Okay, let's get started with the agenda session.

Today is Tuesday, May 12th, and we're going over the agenda for next week, Tuesday, May 19th.

Um presentations for next week.

Uh we'll start right out of the gate with the consent agenda after the approval of two sets of minutes.

We'll go into item A3.

Um and these first one, two, three, four, actually, these first five items are all from Jared.

So I what I would like to do is read all of them, have him come up and then treat them, speak of them more generally.

So item A3 is a resolution to award bid 26-26 and authorize a contract with Emory SAP and Sons Inc.

for pavement crack repair at the airport in the amount of 142,393 and 23 cents, and to approve a 10% project contingency.

Item A4 is a resolution to approve a memorandum of agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration to authorize continued installation, operation, and maintenance of FAA owned navigational communication and lighting facilities on the airport property.

A5, a resolution to authorize an application for an Arkansas Department of Aeronautics grant and the amount of $300,000 to fund 80% of the costs for the terminal apron rehabilitation project.

Also, this is one that led to a little bit of confusion in the memos.

You will notice it talks a lot about ADA grants at the airport.

In this particular instance, that ADA refers to Arkansas Department of Aeronautics, not Americans with Disabilities Acts, as which is what we typically talk about.

So to be fair.

A6 is a resolution to authorize an application for an Arkansas Department of Aeronautics grant and the amount of 200,000 to fund 90% of the costs for the North General Aviation Apron rehabilitation project at the airport.

Those two work in tandem.

And then finally from Jared A7, a resolution to authorize Mayor Ron to convey a utility easement, Southwestern Electric forgive me, to convey a utility easement to Southwestern Electric Power Company for the relocation of electrical infrastructure serving the airport terminal.

Jared, can you discuss with since you have several coming, what can you kind of give us an overview, please of this?

Absolutely.

So first of all, I apologize for having this many.

And we can't hear you.

Do you mind to there you go?

Better.

That is a little bit better.

So I have a lot more than normal tonight.

Normally I have one or two.

But uh what we have tonight are good.

Two ADA grants, which again, Arkansas Department of Aeronautics.

Uh those are both for ramp rehab projects.

These are existing ramps that we have on the field that they've reached their useful life.

They need some uh upkeep.

Uh and then we have the SWEPCO utility easement.

Uh that one is a hangar project that's already happening.

We found some utilities weren't quite where we expected them to be.

So SWEPCO has graciously agreed to relocate those, uh, but we do need to update their easement uh out of the way of the current footprint of the hangar.

And then the MOA with the FAA, the memorandum of agreement.

Uh this is a renewal of a roughly 20-year-old document.

Uh it doesn't really have any changes from the previous version.

It's just expired and up for renewal, but this allows the FAA to maintain our navigational equipment on the field.

Uh we there's no cost to us for that.

It provides uh navigational equipment to the flying public.

And uh this is just a renewal of that current agreement that gives them access.

Thank you, Mayor.

So Jared, you said the 20 UL contract is just up for renewal.

Have we had legal or you have legal someone to look at it to ensure that some of the verbiage didn't need to be changed or are talking about automation in alignment with 2026?

Gotcha.

So yes, this went through the standard staff approval process.

So it's been through legal.

Oh, thank you, Mayor.

Um on the uh tie downs, sorry, there's so many items, so I might kind of jump around.

Um on the A5.

I just was gonna try to better understand as OSM comes on.

Um it sounds like you know, the justification is like the tie-down need for that expansion that's happening.

Um do you have um a kind of a at least a ballpark idea of additional investments that we might be looking at and seeing going forward with OSM coming on board here kind of with our first fleet and kind of into the future.

I know you may not have full specifics to kind of get a better idea of what kind of investments we might be looking at.

Sure.

So this is not strictly for OSM.

Uh there's actually two sets of tie downs that we're rehabilitating.

Uh we have existing tie-downs right now, they're just an older style.

This would be updating them to the newer preferred style, is what this predominantly is.

We're adding more capacity than we had in the past for OSM.

But this is an area that already has tie-downs.

But as far as additional investment, this is uh as far as I can tell.

Okay.

This will be it.

Okay.

And then on the um lighting package, trying to remember which one that was.

Um in regard to lighting, I'm I know we have a lot of conversations about you know the um migratory patterns with with birds, et cetera.

I mean, whenever we I mean, these are safety lights and for being able to navigate to come on and off your runways, et cetera.

But do we have any level of oversight with the city in regard to um you know the way that that potentially um impacts the environment that's around there at the airport?

Um so all of these would be through standard FAA uh design standards.

Um there is an environmental element to everything they do.

There are environmental studies.

Uh I don't believe, as far as I have, I haven't seen any specifically about wildlife uh migration or anything like that, but uh everything that the FAA would be putting up is to current federal standard.

Okay, all right, thank you.

And then with the agreements, um, kind of in the fine, you know, the devils in the details and the fine print.

Um I'm curious what these going through, you know, the um uh federal government.

Um are there any potential implications or possible restrictions or anything that would put um these in jeopardy with any kind of adjacencies of of projects that would happen?

I mean, we know that on our you know uh agenda we currently are talking about an adjacent property that has a certain particular business of aeronautics or aerospace.

Um, you know, is there anything um that potentially those these have any interaction at all, possibly um with any of the requirements that the federal government would have with these grants that we're applying for?

Uh no, these would largely be separate.

Um most of these navigational pieces, they go through a separate design standard.

Um, and anything you do on the airport would have to be and and regardless of this contract, any development on the airport goes through a FAA reproval process to make sure it doesn't uh obstruct any navigational equipment.

Uh so this contract in particular wouldn't have any bearing on that.

Okay, all right.

Thank you, Jared.

Mr.

Witaker.

Thank you.

Do you have a sense that the new flight school is aiding us in competing and receiving such grants for the airport?

Absolutely.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um thank you, Jared.

Moving on to A8, a resolution to express the willingness of the city of Fayetteville to utilize federal aid funds for the Clabor Creek Bridge Replacement Project.

This one is fairly straightforward, but Justin Bland, our city engineer, is here.

If anybody would like more information or a presentation, and Justin, it looks like Minister Jones would like that.

So if you would come on up, please.

Okay, yes, please go ahead.

I have a specific question.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, how are you?

I I'm just asking only because coming from the Dallas Fort Worth area, whenever we did bridge and um bridge replacements, you would see walking paths and biking paths on the bridge.

