[0:17] you

[3:09] [Music]

[3:16] and you can swear people in there reelected yeah well my plan is gonna

[3:22] need you know dead so uh me every step of Michael router so now let's trust

[3:26] almost where he might be same day good evening everyone

[4:19] we always precede each council meeting with the word of prayer and the pledge

[4:23] of allegiance if you would like please feel free to join us if you'll bow with

[4:30] me our gracious Father we thank you for all

[4:33] the abundant blessings that you've given us we thank you Lord for this city that

[4:37] you've made a Stewart's of and we just ask Lord that everything that we do and

[4:41] say that you will get the power in the glory and it will honor you in your name

[4:45] we pray amen now call this meeting to order mr. Guerra would you call the roll

[5:06] please mr. Hawkins here mr. ground here mr.

[5:09] Brue here miss Mel here you should have received copies of the February 25th

[5:16] 2020 City Council meeting the minutes any Corrections changes or comments like

[5:21] a motion to approve second we have a motion in a second to approve the

[5:25] minutes as submitted there are no further discussion all in favor say aye

[5:34] before we start tonight I would like to welcome the advanced reporting class for

[5:37] Miss Stevens class from University of Central Arkansas welcome and we'll start

[5:41] tonight with a brief update from the bicycle and pedestrian Advisory Board

[5:45] [Music] mr. mayor members of the council my name

[5:50] is joy Georgie I'm the current chair of the Conway bicycle and pedestrian

[5:54] advisory board and I am so grateful for the opportunity to speak with you today

[5:59] we submitted our annual report for your review and we also submitted a few

[6:04] slides with some pictures that might enhance our presentation today okay

[6:09] great so if you would like to view the

[6:12] pictures while I talk they are not necessary but we'll give you just

[6:16] another view of the activities of our organization

[6:20] so on behalf of the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board we just want

[6:26] to let you know how excited and energized we are right now

[6:30] we had a wonderful retreat at the beginning of the year and have

[6:34] celebrated some of our successes and are building on that with some great goals

[6:38] for 2020 and we have a new mission that we are pursuing into 2020 and that

[6:43] mission is to have Conway Arkansas become a community in which bicyclists

[6:50] and pedestrians of all ages and abilities are able to safely navigate

[6:55] and wreck create along streets and trails to destinations across the city

[6:59] so that is what is driving us and we have some specific action goals how we

[7:05] think we might get there this year but we wanted to let you know that you are

[7:11] invited to join us in that mission and in that vision so some of the the big

[7:16] things that you might see as the result of our work are the infrastructure

[7:19] things from the big pedestrian bridge over Dave Ward Drive to the smaller

[7:24] things like repainted crosswalks flashing beacons near schools those are

[7:29] all things that the bicycle and pedestrian Advisory Board has advocated

[7:33] for and it has been involved in the planning and execution of those projects

[7:37] we are so thankful for the investment of the city and things especially like the

[7:43] sidewalk maintenance program and sidewalk new sidewalks being built

[7:48] across the city this makes a big difference for the day-to-day lives of

[7:53] many in our community and we are so grateful and we are also excited about

[7:57] recent and future grant successes bringing additional funds into our city

[8:01] to help us achieve these goals that we have set out for us we have very

[8:06] constructive partnerships with the Transportation Department and with the

[8:09] Planning Department and those are the relationships that are enabling us to

[8:13] have a voice in the visioning and the planning and the execution of these

[8:18] projects and without those we would we would not be able to do the things that

[8:23] we hope to do we also have plans and goals to facilitate community engagement

[8:30] with the city related to these project planning prioritization and needs

[8:34] assessment we can have all the dreams and goals in the world but without

[8:39] really understanding what our community wants and what

[8:44] it's gonna be a bridge to nowhere or it's gonna be a sidewalk that no one

[8:48] ever walks on and we don't want that to happen so the ideal case is that we find

[8:54] these projects and priorities that meet existing needs so this is something that

[8:59] the pedestrian and bicycle master plans are really positioned well to do we have

[9:04] a recent pedestrian master plan that has been a guide for the sidewalks that have

[9:09] been built such as a long Tyler Street and the planned sidewalks along Clark

