[0:00] a city council meeting here we've got a
few members
[0:04] connecting over the telephone
and we have one council member who's on
[0:09] his way should be here in a few minutes
[0:13] but again bear with us this is a this is
a different
[0:17] um type setting but we're used to it
we've
[0:20] been doing this for quite a while but um
if you would uh please stand
[0:27] i'm going to leave the invocation and
then we'll
[0:30] recite the pledge of allegiance
lord god we just thank you for today
[0:36] thank you for the many blessings that
you've given us
[0:39] god thank you for the responsibility
you've chosen us for to lead this city
[0:43] we just thank you for
just guiding us and granting us the
[0:47] wisdom to make good decisions for the
citizens of this community
[0:50] and we're very thankful for that
opportunity we pray for those who are
[0:55] sick those who are going through
difficult times lord help us to be there
[0:59] for them
and to help us to honor you in
[1:01] everything we do in jesus name
[1:07] [Music]
[1:11] and amen the republic for which it
stands one nation
[1:15] under god indivisible with liberty and
justice for all
[1:20] thank you
[1:36] will the clerk please call the roll
council member dodson
[1:40] council member nealand
[1:45] council member petty
council member sparkman
[1:52] council member swain
councilmember wood
[2:01] thank you the next item on the agenda is
the
[2:05] consent agenda this includes minutes
from the last meeting on august 24th
[2:11] a resolution accepting a highest bidder
in fact fixed assets
[2:15] our regular financial statements that we
have at every meeting the department of
[2:20] reports and a strict closing request
from top do i hear a motion to approve
[2:27] the consent agenda
[2:32] we have a motion
[2:35] we have a motion in a second
all in favor of the motion
[2:42] can you pose declare the motion carried
thank you
[2:49] the next item on the agenda is a
resolution to authorize
[2:52] the city to enter into an agreement with
hawkins ware engineers for a downtown
[2:56] drainage project
i'll ask the clerk to please read the
[2:59] resolution
being enacted by the city council for
[3:03] the city of van buren arkansas a
resolution to be entitled
[3:06] a resolution authorizing the mayor to
enter into a contract for engineering
[3:10] services
for the city of bangor and arkansas and
[3:12] for other purposes whereas the city of
baker and arkansas has 2012
[3:16] sales tax initiative funds available for
the chad calling park access road
[3:20] project
and whereas in order to commence the
[3:23] project the city is in native
professional engineering services
[3:26] for the development of plans and designs
cost estimates and supervision for safe
[3:30] project
now therefore be resolved by the city
[3:33] council of the city of van buren
arkansas
[3:35] that section one the mayor is authorized
to enter into a contract
[3:38] exhibit a with hawkins square engineers
incorporated to provide engineering
[3:42] services for the development of plans
and specifications
[3:45] for the chad crawley clark access rogue
project and shall not exceed 5
[3:49] 700 including reimbursable expenses
[3:56] thank you for that mr saller you're here
to represent
[4:00] hawkins where before i start talking
about things i probably don't understand
[4:04] very well or can't articulate as good as
you would you'd like to just give us
[4:07] kind of a heads up or
just a summary of what this project's
[4:11] about
sure and and this one is the chat valley
[4:14] park first is that the one where
[4:17] the ones you read i think it's chad
cauley parks mom
[4:21] uh chad colley park access road project
okay
[4:26] yeah sorry about that sure uh that
project uh
[4:30] we've been assisting the city uh with
that joint project between the city and
[4:34] county
to construct the access road and park uh
[4:38] parking lot improvements there for the
chad colley park
[4:41] that consists of both surveying design
elements and producing plans that will
[4:46] ultimately be used
in their construction efforts we're
[4:49] limiting our scope
in that project to just what's
[4:52] essentially needed by the city and the
county to construct these improvements
[4:56] [Music]
so it has a lot of elements that we
[4:59] wouldn't normally have in a publicly
bidded project that's going out
[5:03] to area contractors because they're
