Who do I hatch?
>> Don, you going to lead us in our
invocation tonight?
» Father, we thank you for this day for
this time that we can come and do the
city business. Lord, we thank you for
each and every person here for the
interest in our city. Got to pray as we
make decisions that they'll be with
good decisions and and things that that
you want us to do in Jesus name. Amen.
>> Amen.
>> Samantha will lead us in the pledgece
to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it
stands. One nation
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all.
right, we'll go ahead and convene
our meeting. We'll start with roll call.
Misty Codle
>> here.
>> Jeff Upton
>> here.
>> Jan Throgmorton.
Marty Lindberry.
John Collins
>> here. [snorts]
>> Dana Mcnite
>> here.
>> Don Rollins
>> here.
>> Anthony Foster
>> here.
>> Our city attorney and city clerk are
both present. First item on our agenda
is the adoption of the agenda as it was
mailed. Are there any changes or motions
concerning the adoption of the agenda?
I'll make that motion to approve as mil.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and second. All those
in favor say yes.
>> That [snorts] motion carries.
>> All those
who opposes
say no. Okay, that motion car. There we
go. All right. I got a little
presumptive there.
[clears throat] Uh, next is the approval
of our meeting minutes from July 14th.
Are there any changes [cough]
to those or motions concerning them?
I make a motion that we approve the July
the 14th meeting minutes.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and second. All those
in favor say yes.
>> Those opposed, no.
>> That motion carries. Next is our public
forum where we uh welcome anyone who
would like to come and address uh myself
and the council. We do ask that you keep
your comments to around two minutes and
keep them directed to the the council
and not anyone in the audience. Would
anyone like to address the council
tonight? Yes, ma'am. Come up and tell us
who you are.
>> My name is Barbara Berg like iceberg and
um I live in the proposed area for
annexation
and I only heard about it on Saturday
when I opened the letter from the
Washington County clerk informing me of
my right to vote on this issue. So
that's why I wasn't here the last three
months and why I'm here this evening.
I'll give my two minutes. I have a
little bit more than two minutes to say.
I'm happy to come back in September to
finish. And I also have a couple other
people who are willing to like take my
two minutes and finish what. So, however
you want to work it, that's legit. Um, I
spent the weekend listening to the three
West Fork City Council meetings. So,
those are very well archived. Thank you.
And locating and reading the ordinance.
And on Monday, I visited West Fork City
Hall. And um, finance director Christy
Dryman was very gracious and patient and
spent, I would say, a good 20 minutes
with me. So, thank you, Christie. Um, I
want to be clear that I understand the
predicament of West Fork and from that
perspective, I do support the
annexation, but I'm not sold in the
manner in which it's currently being
pursued and I'm hoping you can help me.
Um, first off, the poster board map has
my private drive incorrectly labeled.
So, I would really appreciate if in it's
in the minutes that I'm requesting that be corrected. It says Hin Road,
which is actually north of us, and mine
is Evans Lane. So there are two horn
roads on the poster board map and the
southern one is my Evans Lane. All
right. You mentioned in past meetings
that those of us currently under
Washington water authority will remain
so. But something was said that sounded
like the water would still like come
through West Fork as a third party or we
would still be [snorts] directly with
Washington water.
>> You will still be directly with
Washington water.
>> Okay. Um, regarding the ongoing property
tax conversation, I just wanted to
clarify that this now famous 5 mil
increase in property tax, which has been
described in these meetings as about an
average of $100 per residence,
>> per 100,000 of value.
>> Okay. I remembered you saying something
about
80 people and $8,000 of revenue. And so
it would be like about $100 per
residence on average. And so, um, I
probably did say that trying to
generalize.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh, I've I filled in a lot of questions.
Um,
>> yes. Yes, you did.
>> So, [cough] the way that works out for
five meals, that will equate to
approximately $100 per $100,000 of
assessed value. So, if your if your home
if the assessed value on your home is
$100,000, it would be about a $100
increase.
>> Yeah. Right. And so since we pay 44 45.4
mills right now, it's about a 1 nth or
an 11% increase. So it makes it pretty
easy for us to calculate if we just take
our base and increase it by 11%. And I
just thought it might be helpful to say
that because as you probably know, I
mean, the signage coming in here from
>> um where I live made it very clear that
there are some people who are pretty
upset. Um and I think that clarity might
be helpful, too, because people are
throwing this $100 number around. Um,
okay. During the May city council
meeting, I think it was stated that the
lot splits, if they happen in the
future, annexation happens and someone
wants to split their lot, each lot split
would have to be a minimum of 5 acres.
>> I think what you're seeing there is for
agricultural zoning,
>> okay, which we would be,
>> we require a 5 acre lot.
>> Okay? So, we would have to reszone in
order because I asked because I had a
family member take a one um acre split
just like two years ago from us and we
have a few adult children who hope to do
the same in the near future. But a 5
acre split is a you know a different um
kettle of fish and so it sounds like if
we stay agricultural zoning wise we
would have to make each split a minimum
five or is there any exception for
family lot slits?
look at the code. I don't know.
>> So, we we just re rewrote our entire
zoning code.
>> Okay.
>> And so, what we what we were trying to
do is and I [clears throat] don't know
that that's going to be the case. I
think if you were reszoning to
agriculture, you would have to zone or
you would have to split out five acres.
If you're already zoned agricultural, I
do not think that is a requirement, but
that's something. Do you know, Walter?
For sure.
>> I don't think so. you would just resone
as either a residential estate, which
that's down to two acres, I think, and
pretty well just provides for everything
agriculture except commercial
agriculture.
>> Right. And
>> but if if if she's just splitting a lot
and not wanting to reszone,
>> right? Right.
>> Right. You're just splitting a whole
lot.
>> I don't I don't think that's I don't
think that's the case. I believe you can
>> Uhhuh. It would just remain original
zoning. Yeah. But then of course if
anyone in that splitting subdivid then
you end up with like resold lot you know
if anyone ever like if we split like our
current situation I've got 19 the family
member has one um if they ever sell then
we end up with a lot that's agricultural
that's only one yeah
>> that gets grandfathered in.
>> Yes. Okay.
>> And it's only if you're subdividing it
and so that would be four or more
>> lots that you're creating. If you're
just creating one lawn off of it, that
that's not a subdivision. And so that
doesn't
>> I see. And then there's like a
three-year minimum except for families
at the county level. Yes.
>> And does that continue at the city level
if we become West?
>> We follow the county on that.
>> Okay. All right. Thank you.
>> And so the reason for that, just to give
you a little bit of
>> background on it, is what we've had in
the past is a family
>> decides they're going to split three
lots for family members. And then those
family members a couple years down the
road decide, well, I don't like living
here. I'm going to move and I'm going to
respplit this four more times. And so
then the city ends up with a a dirt path
that they are uh expected to maintain
that we can't get fire trucks down that
now serves eight or 10 people. So that
that's where that one came in.
>> Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you again
for your generosity here. Now, the two
main things. So those were kind of the
nickels and dimes. The first is that as
you know this annexation if it passes
will more than double the geographic
area of West Fork. And that means that
police department, fire department, road
maintenance, um solid waste is covering
twice the area. Not twice the
residences, but but twice the area. And
I've not seen anything I've not been
able to find anything in writing about
how that's going to be financed. You've
been clear that this isn't bringing in
much money to the city, but surely
there's a plan to increase the number of
police officers, cruisers, fire
department members, and then the road
maintenance. I live off off of Campbell.