[9:14] Ryder Street we are very excited about those and and believe that they are

[9:19] meeting a current and real need in our community but it is not always the case

[9:24] that if you build it they will come so there has to be work about changing

[9:30] the culture in our community as well and that's also where beep have is engaging

[9:35] and how we feel like we can engage there is through education it's through events

[9:40] and it's through enforcement mechanisms we have built relationships with the

[9:45] school district because starting with kids is a great place to change culture

[9:50] so we have had huge success in walk to school days and bike to school days we

[9:55] saw over 600 kids come out this fall and walk to school with us it was a

[10:00] wonderful wonderful event and we know kids want to be out there they want to

[10:05] be walking they want to be biking we want to provide an environment a built

[10:09] environment and a culture that enables them to do what they already want to do

[10:14] but we also have to change their parents minds and that B might be a little bit

[10:19] harder so we have other plans such as a friendly driver program coming up with

[10:26] you see a community outreach to help drivers better understand how they can

[10:30] relate to those that they are sharing the roadways and the sidewalks with

[10:36] we're also working with the school district wellness physical education

[10:41] departments PTO s to build those relationships with parents

[10:45] administrators staff members that can change not just on the children's

[10:50] experience but the whole community's experience and we know that in order to

[10:56] create change you can in carats but you also have to bring

[10:58] some sticks too so some of the carrots that we hope we're bringing maybe a

[11:03] commuter challenge keep your ears out for this in the fall of the year we

[11:08] would like to encourage companies and organizations within Conway to put their

[11:14] walking shoes on to get out their bikes and compete against each other to see

[11:19] who can participate in walking to school and by walking to work and biking to

[11:24] work the most we also have our regular Bike to Work days in the spring this on

[11:31] the stick side of things we have cooperated with the district courts

[11:37] actually institute some mandatory participation and our friendly driver

[11:41] program that will be coming up for those that are in traffic court and we're

[11:46] working with the Conway Police Department to do some targeted

[11:49] enforcement such as speeding and some highly traveled pedestrian zones or

[11:55] parking on on sidewalks and bike lanes that sort of thing so the strength of

[12:00] beep Ave is really that we can build these partnerships across city

[12:04] departments and across the community and we can bring many stakeholders to the

[12:09] table in order to achieve these goals in this vision that we have so we do invite

[12:14] you to join with us we would love for you to come and observe what we do we

[12:19] need the third Thursday of every month so our next meeting will be this coming

[12:24] Thursday the 19th we will be at the Chamber of Commerce building you may get

[12:29] an email from me in the next few days inviting you specifically to join us

[12:33] because we really would love to see you and you'll hear about our upcoming

[12:37] events you will be included when we publicize events such as this commuter

[12:43] challenge we would love to have the city participate in that and we want you to

[12:49] join with us in this mission moving Conway forward towards this vision where

[12:55] bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities are able to transit and to

[13:02] recreation to get wherever they want safely and and to do it

[13:09] on it on a day-to-day basis so thank you very much for your time and we look

[13:15] forward to working with you more well you leave but this yes sir thank you and

[13:19] your group for what you're doing it does make a difference it does help if

[13:22] someone who is not an avid bicyclist I'm hearing from you guys and telling us

[13:26] what you see and what's important it really does help and a great example of

[13:31] something that I would never thought of just my office is not far from the bike

[13:35] trail on Salem and last week I went into a co-workers office and there was a

[13:41] bicycle and she used the bike trail go come to work on nice days it was like

[13:45] it's fantastic so what you're doing is make a difference so thank you thank you

[13:49] I have a question for you I don't think is the city we're ready yet for anyone

[13:53] to be in a full-time role but I know a lot of the funding out there some of the

[13:59] city and some of the grant folks are a little hesitant to to push their grants

[14:04] towards the city of Conway because we don't have a specific person tied to

[14:08] that what what are your thoughts on that we would always advocate for a greater

[14:13] staff support for what we do I mean we are a volunteer board we have one staff

[14:19] member with five percent of their role allocated to supporting our board and

[14:23] there's only so much we can do and it really depends on the time and the

[14:27] dedication of the volunteers to get it done especially having somebody who can

[14:33] facilitate the grant request themselves is a very important need for us without

