[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