SPRINGTOWN -- The town council approved the municipality's financial reports and voted to purchase two picnic tables and a trash can for the park at its Feb. 6 meeting, but the bulk of the meeting was spent hearing reports and complaints related to a plan to open up a city street closed years ago to connect Bredehoeft Road to the bridge over Flint Creek on Aubrey Long Road. The plan would also apparently close a portion of Aubrey Long Road inside the town to the northeast of the bridge.
With Chuck and Janet Bostwick absent, the town council (with Karee Barrett, Dixie Law and David Clark present) unanimously approved the purchase of picnic tables and a trash can to replace damaged items in the town's park.
January financial reports -- showing income in the general fund of $4,187.70 and expenses of $4,368.63, and income in the street fund of $537.23 and expenses of $134.44 -- were also unanimously approved.
Terri Glenn, the town's mayor, also reported that the town attorney, George Rhoads, was working on obtaining a deed to the city park. According to Glenn, the city does not have a deed to the property.
Glenn updated the council on the results of the first hearing on the town's request for a declaratory judgment in circuit court regarding the action of a previous council to narrow a street originally platted as Main Street which the current council wishes to reopen as a continuation of Bredehoeft Road. She said the judge (Judge John Scott) suggested asking the owners of the lands given up by the town when the street was narrowed to voluntarily return the land to the town. She said the landowners had declined, so a second hearing -- as yet unscheduled -- would be requested.
According to Glenn, in an email sent to Mark Hayes, general counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, "the portion of the road, previously Main Street but now referred to as Bredehoeft, is a platted road, having been blocked to through traffic but not closed. It was narrowed by the abutting property owners serving on the council in 2014."
The reopening of this spur of Bredehoeft Road and associated changes are controversial and relate to a years-old dispute over the location of the Aubrey Long Bridge. When the bridge was planned in 2012, Karee and Preston Barrett objected to its location near a natural spring on their property. After the bridge was completed, the Barretts blamed associated county road work for causing sinkholes on their property. After Preston Barrett was elected mayor and Karee Barett elected to the town council, the administration embarked on a plan to take back roadways previously abandoned by Springtown and reroute traffic from the bridge away from their property. Among the property owners affected by the proposed plan is Paul Lemke, who was the town's mayor when the bridge was constructed.
Glenn also reported to the town council that a survey related to the Bredehoeft project had been received but that engineering plans were not yet available. She said she would contact the engineer, Ron Homeyer of Civil Engineering Inc. in Siloam Springs, and request the engineering work be completed at the engineer's earliest convenience.
According to a minimal survey ordered by the town's former mayor, Preston Barrett, and paid for by the city in the amount of $1,500, the town is looking at reopening Main Street as a continuation of Bredehoeft Road to the Aubrey Long Bridge. It shows an approximate location of a "cul-de-sac" on the existing Aubrey Long Road just to the northeast of the Aubrey Long Bridge, indicating the portion of road which passes by the Barrett residence may be closed to through traffic.
Councilwoman Dixie Law suggested the council proceed with plans in regard to the Bredehoeft Street project, saying "residents have no say on what the city does with city streets."
Lisa Taylor, a town resident, reminded Law that she was elected to represent the people of Springtown.
Public Comment
In the public comment portion of the meeting, a number of residents and nonresidents were given three minutes per topic to address the council with their concerns.
Lyman Williams complained that he had been told there were no plans to close Aubrey Lane Road, but that minutes of an August meeting said a portion would be closed. He asked that the council members and the mayor act with honesty and integrity.
Lisa Taylor said the survey copy she received indicated it looked like the council was planning to close a portion of Aubrey Long Road and connect to Aubrey Long on the Bredehoeft Spur. She said the council closed a street by Flint Creek and gave the land to the Barretts, supposedly for the betterment of the town. "How is that for the betterment of the town?" she asked.
