Welcome everyone.

I'd like to call the regular meeting for March sixteenth, two thousand and twenty-six to order and ask Council Member Tony Bishop if he'd lead us in the invitation, please.

Father, we thank you for another wonderful day.

We know it's a little cool outside, but uh the wind and everything, I just thank you that no one was hurt, and that we was able to get through another rough evening.

Bless his blessings upon this community, and lead us and guidance and direct us in your son's name we pray.

Amen.

And if you join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mrs.

Graham, when you're ready, if you would please call the role.

Jones.

Here.

Springsteen.

Here.

Tyler.

Here.

You have a quorum, Mayor.

Thank you, ma'am.

In that case, we will ask for approval of minutes from March 9th, 2026.

If I can get a motion.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

Seeing none, motion carries.

I want to bring you to everyone's attention real quick.

A lot of people worked really hard to do our annual report for 2025.

And uh it's we've done this for the last three or four years, talked about some of the highlights and some of the good works that we've done in the city in the previous year.

And so a couple of them that I wanted to touch on.

Uh City Council lowered lowered property taxes.

We often get accused, especially because uh PVA goes in and does property assessments that raise people's property value, which causes their tax payment to go up.

That we get accused of raising taxes, but and the truth is we have lowered property taxes.

Uh this honorable body has.

Also, another stat that I'd like to share with everyone in the last three years, our overall crime rate has dropped by 23.7 percent.

I think that's quite an accomplishment, especially that we're growing like we are.

Uh public works picked up uh 952 cubic yards of debris on the side of the road and different places across town, which is equal to 50 full dump truckloads.

I thought that that was pretty interesting.

So they're getting out and doing a great job of keeping our community clean.

Uh, another thing that uh we often get criticized over is the condition of our roads, which I think are fantastic.

Uh of course we're gonna have a pothole or two after we have a freeze like we did, but uh our street street operations crew uh coordinated the paving of 11.2 miles of city streets at the cost of about a million 2.65 million dollars last fiscal year, and uh that's generally what we spend annually anywhere between uh 11 and 15 miles we'll pave.

And uh I think our city streets are in in really good shape.

A lot of people get that confused, and I'm not picking on anybody else, the county or the state, but we get uh the credit or the blame, whichever you like to call it sometimes for a lot of arterial state roads that run through the middle of Elizabethtown, and those aren't ours to build, to design, to maintain, like North Mulberry and Ring Road and 31W and St.

John Road and the bypass, none of those are our streets, so uh we don't maintain or or build those roads, but a lot of times people get confused because they run right through the middle of the city.

Uh another interesting stat I thought from last year is in 2025, overall traffic collisions decreased by 5.7 percent.

I think that's the uh the outcome of some really good police efforts.

It's the outcome of some good safe design in our road networks, but uh we're seeing that accident number go down, which is always a great thing, especially as everybody can tell.

We have more traffic on the road than we ever have and have had in Elizabethtown, so that's quite an accomplishment.

And then another thing and last one, I won't read the whole report to you, but one that I thought uh deserves some mention was in in engineering the city constructed more than 2,000 feet of sidewalk improvements in several areas of town and completed the Hump Street and Terry Court Street sidewalk and drainage improvement project.

So 2,000 feet of sidewalks.

Uh we we've been budgeting $350,000 a year to build sidewalks in parts of town that don't have them.

Uh we've been budgeting that same money to restore sidewalks in the older parts of town, and then there's uh you'd be surprised there's certain neighborhoods and areas of town that have gaps where uh there were sidewalks built years ago, and then there's a lot or two that don't have sidewalks in front of them, and then there's another run of sidewalks, and we've been working to fill those gaps.

So just a few things from the annual report.

Uh we'll have these at City Hall if anybody's interested in grabbing one and looking at it, uh, or several other places around the city, we'll be distributing these, but we wanted to show the council first and then we'll start getting those out.

Name you'll post them on uh social media here shortly, I'm sure.

So with that, we will move on unless you all have a comment.

We will move on to board appointments and airport board reappointments of Willie Wood and Glenn Deaton to serve a term to end March 5th, 2030.

Both of them have done a great job.

Willie's former councilman, retired fireman, uh been on the airport board a long time.

I don't even know.