That's that's a huge liability that the
city's taking on honestly in its current
condition, southeast and northeast. Um,
so is there a plan in writing that I can
look at?
>> There is not at this point.
>> Okay. So one, it hasn't passed. Um
>> the annexation has not passed. So
>> yes, we have looked at the police level
and the fire level um as to what does our budget currently cover per
citizen or per household? What does that
cost us? Right.
>> Um for the fire department, we're
currently covering that area anyway.
True. Right. So we've got a partnership
with rule.
>> That's not going to change a whole lot.
uh the police budget may very well
change
>> and we know that the the road and street
department budget is going to change
significantly and so yes we have looked
we have driven those roads we have
looked to see
>> what roads are in need of some help uh
what roads need some help just to get a
fire truck in and out properly
>> u we have looked at what would it cost
if we we subbed that work out
>> um currently the county does some work
like that for city. So, uh we
[clears throat] we contract with the
county and they actually do the grading
work since they already have their
graders and stuff. So, do we have it in
writing and uh a written proposal of
what that expense is going to be? No, we
don't. Uh but we are preparing for that.
>> Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, I knew that
you'd done the driving around and um and
looked at it. And I think what you can
probably understand from my perspective
is first off I do see that it's not a
matter of if but when for annexation and
it's really a matter of West Fork or
Greenland like like we pick um and
it would be really helpful if we felt
like there was some real um intention
not not just intention but planning
about how this is going to be paid for
because what can happen is that we're
kind kind of the annoying stepchildren
where there's like Westfork that's
already being served that already has
its regular maintenance and then there's
just not the money to cover this and
with this desire not to um increase
taxes obviously you can't up the 5 mil
and so it would have to be sales or
whatever taxes but
hopefully you can see from our
perspective that there's a concern of if
there's not a real plan in place like if I'm running a household I can't
just hope that I'm going to be able to
maintain I don't know I'm not running a
household I'm running a rural household
the animals that I decide to acquire.
>> Um and I get that you can't just plan
for something you can't put anything
>> into law or ordinance if the annexation
hasn't yet passed but surely there must
be some kind of plan going forward like
we would take money from this or we're
thinking of that. Is that happening? Um
I think you will see some some more
detail uh some more written um examples
of this. So we are just coming into our
budget season for 2027.
>> Okay.
>> Uh so no we don't currently have
anything but yes you can you can uh rest
assured that as that 27 budget gets
worked on which is starting next month
um that will you will definitely see
some increases in road uh in in the
police budget. I don't know about fire
yet. Um how that's going to impact.
Okay. But
>> Right. Because we do already, like you
said. Yeah. Okay. And then
>> and then then just a correction. So your
solid waste,
Christy, [clears throat] is their solid
waste going to change.
>> We privately contract and it says in the
ordinance. Sorry.
>> Yes. Most likely they I have not talked
to LR. They're not LRS now. They've
changed names again, but I have not
talked to them and let them know that
this is coming. Um, but my assumption is
that they will want to add that to the
contract with them. So, okay. But I
don't have
>> So, we'll get more information on that
once we've talked to them.
>> Um, so are you guys currently with
Trashaway or
>> We privately contract with Trashaway.
So,
>> and when you say privately, each
individual basically. Okay.
>> Yep. Exactly. And um so in the ordinance
it says that effective immediately once
the annexation is like um verified and
finalized that fire, police, solid waste
and road maintenance are effective
immediately under West.
>> Yeah, I feel like that's the one that
would impact me immediately and I'd
rather stay with trash away. Is it is
that an option or
>> if if LRS says that they want that
contract? So we contract that everything
in the city limits currently is with
them.
>> So it would be a change. Yes.
>> Yeah. Okay. So then that brings me to
the final question. Um which is that
>> I know based on the last three meetings
that people in my area are very
interested in changes to the ordinances
that reflect more the lifestyle and
needs of our rural community. Um and I
know that you have said that well we
don't have an annexation yet so we can't
really change those.
um that makes it very difficult for us
to choose annexation because we're
choosing something and we don't know
what it is. And so even something like
being given the choice between trash
away and LRS, like not a blanket, yes,
you guys get this and you have to take
LRS, but that you could choose. These
are things that would be very helpful
towards us supporting this annexation.
some of us. Um, and I respectfully ask
that there could be a committee of some
sort even now composed of members of
your council and members of our area who
could talk about the things that we're
concerned about and the ordinances that
we think are going to be problematic and
ways that we think would solve it. I
know you've encouraged people to come
here and be part of this conversation,
but it's very different to come here and
just do what I'm saying for a few
minutes and it's another thing to invest
hours together trying to explain what
our life is like, what we need, why this
particular ordinance would be
problematic, why trash away might be
better, because if I have to walk my
garbage out half a mile every week,
which is what people who were
contracting with trash away had to do
until we contracted for a communal
dumpster and they'll come and get the
dumpster so we don't have to walk our
trash half a mile. They'll come the half
a mile. So things like that. Um so I
just leave you with that. I know this is
not an actionable time, but it would it
would go a long way if right now there
already was a committee working towards
um alleviating those concerns so we can
choose something known.
>> I think that's a fantastic idea. So I
100% support that.
I want you to look at at the audience.
[laughter]
So, four months ago, this was standing
room only.
>> And as soon as we finished up discussion
on that annexation, this room cleared
out.
>> Sure.
>> Three months ago, as soon as we finished
up discussion, the room cleared out.
>> Here we are four months later, and
there's very there's very few of you
guys here,
>> right?
I ask multiple times. You've heard me
say that, hey, we want input and and we
do have a list of of what little input
we have,
>> but I would 100% support a a committee
of some council [clears throat] members
and some residents in that area to to
discuss that.
I was very clear that we don't have all
the answers that right
>> that you guys want answered, right? As
far as how do we how do we draft that
ordinance? Um, Chief Gogggins sent me a potential rewrite of the maintenance
of real property ordinance
>> that
>> uh very much concerns you guys and
>> my response back to him was I think we
need some more input before we finish
that up. Right. So, we
>> which we desire, right? I mean, we want
to be in on that.
>> Yeah, I would hope so.
>> Um,
>> I desire. [laughter]
>> So, yes, it's very much something that
we don't want to be dismissive of that.
Um, we do have to factor in that
anything we change for you guys does
change everybody else in the
agricultural zone, right? And we have a lot of land that's zoned
agriculture that's currently in the city
limits. Y
>> um, and
>> I think if you talk to them, you would
find that they're treated very fairly,
right? I mean, as far as agriculture
within the city limits goes.
>> So, yeah, I definitely support that. And
if you can get a couple members from out
there, um,
>> let's let's do something. Yes.
>> Okay.
>> We will we will definitely put something
together to discuss that.
>> You're the president of that committee.
[laughter]
>> So, I have a question.
Is your trash concern
the company or is it how it's picked up?
I mean, if LRS is willing to come and do
a dumpster half a mile down a they do a a grapple road and
>> I don't know what their pricing is.
>> I don't need to.
>> So, here's what I can tell you. There's
a reason we switched.
>> Mhm.
>> Um, and it was pricing, it was options,
and it was
equipment.
>> I'll put it that way.
>> Okay. I mean, I appreciate you asking
that question because I had assumed
having lived in a non-rural area that
this would be like bins on wheels, which
when you drag them down a half a mile
gravel road, they
>> were a driveway, but in your [laughter]
case, I don't see your position.
>> Yeah.
>> And that's
the method which it's collectible.
>> Yeah. I had not thought about that. They
might give me that.