[14:39] a full-time grant writer the city is not going to be successful in in getting the

[14:45] funds that could support the ongoing work of our board I know a few

[14:49] conversations I've had they go they always were know who's your who's your

[14:53] person yeah okay thank you yes one yeah one thing I'd like to see and I don't

[15:00] know this is possible it's probably been brought up before but in regards to bike

[15:03] to school month you know it's we have a whole month for it but we only have a

[15:07] single bike to school day of all that so you know what's stopping us from

[15:13] recruiting volunteers maybe regular cyclists you know that are out there a

[15:17] lot and maybe aiming at one school per week you know during back to school

[15:22] month and we're gonna specifically say anybody

[15:24] from this school that wants to ride their bike to school even if it's you

[15:27] know from the gas station down the street it's still there riding their

[15:30] bikes parents can bring them and and whatnot

[15:33] and then maybe have a bike the school day at the end of the month where hey

[15:37] they learned her route to school they might not have known before right so now

[15:41] instead of having just you know 275 is great but you know there's no reason we

[15:46] couldn't have a hundred from each school you know by the end of the month if we

[15:49] kind of focused maybe one or two each each week right so I don't know if

[15:53] that's something that you guys have thought of or if it's something that

[15:56] maybe we could look at possibly looking into a little bit more but I mean I

[16:01] would be willing to volunteer and I'm sure I can get a handful of other

[16:04] volunteers it would be willing to help out you know on the route to school in

[16:07] the morning thank you thank you I appreciate your ear volunteerism and I

[16:11] think part of why we haven't been able to do more is because it is so volunteer

[16:17] dependent we need the parents that are willing to get out there with their kids

[16:21] we need the parents or neighbors that are willing to be out there watching

[16:26] crosswalks watching places where kids are crossing major streets organizing

[16:32] bike trains I have a friend in a neighborhood just adjacent to Juliet

[16:36] Lemoore and they actually have a neighborhood bike train that has been

[16:40] going for several years now and it's very very successful they go year-round

[16:44] and they share the load between the parents taking their kids just a couple

[16:50] parents with a whole group of kids every day to school and I guess I would just

[16:55] correct you slightly that may is Bike Month it's not necessarily bike to

[17:00] school month so it is something that is supported by the League of American

[17:06] cyclists and it is an awareness month more so than an activity month there are

[17:11] specific days bike to school day bike to work day that are highlighted within the

[17:17] month but the month itself is set aside more as advocacy and awareness thank you

[17:28] to help facilitate helping them arranging the volunteers I think we're

[17:36] to that point now where we've got to seriously consider it as a as a city as

[17:42] we look forward down the road to public transportation that'll also play into

[17:47] that too because people have got to be able to walk or bike to a place where

[17:51] they can be picked up or dropped off so thank you for your time thank you thank

[17:55] you get together and put a team together and ride we can do it I will say that I

[18:01] did ride with someone from city halls the last time they rode with me and I'm

[18:04] three vehicles passed me and they were all laughing I couldn't figure out when

[18:08] I look back mr. Garrett was laying on the pavement anyway okay next up we have

[18:27] our standing committees and mr. Hawkins we will turn this portion over to you

[18:31] development mr. mayor the next item on this portion of the agenda is a

[18:36] resolution setting a public hearing to discuss the closing of a portion of a

[18:40] drainage drainage easement on lot 27 in the Mathews Meadows Subdivision phase 2

[18:47] and we have a resolution to be read for this item its resolution our 2014 14

[19:00] make a motion for adoption of the resolution

[19:04] we have motion in a second to approve this resolution any other such

[19:09] resolution mr. mayor on the 24th day of March of this year at 6:30 p.m. it's

[19:15] correct any further discussion mr. Garrett all in favor say aye all opposed

[19:23] passes 7-0 next item is mr. show Thank You mr.

[19:30] Hawkins do what November November 24 there was there was only two days March

[19:40] 24th or April 14th or April 14th for the two dates listed possible we went with

[19:50] March 24th that works Springboro got it yeah well I'm bringing

[19:58] that up I'll be bringing it up to y'all here they might change Frank yes mr.

