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.

Lampkin asked Attorney Cliff Gibson for legal advice on the issue. Gibson stated that according to the Arkansas Constitution, a county cannot “give away” the taxpayers’ land. If the land is sold for anything less than what the county tax assessor believes it is worth, there would be consequences.

Beth Davis, County Tax Assessor, agreed to look at the second appraisal, to see why there was so much of a difference in price. The court agreed that there was nothing else to do until she compared the appraisals.

The court seemed willing to help out, but emphasized that legally, their hands were tied.

Collins and Reinhart seemed to hope that this issue can be worked out, but said that they may be forced to seek another location.

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.

The council discussed with MEDC Director Truman Hamilton and MEDC Chairman Benji Ryburn what efforts had been made in the past. According to Ryburn, letters had been posted on the buildings, and the only thing left to do was for the council to enforce the ordinance and allow the city to tear down the buildings if the owners did not.

The council, Ryburn, and Hamilton discussed the fact that if they wanted to follow the ordinance, then once they posted the signs saying the building was condemned, the city could take down the building and file a lean against the property if the owner refused to clean the property up. The owner would then have to pay the taxes on the property or the land commissioner will auction the property for back taxes, and the city will collect its money first from the tax money.

“You got to the point where the city council had to say ‘it’s condemned,’ and that didn’t happen, so nothing happened from that point,” stated Hamilton. “There was nothing else our office could do.”

Hamilton also stated that the city fire department could not burn any of the buildings as a training exercise unless the buildings had been inspected to ensure that there were no hazardous materials such as asbestos in the buildings. The council discussed prices of inspecting all the houses and options for that.

Council members stated that they would like to see on paper what each condemnation will cost the city. Hamilton and City Attorney Bill Daniels answered by saying that prices for each place would vary. For example, if the city has to tear the building down, they will have to pay for an inspector to inspect the building. If he finds something, they will have to pay more for him to run tests on what he found.

“You could end up with a lot of expense here without know it,” says Daniels. “If you’re serious about clean up…if you’re serious about proceeding through with this thing, it’s going to cost money…and you’re not going to recover all of your money…but you have accomplished the purpose of cleaning up the city, so how serious are you in doing that, and do we have your support if we start going down that process?”

Sherrie Gillespie stated that one the problems in the past was that they would give a 90-day notice, the owner would clean up a little of the property, and the council would back off. After a few months, the building was back in bad shape, and the process would begin again. She also stated that even though some of the buildings are in town the owners do not live there, and they do not care about the old buildings.

“I am specifically addressing those that really would be deemed a nuisance to the point that they need to be torn down,” answered Hudson.

The council approved a motion to move forward with looking at properties that need to be condemned.