>> So, they do do those.
>> Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that. And so,
um, you haven't been here, so I want to
make sure that you get the full,
um, the full idea where I'm coming from,
I guess.
So, and I don't know exactly where you
live, but I know that just north of you, drive past it occasionally on
Interstate 49, you see an industrial
Yes.
>> park developing.
>> Yes.
Do you think that an industrial park
along the along the side of a of a major
interstate should be developed without
sewer?
[laughter]
» So I don't
>> No. And like I said, I really appreciate
what you're doing. And I do feel like,
and I'm on record here,
>> that you are doing a good job for your
city of trying to annex us. And I won't
go on record about my preference, but I would rather that this council was
overseeing the development of that
corridor than the county. And for so
many reasons. I mean, I do believe in
subsidiarity and the fact that you know
what is needed here, right here. And so
I think we just need that extra step to
also know what's happening, what's
needed where I live, which isn't that
far from you.
>> I think more importantly, we know what
is not needed here. [laughter]
>> Yes. Well, and I I've lived in large
cities, so I there's a reason why I live
where I live.
>> Yeah.
And um I also when you said that
everything will come in agriculture, I
thought that large plot of land that was
bought by Hogbox that's across the
street from me would then be zoned
agriculture. I mean, I think it is still
right now, but then they would have to
come to you for permission. Again, I
realize I'm on record here, but I
thought, no, this this could be a good
thing.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. You have been very generous and
I'm grateful to you. Thank you. Thank
you for coming.
>> Thank you.
>> I'm sorry that you just now found out
about it.
>> Me, too. But it's all right. We're
starting from here.
>> Okay. So,
>> you can get my contact information from
Christie.
>> Um, if you could get a couple people
together, um, say three or so.
>> Uh, and let us know. We will definitely
put something together and start
coordinating on some meetings and
working through that.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> You're welcome. Thank you. Would anyone
else like to address the council
tonight?
Yes, sir. Come on. Tell us who you are.
>> My name is uh Andrew Rendall. Uh and
apologies in advance for the lack of eye
contact. I just want to make sure I
squeeze this in under the two-minute
buzzer.
>> Yeah, go ahead. Um, so I wanted to just
uh acknowledge what Cabbat and Mayflower
and Peridge have all done in I think
just the past month,
>> which was roll back or cancel entirely
their business with the ALPR companies,
uh, Flock in this case, which is the
main
>> Oh, okay.
>> the big one. Um, but I know there's
other ALPR companies like Axon or
Leonardo who would be more than happy to
take Flock's place. Um, and so my my
only comment, and this was more of a
just I I know this is not an actionable thing to my knowledge. It was
more just getting it off my chest and
making my opinion known that my hope is
that Westfor uh would follow suit. Um
because I I I believe just looking
online at Facebook, others have already
pointed out that ALPR itself is kind
[snorts] of a misleading misnomer. Um
because it stands for automatic license
plate reader. Um, but what they have the
capability of also reading is people's
faces. Uh, how they walk. Uh, the fact
they might unknowingly have a tail light
out or where they go and when. Uh, and
that information is all uh potentially
available to anyone who has access to
those databases. I think they say it's
only stored on there for 30 days, but
you know, we know less and less. Um but
with something like that kind of uh
surveillance in my opinion if you give
an inch um a mile is always going to be
taken. Um and it would be much easier to
do what P Ridge or others have done and
take back that inch now than to wait and
allow our status as private citizens to
be encroached upon and [snorts] find
that it's turned into miles and miles
that we don't know where to start taking
back or if we even can at that point.
So, um, my hope is that Westport takes
back that inch. Um, and I think that
kind of dubtales a little bit with, uh,
the annexation because I feel like trust
from private citizens to public service
to public servants is a two-way street
and having, uh, and of course, these are
separate from traffic cameras and things
like that or CCTVs, but it kind of
demonstrates uh to some a lack of trust
in the community. Um, you know, kind of
a watchdog thing. And you know, you'll
see Flock cameras all around where
they're pointed at public parks or at
gymnasiums or and not not on roads. And
you know, even the CEO of Flock
continuously changes his license plate.
So, it's rules for the but not for me
kind of situation. And so, just the
whole thing gives me the ick. And so, I
just wanted to make that opinion known.
But,
>> okay,
>> that's all.
>> Thank you.
>> Would anyone else like to address the
council tonight?
>> Yes, sir. Tell us who you are,
>> sir. tell us who you are.
>> My name is Alan Thomas. Um, so I really
I'm here to discuss the annexation.
>> Yes, sir.
>> And I will echo everything that Barbara
Bird just said and really appreciate
that. And I really appreciate y'all's
approach to it and I do appreciate why
it needs to be done and it's probably,
you know, it's a it's a when I live. Um,
I will say that like Barbara, I came
from a big city and I've moved here. I'm
a disabled veteran. I don't get out much
and the only thing I really do have
right now for recreation is being able
to go out and shoot on my range on my
land. And so I I have concerns about
that.
And it's really a more general concern.
It's not so much like all Alen does is
think about whether he gets to go shoot
today or not. It is more the the larger
concern of people that are out in that
rural area are there for a reason and
they really don't you know like the
gentleman said it's not really so much
what I want what I don't want right and
so a lot of extra constraints a lot of
extra cost that may come with extra
infrastructure cost
um and then you know are we going to get
the same level of of service that we
have now, right? Um it it's already
sounding like really for no additional
service u escalation or increase we're
going to spend an extra for me 13%
uh in tax money. So in property taxes.
So I'm a little concerned about all
that. And it's it's also not clear to me
that that even that that extra 13%
actually will cover the entire scope of
all of the costs, right? Because if you
double the area, it takes more people to service that area. So
like Barbara, it would be really helpful
for me because I apologize, I just found
out about this same time Barbara did
when she got her. Um
if we knew a plan and we had really sure
[clears throat] thought through what the
impact to the police department was to
the ambulance service uh road
maintenance what that actually looks
like. Um and so I'll close with this and
it's just really a question of how one
goes about all this. Um, right now
there's a a bill that's going to be
voted on or how I don't know what you
call it, but whatever the annexation is
called um in November,
>> the ordinance. Yeah.
>> Um would it be possible to add um
anything to that at this point or is it
it's locked down? It's on the ballot and
it is what it is at this moment. Yeah,
it would have, you know, I guess in
hindsight maybe I would have offered,
but if we could have included a rider on
that annexation and said, "Hey, with the
annexation in the annex area, we'll have
um
code changes that will keep the same
kind of lifestyle."
And you have to use better words than I
do. I'm not a lawyer. So, uh, but
anyway, that kind of thing, you know,
we're we're guarantees in writing those
things will happen. I appreciate you all
are, you know, you're good people and have the best interest of the
community at heart
>> and and I just
unfortunately have been um burned by the
verbal and the intent without it being
written and then all of a sudden, you
know, we get there and well, it's not
written down. So,
>> [clears throat]
>> I I get that. So, I want I do want to
ask um
so are you are you currently aware of
the zoning changes that the county made
about a year and a half ago?
>> Uh no, I'm not.
>> Okay. So, no one that has came from your
area has been aware of that.
In that in that zoning change, the
county labeled all major highways uh
within the county. So if someone if if if you sell No, let's go
with Barbara sells her property and
whoever she sells it to me and I decide
I want to turn that into whatever
commercial business I decide to turn it
into, the county is going to
automatically guarant or they're going
to allow that. So along those major
corridors, the county has already
signified that those are commercial
corridors.