[20:06] Hawkins and final item here mr. Mayer's

[20:10] resolution to approve purchase of a street sweeper for the transportation

[20:13] department and right I think you have bids to talk about this is actually a

[20:25] contract that's exactly what I just see close to our so we're asking you to

[20:34] approve the mid quote and there's a couple reasons for that this piece of

[20:38] equipment offered more options as far as repair and maintenance it would be a

[20:41] little bit easier as well as the parts or repair is from Cersei as opposed to

[20:48] the lowest quote being no you would have to take that piece of equipment to

[20:51] Memphis does this replace our current one mr. Vance there was this add on an

[20:57] additional we have two that are operational right now this was replaces

[21:04] the one that's ten years old okay thank you thank you motion for adoption of the

[21:07] resolution second we have a motion in a second to

[21:10] adopt this resolution to purchase the street sweeper for the Transportation

[21:13] Department any further discussion mr. Garrity our

[21:18] 2015 only favor say yeah I almost passes seven to zero thank you mr. Hawkins yes

[21:25] sir mr. mayor next up we have an ordinance authorizing authorizing a

[21:29] change in the staffing levels at the physical plant mr. Spenser Clawson Tony

[21:35] for those of y'all that know Tony has retired after 33 years of service

[21:39] with county harrington alright I'm here to ask for increase of my staffing

[21:50] levels physical department with that will come a budget adjustment we're

[21:55] needing to fill a spot of custodian to spot in order to maintain City

[21:59] properties effectively right now have one person acting capacity of a

[22:03] custodian and with the new city hall addition to all those bathrooms on

[22:07] square footage we're going to need somebody else and that's from here it's

[22:10] not for my commotion why the three readings thank you

[22:14] we have motion in a second to waive the three readings all in favor say aye any

[22:18] opposed and I'll speak to this briefly Jamie

[22:21] took quotes on bringing in a janitorial service to take care of new city hall

[22:28] this is I promise you you are quite a bit it saves us a lot of money option

[22:37] with emergency clause barrier we have motion a second to adopted soreness with

[22:43] emergency clause in four it says as an emergency okay well we don't need that

[22:54] you need an emergency no no we're good we have a motion a second to adopt a

[22:58] soreness any further discussion mr. Garrett miss Mel

[23:02] aye mr. Jones yes miss Smith yes mr. Hoffman yes mr. Grimes

[23:07] aye mr. Pruitt aye mrs. B yes that ordinance will be Oh 2015 Thank You

[23:13] Spencer thank you very much we have

[23:16] consideration to approve the removal of inventory from fifth set fixed assets

[23:20] some vehicles and equipment for the Department of Sanitation mr. hopper will

[23:24] speak to this good evening reconsideration tonight we just have

[23:33] three passenger vehicles one heavy truck and two pieces of heavy equipment these

[23:40] are in line with our replacement schedule also it should be noted we do

[23:46] have two dozers on there our next agenda item will be a single

[23:51] dozer to replace those two so I'm gonna make that notice I make a motion to

[23:56] reprove I prayed this request motion and a second to approve this resolution any

[24:02] further discussion mr. Garrett all in favor say aye host mr. hopper you're up

[24:12] talk about bulldozer sir like I said we we've got two dozers we'd like to remove

[24:19] from our fleet and one of those dozers is riding the wrong wrong area when we

[24:26] operate it's too small for part of what we're doing too big for others so this

[24:32] will will save the city money with regards to operations and make our

[24:37] department more efficient I don't have a big a d9 and d-10 cat how big is this

[24:43] one so this is a finished dozer so we will use it on slopes and things like

[24:49] that roads we've got it we also have a 950 which is more in line with the d9

[24:55] okay I just like bulldozers eyes editor I played with Alaska motion read the

[25:02] adoption of the resolution second we have a motion and second to

[25:05] approve this resolution for the purchase of this 700 series dozer for Santos

[25:11] Department any further discussion mr. Garrett

[25:15] your resolution our 2016 favor say aye

[25:21] thank you Joe next up we have an ordinance request from the human

[25:28] resources department to reco reclassify position in that office miss Mabry

[25:32] Williams thank you I have a new person in my department

[25:38] he has been there since November he's taken on many duties the the preview

