At Thursday’s city council meeting, the council’s next meeting was moved to June 14, due to a Municipal League conference time conflict, with the regular date.

No one (except for this reporter) realized that this is the same date, same time, and same place as the regularly scheduled Parks & Recreation Committee meeting.

They apparently will be having a joint meeting, which is appropriate, since the city council has recently imposed the “no smoking” policy at City Park, the “no tournament” policy at Lake Monticello, and leased out a major portion of Jordan Park for use by the private school, without referring these issues to the Parks Commission / Committee.

The City Council was presented with a lease agreement for P.F. Mays & Associates, LLC for the proposed private school at Jordan Park during their regular meeting Thursday evening. Mayor Allen Maxwell reported that he had investigated what a reasonable lease would be on the Jordan Park property and, “What we got back was $300-$500 per month. I want the council to consider that because we don’t have to charge that much. I think we need to write what the City is going to charge on a monthly or annual basis… We came up with a number of $500 a year.”

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The “you’re lying – name-calling” city council video from Monday night reached the 1,000 play mark, less than 24 hours of being posted.

It reached the 1,700 play level in less that two days.  The 3rd day produced another 250+ plays. It is expected to break the 2,000 mark mid-morning, Friday

One alderman said that she was “embarrassed that the city has had to go through this.”

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The City Council voted unanimously to allow Mayor Allen Maxwell to begin advertising for bids for the fire station to be built at the W.C. Whaley lot.

The Council also voted to combine CD’s and budgeted items that have not, or will not be used this year, in order to fund the deficit in the Sadie Johnson Building Fund.

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For the second time in recent months, a City of Monticello trash truck has been in an accident, and police weren’t notified.

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The Monticello Parks and Recreatin Committee spent almost 20 minutes of their Thursday meeting going over the history of the commission / committee, and it’s ongoing issues with the Monticello Babe Ruth league.

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A heated argument broke out Monday night between members of the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission, on the topic of the 3% hotel tax being used exclusively for the Convention Center project, or whether some Adverting and Promotion funds should be used to “advertise and promote” our local events and activities.

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City Attorney Whit Barton told the Council that he had received correspondence from a Little Rock attorney representing the Babe Ruth League on March 2, 2012, in regards to issues surrounding a contract with the City.

The issue then came up that the title of Commission for Parks and Recreation was not within the statute for how a Commission should be established, and Attorney Barton instructed the Council on ways to amend the issue, such as forming a Parks and Recreation Committee instead.

Barton stated that being a committee means the positions held are elected and told the Council, “Nobody’s making you do anything.”” But, the ordinance is not in compliance with the statute.”

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After an email was sent by Monticello Mayor Allen Maxwell to city council members, that e-mail found it’s way to the courthouse.  A meeting was called Wednesday morning, to “air out” the issues pertaining to the ongoing battle over the Juvenile Court’s use of the MEDC / District Court building.

This long-running soap opera earlier led to the “back door” sign being posted on the MEDC / Court door; the front court room door being locked; and most recently to City Hall’s “No Public Restroom” policy, which in turn led to an “old fashioned outhouse” being placed on the City Hall yard, outside of the Mayor’s window.

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Parks and Recreation Commission Chairperson Karen Connelley gave several updates during their monthly meeting Thursday evening.

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 The sign that prohibited use of public restroom was removed from City Hall earlier today.

The “Stink Stirred at the Monticello City Hall” story was feature on at least one Little Rock TV station, with 2 others request photos for possible use today.

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In a shocking turn of events, the City Council voted yes to building a new fire station on the W.C. Whaley lot. During Thursday night’s meeting Mayor Allen Maxwell asked MEDC Executive Director Nita McDaniel to present the slide show to the Council that was shown to the public during the ISO Rating Meeting (posted below).

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2011 was definitely “the” year for Monticello’s airport, Ellis Field. Numerous improvements have been made, and well deserved honors and awards have been given to the airport over the past year.

A few of the impressive improvements the airport has seen over the past 12 months include moving the fuel pump from their old office building to the new one, and resealing of the runway pavement.

A new office building and hangar is under construction, thanks to hard work by aiport commission chairman Bennie Ryburn III in applying for grants, to be leased to EFS Geo-Technologies, the MEDC / Chamber of Commerce Industry of the Year.  This will provide long-term income to the airport, to help achieve it’s goal of being self sufficient.

Ellis Field had National recognition when Bob Worthington, writer for Fly Low magazine, wrote about his experience with the airport and its staff. His story of how the staff pulled together to provide him with transportation, when he was stuck due to weather, and being there to help problem solve was but one example of the prime service Ellis Field Airport provides to each of its customers.Benji Ryburn, Airport Commissioner, accepted the Outstanding Airport Award on behalf of the airport from the FAA. Monticello’s Airport was also given the honor of being chosen as Arkansas Airport of the Year in 2011. This was the second time the airport had received the award, the first time being in 2008.

Ellis Field definitely made news, and made Monticello quite proud in 2011.

October of 2010 brought the tragic news of the loss of the Sadie Johnson Building. A fire completely destroyed the well-loved and much used structure.