Is that something we're looking to do when we're replacing older bridges like that?

It is, yes.

We're we're committed to doing complete streets with any any project that we do where we uh you know, we're rebuilding or building a new street, so we would expect to have side paths or sidewalks with across the bridge.

That's correct.

Um Ms.

Turk.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so I was reading in the packet that we're gonna apply for this grant, but there may not be sufficient funds when we know how many how many funds are lacking uh if they run out of funds before we actually allocate funding.

Yeah, so my understanding on that is that each year RDOT has a set amount of funds that they use for this particular grant, and then just depending on how many projects apply for it and use it, then it it gets used up basically.

So I think this first step on this is that we'll do a feasibility study with RDOT, which will establish the cost for that, and then we'll know kind of where we fit into that.

That uh I guess you might the pecking order as far as when we can get funding and how much.

I mean, the the 9010 sounds really great, but then there might not be 90% there.

Um so I just want to make sure that we're gonna have enough um support from the state to be able to do this.

Um and mayor, I have one comment.

I think you missed A7.

Um I read A7 um as part of the ones that were Jared's item.

It was a resolution of the relocation of the electrical infrastructure at the airport terminal.

My apologies.

Yeah, no, it's okay.

But if you would like to go back to seven because you have questions about it, we can't.

Okay.

All right, great.

Okay.

Moving on to A9, a resolution to authorize an application for an 80-20 federal aid grant through the Safe Streets for All program from the U.S.

Department of Transportation in an amount not to exceed $7,200,000 for the completion of the safety and mobility improvements on Joyce Boulevard.

This one's very exciting.

Justin, will you give us a little bit of an overview of that, please?

Yes.

So this is a continuation of the Safe Streets for All project we have currently.

Um on Joyce Boulevard, we um have realized that we don't have enough funding to complete the full corridor, so we're gonna focus on between uh Vandage Street and Old Missouri with the current uh grant.

So with this grant application, we're looking for funding to complete from basically the the outer thirds of that.

So that'd be from college over to vanage and then from old Missouri over to crossover.

Um so we expect that if everything works out time wise, that we can basically complete this existing phase and then this funding would come in and then we'd be able to just roll into the uh the rest of that um likely in 2030 uh the general time window there.

Great.

Do we have any questions for Justin about Joyce?

All right, great.

Thank you, Justin.

That brings us to A10, a resolution to amend the professional services contract with Bruckner's truck and equipment to adjust labor rates for heavy truck and fire apparatus repairs pursuant to resolution 47-25.

Ross is here.

Should you have any questions?

A11 is also from our fleet department.

It's a resolution to approve the purchase of a Spartan Pumper Tanker fire apparatus from Delta Fire and Safety in the amount of $1,370,800 pursuant to a source well cooperative purchasing contract, plus any applicable surcharges, freight charges, and delivery fees up to 10% of the original purchase price, and to approve an associated budget amendment.

Okay.

A twelve is a resolution to approve updates to Fayetteville Fire Department administrative policies.

And I believe Chief Harden, can you give us just a little bit of an overview of of that and what policies are included?

Yes.

I am so sorry.

Can I ask a question about um A10?

Yes, Ross.

I just so if you'll hold off on that for just a minute, Chief Ross, if you'll come up here to uh about the Bruckner's uh repairs contract.

Oh no, no, sorry.

Uh the truck and equipment yes, that's Bruckner's, yeah.

The fire apparatus replacement.

Okay.

So do you have I have a question really quick.

Do they have a different agenda than I do?

Because they also, Keith, they also thought I missed A7, and I'm did like and I think the numbering, what do you show is A 10, Ms.

Moore?

Brucknur's um Rock and Equipment.

Maybe I'm wrong.

It's A11.

I maybe said the wrong thing.

A eleven.

Okay, perfect.

Anyway, A11.

Sometimes my agenda floats back and forth as I click.

Does it do that?

Mind us that's the Delta Fire and Safety Inc.

Correct.

Now we're on the same page.

Thank you for checking.

Um I just noticed on the memo, so I wanted to check in with you.

It looked like the lead time said 720 days.

So I just wanted to check in.

I believe in the past when we've had a lengthy lead like that, we've then had to revisit this.

I just wanted to kind of get your outlook on without having such a long lead, kind of what your expectation is on that.

As of now, I don't expect that we'll have to go back for any additional cost increases.

And this is probably about two years ahead of schedule versus you know, historical apparatus manufacturers.

So I think we're we're gonna be just fine on it.

Okay, all right, thanks, Ross.

Yep.

Okay.

Um Chief Harden, if you could come give us just a little bit of a summary about A12, the updates to the fire department administrative policies.

So all of these are uh just pretty well simple changes.

Uh we added one policy, it's uh human resources is not really human resources so much as like our HR department.

It's more so uh more so just dealing with human resources and this part uh or this policy specifically deals with uh uh recruitment and retention.

Um so and that's basically it.

Um answer any questions about the policies if you'd like.

I don't think we have any.

Thank you.

All right.

A13 is a resolution to reward bid 26-31 and authorize a contract with Mobley contractors in the amount of 599,219.77 cents for improvements to the Lake Sequoia Drive Bridge and to approve a project contingency in the amount of 100,000.

Chris is here.

Should you have questions?

Bob.

Yeah, me too.

A14 is an approval of a contract with Cards Holdings LLC, DBA Eco Waste Solutions for processing of the city's commingled recyclable materials.

It's a resolution to award bid 2628 and approve a two-year contract with Cards Holdings LLC for processing of the city's commingled recyclable materials and the amount of $50,000 for the remainder of 2026 and an estimated monthly cost of $4100 beginning in 2027.

Mr.

Nearn Garden has a brief presentation for us.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, Council members.

Peter Neargarten, environmental director.

I was asked to provide just a brief presentation on this item.

So we'll just jump right into it.

I did want to remind the council of the history of how we got to where we're at today with this processor contract.

So if the council will recall in August of 2024, we started a recycling and trash collections rate study included with that were a waste and recycling composition analysis as well.

And then last summer the council adopted the rate study with a recommendation for transitioning over to cart-based recycling.

The next month in August, you authorized purchase of six new recycling trucks.

In November of last year, the council accepted a generous grant from the recycling partnership to help us purchase carts to do education on the new program and to support anti-contamination software on our new trucks.

In January, the council authorized the purchase of 28,000 new recycling carts.