If if the city of West Fork annexes
that, if Barbara sells to me and I want
to change to uh commercial, I have to
come before the the the West Fork City
Council and and petition that I have to
send out certified letters. It's not an
automatic is what I'm getting at.
And and I don't think I've I've done a a
great job of of explaining the fact that
we are actually this is going to provide
more control over uh your property
than not annexing.
Uh it's going to give you more of a
voice about what happens to that
property than you currently have.
>> And I appreciate that. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Again, a lot of people weren't
aware and I had several several phone
calls uh emails concerning that uh that
county change, but
it as with everything, right, we follow
the rules of this is how we have to
advertise it, but there's still people
that that don't realize it until, you
know, it's it's too late, if you will.
Uh but but yeah, the county made a huge
change. And not only that, so some of
what really pressed this um in the past,
the city was granted a onem uh uh buffer
outside of our city limits. So if if
something were to develop in some of
that area, that would have had to come
before the city the city council of
Westport to approve it. People would
have been notified. They could have came
in challenged different things. the
state, that was about a year and a half
ago as well, the state removed that
planning boundary. Okay? And so what has
essentially happened is the county came
in and said that's an automatic
commercial zone and the state said the
city of Westfork no longer has a
planning boundary. So
you you have lost the management of your
rural area out there. Uh, and that's a lot of where this is coming
from. Part of it is coming from
Greenland was getting very aggressive at
annexing South.
I've I've been texted some Facebook
posts that, you know, now the the city
of Greenland's completely against
annexing that area. Okay. Um, maybe
there's an election coming up. I don't
know.
>> [laughter]
>> Uh
the truth is the city of West Fork
thinks that we are better suited to
manage that area than the city of
Greenland and and better suited to
manage that area than Washington County.
And
again, my prime example is if you're
going to develop an industrial park, you
should probably get the players who are
developing it to pay for the sewer
instead of the city having to come in in
15 years and and pay to put sewer in.
I I think we've we've put a little bit
more thought and effort into it than some of the other uh players in
that region. We don't have some of this
stuff in writing yet, but as I said, as
we go into budget season, you're going
to start to see some of that uh be
discussed in in detail.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Now, to give you a little bit of
u rest, we only have uh what do we have
tonight? We've got six council members
and will all the council members agree
that we are going to change the
ordinance uh in agricultural
to one allow shooting and make some
changes as far as property maintenance
and different things. Is everybody on
the council?
>> We'll accommodate y'all however we need
to to make your life stay like it is.
>> Now, one other thing
>> on your side for that 100%.
>> So, I got scared to death when I said
I'm annexing this. I said, "I'm not
running because somebody's going to come
after me." But our future mayor is
sitting right here. [laughter]
Get him to commit. Will you commit that
we are going to make some changes to the
agricultural zoning?
>> Okay.
>> Well,
>> we don't have it in writing.
>> I've got a cattleman's hat on and a
hunting shirt on, so I think I'll let
you know where I'm at.
>> As far as that goes,
» would anyone else like to address the
council tonight?
>> Yes, sir. Tell us who you are, Woody.
What do you manager? Um, yeah, one there
was some some math that wasn't really
checking out on the the annexing
numbers. So, like how many houses, how
much taxes are going to be projected?
Has has there been any number crunching
on the annexed area?
>> No, there has not.
>> So, like you had mentioned like there
might be 80 houses.
>> That was Yeah, just an estimate.
>> But there's like 150. Oh wow.
>> Awesome.
>> So if [laughter]
>> really,
>> you know, we need population is what we
need.
>> So there's, you know, three square
miles, which is 640 acres per mile. So
if you average out $10,000 per acre of
assessed value, there's 20,000.
>> Now, you tell me, Woody, how many of
those
>> Oh, I don't know. I'm just guessing.
>> Okay. So now I was I was making some
guesses, too. Right. Right. But if you
take
>> But let's be serious about it. How much
of that land is assessed at $10,000 an
acre? Assessed.
>> I'm not sure.
>> Not fair market value, but assessed.
>> So if it was assessed at$10,000 an acre,
there's about $20,000.
>> Okay.
>> If all the houses were roughly $200,000
houses on average, there's $30,000. This
is tax revenue. So roughly $50,000
just in property taxes [snorts]
because you had you had mentioned, you
know, closer to 8,000.
>> So I'm going to challenge your math.
>> Okay.
>> Because the entire city of West Fork
that we currently have, all four square
miles produces
>> three. Is that three?
>> It's depends on where you look. There's
some places if you go to uh Gemini, I
think it think it says three. If you
look at some other areas, it's going to
say four. Okay.
>> Uh I think there's I think our website
maybe even says four. But Christie,
correct me if I'm wrong here because
Woody's challenging my math. [laughter]
In property tax in the entire city of
Westport, real property tax, do we not
get about $200,000 a year?
>> Hold on, I'll tell you. [laughter]
So the city budget this year we have
budgeted 214,000
for the general fund. Hold on.
» 21,000
for the streets. So, let's say let's say
let's round up and say we get 250,000
currently for the roughly 800 homes that
we currently have. And you were saying
we're going to get how much out of that?
>> I'm I'm guessing around $50,000 is it's
kind of my just rough math based on
these averages.
So, if that's the case, that might be
high, that might be low. I'm not sure.
But what I was coming to say is, you
know, with the with a planning committee
like you're talking about, like if
there's like a budgeted amount that
could be shunted to fixing roads of the
annexed area, like put the money
specifically from the annexed area if it
annexes back into the annexed area for
roads,
water if that's ever going to happen,
stuff like that. So water is never going
to happen.
[clears throat]
[laughter]
>> So that Washington Water Authority, just
so everybody knows, Washington Water
Authority has territories and those
territories, my understanding is as long
as Washington Water Authority has
federal loans that they're paying off,
those territories will never be
challenged and never be changed. Now,
that's not to say never, ever, ever,
right? But for the most part,
West Fork is not taking over any
territory of Washington water. That
that's unheard of, right?
>> So, I don't think water is ever going to
change.
>> But, um, will we dedicate
that that tax to that area? No, we
won't. Uh, it's going to go into the
street budget. And the street budget is
going to be comprised of of an annual
plan of this is what we're allocating to
this spot to this spot to this spot. And
Isaac's got a matrix that he uses. Where
are we going to pay? What roads are we
going to work on? Right. Um so no, it we
won't be allocating just those tax
dollar. Number one, I don't even know if
we can if we can determine what property
tax dollars comes from that area.
>> Gotcha.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. I just wanted to maybe clarify
that maybe some hard crunching needs to
happen at some point or just to be able
to anticipate what's going to be coming
in on top of what's normally happening
>> just
for budgeting of next year if it passes.
>> Even if it passes, we won't get anything
next year.
>> Yeah.
>> Property taxes are paid behind.
>> Oh, right.
>> Yeah. But yeah, there there's a huge
difference in what the fair market value
of property is and what the assessed
value is.
>> It's a good point.
>> It's 80%.
>> Less point, right?
>> So, yeah, it's probably maybe $8,000.
[laughter]
» I bet it's closer to eight than it is
50.
>> Gotcha.
>> I do want to bring up something. We were
Everybody askked about fire and
everything with with Greenland,
everything. Ask our our fire real quick.
If there's a fire in Greenland, who who
responds to it?
>> We do.
>> Who has who has the fire? Who does the
fire protection for Greenland?
>> West.
>> Westport.
>> So,
if you go with Greenland, you're still
getting Westport and fire.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> All right. Thank you.
