Still was introduced by former-mayor and current city board member Steve Montgomery who noted Still has been mayor since January of 2021 and has been on the city board since 1992.
At the outset of his talk, Still said, “There's so many exciting things going on in town right now, probably the most I've seen since I've been on the board.” He spoke about several of these items, accompanied by a selection of photos and designs shown on the television screen.
Still began by thanking the City Board members for voting for him for mayor and the volunteers who serve on Hope’s boards and committees for doing so. He also said he was grateful for the work of the City of Hope’s 117 employees, including the departments that consist of about four or five people but still get a lot done.
“The Sanitation Department, for one, they pick up trash, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and then on Wednesday pick up limbs and brush and stuff like that. I probably get more comments about the leaf pickup and limb pickup than anything else. If you live in Texarkana, you have to take those to the place by yourself. Also, on Wednesday, we've got our sanitation crew picking up the street and picking up litter for us during the day,” he said.
Still turned to progress on streets. The Sixth Street project was finished and now striped, he said, and bicycle lanes created. “Then the next project is by Atwoods. I call it the Miracle Mile, but it's right there by the Clinton Center. Really a nice street, new lights and then Klipsch has made the land over there really a nice place,” he continued, adding that land nearby that used to be occupied by the Jay Kopecky residence will be used for a veterans memorial. A veterans committee is now considering designs.
He also mentioned the Pocket Park on East Second, which has benefited from grants. “It really gets used a lot. … It's a nice place to have a little venue. Got a stage on the back, and it's used. And hopefully when the weather gets nice, people from courthouse can go over and have lunch there, but it's just a really nice thing for us to have downtown.” Still also highlighted work done to replace a pipe at North Elm and another that had collapsed in the Mockingbird neighborhood.
Still said that while it was a lot of work for the City Board to place a one-cent sales tax on last November’s ballot to finance the building of an aquatic/recreational center, a new fire department headquarters, improvements to the park system and the maintenance of the aquatic/rec center, the aftermath was proving to be a lot to handle as well. Later in his talk, he elaborated on what the board members have had to do lately.
“We've been working with engineers. It's kind of like the dog catching the car. It was a whole lot easier to sell this tax than what we're doing right now. Now we're talking to engineers, and I've got like 100 questions, and you're sitting there going, ‘I haven't even thought about this.’ It's a fun stage, but it's a lot of work for the board,” he said.
Starting with the project that will be completed the soonest, Still gave a progress report on the North Side Park splash pad. “We're going to let bids on that probably in the next month. We’ve got three companies. We're going to tell them how much we want to spend, and those three companies are going to come up with the most they can put in the project to make it work. … That's going to be on North Side, and we're going to add a bathroom,” he said. Having spoken to a Prescott employee about their splash pad, Still said the installation there is very popular. No lifeguards will be necessary because of the water level being under two inches.
Next, Still spoke about the pickleball and tennis courts to be constructed at Fair Park where the tennis courts currently are. He showed an overhead diagram of the layout of the courts and illustrations of the restroom to be installed there as well as shaded benches. “[I] probably get more comments about this than anything. Everybody's ready to play pickleball. If you go to Conway, or you go to Little Rock, this is what's really going with the kids right now,” Still said. Now that the design is established, soil samples are being taken at the site.
Still also showed designs for the exterior and rough blueprints of the interior of the aquatic/recreation center, which is planned to be built on the southwestern corner of the intersection of Sixteenth Street and Spring Hill Road. The center will feature an indoor pool suitable for swim competitions all year round, two basketball courts, a running track in the upstairs and offices for the Parks and Recreation Department staff in front. A separate smaller pool will also be provided for the use of the disabled and a larger pool will be built to use just outdoors that will replace the current Fair Park pool that has been used since at least the 1940s.
Turning to the new fire department, Still said that while a site has been chosen in the former Village Shopping Center at the S-curve of East Third Street, the decision of whether to purchase the land there has not yet been made pending the results of asbestos tests of the buildings to be torn down and environment tests of the soil there. The second most popular site for the board is on South Main Street across from Brazzel Funeral Home.
In the question and answer period, a Lion asked how many staffers would be hired to work in the Aquatic/Rec Center. Still estimated this would be about five. Another asked for the estimated cost of the new fire station. Director Montgomery and Mayor Still agreed it was over $4 million. Still said the results of testing and how much it would cost to get the site at Village Shopping Center suitable could cause the city to use its second choice of site.
Still spoke of other things occurring with city government. It continues to be responsible to maintain its railroad track in the Industrial Park, which means the Street Department fixing it after derailment damage. The replacement of a wastewater pump is a looming expense as well as the replacement of a 30-year-old bailer at the city’s landfill and the purchasing of a bulldozer to work there. Because the state’s regulatory agencies impose new standards without providing funding, that cost goes to city taxpayers, Still said.
In answer to a question about where brush and limbs go after they are collected by the Sanitation Department, Still said they were taken to a site on airport land where, with permission from the state Department of Environmental Quality, they were burned. A suggestion was made to recycle the material as free or low-cost mulch. Still and Montgomery said they would look into this possibility.
Another Lion asked if a membership fee would be charged to users of the aquatic/recreation center. Still answered yes but this would be part of a set of rules so that users would be more likely to take care of the facility and not misbehave lest their membership be revoked.
Asked about what would happen to Hope’s current main fire station on 308 East Second, Still said it would no longer be used by the fire department but Fire Station 2 on North Hazel would continue operations.
Near the end of the meeting, Still again thanked volunteers for helping with city operations and mentioned opportunities to help on clean-up days that are scheduled about twice a year.
Hope’s mayor is a member of the Hope City Board of Directors chosen by a vote held among all seven members. Mayors in Hope preside over city board meetings, which occur on the first and third Tuesdays of every month in the City Hall’s first floor boardroom. In the event of a tie vote by the board members, mayors can vote to break the tie.