And then in March, the focus of this discussion is on the processor bid, which we did launch a solicitation in March and open the bids for that solicitation at the end of March.

In March, we also launched our cart selection.

So that was the ability for residents and businesses to select among three different sized carts for recycling.

And then just yesterday, we started the rollout of the cart delivery across Fayetteville.

So those carts are now hitting the uh the driveways and sidewalks of residents and businesses across the city, and all of that is in anticipation of our planned program launch on July, uh excuse me, on June 1st.

So specifically on the bid requirements for the processor.

Um this is for uh this was a solicitation that we did for um uh processing of our commingled mixed recyclables that we will be collecting carbside across the city of Fayeville.

And essentially we asked prospective bidders for uh for for only one item, and that was a cost uh per ton to uh process and recycle those mixed um recyclables.

Um we also included in that uh bid solicitation a number of other requirements, including a revenue share requirement that uh allows us to split in the uh value of those recyclables that that places uh a um it allows us to share in the value of those recyclables with the processor.

It also places an emphasis on us to keep contamination low and an emphasis on the uh the contractor to recycle as much of those materials as possible.

We included an average material value calculation which seeks to determine the value of that blended ton of materials, and I'll talk just a little bit more about what that means and how that works in the contract in a few minutes.

Um, there's a number of minimum minimum qualification requirements included in the solicitation, including processing capabilities, experience, um ownership or access of a recycling processing facility, and then standard insurance requirements.

Importantly, we included um transparency requirements so that the prospective bidders would know they have to comply with the city's current transparency and reporting requirements on where our recyclables are going in in markets, remanufacturers.

We wanted a partner that would help us with education.

Um we wanted a partner that would also offer public tours of their facility, and then importantly, we needed a partner that would um help us comply with any Freedom of Information Act requests.

Uh importantly, in the bid solicitation, we did include a an example or or a sample agreement.

So the actual contract that they would be signing on was included in the bid solicitation.

Um we did receive one bid from Cards Holdings LLC.

Uh they are rebranding as Eco Waste Solutions or have rebranded as Eco Waste Solutions, and their price was for $140 per ton to process those mixed recyclables.

That price is fixed for the next year and a half and then uh can be adjusted according to the CPI at that point.

Um it does give cards uh exclusive access to all of our co-mingled recyclables, so that's everything that's mixed together.

Our separated recyclables, such as our um commercial cardboard and our drop-off materials will continue to come to us and be processed at our facility down in Southeast Fayeville on Happy Hollow.

Um, there's no glass included in this.

Um, they do not have glass uh sorting capabilities at this facility.

Uh cards was able to meet all of our qualifications and did agree to all of our contract terms.

Uh the term of the agreement is two years with two one-year extensions available.

Um, the facility will be important will be actually be operated by a company by the name of Total Recycling.

The city is at a long history of a good working relationship with total recycling, so we feel really good about that.

That operator agreement.

And importantly, the facility is located in Springdale, just northeast of downtown Springdale off of uh old Missouri Road.

Uh the top picture is a is an exterior shot from old Missouri Missouri Road of the CARDS facility.

That building in the back is the recycling processing facility, and you can see an up close picture of that in the front.

Uh when our trucks uh deliver materials to that facility, they'll be dumping the material on the tip floor.

Um, and then from the tip floor, the materials will be lifted inside uh the facility where the processing will begin.

Um the facility does use a mix of people working at ergonomic stations, ergonomically designed stations with proper PPE and uh technology to first remove any contaminants from the recyclables and then sort further sort the uh the various recyclables from each other.

So the paper from the plastics, the aluminum and the steel.

Uh, this facility does have state-of-the-art um optical sorters to sort the different types of plastics, it has eddy current that pushes the aluminum and magnets that pull the steel.

Uh it's about a uh a little less than a three-year-old facility.

So it employs um some of the the state-of-the-art uh technology that's available in terms of processing the materials using primarily uh machines and technology rather than humans to do the sorting.

Um it's a little bit difficult to see in this uh picture, but uh once the materials work their way through the facility and are separated into their um into their various streams, uh they're collected in bunkers, and once enough material is collected in each bunker, then the materials are sent to the bailer uh where they're bailed and stored outside for shipping off to remanufacturers.

In the picture, you can see the cardboard in the foreground, there's some uh plastic bales in the middle, and then the the far bales uh are the aluminum, those are the ones um near the people in the picture.

Um I mentioned the the average material value, and so this is a uh this is an inclusion in the contract that's uh novel and new in northwest Arkansas, um, but we felt it was really important, and this is the piece that places the emphasis on the recycler to capture as much um material out of the blended stream and an emphasis on us to bring um recycling that has as low a contamination as possible.

So essentially the way this works, um there's a there's a percent assigned to each of the types of materials, and that's based on the 2024 uh recycling composition study analysis that we did.

All right, and then under the index value, uh you'll see that's a that's an April number, and so that the index value will change monthly for each of these materials because these are commodities that have values that go up and down, like oil or corn or cattle, right?

So every month that index value will change, and that'll get multiplied by the percent of each of the materials in the blended ton, all right.

And then you get an AMV or an average material value for each of the materials, and that gets added up at the bottom.

You'll see 135.69 cents.

That's the value of the blended ton uh for the month of April 2026.

So, how do we actually use that number?

There's two ways that it gets used in the contract.

There's two scenarios.

So the first is if that average material value is actually higher than that 140 a ton processing fee.

So, under that scenario, say it's 150 dollars a ton, you take 150 minus 140 times that 50% revenue share times the number of tons, that equals a payment to the city.

All right, so that's the green scenario on top.

So in the red scenario, um, if the AMV, if the average material value is less than 140 dollars a ton, we'll do an example uh using a thousand tons.

So 140 dollars a ton, that's what uh the the processing fee is the 135 dollars and sixty-nine cents, that's the April number.

Um do the math between those two times a thousand tons.

So for the month of April, we would have owed uh cars, the processor uh 4310 for the for the cost of processing for the month of April under this scenario.

So again, these numbers are gonna go up and down each month depending on that AMV and depending on the values of those materials.

Uh, we're estimating that for the remainder of 2026 this contract will cost the city around $50,000.

Um I'll stop right here just to see if there's any questions on any of these technical elements of the of the contract and of the processor agreement before I move on with a couple other items related to the um launch of our cart-based recycling program.

Yes, Ms.

Turk.

Thank you.

So if the AMV is very high, is higher than the than what we've estimated right here.

