Monticello Live

The Monticello City Council discussed an ordinance at their regular monthly meeting that will require citizens to clean their property and require a certain procedure to be followed. After much debate, the council decided that grass should remain below 12” and that if it exceeds 12”, they could require the owner of the land to clean it up.

City Council is considering exempting undeveloped land from the ordinance, but as it stands right now, all property is included. If the council exempts undeveloped land, landowners must still keep trash off that land. They are trying to clean up the city and keep it looking clean.

The ordinance was approved with only Clifton Bond objecting.  Bond decided to clarify his reason for opposing the ordinance by stating that he is not against cleaning up the city, but he doesn’t “think this is the right way to go about it.”

The council also approved a resolution to authorize the mayor to apply for a grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, approved a resolution to accept the contract for the MEDC, approved a resolution to accept the contract for the Chamber of Commerce, and approved a resolution to accept the contract for the Boys & Girls Club.

The city council met Tuesday night for several special committee meetings. The first meeting was for the Fire Department Committee. The council met to discuss locations for a new fire department. Fire Chief Steven Faulkner presented the committee with maps and drawings of possible locations for the new fire department, and what the mile and a half response time area would be for those locations.

Alderman Tim Chase stated that he believed that if the council was going to build a new fire department, they needed to renovate and maintain the central location, and build a fourth one in another location. Alderman Beverly Hudson stated that while that would be ideal, it would cost more money to do that.

The committee decided to meet again in December to discuss the future location of the fire department.

During the regular Quorum Court meeting held last Thursday, County Judge Damon Lampkin brought up the new Medical Office Building. Dr. Sidney Collins and Dr. Jeffrey Reinhart were there to discuss the status of the prospective building. Collins stated that they had come to a roadblock in the building because the land was appraised for much higher than they were hoping to pay.

The county paid for an appraiser to come in and examine the land and his estimate for the five acres of land was around $224,000. The doctors then paid for a different appraiser to examine the land and his estimate for the five acres was $110,000. The doctors do not want to have to pay $224,000 with all the restrictions that were put on the building. They asked the court to lower the price of the land. (more…)

Beverly Hudson lead a debate last Thursday during the regular city council meeting on condemning buildings for city clean ups. She opened the topic by showing pictures taken by Truman Hamilton depicting the old, abandoned buildings. Hudson wanted the council to enforce the ordinance already in place that states that if the council deems a building to be a nuisance they can condemn it and ask the owner to tear it down and clean it up, or if the owner refuses, the city can take down the building. (more…)