And Glee Glenn Deaton has been on for one term, and Glenn Course is a pilot, and he's done a tremendous job on that board, so we're glad to welcome them back.

Uh, we're also glad to welcome back Pat Clark and Todd Davis to the Elizabethtown Tourism Commission for reappointment uh for a term to end March 15th and March 15th of 2029, and both of them have been on a long time on the tourism board and really understand that and uh understand the direction that tourism is heading and what it's supposed to accomplish for our city, and so we appreciate uh the service for both of them.

And with that, unless you all have comments, Judge Howard, we will start reading motions and ordinances and everything else.

Okay, we'll start with uh first reading by motion of ordinance number five, 2026, annexation of property located at Lichfield Road.

If I can get a motion and a second to read, please.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Opposed, Judge Howard.

This is a first reading by summary.

This ordinance annexes property at Litchfield Road as requested by Delta Living Trust and Charcia LLC.

The property will be zoned regional commercial upon annexation based on the planning commission recommendation.

The owners gave written consent to the annexation.

The city gave the required 45-day notice to Harding County.

The full text of this ordinance can be acquired by contacting the city clerk's office.

And again, this is a first reading by summary.

Any discussion.

Very good.

We'll move on to ordinance number six, 2026, amend zoning map for property located at 106 East Memorial Drive from C1 to C2.

If I can get a motion and a second to read, please.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

Judge Howard.

Again, this is a first reading by summary.

This ordinance amends the official zoning classification for the property located at 106 East Memorial Drive from neighborhood office to neighborhood commercial to allow for uses such as a dog grooming facility.

The change was approved by the Elizabethtown City Council.

It was found to be in agreement with the city's comprehensive plan.

Uh again, the uh full text of this ordinance can be found by contacting the city clerk's office.

This is a first reading.

Any discussion.

Very well.

We'll move on to ordinance number seven, 2026 as men's zoning map for property located at 237 West Poplar Street from R4 to C5.

If I can get a motion and a second to read.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Opposed.

Judge Howard.

This is the first reading by summary.

This ordinance amends the official zoning classification for the property located at 237 West Poplar Street from Urban Residential General to Downtown Mixed Use to allow for uses such as an event space.

The change was approved by the Elizabethtown City Council as it was found to be in agreement with the city's comprehensive plan.

Again, a full text of the ordinance can be found by contacting the city clerk's office.

Any discussion.

Very well.

We'll move on to municipal orders and start with municipal order number 2026.

Reappoint Corey Blunt to the Civil Service Board if I can get a motion and a second to read.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Opposed.

Judge Howard.

At a regular meeting of the city council held on the date set out below.

A motion to read and adopt the following municipal order was duly made seconded and approved.

Whereas the mayor, per statute, wishes to reappoint Corey Blount to the Elizabeth Town Civil Service Commission for a term to expire on March 2nd of 2029.

Now be it ordered that the mayor and his designee is hereby authorized and directed to reappoint Corey Blount to the Elizabeth Town City Civil Service Commission for a term to expire on March 2nd of 2029.

It's further order that the mayor and or is designee is authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this order, read adopted and approved this 16th day of March.

Any discussion.

Need a motion and a second to adopt, please.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Opposed.

Seeing none, motion carries.

Municipal order number 21 2026.

Reappoint Rick Horn to the Civil Service Board.

If I can get a motion and a second to read, please.

Motion.

All in favor.

Opposed.

Judge Howard.

At a regular meeting of the city council held on the dates set out below.

A motion to read and adopt the following municipal order was duly made, seconded and approved.

Whereas the mayor, per state law, wishes to reappoint Rick Horn to the Elizabeth Town Civil Service Commission for a term to expire on March 2nd of 2029.

Now be it ordered that the mayor and or as designee is hereby authorized and directed to reappoint Rick Horn to the Elizabeth Town Civil Service Commission for a term to expire on March 2nd of 2029.

Be it further ordered that the mayor and or as designee is hereby authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this order.

Red adopted and approved the 16th day of March.

So Rick Horn and Corey Blunt both have been on for one term already and have done an exceptional job and we appreciate their service to the Civil Service Board, all these people that volunteer and fill these board spots.

The compensation is slim, but uh the reward is great for us because they're great citizens and they have found a way to serve their community as well and do a great job.

And it's quite the commitment sometimes.

So we want to make sure that we tell them how much we appreciate them serving.