Theoretically, the city would owe nothing.

Right.

We would get the direct city would make money.

Yes, make money.

So right now commodity prices are a little low.

Sure.

So recycle values are a little bit depressed.

So under that scenario, we're gonna have to pay.

But if they rebound and um, you know, cardboard and plastics and aluminum starts, you know, shooting up in price, then we're gonna make money in this in this um in this agreement.

And maybe it's later on in your presentation, but maybe you could talk about which plastics um are gonna be taken by this processor, and then also what you're gonna do with the glass.

And I was unclear about cardboard, if the cardboard was going to be taken or if that was going to stay with the city.

I'll get to that in just a moment.

Yeah.

Are there any other technical questions on the contract provisions?

All right.

So moving on.

I mentioned the the cart delivery um that did start just yesterday, and so uh the um the cart manufacturer Schaefer is bringing um tractor trailer loads of carts to us.

Uh we've received um about uh 10,000 carts so far, 10,000 of the 28,000, and we're delivering those out to residents.

I think they delivered about eleven hundred yesterday and about uh three thousand went out today.

So we'll be continuing that pace through next Wednesday until we get all of those carts delivered across the city of Fayetteville.

Um if there if there's you know few folks we may miss during this uh cart delivery program, we're encouraging those folks to call our office next after next Wednesday, and we'll get a cart out to them between next Wednesday and before the June 1st launch.

Also for folks who want to change their cart size, we're also taking those requests and we'll be happy to change out that cart size after the launch of the program on June 1st.

Um so again, the announcement uh is the June 1st launch, and with respect to the items that we're uh we'll be collecting in the cart, all of the items that are accepted in our current program will be allowed in that cart with the exception of glass.

So that does include cardboard and all cardboard will need to go into the cart.

Um if cardboard is set next to the cart, uh we won't be picking that up.

We we're encouraging folks to put it into the cart.

If they've got oversized cardboard, they can bring that to us at one of the recycling drop-off locations.

So for that reason, we're encouraging folks to, you know, if they've got the 64, the 96 gallon cart to stick with that for at least the first couple months, try it out, see how it works before they might want to downsize down to that 35 gallon cart because um it's more gonna be more difficult to fit that cardboard in that smaller cart.

So hopefully that answers your question in terms of items that are allowed uh in the cart.

It's all the same items now, the the same one and two plastics.

Um currently the processor does it does not have the ability to sort, nor do they have in markets for any of the other plastics beyond numbers one and numbers two, and so we don't want to collect those items if there aren't in markets for remanufacturing those items.

Um specifically with requests with respect to glass and how glass is going to get recycled, we're encouraging folks to use their um their old green bin for their glass recycling.

And we've uh created some um beautiful stickers that we're uh handing out for folks to put on their green bin so that they can repurpose that for glass recycling.

I've got enough stickers here if the council members want to take those home with them tonight and put them on their green bin in anticipation of the launch.

Glass recycling will be every other week.

And so what we've done is we've divided the city sensibly in half.

There's uh a red week and a blue week, and your recycle your glass will be picked up according to where you are located.

So best way to figure out if you're in red week or blue week is to go to the My Fayetteville services um web page.

You'll enter your address in and it'll tell you whether your red week or your blue week.

You click on the red, and this uh this calendar will come up and um then you can cross-reference which week you're on.

And for those who've been wondering why don't we just have an app who would that would tell me all of this?

Behold, we do.

Um we've got it in both Apple and uh Android, and so this has uh reminders built into it that'll tell you your recycling day, and then also your every other week glass recycling day.

So you can download this app and it'll send you those friendly reminders the day before your um recycling day.

I did want to close with a reminder invitation to our rollout event that's happening this Friday down at our compost facility to celebrate the launch of the new cart-based recycling program.

Uh this is the the facility entrances off of Armstrong, so it's not the entrance you use to our office, but it's as if you're coming to our compost facility off of Armstrong Street and we'll be in the in the back for this um for this rollout celebration.

So I hope we're uh I hope that you are all able to join us for that event on Friday morning.

And with that, I'll be glad to take any other questions council members might have.

Minister Jones.

Thank you, Mayor.

If I recall part of us going to cart base and um so we could do recycling at the larger complex and denser area, what are we doing for those areas?

Correct, yes.

So the the current launch is with all of our existing recycling customers.

Once we get this program up and up and running and all the bugs worked out, then we're gonna be expanding and reaching out to those additional multifamily complexes, those additional businesses that aren't part of our current program.

And so we'll be working on that for the remainder of this year after we get this launch behind us.

Mm-hmm.

Ms.

Turk.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I've got several questions.

So did am I correct that only one bidder bid this carts group?

That is correct.

And did you reach out?

Were there any others actually in like a 100-mile radius that could have uh been qualified for this one?

We did have conversations ahead of the solicitation launch uh with other prospective bidders, encouraging them to uh to submit their bid.

Um I have had follow-up conversations with a couple of those folks uh after um the solicitation closed to find out why they didn't submit a bid, and the majority of the feedback uh that I received was that the cost to send the recyclables to the other locations would be much higher than um what what you're seeing here and um they didn't feel like it was a number that the city would even entertain and when they told me what the number was I felt like they were probably correct.

Okay.

I think just add one thing to that.

One of the reasons we have this as a two-year contract.

So if the market does change, if there's somebody else in the market, we'd have that opportunity in two years from now.

So we're not locked into a long-term contract.

Yep.

Okay.

Um so did I get this right that um CARDS is reband rebranding to Eco Waste Solutions, but the actual facility is operated by total recycling?

Correct.

And so did you all do your due diligence, even though there was one bidder to ensure they had a good track record and uh and total recycling has been in the business.

It's not just some subsidiary that's brand new or anything like that.

Yes, total total recycling has a different facility near our uh transfer station done in South South Fayville.

It's actually um just behind where the habitat restore is located, and we've done business with total for years and years.

Um, for example, when we've had uh breakdowns of our bailer and we need to send material um to another facility to have it bailed, source separated and bailed.

Total has been a fantastic partner in working with uh us through all of those um through all those scenarios that we've had over the years.

Um they're off they've off they've uh regularly been buyers of our bailed materials as well.

So yes, we've had a long um and good working relationship with with total, absolutely.

That's great.

That's great.

So um throughout the contract, there's talking about the contract manager.

Is that you?