>> Thanks, Woody.
>> All right. Would anybody else like to
address the council tonight?
All right. All right, we'll close the
public forum and we'll move into our
business reports.
>> Up first, planning commission Walter
Harish.
>> Good evening. Sorry I missed last month.
It completely slipped me by. Uh so this
past month though, we had a speaker, Mr.
Andy Kitinger from u well I think he's
worked with the American Institute of
Architects and the American Institute of
Certified Planners. And we had a really
informative discussion with them uh on a
lot of topics. I don't know if you've
seen our minutes or not, but uh
basically what we came away with is if
we can get the more on voluntarily maybe
create a conservation district of some
kind to protect green space and
overdevelopment that that would be the
more route to take and maybe overlay
districts. But as far as that, it's just
more how much community involvement can
we get before we can finally settle on
what tact we want to go after. And other
than that, right now we don't have any
business items. So, it's just more
discussion on how we're going to do
that, what kind of community outreach
we're going to do, and how we're going
to go from there. Any questions?
>> Any questions for Walter?
>> Thank you, sir.
Next, our library report. Marie,
>> hello.
So, um, we had a great summer reading
finale. I had a great turnout. Um, and I
want to say a special thanks. We had a
volunteer named Lorie and she put
sparkly things in the girls hair that
came up and hung out and it was great.
Um, also very sadly Christina has left
us but for very good reasons and we wish
her the best. And we have a new person
on staff, Meredith Gabard. Um, and she's
doing great. So, we're very lucky. Um,
and as many of you may know, the library
is currently looking for a new director.
Um, so this was a very difficult
decision for me. Um, but it's what's
best for my family and um, anyway, it
looks like we've got some great
applications. I really want to thank
everyone for the seven years [snorts]
that have been West Fork.
It's been really great.
[laughter]
>> We love having you.
We're going to miss you. Y
>> Well, don't help me.
>> [laughter]
>> Um,
[clears throat] that being said, we're
going to have another Ask the Mayor um
at the end of August. So, well, I don't
know. But if anyone knows any questions
that may be hard to answer like on the
spot at a city council meeting, send
them to the mayor. Throw him some hard
balls. It's the last one that I'm
running. So, [laughter]
>> no. I wish.
[snorts]
>> What else do you have for us, Marie?
Well, those were the big announcements.
What else do you want? [laughter]
>> Tell us about our last Ask the Mayor.
>> The last Ask the Mayor. Um, it was
great. We had over 3,000 views. I think
about 3,500 on Facebook. Um,
>> did you hear that, Chad?
>> I was not winning [laughter] anyway.
>> But Mark was so if you could relay that
message.
>> I sent him home for the day. [laughter]
» So, um, yeah. [snorts] So, go check it
out. It's also on YouTube. So, if you
have any friends or family who are not
on Facebook or just don't enjoy getting
on Facebook, share the YouTube link with
them um and get your questions answered
about the school cuz Mr. Uner actually
got most of the questions during that
round. So,
>> any questions for Marie?
>> No. So,
um Marie is leaving us. Her last day is
September 4th.
>> Yeah. Uh she may hang around for a
little bit. Uh maybe, maybe not. We'll
see.
>> Yeah,
>> she's she's anxious to get out of here
as you can tell. [laughter]
Um we are definitely going to miss
Marie. Uh we're going to miss her a lot.
Um I told I met with the library board
[snorts] last week uh discussing
um setting up interviews and trying to
find candidates. And I told the library
board that uh in my tenure, in my 10
years, uh this is one of the absolute
best librarians West Fork has ever had.
And [snorts]
I said she was in running for the best
uh with the Shannon who brought her in.
Right. So Marie's been with us a long
time. Her name is actually Shannon. So
we we discussed maybe hiring somebody
whose name is Shannon. [laughter]
But, uh, Marie's going to have some big
shoes to fill by whoever whoever, um,
gets that role. And we're going to miss
you dearly. Uh, you've done great things
with our library. And so, we thank you
very much. Uh, I don't want to say that
we're she's still going to be here for a
while, so I don't want to make this as a
finality, but uh, we do have interviews
scheduled for next week. We had several
candidates who applied for the job, but
it's going to be hard to replace Marie.
So Marie, thank you [applause] for YOUR
» We wish you the best.
>> Thank you,
>> Miss Marie. We may fill your position,
but we won't replace you. That's
>> right.
>> Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
>> Thank you, Marie.
>> Thank you.
>> Next, the police report. Chiefs,
>> good evening.
All right. So, we had 445 calls, 31
reports taken, 91 citations, 180
warnings, eight ordinance violations,
five warrants, and seven misdemeanor
arrest, two felony arrests. As far as
the last month, we have Officer Fuller.
Finally graduated the academy. Got him
out to his field training. Get that
started. He did um get top honors for
driving. Did get the top driver award.
Uh we renewed and updated updated, just
kind of fix some stuff, our SRO contract
with the school. So we're continuing
that relationship pretty much uh
unchanged. Uh also on the side of the
school, we have been working with the
school to um help them with their backup
communications as far as primarily the
buses but also each one of the offices
have a radio and we basically work with
them so that moving forward as the we as
a as a area and a city go forward with
backup communications that we will have
interoperability. So we are we are
playing a role in that to make sure that
it's part of the big picture that we
have an emergency. The school, city,
police, fire, we're making moves slowly
uh but surely to have interoperability
there so we're not separating ourselves
as far as emergency communications. Uh
we did a speed saturation on with the
state police on the 31st last of the
month. Um pretty successful. a lot of
people driving fast out there and about
two hours plus uh stopped about 74
people. Um just to be fair, there's not
a single person going less than 88 that
was stopped. Uh top honors goes to
someone in the red Camaro at 101
>> with no driver's license as well. Uh but
anyways, um short period of time worked
with our our counterparts there with
state police and highway patrol and and
got out there and tried to slow some
people down. So, it was a successful uh
effort there. Um, another thing I want
to bring out to uh the group and
[snorts] also for the public, we've had,
and this doesn't really change. We have
this all the time, but we've had a
couple different frauds come through the
last month that um it happens all the
time, but just encourage people to uh
monitor your bank accounts, please. Uh
we're still we we had a little rash of
this a couple months ago, but again
we've had checks somehow stolen from
what they said is they drop them off at
the post office and somehow they're
still inter intercepted. I don't know
how that happens. Uh of course we're
going to be reaching out to the postal
service and letting them know um what's
going on there, but uh please I'd
recommend if you don't have
notifications set up on your bank
account for transactions either a low
amount or just to get an email so you
can kind of spot check that. I highly
recommend it because a lot of times I
find out after the fact. Um, also we had
some a couple identity things going on
there. So, please, um, an ounce of
prevention is is worth a pound of cure
with that stuff on the front end as far
as monitoring your credit report. Um,
lock your credit if you want. That's the
easiest way to do it. Just lock it and
then don't have to worry about it. Uh,
cuz they're really hard to catch these
people because they're good at what
they're doing. Typically, don't uh
they're not from West Fork or for that
matter even the state of Arkansas, maybe
not the country. Um, and we're also
trying to find our our little guy in the
white car that came out of almost
nowhere and defrauded one of our
citizens kind of randomly. And
thankfully Harks had some cameras to get
us going. But we're still we're still
trying to find that guy. So if you do
have information, uh, we posted on our
Facebook. If you recognize him, please
let us know. We've got a couple people
giving us information [cough] that I
think who it is. So far, we haven't
really nailed that down, but we like to
catch that guy for for uh for what he
did. Um upcoming uh tomorrow the big
news and probably Thursday is school
traffic. Um it's going to be a mess. Uh
I apologize right now. We'll do the best
we can. We put up a little Facebook
video there to tell you what we're
trying to do. But the long and the short
of it, if you do not have to go through
that intersection, please don't go
through that intersection tomorrow
morning or tomorrow afternoon or the
next morning. Basically about two days.