Any discussion.

Need a motion and a second to adopt, please.

Make a motion.

Got a motion and a second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Seeing none, motion carries.

Thank you all.

Municipal order number 22 2026 accepting bid for West Railroad Avenue project.

If I can get a motion and a second to read, please.

Motion.

Second.

Got a first and a second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Opposed.

Judge Howard.

At a regular meeting of the city council held on the dates set out below.

After first being read, a motion to adopt the following municipal order was duly made, seconded and approved.

Whereas the city prepared bid documents and publicly advertised the project and received bids that were publicly opened on March the 10th of 2026 for the West Railroad Avenue project.

Now be it ordered by the City Council to accept the bid from Schroeder Construction Inc.

for the West Railroad Avenue project in an amount not to exceed 497,833.

Be further ordered the mayor and or as designee is hereby authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this order, including but not limited to signing all contracts, documents, obtaining the necessary permits, and approving change orders with the aggregate amount not to exceed $74,674.95 cents.

Red adopted and approved this 16th day of March.

This is a really good project.

Ed, do you mind to jump up and explain to them what it is?

I know the council knows, but just for the people that are live streaming and understand that we're trying to replace some aging infrastructure and improve that.

This is the um first phase of our uh community development block grant uh project moving over into the neighborhood uh just north of the downtown area.

So this project uh will help us upgrade sidewalks, fix some drainage, uh do some reconnection of some sewer lines, and then also make some street improvements on that small.

It's about a two-block section of the the roadway, but uh we need to move the project rather quickly because of some uh funding requirements from from HUD on the this phase of the project.

Thank you, sir.

Any discussion.

Need a motion and a second to adopt, please.

Motion.

Second.

Got a first and a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Seeing none, motion carries.

Thank you all.

And last but not least, municipal order number 23 2026 accepting proposals for banking services.

If I can get a motion and a second to read, please.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Judge Howard.

At a regular meeting of the city council held on the dates set out below.

After first being read, a motion to adopt the following municipal order was duly made, seconded and approved.

Whereas the city prepared bid proposals and publicly advertised the project and received the proposals on December 31st of 2025 for banking services for the city and utilized a committee review panel of city personnel, both elected and non-elected, to determine the best proposal.

Now be it ordered by the city council to accept the proposal from Magnolia Bank that was dated December 30th of 2025 for banking services for a period of five years with the city option of two renewals thereafter.

Be it for the order that the mayor and or his designee is hereby authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this order, including but not limited to signing all agreements, documents, opening and closing accounts, and then an initiating transfer of funds.

Red adopted and approved the 16th day of March.

Thank you, sir.

Any discussion, questions, comments?

Mayor, I would say that um I think it's good anytime we go out and revisit opportunities that's involving uh the city business.

Um I've said that for years sitting up here.

Um the excuse always was that well it's it's a hassle to do it, and I understand that.

But the savings that the city will make off doing this is huge.

Okay.

And I see in here that the city has the option for two renewal periods.

I would hope that we would bid it again, because I can tell you in the tourism from tourism standpoint, they bid theirs every three.

And I understand we have more accounts and more things than the tourism operates with.

But every time they have bid it, they have made money and saved money.

And so I think it's prudent for us to continue to be good stewards of uh the taxpayers' money here to rebid this in five years again to take a look at it.

Anyone else?

So noted, thank you, sir.

And I need a motion and a second to adopt, please.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Seeing none, motion carries.

And we made it, Judge.

That brings us to the public comments phase.

Anybody have anything they want to address the council with?

With that being said, our next city council meeting will be held on March 23rd, 2026.

I would also like to remind everyone to continue to keep the Pennington family in your prayers.

Uh, can't imagine what they're going through.

I understand that there's going to be a service on Saturday, although I don't know the details.

I don't know how much you can talk about that.

I I don't think the details are fully known yet.

Um the transfer has has not been made even here.

I think the um uh Sergeant Pennington will be flown into um Fort Knox, where there'll be an escort over to prepare everything, but then the service will be at Central Hard, depending on when all those things happen.

But Saturday's the plan.

Thank you, sir.

We will not go closed session.

Anybody have anything else they want to offer?

Okay, with that, I need a motion and a second to adjourn, please.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

Seeing none, motion carries.

Thank you all.