Uh it is myself, and we hired a new um waste reduction project manager, uh, Jennifer Park is her name, and she'll be the point person who'll be interfacing with the um uh with the recycling processor on this contract.

And she's been very involved uh in the contract negotiations and working with the cart-based recycling launch.

Um and so she'll be the she'll be the day in, day out point person.

Yeah.

Um so I guess I had um more questions too about when the truck pulls up from the city of Fayetteville and they offload the bales or however it's not sorted or whatever.

I'm so I'm assuming it's unsorted, correct?

Correct.

So uh is the processor able is total recycling able to differentiate that truck from any of the other trucks that might be coming in from like Springdale or Tawnytown or wherever.

So each truck will get weighed when it comes in across the scale.

So we'll know the total weight of the um of the recyclable.

There's a tear weight, and then there's a weight with the truck full, so that the difference between the two is the amount of recyclables in there.

Uh and so what um is being done is the um the um the recycling composition study, so that percent of the recyclables that's in the the average blended stream, that percent is being applied to the weight of all the material that Fayville is bringing to that facility.

So we're the the percentage that we're starting with now is based on a 24 study.

We're gonna redo that analysis um four to six months from now to get a new uh blend of what those materials look like, and that new number is what will be applied retroactively back to the beginning of the contract and going forward for the next year in terms of what that blended ton looks like.

So but I think to answer your question, our material is gonna be mixed with other material that other trucks have already delivered to that facility from our other trucks and other um other uh haulers and all moves through the processing facility together.

So in the contract, it talks about somebody looking at the composition of that truck from Fayetteville, and then if it's over 20 percent, it's contaminated and can be rejected.

Correct.

So can you talk a little bit about how that process is gonna go and how it's gonna be documented and how they're gonna be able to determine whether it's below or above 20 percent?

Yeah, so there's a um and I'd be happy to share with you.

We've we've got uh um a protocol from CARDS on how that uh is documented, but essentially it starts with a visual visual analysis of the material, um, you know, essentially looking at the material to determine if visually it looks like 20 percent or more is contaminated.

Uh if so, then it's a call to us to uh have us come verify whether or not we believe that that's uh the case.

If um if the material has uh if it has been determined to be contaminated, then um it won't be processed through the facility.

And so our goal is to keep our recycling contamination well below that number um through our three-pronged strategy of managing contamination, and that's education, that's um monitoring and feedback, and that's um uh use of this facility to help separate the contaminants from the uh from the recyclables.

So, how will we actually ever know what our true contamination rate is?

Um, because you're gonna go back in and kind of basically do an updated audit.

Correct.

But if that still is pretty low, but you know, that's gonna vary quite a bit.

And so is there is there another alternative to going in there and finding aside from the audit, the true contamination rate.

So the contamination um when we do the audit, what we'll do is we'll um we'll hire a third-party uh contractor to come in and do that.

And there's uh an ASTM standard on how to do these audits that takes representative samples from loads all across the city on different days, and that will be blended together and then separated out paper, cardboard, aluminum, plastic, steel, so on and so forth, and contamination.

All right.

So that contamination number will be determined from that blended load, and then that's the contamination number that's going to be applied as part of that AMV going forward on all of our loads.

So similar to the 2024 project.

Correct, yes.

Um so I notice in here that the contractor is going to allow public tours, but it sure would be nice for some council members or some other elected officials to be able to go in there and actually see the operation relatively soon.

I'm sure that we could uh absolutely arrange that.

I'd be happy to reach out to them and uh see if that's uh possible in the very near future.

Yep, they've done a number of uh tours um with the public already.

So I I don't I don't see I don't foresee that being a problem.

Good, good.

Okay.

I think that's all I have for now.

Okay.

Ms.

Moore.

Well, Councilmember Turk stole my one question.

I I I too would love to do a tour.

I know I know you're surprised, Peter, but yeah, no, it I don't know with us rolling out if it's better to wait till like afterwards or timing-wise, but it would be nice, you know, by the end of June if it's possible to be able to get a turn.

Just because we're getting just lots of questions too, so to have some first hand knowledge of being able to see it would be a help.

Yep.

I mean, it depends on if you all would rather have a tour and see our trucks delivering there that have to be after June 1st, but if you want to see it beforehand, I think I think we can do that as well.

Either either one is I'd be a proponent of seeing our tracks if we're not gonna be getting in the way of them bringing us on as a new customer.

I think it'd be good to see it right after it starts and see how that's being handled.

Yeah, okay.

Yep.

We'll we'll work on trying to get something lined up for about that first week of June.

Great.

Thank you, Peter.

Okay.

That brings us to item A 15, a resolution to commit 1,447 dollars and returned American Rescue Plan Act funds and $7,518 and accrued interest to the child care assistance program and to approve a budget adjustment.

Um Stephen can Stephen and Marley both, Marley being the steward of the child care assistant funds and Stephen, of course, being the CFO can speak to why um these were turned back.

This is you have seen this before.

Um we they're both available for questions, should you have them.

Yes, Minister Jones.

I'd like them to explain why we were turning it.

Got it.

Thank you, Minister Jones.

Basically, we just got notified by uh the Fayetteville Public Library that they had 1,447 dollars of unused ARPA funds that uh they no longer needed for their program.

And so we reach out every month to um nonprofits participating in the ARPA program to verify that they still need the money that we have allocated to them because we have up until the end of this year to actually spend the ARPA funds, and so uh that's an ongoing process, the communication that we have with these nonprofit agencies, and they simply said they didn't need that 1,400, so they gave it back to us and asked that we go ahead and reallocate that.

And right now uh we are uh under the under the the regulations for the APA program, we can in fact reallocate that to an already existing um ARPA program, and you know, as we have done over the course of the last couple of years, any time we have interest or small dollar amounts, I come forward with a recommendation that we go ahead and commit that to the child care program.

Is that the same for the child?

I I wrote down the 1,540 something from the library 7,518 in interest funds.

That's correct.

And that was just interest, and that was not allocated to any nonprofits.

No, so we uh we funded the ARPA programs, uh, the nonprofits that applied on a reimbursement basis.

So currently we have two active ARPA programs that are out there.

We have the accelerate foundation, and they still have 120,000 left to spend, and we have the Peace at Home Family Shelter with approximately 89,000 left to spend.

Now both of them have committed that they will in fact spend that funding uh before the end of the year, as is required by the ARPA regulations, but we still reach out to them just to verify that we are on track with the spending.

In the meantime, though, that money remains in our bank account, and we are earning interest on that.