Bids were taken to see how much it would take to rebuild, and with the lowest bid coming in at a grand total of $757,900 (including the 10% engineering fee), the Parks and Recreation Commission would be left with a budget deficit of -$256,876 if they accepted.

The Commission voted to accept the low bid, and ask the City Council for more funding. With the City being projected as over budget for the 2012 year if the Sadie Johnson Building funding does occur, there has been no official vote yet on if they will grant the money to Parks and Recreation.

In late September, a group of interested individuals met to begin the process of placing a “wet / dry” vote, to allow beer, wine, and liquor sales in Marion Township, which include Monticello, and it’s immediately surrounding area.

Their effort is called “Vote for Growth in Drew County,”

Click here for the history of the project.

Click here for the full story from January.  The video comes in at #23 for the year.

While recycling has only affected those who volunteer to take part, it will take a more prevalent roll in our lives in the near future.

Here’s an article that Mandy Moss recently posted on MLive about recycling in Drew County.

This 2007 article, Recycling, What It’s All About, was enough to stop my family from throwing away 1,000’s of aluminum cans (without any extra work).

Monticello Municipal Airport received yet another award this year. Benji Ryburn, Airport Commissioner, went to Fort Worth, TX on Tuesday to accept the Outstanding Airport Award from the FAA. Five states were represented at the event.

Only one airport from each state is selected.

“To put into perspective what a big deal this is, there are 91 airports in Arkansas. If you were the worst, it could take you 91 years to get one [the award].” – Benji Ryburn

In other airport news, Mr. Ryburn asked the council to consider looking into a match grant, an 80/20 grant, to pay for a hanger to house larger planes. This is based on one of the airport’s client’s decision to possibly purchase a plane too large to be housed by any existing hangers at Ellis Field.

Approximately 50 local residents attended Thursday nights public meeting to see the presentation of the proposed Convention Center at UAM’s Fine Arts Center.

The video of the meeting is posted above, along with the question and answer session. (more…)

Between July of 2010 and June of 2011, Monticello alone recycled 42.21 tons of newspapers. Considering that the majority of Drew County residents choose not to recycle, that’s quite an impact made by a small percentage of residents.

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During last week’s special city council committee meeting, Rick Shepherd and Dennington Moss with Faulkner Pipe Company addressed the Council about the city’s current water meter problems.

Samples of replaced city water pipes, shown at meeting.

Based on 25 randomly selected old meters pulled from different areas around Monticello and sent to Austin, TX to Fluid Meters for testing, it was determined that the old meters are costing the city quite a large sum of money each month.

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The Monticello City Council, at their recent meeting, approved the yearly city street overlays, which are divided as close to evenly between the city’s wards as possible.

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Click here for the story from SalineRiverChronicle.com.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

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Monday morning, Monticello Police Department received a call at 9:08 am from the Monticello Transfer Station asking for an ambulance following an accident on site.

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The MEDC and the Chamber of Commerce hosted the dedication ceremonies for the Ridgeway Monticello and the Downtown Civic Center, Tues afternoon.

Ridgeway tours  led into the ceremony at the fully renovated hotel, where around 100 people attended.

The Downtown Civic Center dedication followed, and had an estimated 75 present.

Cablevisin’s “Hometown Monticello” program on Channel 19 will include a special video segment of the Ridgeway Monticello dedication event, repeating from Sunday at 5 pm, until Monday at 7 am, this weekend.

Recently, a discussion at a City Council meeting included the public confirmation that a couple of dumpsters at McCloy park are available for public use.

A sign was recently posted, explaining the “household garbage” rules.

Who ever tried to put the Jacuzzi whirlpool into the dumpster, apparently didn’t read the sign.

Last Thursday night, local citizens, serving as committee members interested in rebuilding the Sadie Johnson Community Center met with ETC engineers and Mayor Allen Maxwell, and approved the preliminary drawings of the new structure to be built at Jordan Park on the site of the old building which was destroyed by fire last year.

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Vandalism has taken place in our local Monticello parks again over recent weeks, as shown by the photos above.

The top left shows (inside of the circles) where a loud speaker was taken from the ball field at Jordan Park. City workers discovered the speaker missing Monday morning when they arrived at work.

The top center pic shows where the “men” and “women” signs were removed from the new restrooms at McCloy Park, last week.

The bottom row of photos show where the pavilion at Lake Monticello’s table were “re-arranged” with litter scattered around the receptacles on both ends of the lake earlier this month.

District Judge Ken Harper was on the meeting’s agenda to speak to the City Council Thursday night about the recent incident involving the MEDC and the courthouse doors, which led to an alleged incident between MEDC executive director Nita McDaniel and Harper.

MEDC president Benny Ryburn asked for a few minutes to speak about the incident. Ryburn said McDaniel and judge Teresa French had agreed on how to handle the door situation.

“I think everything has been blown out of proportion,” he said. “Mrs. McDaniel nor the MEDC have been in the wrong. She consulted with judge Teresa French, they came up with a solution to the problem of overcrowding at the front of the building. (more…)