intending to do this with their own
[5:06] forces so
i'll be willing to answer any questions
[5:11] y'all may have about that specific
project
[5:12] that covers our services in basic terms
i appreciate that this is a this is a
[5:18] project that's been
really on a lot of our minds for a while
[5:22] now we've been delayed
because of various issues that we've had
[5:27] not
because of construction or anything from
[5:30] the engineers but just from
either mother nature flooding or the
[5:35] pandemic
as money has become more available
[5:39] through this this year it was time to
proceed with this project and we're
[5:45] excited about it this is a trails
project that's
[5:48] got a lot of partnerships it's got
donations from the community from
[5:55] various groups and
we've worked when mayor freeman was here
[6:01] that was when the original plan that the
city council approved that
[6:05] the city's portion of that has always
been the
[6:09] entrance and the access and that's what
we're working on
[6:14] here and another another
great benefit to this just like the
[6:19] other project we're going to talk about
later is the drainage
[6:22] we've said that a few times before that
we've got some drainage issues
[6:26] in the in the city and anytime that we
can address that drainage and improve
[6:31] that
we're going to try to do that and
[6:34] there's a lot of drainage issues in this
area as well behind the houses
[6:39] and so many of the residents that i've
spoken to they're really excited about
[6:41] that
not only just the trails but but also
[6:44] the drainage improvements
that'll be going on so we're excited to
[6:48] get this going and
i appreciate hawkinswear and their
[6:52] guidance in this
[6:56] any other questions comments
we have a motion to approve uh council
[7:04] member swain
in a second by council member dotson uh
[7:10] will the clerk please call the roll
council member swain
[7:16] council member wood
[7:19] council member neyland
[7:23] councilmember dodson aye
okay the eyes have it therefore declare
[7:33] the resolution number
[7:36] 9-2-20-20
9-2-20-20 has passed
[7:46] on to our other project with hawkinswear
this is the next item on the agenda's
[7:51] resolution to authorize entering into an
agreement with hawkinswear for
[7:55] other drainage improvements these are
going to be downtown
[7:59] i'll ask the clerk to please read the
resolution
[8:02] being enacted by the city council for
the city of bangor and arkansas a
[8:06] resolution to be entitled
resolution authorizing the mayor to
[8:09] enter into a contract for engineering
services for the city of van buren
[8:12] arkansas and for other purposes
for as the city of bayview and arkansas
[8:16] has received federal aid transportation
alternatives program grant funds for a
[8:20] downtown streetscape project
and whereas the downtown streetscape and
[8:24] drainage improvements project requires
a drainage evaluation and report to
[8:28] address necessary stormwater
drainage improvements affecting the
[8:32] downtown and whereas for
storm drainage lines in the system need
[8:36] to be cleaned and inspected to clean the
evaluation of the downtown storm
[8:40] drainage
system not therefore be it resolved by
[8:42] the city council of the city of banvier
and arkansas
[8:45] that section one the mayor is authorized
to enter a contract
[8:48] exhibit a with hawkins where engineers
incorporated to provide engineering
[8:52] services for the development of plans
and specifications for the downtown
[8:55] drainage cleaning
and cctv inspection project payment
[8:59] shall not exceed 27 000
plus any applicable reimbursable
[9:03] expenses
very good this is again mr saller is
[9:08] here to discuss this project and
this is a project that we first
[9:14] discussed this quite a while back with a
grant that we received
[9:17] from the arkansas department of
transportation
[9:21] for downtown streetscape improvements
there was at the time there was a
[9:28] plan for drainage improvements at the
same time
[9:31] and then as we've looked really more
into it
[9:35] that project continues to get bigger
and there's a lot of drainage issues
[9:41] that we're going to try to address here
i'm really excited about this but kyle
[9:45] would you uh
sure thank you mayor yeah
[9:50] as the mayor mentioned this is an
extension of the initial main street
[9:53] escape