And so periodically I come forward to council requesting that we allocate that interest to the ARPA program.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you, Stephen.

Um last item on consent is a resolution to authorize the addition of two full-time equivalent positions in the planning division of the development services department and to approve a budget adjustment.

This is something that is that we have the funds to do, which is why it's not a budget amendment.

And Jonathan can speak more about this.

Jonathan, please go ahead.

Certainly, Mayor, thank you.

This is at the risk of getting ahead of ourselves on a companion item with uh number C4, which is under new business, which I'll discuss in a little bit, but as a brief preview, that is the next phase of our user fee uh uh study implementation that begun last year, uh associated with the fees on uh development related items.

Uh where C4 is that next implementation piece, uh, this adjustment proposes the new two new planner positions that Mayor noted.

Uh staff is continuing to evaluate where we can improve service, uh not just to our development customers, but also to residents and and other folks who interact with the development services department.

And we found that the current planning staffing represents the best opportunity to improve this, uh, not just by uh meeting expectations and deadlines, but also the potential to improve those and explore process improvement uh opportunities where we can uh uh uh move at a faster rate, review projects more promptly, get people feedback more promptly.

Uh as far as that budget adjustment goes, if you've not had a chance to dive into the packet, uh, is about 165,000 uh as a part of evaluating what this request would look like in terms of the user fees that could be adopted down agenda from this item.

Uh we shared the anticipated new revenues that would be associated with phases two and three of the user fee study, and those would exceed the amount uh uh associated with these new positions.

So we wouldn't be finding ourselves in a worse position uh because the council may recall that the the foundation of doing a user fee study was uh the fact that we were not recovering the costs associated with the services that we were offering.

So we are continuing to improve that situation, and the main objective with these two new positions is also to improve our services at the same time that we're doing that.

I can take any questions that the council has.

Thank you, Jonathan.

We have questions from Ms.

Turk.

So, Jonathan, if I understand correctly, these uh these two FTEs, they were already allocated last year or approved within our budget last year.

They were not, these are new.

These are brand new, and they're and they're wholly supported from the new development fees that we are um assigning to people.

That's correct.

Okay, that was probably my fault in the way I explained it very poorly and and wasn't specific enough.

So I probably gave you that so that was my fault for not making that clear.

I'm sorry, Teresa.

Ms.

Moore.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I know that we've had lots of discussion, I think, over the last couple of years around um the fees and the the potential needs and um uh the planning department and development services.

Um I was curious, um, one of the things that we had recently done was we had had some headcount changes that had occurred between I think the um engineering public works and and how this worked for like building permits.

Do we have like any of the reports on what those head count changes kind of like what those have done um for us to try to be able to look at these two head count to kind of look at everything together?

Because I know we kind of talked about it holistically, and now it's kind of in in PISA, so I'm just trying to put it all together.

I I think the most prominent data point on that was one that I think Mayor mentioned in her state of the city this year, and then which uh Marley touched on during her presentation last week.

Do we I'm sorry, when she did the housing presentation, uh, which is that we have demonstrably reduced uh both our grading permit review times, which is I think there's a strong correlation, if not causation between the addition of those uh new engineering staff members, uh, but also the improvement in our our building permit times as well.

I think we have identified that there are is the potential for additional improvements uh in both those categories and and just general responsiveness uh by by closing the gap with with these additional planner positions.

Is is there um anywhere that we have that documented that we can just get the information added to our packet where our baseline was and then where we're at today.

I believe we have that.

I'll I'll work to get that added and uh I'll work to with uh the city clerk treasurer to get that added to the packet and I'll email you all to make sure that that's apparent that it's in there if that's if that works.

Okay.

Um so I'm very supportive of adding the head count, and I know that we're gonna have a long meeting, so I hate to do this.

My question and just the conversation I want to have is um because you know, the way that these departments interact, you know, we're um some of us are at the Congress for New Urbanism talking about you know, changes have happened across departments.

Um, you know, we've been talking over the last year and a half about kind of these um potential changes that could occur.

You know, for me, again, I think that these probably need to happen, but kind of talking more holistically, especially as we're getting prepared to go into our 27 budget process um and trying to understand the potential of uh setting what metrics as well.

I know I get different feedback.

I feel like my colleagues probably um additionally get feedback about areas where um you know residents or even developers are wanting to see different areas of improvement.

And so that that's my only concern about just moving forward and more of this um you know pieced approach is that I don't know what other opportunities potentially could be on the table for us or might be being bubbled up that we might want to kind of explore holistically together, and um it would be helpful to kind of understand the metrics of where we've had improvement and to talk together about you know what kind of goals we've got going forward and you know what budgets do those take and what head counts do those take.

Um I know we haven't been able to have our council workshop that a lot of times we'll talk about some things like that yet.

And so I don't know um if this potentially could be you know time that we could talk about it and also having it on consent oftentimes just doesn't give us the opportunity for you know developers, et cetera, the public to kind of comment on those items once they you know have stayed on consent.

And so um I have not received any feedback today, and again, I'm supportive.

I just um am trying to understand too about how this may be um plays into holistically so we're kind of looking at the potential for shifts or where we might need things going into 27.

And I I guess if I mean it's your agenda, and if you want to pull it, I mean you all can, but I would want to understand what information I understand the metrics of the how permit times have gone faster, but uh beyond that I I want to make sure I understand what you're wanting us to provide to be able to to continue that.

Um Keith, do you have either Dr.

J or do you want to go ahead?

I know I I meant to mention earlier Ms.

Bunch and Dr.

Jones are on Zoom as well, so I'll be.

I just have a comment.

Jonathan and I meet every week to kind of go over what's going on in his department and development services is one of those that uh when he shows me a chart and it's like our permits are going like this, our revenue is going like this, and our staffing is like this, and then I consistently you know receive comments from the development community that it would be nice if we could speed up processes.

Um, you know, we're bringing that uh our second and third iteration of our fees to council tonight, and to me, those things go along if we have the opportunity to improve our responsiveness to the community by adding staff.

To me, that was a no-brainer.

And I do I definitely see uh your point on looking at this holistically, but I think in this situation with development services, we have a specific need.

It's documented.

We've added staff uh a year, about a year and a half ago, and it's paid off dividends, and I think that's something that we're we just have enough growth in this, which we're very fortunate to have that, that we need more head count uh to be able to address that.

And I think it's it also uh it takes a while for a planner to get up to speed.

