SULPHUR SPRINGS -- After a brief executive session, Sulphur Springs council members voted July 9 to eliminate two part-time positions and hire one full-time department head for a Street and Park Department, with the new full-time employee reporting directly to the mayor.
The council also acceted the resignation of city attorney Bryan Vernetti as the city's prosecuting attorney, with the announcement made that Jay Williams of Gentry would be hired to handle prosecution of the city's criminal and traffic cases. Vernetti will continue to serve as the city's attorney but said, since his law firm is involved in defending clients in criminal cases, a possible conflict of interest could arrise.
Vernetti also requested that the city pay him $500 per month for his services, but the council passed a resolution to continue paying him $400 a month until the new amount could be considered as a part of the next annual city budget.
The council tabled until next month a resolution to adopt a memoradum of agreement between Gravette and Sulphur Springs to allow the city attorney to review the document. The memorandum states the city would pay Gravette $1,200 to provide ambulance service in 2015, $2,400 in 2016, and find a plan to pay $9,000 to $10,000 per year after that. The fee would not preclude the ambulance service from charging patients for services. Councilman Harris Steele questioned where the city would come up with that kind of money and expressed concern the city might be charged for providing service in the entire fire district rather than just inside the city limits.
The council heard numerous reports during the meeting, and concern was expressed over the possible personal use of a city truck by a city employee. A few council members also mentioned the truck being left running for extended periods of time while parked.
Jamie Friend told the council she had received word of a Walmart grant she requested which would enable the city to help out at least 25 local children with the purchase of school supplies and backpacks later this summer.
John Thurber, reporting for the parks and recreation commission, reported on a "grand" June 27 Sulphur Days event in the park and told the council the city was waiting for a state grant to be awarded to do some additional impovement work in the park. He said the pond would be drained after Labor Day so that additional gravel could be removed from the pond.
Duke Brackney, city police chief, said there were three arrests during the June 27 event, and all were alcohol-related -- public intoxication, disorderly conduct -- arrests. He told the council that the owner of the old Mosier TV Building had given consent to burn the building and might give a portion of the property (the back part of the property) to the city. The burn would likely require coordination between police and fire departments because of the building's proximity to Arkansas Highway 59 and the expected heat the fire will produce.
Bill Middleton, fire chief and member of the council, reported that the fire department was using some Act 833 funds to replace equipment -- fire gloves and helmets -- since "it's time," he said.
Middleton also spoke to the council about reviewing fire dues and taking future action to make the dues more consistent throughout the city. He suggested dues of $1.80 per month to help cover the cost of fire calls and said current dues range from $1.24 to $1.60 in the city. He also reported on plans for the fire department to hold a spaghetti dinner as a fundraiser for the department.
Mayor Greg Barber, reporting for Sherman Buckley and the water and sewer department since Buckley was busy due to the heavy rains, said that water infiltration into the sewer system was costing the city much because of the chlorine treatment the water must have before release from the city sewer plant. He reported as much as 598,000 gallons infiltrating the sewer system on Wednesday of last week due to the rains. He said additional smoke testing would be done to fix as many openings to the city sewer system as possible and reduce the infiltration and cut city treatment costs.
Also discussed, with no action, was a problem at the sewer plant in which the blades of a tank agitator were hitting an unknown object in the bottom of the tank. To find and fix the problem, the tank could be drained and the waste hauled away to another treatment plant at a cost of near $25,000 or divers could be sent down into the tank at a cost of just under $10,000.
Vernetti told the council the divers would be wearing special suits and working blind, by sense of feel only, possibly making it difficult to locate and repair the problem.
Hiring a full-time employee to work with Buckley was discussed briefly in open session before the council went into executive session. A full-time employee had resigned and a part-time employee was off because of a knee injury, leaving Buckley to work alone. Harris mentioned the fact that Buckley was getting closer to retirement age and whoever was hired should be someone who could possibly take over Buckley's duties when needed in the future.
General News on 07/15/2015