project drainage evaluation what we
[9:57] discovered
in trying to address the drainage needs
[10:01] for that project
the existing drainage that runs along
[10:04] washington street
and ultimately goes under simmons food
[10:07] before it goes
to the river that line was undersized in
[10:11] part of our survey effort we have found
an existing drainage system that
[10:16] takes off from that same line and
conveys water to another location
[10:20] in town ditch it appears that the
line has been in there for some time we
[10:25] don't know the condition of it
and this project is to go in and not
[10:30] only clean the line because
right now you can't access the line
[10:33] because a lot of the debris that's in
the line
[10:36] and not only clean it but go in and do a
cctv inspection to determine if the
[10:40] condition of this
pipe will ultimately benefit the main
[10:44] street
project so that we can tie in our
[10:46] drainage on the downstream in and
ultimately get that out to the river
[10:49] and hopefully minimize some flooding
that's been happening in those areas in
[10:53] the past
so this covers an area between
[10:56] washington street and sycamore
along 2nd street corridor so this is if
[11:00] you can envision paralleling the
railroad tracks and the levee system in
[11:05] downtown
um and has a combination of pipe sizes
[11:10] we've really only got three entry points
where we've been able to to get in and
[11:13] take a look at it
but we're talking about some pretty
[11:15] large diameter lines that were designed
years ago to essentially be the artery
[11:21] for drainage down in the downtown area
so we feel like these are vital
[11:24] to the city on being able to address
drainage needs long term down there and
[11:29] hopefully
like i mentioned earlier will help
[11:31] alleviate some flooding that you'll see
in the past
[11:34] our services will take it through field
survey
[11:37] final design advertising and bidding and
construction management
[11:41] so that's what's included in our
proposed fee
[11:45] very good thank you kyle any other
questions
[11:48] comments for anyone
[11:52] i also appreciate wally all his work in
the planning department
[11:56] [Music]
we also got another piece to this in the
[12:00] future that we're applying for a grant
to address
[12:03] more drainage issues in the downtown
area so
[12:07] we're going to address this with the
streetscape and
[12:10] and some drainage with this grant
but there's as we know there's more
[12:15] drainage issues to address and we're
excited about that opportunity
[12:19] for the future so we'll be back probably
again soon to
[12:23] to get your blessing on that
if that's it then we need a motion to
[12:29] approve
we have a motion from council member
[12:33] dotson
[12:36] we have a second by council member wood
will the clerk please call rob
[12:42] councilmember swain
[12:46] council member wood
[12:49] councilmember nealon
councilmember dodson
[12:58] that's for the eyes habit and therefore
declare the resolution number
[13:04] 9-3-20-20.
9-3-2020 has passed
[13:10] thank you very much
[13:14] the next item is our
commission appointments there's one
[13:19] appointment and one reappointment
the reappointment is for ms this is
[13:26] mindy london she's on the advertising
and promotion commission
[13:30] she's done a really good job with her
tenure so far and
[13:34] she'd be willing to serve again and so
we're going to consider her
[13:38] reappointment
the other appointment is actually for
[13:42] the van buren municipal utilities
commission
[13:45] mr dufresne is here to maybe give some
comments but
[13:50] we'll be considering the appointment of
tracy barba
[13:54] who coincidentally is the first female
appointed to this commission in the
[13:58] history
of our city we're really excited about
[14:02] adding her to the commission a lot of
important things going on
[14:05] and she has a lot of expertise in this
area and
[14:09] we're excited about it i guess the sad
thing about this
[14:12] is we will be losing jw floyd who
has been on this commission for 30 years
[14:18] nearly every
day yeah so so we're sad to see him go
[14:22] but
we appreciate his service and everything
[14:25] that he's done for this community
but we're excited about the future and
[14:29] excited for miss
miss burba um mr dufresne do you have
[14:34] anything else you want to do