So that's one of those things, you know, the sooner that we can get somebody up hired, we can get up to speed, because it can take you know year or two to where they really understand our code.

So that's why I'm I mean, it was I was the one driving to bring this now and not wait until later in the year.

And and and again, I'm a supportive.

I'm not definitely not against it.

I think we probably very much need it and some of the conversations we're having during this conference that we're all a part of, I think maybe make arguments for even additional, you know, head count or ways that we're aligned going forward as we have discussions.

I just um hoping that we can also have the conversation too about visibility into the metrics.

I know there has been some talk, and I you guys are working internally too about certain systems that we um haven't spoken about to that might be able to give visibility ongoing to kind of give us those dashboards, et cetera.

So just hoping to have you know an avenue to be able to speak about those that doesn't, you know, isn't allowed on consent, obviously, because we don't speak to the item.

So you want us to email so and we will provide you with the chart of the time frames, but you want to pull it off consent so that you can ask questions at council.

I'm asking us to put it on on new business towards the you know earlier a portion in the event, just similarly to whenever um we were uh looking at impact fees.

I know I didn't end up getting any questions till two or three days before our you know council meeting, and if it's on consent, I hate to pull something off at the last minute to then have to ask the questions.

That's usually easier if it's already agendized.

Okay.

Okay.

We will pull that off for off consent.

Thank you, Jonathan.

The next item we have is 516 North Fallon Avenue, a sewer damage claim.

We all have discussed this multiple times.

Tim is gonna come up to give us the latest, and also Keith put in front of you.

A Keith, will you speak to this, please?

Yeah, I just provided a summary of what the claimant has requested, and then what uh if you kind of recall some of our conversation that we had, uh especially in ordinance review about going from our uh adjuster's recommendation.

So it's basically what the claimant has, and then what our adjuster has recommended, and then the difference between the two.

And do we have an extra copy?

I don't think of the I don't think we have one for the clerk.

Kara, do you have Clerk Paxson?

Do you have one?

Blake, do you have one?

Oh, okay, got it.

Okay.

Keith, do you mind to walk that over there?

Thank you.

Okay, Tim, please go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

So city staff and the adjuster work together on looking at this claim again.

Uh and we have calculated what we believe a fair and equitable amount uh for this claim.

Uh we still have uh requested several times for documentation for lodging.

Uh when the claimant provides that, we would add that to this claim.

Um we haven't received any yet, but uh we did email this uh summary to the claimant uh late this afternoon.

And uh we will need to uh change the numbers in the council packet to reflect these numbers because we've still got the old 100,000 cap still in the in the language.

Calculation.

Mr.

Burna.

Thank you, Mayor.

So if we approve this uh Tuesday night and he comes back after the fact, how's that?

I mean, he's gonna have to sign off on the on the amount.

So if he comes back with the lodging number, what what happens?

He's he needs to provide that before Tuesday.

We have been telling him to provide that before next Tuesday.

Uh or we probably won't include it in this calculation.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Stafford.

Thank you.

And you sent this to him this afternoon.

Yes.

So if he does uh have some issues or something, uh is there potential that those will be worked out this week and we might see a slightly different number or I would say that he'll probably be here next Tuesday to talk about it.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, Ms.

Turk.

So, Tim, I I appreciate all the work that you all have done on this.

Um, it would be helpful, as you know, if we had those final numbers long before Tuesday uh night, since we are gonna have a really long meeting.

Um, and I'm sure you've cut you've communicated that to him.

Yeah, so these are the final numbers except for any receipts for lodging, which he has not provided.

Right.

And and I just want to confirm you have request you didn't first make that request for lodging receipts today.

You have been making that request for several several requests, several requests.

Okay.

Several requests.

And then can you speak to the utility increase?

Um he's requesting reimbursement due to increased utility costs, but there's no documentation.

No documentation.

I believe that the claimant is just saying that the fans that were running to dry out his home uh increased his utilities by six hundred dollars.

Okay.

But we don't have any documentation on that.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you so much, Tim.

I know we will all look forward to the resolution on that item.

Um that brings us to new business.

First up, we have a rezone.

It's an ordinance to rezone the property described in RZN 2026-11 for approximately 0.4 acres located at 1002 North Hall Avenue in Ward 4 from RSF 4 to urban neighborhood.

Jonathan.

Thank you, Mayor.

These next two items are both on North Hall Avenue.

Uh I'll describe C one first, which is the northernmost of the two, which is adjacent to Weddington, and then I'll move on to C2, which is the one further south adjacent to Leverett Elementary School.

Starting with C One, but similar to the second one as well.

It is north of the main University of Arkansas campus.

It is uh it includes about 0.4 acres on the southeast corner of North Hall Avenue and Weddington Drive.

And as Mayor noted, it is requested to be rezoned from RSF4, residential single family four units per acre to UN urban neighborhood.

Uh staff is recommending in favor of this request, and it was forwarded to the city council by a vote of seven to one.

Uh we have received some public comment, uh, both at the planning commission and sent, I believe, directly to you all since then uh with concerns about it, uh expressing opposition uh with uh uh consideration for traffic and the potential for uh non-single family development and also that the urban neighborhood zoning district allows the potential for non-residential development as well, so shops, retail, and and activities of that nature.

Uh and I can take questions or I can present the next one, like I noted is just south of that one if that's uh after uh you you read it or uh however the council prefers I do that.

Go ahead, Gans.

Jonathan, could I ask you about this first one?

So is it um if this is passed and it is urban neighborhood, can those uh can those parcels be reoriented toward uh Weddington Street?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Uh not knowing if you're going there with the next question, but our access management standard requires the would require the properties to access it from Hall, though, since it is the lower traffic street.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Anyone else have any questions?

Seeing none, I'll let the mayor take it over.

You're on C2.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

C2 is an ordinance to rezone the property described in RZN 2026 10 for approximately 0.3 acres located at 800 North Hall Avenue in Ward 4 from RSF4 residential single family four units per acre and P1 institutional to UN urban neighborhood.

I'll take it from there, Mayor.

This is a slightly smaller property.

It's about 0.3 acres, where the last one was 0.4, and it's about 750, 800 feet south of the previous item uh on Weddington.

It's also on Hall Avenue, also on the east side of the street.

Uh the request is to rezone it from RSF4 residential single family four units breaker to UN Urban Narrow Urban Neighborhood.

Uh of note, if you saw the title and may be reading it about the section or portion that is P1 institutional.