It's a mess. Um we have hundreds of cars
all trying to go to the same place at
the same time. So, we will work hard to
get the traffic in as fast as we can and
then shortly after that then work hard
to try to get the traffic out. Uh, but
inevitably it does lock up. We we try to
keep it flowing as best we can, but we
just run out of space. So, um, leave
early if you have to go through there.
Use White Street, avoid the area,
especially the four-way intersection if
you can. Uh, but we'll do the best we
can to keep everything rolling. it
normally it's about 15 10 15 minutes of
just gridlock barely moving and then
it'll start to speed up and then
hopefully by Thursday things will
resolve themselves and kind of go back
to normal but first day is always bad it
no matter what we do so um that's all I
got for you any questions or anything
>> so have you had people say that there's
a lot of people that are coming by
knocking on the door trying to sell
stuff
>> I haven't heard a lot of that no Um,
>> okay.
>> I mean, it there there is I haven't had
any I'm not feeling any complaints about
it.
>> Okay.
>> Um, I know that was one thing with our our suspect there. We did kind of
throw something out there vaguely like
anybody came by and done this because
that's what he did the first time two
weeks ago and we thought surely this
guy's probably went around, hey, I
accidentally treated your your lawn. Can
you go ahead and give me $80 so my boss
doesn't get me in trouble? So, we
figured, hey, this guy's done this
somewhere else. We're going to catch
him. And we got not a peep. And we're
like, okay. And then then once we were
just totally at dead ends is when we
went ahead and released a few hours
later, hey, this is this is what
happened. This is the guy. And we moved
forward with it. But
>> I guess you need to look at that because
I've caught a lot on my camera and one
even come up. He didn't even knock on
the door. He raised up my doormat,
looked under it, and then let it back
down and then he walked off.
>> Yeah, that's weird.
>> It was very weird cuz I was like, "Okay,
>> I would say if you didn't have a key
there."
>> No, I didn't have Yeah, I guess you
didn't give them either.
>> Um, if you do have people come at your
door and you have some some camera
footage of people come up to your door,
especially going to back now we're
talking about uh, forgive me on the I
believe this was the I think it was two
weeks ago. It's on our Facebook. I'm
sorry, but if you'll look at our
Facebook post, basically that post was
the same day that happened and then he
was reported to have came by two weeks
prior. So, if you do have video footage
and you want to swipe through the
timeline and see if there's anybody only
way to watch it besides Facebook. I'm
not on social media.
>> Get with me. I'll I'll give you I can
give you a copy of it. Yeah, for sure.
But, uh I just cannot believe that he
went to that one house with that guy two
times and didn't try that on anybody
else in town. Just kind of blows my
mind. Um but we can't explain any other
way. So, we're at a dead end. We have a
car and a picture of a guy and no
license plate. And we're we think we
might have the vehicle, but we're we're
not sure yet, but we're trying. Uh but
yeah, good question. If you'll check it
because it surely went to somebody
else's door, too.
>> Yeah, there's been several different
hasn't there. Several. And I'm amazed. I
don't know why these people are knocking
on my door and, you know, standing there
having conversations, then they'll
leave.
>> They have conversations themselves.
>> Well, like these two [laughter] guys
like they came up. I swear they I don't
know kind of look like detectives. They
had looked like he kind of had a gun or
I don't know. There was a bulge in the
back. I could definitely look up
somebody.
>> Are you behind ON YOUR TAXES?
>> NO. [laughter]
WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING? And then
lots of people that are around the age
of 20,
>> you know, one was even on like a what's
it called?
>> No, I haven't seen that. We we have seen
a guy in town and no complaints on it,
but I crossed paths with him that was I
think he was doing some kind of lawn
treatment or maybe pest services and he
was zipping around on a on a two wheel
thing. I've seen door to door salesman
in town, but I haven't got any
complaints on any of them in quite quite
a quite some time. Yeah. So,
>> I didn't like the one that lifted up the
door. I was like,
>> "Yeah, it's a little strange."
>> Yeah. That Yeah, that's what I thought.
You
>> sure?
>> No. No. I've watched it several times
and thought, "Oh my gosh, what's going
on with this person?"
>> Any other questions for Chief Go?
>> Thank you. Thank you.
Public works, Mr. Harterson.
Yeah, it's it's the season. Uh
Sirville goes down, water bill goes up.
Uh we are chasing leaks. We have fixed I don't know how many shelves have been
fixed last week. All just small little
service lines. Uh we're still continuing
to run pretty high. about 260,000
gallons a day on average. Our average is
usually around 190.
So, our water loss is like 50% last
month.
>> Yep.
>> So,
uh the altitude valve was fixed at the
pump station. Uh that's all running back
up and running. SC
>> when will that when will that hit the
water loss report?
>> It should be it should be this reading.
We should know this. Yeah. Uh the
altitude valve is fixed. Uh SCADA is
fixed at the pump station from the
lightning strike. Uh the air
conditioners fixed at lift station from
the lightning strike.
>> Is there a way to prevent any of that?
Which
>> I asked that too. There's a giant street
light right there. That should be a
lightning rod that catches all that and
it hits the pipe. So something something
to do with the friction of the water
inside the pipe draws the lightning to the pipe. So that's what I was told.
>> Is there not any kind of
>> outside of building a a canopy over top
of the pit where the pipe is exposed?
>> Sure.
>> And blow it up and the
>> Yeah.
Uh
but yes, and and I'm down two pumps
right now, too. So, uh we lost a pump
about three weeks ago and then lost
another one right after that. So, and
lost all three check valves in the pump
station. So, I don't know if maybe
they'll send us a slug of gravel down
through here from some of their tie-ins
they've done or something, but we're
fixing to tear into pump two and and see
what we can find. So, yes, that's I'm
meeting that guy tomorrow to go through
that. So, we're definitely going to
replace one pump. Hopefully, we can
rebuild the other and salvage it. But, yeah, spend some money in the pump
station again. Uh
the only other thing is uh Riverwood is
paved. They paved Church Street. It's
almost
complete. They still have some offsite
stuff that we we really want to hold
their feet to the fire to get that done
before we final plat that that we don't
really have any recourse for houses
being built in there for offsite
improvement. So before we final that, we
want to make sure that JD is taken care
of, Crystal is taken care of, and all
their needs have been met where I'm not
privy to some of them commitments that
were made, but but we want to make sure
they're satisfied before we final fight
that. So that'll be coming in the next
couple weeks, I'm assuming. Uh sweeps
over there moving poles so they can
finish up their curb. And but I drove it
looks really nice. Uh
he's ready to start building houses in
there. So
the other one I'm not they're moving
equipment back in there and tore house
down. That's really all I know. We are
still waiting on comments from the
health department. And as far as our
project for the 170, we are waiting on
comments from the health department as
well. So
everything's I think we're all ready to
go finance-wise, but we just got to make
sure the health department is on board
with all
other than that.
>> That's all the good news you have.