[25:44] person that was previously in that position was not doing and based on the

[25:49] amount of responsibilities he has I would like to reclassify his title only

[25:55] at this time make a motion we weigh the three readings

[25:59] have a motion in a second wave the three readings all in favor say aye aye

[26:04] any opposed passed a seven to zero option second we have motion it is safe

[26:10] to adopt this ordinance which will authorize the changes within the human

[26:13] resources department any further discussion

[26:15] can you translate that you only want to reclassify I'm changing the position

[26:23] title at this point no money change not at this time that's what I heard you

[26:30] that's what I thought I heard you saved that you didn't say it this person has

[26:34] been in the position for approximately three months now yeah he really does a

[26:39] good job yeah he's doing an excellent job please do mr. Garrett the ordinance

[26:48] o 2016 mr. Pruit hi mr. Grimes I miss mal hi Miss Smith yes mr. Jones

[26:54] yes mrs. bee yes mr. hawk yes thank you thank you Lisa thank you thank you later

[27:00] I say cast our next meeting is scheduled for March 24th that's all the business

[27:04] we have to not Chuck's going to speak to us briefly our next meeting scheduled

[27:07] for March 24 that is spring break I know some of you have family coming or y'all

[27:12] are going to meet family would y'all like to cancel that meeting or proceed

[27:16] with it I'll be here we'll just we'll just keep the date works for me I'm not

[27:29] going anywhere

[27:34] yeah hopefully I know Felicia told me to never give

[27:43] dates so Felicia if you're watching this they're twisting my arm here hopefully

[27:49] we're gonna be in that we'll have our first council meeting in the new

[27:53] building in April when our first council being in April you better be prepared to

[27:57] duck a lot of things yep there's my phone she just let it

[28:07] wait change you know the one thing keeps changing homes they're trying to get

[28:11] some of the outside done in the rain keep setting them back much like our

[28:15] streets a lot of our street repairs has really been set back due to the rain yes

[28:19] sir covered coming on fan ruffle pardon me

[28:23] Van Roekel has that coming van ronk old family said he would have it complete by

[28:27] the time tow truck gate days gets here so it's closed Markham they're actually

[28:37] just as there they're behind a little bit on mark them as well Finley and I

[28:42] discussed it today Van ronk if it doesn't rain toad suck days and then

[28:46] hopefully Markham Street it's going to take it a little on presented it's much

[28:50] too big out and tear out there and we had to wait for some infrastructure

[28:53] being moved but it has progressed nicely on these days when the weather's been

[28:58] good but if we can get that section opened up in front of those businesses

[29:01] they're on Van ronk and Markham that'll that'll be a tremendous help

[29:05] yeah chuckles death they just saw our trial that we had last week it was the

[29:18] Millers Palladino it was the only litigation that came in with the airport

[29:23] construction and ultimately our kind of break it down those steps as a

[29:29] subcontractor Palladino was a general contractor he sued Palladino and

[29:33] Palladino brought us in as a third party defendant we had a three day jury trial

[29:38] the third day Wednesday went in I think I got home about 1:30 in the morning but

[29:44] though Wilcox like I said we hired outside counsel I assisted him as

[29:48] co-counsel in this matter basically because his his expertise with

[29:52] construction law and construction contracts it was too big an issue for me

[29:56] that although I wanted to take it on with our office I thought to be better

[29:59] to hire outside counsel for it anyway the claim was for 1.8 million

[30:04] potentially that was our exposure in that I felt very very strongly that the

[30:09] we wouldn't be held liable and the jury agree so in that particular case we won

[30:16] mr. Jones got the witness the whole thing situation but just with the the

[30:28] efforts put in on the front end with the contract language and things like that

[30:31] we were very well insulated from insult from liability

[30:34] we're insulated from liability it was a pleasure to try the case with mr. Wilcox

[30:39] and we're well represented for sure mr. Jones give us your burger chains just

[30:51] one more time so make sure we have enough for a quorum

[30:54] yeah please I see how many folks will be here at the 24th yeah we're good okay

[31:02] that's all we have for tonight I'll take a motion to adjourn that make we are

[31:05] adjourned thank you

Conway, AR City Council 3/10/20

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