Karee Barrett, in an email to the Eagle Observer, said "This is not true. (Lisa Taylor's) mother gained half of the closed road (Spring Street). We have no property deeded to the Barretts that abuts Spring Street."
Taylor also complained that the council changed meeting times from the second Tuesday to the first Tuesday of February and failed to post notice of the change in the city park.
Larry Riley, from Texas but a former longtime resident of Springtown, said he lived in Springtown from 1943 to 1956 but kept up on town events when his relatives, Marvin and Loretta Riley, were active in city government. He scolded the council for its handling of matters related to Aubrey Long Road and street closings, saying his mother always told him: "What goes over the devil's back, always comes under his belly."
Barbara Goodman, a newer resident of Springtown, questioned the council as to why the Aubrey Long Project was changed to the Bredehoeft Street Project and why it was not included on the council's agenda under unfinished business when minutes later revealed it was discussed as an item of business at town council meetings.
Councilwoman Law quipped, "Come to the meetings!"
Goodman suggested Law's comment was rude and unprofessional.
Goodman also suggested the council minutes don't accurately reflect the discussions and actions of the council.
Michael Cain, an area resident who lives outside of Springtown but uses Aubrey Long Road, said he was surprised at how town council meetings are held.
Cain told the council that Preston Barrett told him he couldn't get the building permits he wanted while Paul Lemke was mayor and that's why he ran. Barrett says Cain's statement is not true and that neither he or Karee have ever taken any pay from the town.
"You are all playing silly games," Cain said to the council and city officials. "It's very obvious the only people to gain from closing Aubrey Long Road are the Barretts. You don't care about the welfare of the people. I'm ashamed of you all!"
He called the stop signs placed on Springtown Road a "joke" because there is no traffic.
Paul Lemke said he saw no place in the minutes where a vote was taken or a petition filed to pursue a declaratory judgment against those who hold property along Bredehoeft Road. He complained that the town had spent $1,500 on a survey ordered by Preston Barrett when the mayor is only authorized to spend up to $1,000 without council approval.
April 2013 minutes were later provided to the Eagle Observer, showing an increase to $1,500 in the amount the mayor may spend on a project without prior council approval.
Lemke also asked the council what it was hiding since the survey he received by request under the Freedom of Information Act looks like no other survey he's ever seen because of a lack of any details.
"This is not a survey anyone would accept," he said, adding that the city already had surveys done which could have been requested from Mike James. He pointed out the proposed cul-de-sac on Aubrey Long Road, saying it indicated the street would end there and be closed past the Barrett residence.
Lemke said the Aubrey Long Bridge used to flood every time there was a significant rain, cutting off residents from the highway and from access to emergency services. He said the current bridge was engineered and met the approval of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. He said the roadway leading from the bridge and around the corner to the northeast is an engineered roadway which was ready to be paved but the city has "let it go to crap" because the city won't let the county grade it.
Though the Barretts had argued that a sinkhole which opened up on their property was the result of county maintenance on Aubrey Long Road, Lemke suggested that the raising of the water level in the pool at the spring where the Barrett home is located was a more likely cause of the sinkhole.
He also said moving the road from its current location to the Bredehoeft Spur would put it closer to another spring than it currently is to the spring on the Barrett property.
Later in the meeting, Councilwoman Karee Barrett said that her husband, Preston Barrett, did not request the survey for himself but was acting on the request of the city, which commissioned the survey.
"The animosity is amazing," said Councilman David Clark at the close of the meeting in answer to criticisms earlier about putting up stop signs on Springtown Road. He said the council approved stop signs and has speed bumps for the safety of children because people drive 70 mph through town.
"The stop signs and speed bumps are to protect our kids," he said, adding that the town did not have any police officers to write tickets.
Clark also reported that new locks had been purchased for the city dumpsters to prevent illegal dumping. He said residents can contact him or Shelly McGarrah, the town's recorder and treasurer, to unlock the dumpsters when needed.
General News on 02/14/2018