>> That's it. Hey, if you got some green
grass growing in your yard, call me
because it's probably not supposed to be
there unless you're [laughter]
let me come check it. Any questions for
Isaac
>> or come pound the pavement with me. I've
been walking up down the road. I found
two this afternoon after work. So, just
walking down the road.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Parks Director Harris.
[snorts]
Don't have a lot to report. Uh we're
just mostly
maintaining and upkeeping of the parks
the last month. Catching up on uh
little projects that we've put off till
we got through ball season and and um
Fourth of July events like replacing a
broken grill at Riverside.
Clean up a tree along Riverwood disc
golf area. Placing lost bridge that we
lost in the flood [snorts] in the disc
golf area. put a lot of work into the
disc golf course this month. Uh we had
two major tournaments scheduled down
there. One already happened August 1st.
Uh we had 171 players participating on
that which is
a course record for sure and one of the
largest, if not the largest tournaments
that they've had in Northwest Arkansas
in a long time as far as participants
go. The next one is this coming weekend.
It's a tournament we're co-hosting with
Farmington. There will be rounds played
at Creekide Farmington as well as Carter
Park. Um they're expecting about 150
players in it as as well. Um the Heat
might have something to say about that.
The first turned out to be a beautiful
Saturday that we don't normally get in
August and that helped with the 171. So
we'll see how many actually turned out
um this coming weekend because I think
it's supposed to be 101. So we'll see.
Um,
>> the good news with all that is after
those 171 players were down there Monday
morning when we went through there, we
picked up zero trash.
>> Awesome.
>> The people that are coming to those
things are the kind of people we want
coming to our town for sure. Uh, they
usually leave the park in a better
condition than it was when they got
there a lot of time. So,
uh, anyway, and then just an update on
the the playground approved equipment at
Riverside. It got pushed into about
midepptember, which actually works
better for me. I want to be on vacation
the later part of this month and a
little bit of beginning of September and
then getting through Westfest and
helping with them. So, it's actually a
better thing for us. But, I don't have
an exact date yet, but midepptember is
what we're looking at for it to get
installed.
So,
and I think that's about it.
>> You don't have any green grass where
you're not supposed to.
>> I do have some green grass, but probably
not where I'm supposed to.
>> I got some [laughter] I got
I'll try to point it out to Isaac as I
see it anyway. But yeah,
>> we do need to have
>> we need more green grass where I'm
watering because I feel like I'm just
maybe wasting some Isaac's water. Um,
>> we probably need the fire department to
come and water those two trees.
>> They have.
Okay.
>> Yes. Maybe not as often as we need them
to, but they have come down there and
watered them a couple of times recently.
>> One of those literally went from green
to brown in like two days. It was so
hot.
>> They had about five green leaves hanging
on.
>> Yeah, they have gone down there and
watered it a couple of times for us in last week. Uh, and we'll get them to
do that some more. There's a couple of
places now that it's getting that they
may have to the the welcome sign's
holding up pretty strong. Um some of the
other trees that we've had to water in
the past are seem to be holding those
are two two of our newest trees that we
put in. Uh but yeah, they're they are
struggling, but they have watered them
recently.
>> Good.
>> Any questions for Chad?
>> I just don't think you can put enough
water on anything right now. No. So,
>> okay.
>> Thank you, sir.
Next, the fire department.
>> I'm not chief. Oh, sorry.
Uh, it has been super hot, super dry. I
know that's not a shock to anybody. The
county issued a burn man today at 11:00.
Yay. [laughter]
I don't want to waste any water. So, um,
other than that, it was it's been a
really busy month. Last month, had 120
calls. The most we've ever had is 123.
Uh, it's been super busy. July was great
for prevention stuff. Uh, of course, the
Fourth of July, we really like that.
But, lots of school things, lots of
block parties, lots of giving away
stuffed animals, lots of inspections. I
love inspections. Um, I think we're on
slate to break 80% of all our commercial
occupancies this year. My goal is, of
course, 100, but the big ISO number is
break 80% and I I'm certain we're going
to blow that out of the water. And so,
I'm pretty proud of that. We've got lots
of training going on. We've got We're
really blessed right now. We've got
firefighters coming in during the day,
during the week, and on the weekends,
and they're training together. They're
training on their own. They're taking
online classes. There's about 20 of them
up there right now.
It It's great. Um the atmosphere at the
fire department is phenomenal right now.
Um I do have, you know, that big ask
here in a few minutes, but it's it's
doing really well. Um staying really
busy. Um we've just really it's a happy
place right now.
» Any questions for Travis?
>> Okay, we might have some for you in a
minute. I anticipate so
>> uh our finance report. Christie,
>> you noticed Chief Gogggins didn't say
the police department was a happy place.
[laughter]
>> He said our budget's going up next year.
» Pending an annexation. [laughter]
» Okay. So, our bank balances have
increased by about 130,000 so far this
year, and our budgets are about 69,000
under budget. The fire department is
showing um over budget right now. We
were expecting two checks in July, large
checks, one for Greenland uh the
Greenland fire agreement and one from
rural fire to reimburse us for the
second quarter um expenses that we did
not get in July, but we have gotten them
already in August. So, uh next month
you'll see that correct itself. Um sales
tax is staying very on par for what we
did last year. So, at this point, I
don't see an increase or decrease
happening for next year. Um, but we're
obviously going to be keeping a very
close eye on that as we get into budget
time.
Um, the water department um have
increased their bank balances by about
21,000 so far this year. Um, we did um
come in good this month on the sewer
income and expense.
Next month we're going to be in the
whole uh our sewer bill that we paid the
1 of August was the highest so far this
year. So it was it was over $80,000. So
um I definitely expect a loss next month
on that. Um but overall for the year,
we're still doing a lot better um than
we did last year.
The um courts I [snorts] brought their
report to you guys late today, so you
have it there loose.
um they have they're [clears throat]
about $6,000 it looks like less this
year in collections than what they did
this time last year. Um so that number
is increasing a little bit. Uh earlier
in the year we were looking at more like
10,000. So hopefully we're making a
little bit of ground on that. Um we have
hired Danielle's replacement for there.
Jessica Pouncy came back. She was
working here um for us before and she uh
came back. So that was great. She was
able to walk in and just get started and
not a lot of training, just a little bit
of refreshment um on her part.
Um other than that, we have um started
working on budgets. Uh it's a little
early this year, but um with Marie
leaving, we wanted to be able to get
started a little bit on the uh library
budget so that her replacement wouldn't
have to walk in and that be the very
first thing that they had to work on.
Um, plus it just gives everybody time to
really think about what they need and start planning for some future
possibilities. So, you'll start hearing
more and more about that as time goes.
But other than that, I don't think I
have anything else.
Any questions for Christie?
Okay. Thank you, Christie.
All right, that concludes our business
reports. [snorts]
Item B, procedural motions. We don't
have any ordinances on the agenda
tonight. Old business, we don't have any
old business.
New business,
we have
uh one item with a couple sub items on
here. So,
uh the item is to approve the purchase
through cooperative bidding of a rescue
truck for the fire department to replace
the current 36y old truck that's
currently in use.
What we are voting if we vote to approve
purchasing this truck, we're also
looking at approving the city to remit a
check for the total purchase amount and
to allow the rural fire to reimburse us
for half of that cost.
We're looking at the city's one half not
to exceed $75,000.
and we would be approving
uh the fire department to cash out four
of their CDs in order to make that
purchase. Those four CDs currently have
a balance of roughly $73,800.
What questions, concerns do you guys
have?
>> What are we doing with the 36 year old
truck? Uh the idea is to the current
idea is to look at selling it.
