and that of its contractors. Wilson said this warranty could be extended further.

As concerns were raised about the document Stone provided, the vote on whether to approve it was tabled for the next meeting.

Next, the board took the recommendation of the city manager not to take out a $3.7 million 4 percent annual interest loan from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission to pay for wastewater system work. Wilson explained the city had applied for loan forgiveness, but was turned down and instead offered the loan.  

After a meeting with staff, it was clear to Wilson the disadvantages of accepting the loan were numerous, including it making another raise in Hope, Water and Light’s rates necessary after they had recently been raised. Wilson recommended the loan not be accepted and the city instead focus on addressing its wastewater system one smaller project at a time, building up its financial reserves and perhaps looking to finance with a bond issue later.

The next item on the agenda concerns parking policy on certain important city streets. In a previous meeting consideration of the policy on parking on bicycle lanes on Sixth Street and on 16th Street were briefly mentioned and tabled. Wilson said an ordinance had been prepared to address the issue. 

“I would just say it's a hard topic,” Wilson told the directors. “Because if you take parking away from certain places, and people are needing to park, you're going to push them onto the yards, and that could create code problems. If you don't, you'll have the problems you have with the streets that you're getting calls on.” He said the board should “go slow” on decisions to forbid parking in certain areas and to set public meetings on the subject. But in certain areas cars were impeding the ability of fire trucks to get close to hydrants and homes.

Mayor Don Still agreed that meetings needed to be set and added that he was becoming more concerned with non-working cars parked on the sides of roads and in yards. 

A discussion took place about a list of possible locations in the city for the new fire department headquarters. One was on South Main across from Brazzel Oakcrest Funeral Home and would mean the preliminary design for the headquarters would have to be adjusted to an L shape.  Another, the former Village Shopping Center, would require the razing of buildings that might contain asbestos.  

The board voted in favor of declaring six items owned by the city to be surplus and to put them up for sale. These included a manure spreader, a low boy truck, a low boy trailer, an iron wheel roller, a dump trailer and a tractor. It’s hoped the sale can raise enough to buy a new low boy.

The mayor accepted the requests of Mike Smith and Allen Flowers for additional terms on the Planning and Zoning Commission but tabled the vote to replace Cindy Ford who resigned last week to allow people to come forward to replace her.  The board approved Smith and Flowers with Vice-mayor Talley and Director Clark abstaining because of their being employed by Hope Public Schools, which has an interest in the decisions of the commission.

In City Manager’s Report, Wilson said new financial schedule would be coming from Stephens Inc. based on the results of a recent Federal Reserve Board meeting that might afford the city a better rate on its bonds. 

Vice-mayor Talley said she’d been hearing complaints about the potholes on Hazel and Second Street where repairs had been washed out.  Street Superintendent Kenneth Harvel said he would look into it.

In Citizens Request, Marcia White asked if any of the Parks and Recreation budget could be used for the Hope for the Future projects.  Wilson said this money was used for maintenance and operations of the parks facilities. 

Assistant Daniel Shelman provided an update on the process of an annexation, which he said is now in the hands of Hempstead County.