uh no just that the the commission
[14:38] permission is met with
miss burma and we're i think she will be
[14:41] a good addition
uh we've got a got a good strong
[14:45] commission
and we've got a lot of good a lot of
[14:48] good moving parts right now getting a
lot of stuff down
[14:54] so we'll need a motion to approve the
reappointment
[14:57] and the appointment for mindy london and
tracy burba
[15:04] we have a motion to approve
[15:09] and a second all in favor of the motion
in the impose i declare the motion
[15:16] carrying
[15:19] that's essentially the end of our normal
business
[15:22] i did want to mention
as we've been navigating this pandemic
[15:28] of course the finances has been
a big question and it's caused the city
[15:33] to
delay many projects and just try to see
[15:37] what sort of finances and revenue that
will be having
[15:40] to come in the good news is even though
we've had
[15:44] delays in projects the good news is that
we're
[15:47] at this point in the year compared to
last year were
[15:52] 11 above where we were last year
in our sales tax from the city and our
[15:57] county sales tax
so we're really excited about that this
[16:01] past month
um the county was up 14.8
[16:05] compared to 2019 and the city was up 8.2
so we're excited about that we're
[16:11] excited even though in these difficult
times that
[16:15] in some ways we're saving money for the
future but also we still have money to
[16:20] employ our great employees and haven't
had to let anyone go for that
[16:24] so we're excited and thankful for sure
any questions about that anyone
[16:32] and i also did want to just remind
everyone
[16:36] that as i'm still talking through a mask
that we're still in phase two
[16:43] of the pandemic and we are still needing
to be vigilant to wear masks to
[16:48] physically distance to wash our hands
and be as
[16:52] hygienic as possible in this time and i
just want to encourage everyone to
[16:56] continue that
don't let up even though some things are
[17:00] opening up more
it's still a serious issue and we wanted
[17:05] to do what we can to help each other and
keep each other healthy
[17:10] so thank you for that the
last thing before we hear a motion to
[17:15] adjourn
i want to recognize miss jennifer froud
[17:20] who is uh in the back there with the
mask on
[17:23] um this will be her last council meeting
and
[17:27] she has been with the city for uh
it's about 10 and a half years almost 11
[17:33] years and
um i know just we we actually started
[17:37] nearly the same time when i worked
started working for the city in june um
[17:42] that you were in march
and i can tell you she's just provided
[17:47] such a great service to this community
i've talked to mayor freeman
[17:50] uh who she worked predominantly
predominantly for
[17:54] um and he just had the glowing remarks
possible to say about jennifer
[18:01] i'm going to present her with something
in a second but i just want to say that
[18:06] in 10 and a half years
[18:09] you've done so much and i've kind of
pulled different people
[18:13] on the staff and throughout the
community and
[18:16] most people are like what jennifer's
leaving how are you going to survive
[18:21] talking to candace earlier she's very
concerned about that
[18:25] as well she should but i can tell you
just in a year and a half or so that
[18:30] we've been working together
i absolutely could not have done it
[18:34] without without jennifer
she does so much that many of us don't
[18:38] know about
but she's she's really served this
[18:41] community
and that's why i want to present her
[18:45] with the key to the city
and so jennifer come up here and i'll
[18:48] read this
[Music]
[18:54] she didn't have to
[19:09] so it says this key to the city of
america and arkansas is hereby presented
[19:12] to jennifer froud
uh in in appreciation for 10 years of
[19:17] outstanding service to the city
um hereby presented this 28th day of
[19:21] september 2020.
so thank you jennifer for everything
[19:25] you've done
[19:35] appreciate that and
unless there's anything from the public
[19:41] or any other comments
from council members we're going to need
[19:46] a motion to adjourn
so councilmember penny with the motions
[19:53] and council member dobson with the first
dance secretary
[19:57] so all in favor of the motion
can you vote go to the motion carrier
[20:16] [Music]
this morning