>> Okay.
>> So the current truck runs I think it has
a top speed of 59 miles per hour
>> downhill in a wind. You can get about
63.
>> When we get on the interstate we turn
off the emergency systems
>> because we're a bigger hazard than we
are holding up traffic.
So, we we have a truck that they're
looking at that was in route from
Wisconsin to Alabama and it's at the
fire station right now so that they can
evaluate it. U it is a truck that they
would like to to purchase.
>> And how old is it?
>> It's three years old, I believe.
>> Oh, that's good.
>> I'll make a motion to approve.
>> Second.
>> Okay, we have a motion and a second. All
those in favor of approving the purchase
of this new pickup or not pickup, but
truck. Uh approving the city to write
the check for the entire balance and
approving to allow rule to reimburse us
for half of that and approving to use
fire department CDs.
>> Is that the motion?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. All those in favor say yes.
>> Yes.
>> Those opposed? No.
>> That motion carries. Didn't even need
you, Travis. [clears throat]
[laughter]
>> Would you tell the chief we didn't
appear because he wasn't here?
>> Yes. [laughter]
>> No, sir.
>> Okay.
So, that concludes new business.
Item E is other business.
And we have
uh the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank is
going to host a market on the move at
the community pavilion beginning August
19th. They will return monthly on the
third Wednesday of each month. The times
are 10:00 a.m. to noon and appointments
are required on on online or through
email in order to participate in that.
So, that's a really good thing that NWA
Food Bank is is providing to West Fork
citizens. Uh, if you know someone that
can take advantage of that, please let
them know.
>> We also have in other business, the
dates for Westfest have been announced.
>> Yes. September 12th and 13th.
>> Okay.
>> I'll be getting information on the
marquee.
>> We'll have that on the marquee coming
soon. was going to be today, but it
didn't happen.
>> Okay.
>> He told me it was going to be today.
>> I did.
>> And it didn't happen. [laughter]
>> And then I just wonder, does anyone on
the council have any other other
business?
>> Yes,
this [snorts] will be my last council
meeting. Uh my house sold. I'm building
a new house. Uh
so this will be my last meeting. And I
just want to thank y'all.
like her. No, I'm not
cry.
[laughter]
>> Made her cry.
>> Thank you for the opportunity to serve
Westport.
It's really been a joy. It really has.
I don't know what else to say, but it's
been awesome.
>> So, Don,
take me down memory lane. You've worked
for the city of West Fork in what, the
60s? [laughter]
late 70s, [laughter] early 80s.
>> It wasn't his first job.
>> 19.
>> He was two.
>> What did What did you do when you worked
for the city?
>> Uh, well, I I went to school to treat
water and sewer. So, I was licensed to
treat water and sewer, which we did back
then. Treated both. Made our own water
out of mud when the river got dry.
uh did everything for the city because
it was water street everything you know.
Um
>> so you came on right after the city went
to a a public water system
or
>> I'm sorry we had a public water system.
You came on shortly after we had a sewer
system.
>> Well the sewer system was installed in the late 60s
>> early 70s.
>> Yeah.
>> I got a quick question. How long did it
take you to light all the lenders in the streets at night? A
>> lot. [laughter]
You want to, but I put up every street
sign.
>> Many of those are still up today.
>> Yeah. [laughter]
>> So, how many years did you work for the
city?
>> I worked for the city for three years.
>> Okay. How many years have you served as
a council member?
>> 10, I believe.
>> Okay. And you did a short stint as
interim mayor. five months I believe as
interim mayor.
>> What else have you done for the city?
>> Nothing.
[laughter] I've lived here. I've
supported the city. Um
I don't know. I just
I love West Fork. I hate to leave, but
my wife has family
north.
>> Okay.
So
I think it's rare that someone has lived
here as long as you and and
put in as many years of service in
various areas as you have. So
>> can leave at this age.
>> Yeah. No kidding. [laughter]
>> Time to retire.
>> I'M 49.
>> [laughter]
>> YOU truly are a testament to to giving
back to to your community. And
>> well, like I said, I you know, I love
Westport. It's a good place. I hate that
I'm leaving when y'all are coming in. Uh
but I promise you, these people here are
great people and they will take care of
you and they're looking out for your
best interest. They really are. And and
that's been one of the things that I've
seen uh in the in the 10 years that I've
been involved with the city in in this
capacity is that I really feel like
everybody on the council has a heart for
West [snorts] and and that there's no
nobody has their own agenda. You know,
uh if we have an agenda, it's for the
people.
I that's that's really all I can say
about that. I really believe that that's
true. Uh and I think that our next mayor
will be a good mayor. Uh Heath, it's
been great working with you. Uh and I
know I'm like Brian. I would have never
ran against you. My plan was to to live
here the rest of my life and run for
mayor again. Uh but my wife doesn't want
to do that. So happy wife, happy life.
So, I'm going to say thank you, Don, for
all the service YOU [applause]
[laughter]
just sell out.
>> Yeah.
>> So, I'll miss you and the city will miss
you as well. Without a doubt.
>> I will. I'll miss.
So, thank you. Truly, thank you.
Is there any other other business?
Anybody want to try to top that?
>> Anyone filed for that position?
>> Uh, no one has filed for that position.
Yes. Uh, we we do have an applicant for
that position and I will be making uh a
recommendation to the council at the
next city council meeting.
>> Yeah. No one filed to run for
>> No. No one filed to run for
[snorts and clears throat] that for the
>> Yes.
>> basically for the entire term.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. No other business. Mayor's
comments.
Uh my comments this month are that the
city of West Fork will have two
initiatives on the ballot, two
ordinances on the ballot this November.
And I want to point that out to the
council, to everyone that's here
tonight. So we will have the annexation
ordinance will be on the ballot for
November vote and we will have uh an
ordinance to allow liquor sales in the
city of West Fork. uh that will be on
the ballot in November
on the annexation. Uh well on both um I
really feel both of those are imperative
to the city uh to the future of the city
of Westport and I just encourage the
council. U
I encourage uh those from the Campbell
community uh to vote for this. I I
really do believe that um it's it's in
the best interest of the city. I'm not
going to I'm not going to sit here and
lie to anybody out there and say it's in
your best interest. Uh we're we're not
offering you a lot of good things to
come into the city. Uh that's just the
truth of it. But I do think that as far
as pro protecting uh and managing uh the
south part of Washington County, uh in
particular the area around West Fork, I
think this is the right thing to do. And
for the future of West Fork, the future
of that planned area out there, I think
it's the right thing. Uh,
I I I really think we need that to pass.
I think that's important for us. I think
if if this doesn't pass, I think it's
going to be the city of Greenland that
will be uh managing the growth of that
area. And I I I don't think that's going
to be in the best interest of the city
of Westport. Uh, and I I I really think
that with the the last almost three
years of work that uh the Westport
planning commission has put into
redesigning our uh zoning ordinance. I
think we've put more time and effort
into what does community mean, what does
small town community mean, and I think
that that we have a plan to make sure
that that's maintained as that area
develops. And is it going to develop
tomorrow? No, it's not. Is it going to
develop in the next 10 to 20 years?
Yeah, I 100% think that it will. Uh, and
I really want I really want the city of
West Fork involved in that growth and
development. Uh, so that's my take on
those two initiatives and I hope that we
get support and get passage of that uh
in November.
>> And with that, John,
>> hey, I'll make a motion we second.
>> We have a motion and a second. All those
in favor say yes.
>> Those opposed, no. We are adjourned.