That's a remnant piece of property we believe is associated with the school district on the easternmost extents of this lot.

So it's not like it's a mostly institutionally zoned property, but uh if you notice that distinction there.

Uh staff is also recommending in favor of this request, and it also came to the city council by a planning commission vote of seven to one, and we've received similar if not identical uh concerns from the public about this item also.

And I can stand for any questions that the council may have.

Thank you, Mayor.

Jonathan, it's I was trying to look at exhibit A in C one and exhibit um A and C two, and it looks like one development is on one end of Hall on the north end and the other one on the south.

Is that correct?

That's an accurate description.

Yes.

The the second one is not quite all the way down to Cleveland Street.

There's that distinction.

It's uh just north of where the Leverett Elementary Playground ends.

The Leverett Elementary Playground is the southern border of C2, if that makes sense.

And this is right by some um development that's happening in that area around some student housing.

Am I correct?

There is a new dorm going in on campus itself, uh, immediately to the south on the university property, and there was some housing that I believe is generally occupied by students further west along Cleveland.

I'm not immediately familiar with another one either on Hall or in that area, but I can I can look into that to make sure I'm not missing something before the council meeting, though.

Thank you.

And that was the biggest complaint from residents was the additional traffic.

Uh as I perceive it, yes.

I think there was uh in a couple ways.

Um is there are concerns today that that uh hall is used for cut through traffic going from campus to Weddington and vice versa, uh, and concerns that the rezoning these properties and redeveloping them could contribute to that issue.

Thank you.

Mr.

Stafford.

Um so these two projects are related and they have yes, they have the same applicant, yeah.

Same applicant, but are they part of the same development or project?

Well, I've not seen any development details at this point.

Okay, thank you.

Ms.

Turk.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so with the P1, Jonathan, is that is the school selling that, or is that just uh uh not it's that P1 just happened to be uh an um crept into I guess uh private development or I'm just it's more the latter than the former, yes.

Okay.

Yeah, that is not school owned property.

It's owned, I believe the second one is owned by the by a private property owner.

The northern one I believe is owned by one of the Methodist churches in the city.

Um next question.

I'm I'm no longer on town again, so I don't know if who I don't know if Sarah's on there.

Um but I had heard kind of through the grapevine, and maybe that's a bad rumor that there were not going to be those dorms were not gonna be built.

Is that uh incorrect?

I keep would Keith would you like to speak to that?

Okay, yeah, the uh recently the Board of Trustees reviewed two different dorm locations at the University of Arkansas, and they funded one of them and it looks like the other one they're gonna revisit in about two years.

And which one was funded?

Is it the one right there by the Maple Street?

That's correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Um that brings us to C3.

This is an appeal.

Um grant the appeal of City Council Member Teresa Turk and deny large scale development LSD 2000 LSD 2025 19, large scale development south of North Marks Mill Lane and Northeast Ash Street, Ramey Jr.

High.

Ms.

Turk.

Um, I think we're all familiar with this project, so I don't really have any comments.

Um I can answer any questions that you might have.

Otherwise, we can save the discussion till uh next Tuesday.

Mr.

Kurt, do you have anything?

And I'll get to Mr.

Stafford as well, but do you have anything that you want to add from the staff perspective?

I I'm here at the council's uh uh pleasure.

I can describe this project up to this point.

I know the last time the council revisited it was a rezoning and okay, got it.

Mr.

Stafford?

Yeah, I'm just wondering if there were specific uh um variances that that triggered the appeal, or if it was just you know, we just want to appeal this as a whole.

I think there were concerns about almost all the variances, except maybe the one um the access management on college.

So um just that's the uh the concern I heard from the citizens that wanted this appealed.

Uh could you summarize any of those?

Uh shall we have a starting point?

Like the summarize any of the object objections.

I'd rather probably just hold off till next week.

Fair enough.

Okay.

Mr.

Kurth, your live son.

Oh, I'm sorry, I was just gonna summarize the variances now if it was helpful for the council, but again, at your all's pleasure.

Well, I'm familiar with the variances.

I was just trying to figure out which ones, yes.

You know, what about which ones was kind of triggering the uh the process?

Yeah.

This yes, Ms.

Moore.

I I did recently, because this is not a part of the variances.

Um I don't know.

I recently was having someone ask, and this I don't know, Jonathan, if this would be for you, if this is for engineering department, but they were just talking about the traffic counts.

I know that there was kind of like a it was a moving conversation about the traffic study over time of like college versus what was gonna come on the cross street.

And um I believe somebody had let me know that maybe they had inquired about maybe an old traffic count number that was maybe used as part of the traffic study.

So I don't know if that's information that staff has been looking at to try to uh look at the traffic, but that was something that was a concern that was brought up by a resident to me, and I just don't have enough information to talk intelligently about that.

My recollection of that, and I hope Mr.

Bland will jump up and correct me if I'm wrong, is that there was an initial traffic study that was done based on some assumptions about the feeder pattern to the new Ramey Junior High.

Uh and it's my understanding that the traffic engineer was either told incorrect schools or anticipated incorrect directions that students would be coming from, and subsequently they were given the correct directions or schools that would be or areas that would be feeding into the Ramey Junior High property and revise their traffic study to more accurately represent how families and their students will be getting to the property.

So just as a follow-up, the latest traffic study information that we were provided, that's what we should make might be looking at as we're looking at this project.

I see shaking of hand head back there, so I just want to make sure.

Yes, the most current traffic study we have is in response to both the the school district updating it and staff's the the the information that we requested be included in the traffic.

Can I ask to be sent the one that we're using just to make sure I've got a clean one?

It is it in the packet?

Maybe I'm missing that.

Um I didn't think I said if it's not, can we make sure that gets sent?

Thank you.

Jonathan, does that work?

It does.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

That brings us on to item C4.

This is an administrative item.

It's um, if you'll recall last year, you all voted to um assess uh to alter the development fees, and you all voted to pass all three uh like 100% of them in three stages.

Um however, we worded that in such a way that doesn't allow us to assess those, and so we are trying to go back and clean that up so that we are voting now on the remaining two years worth of those fees.

Um Jonathan can do a much better job of explaining that than I'm sure I did.

But the title is an ordinance to align development related user fees with the cost of associated services by amending chapter 5.1 water and sewers, chapter 94, fire prevention, fire prevention, chapter 110, telecommunication, chapter 116, door-to-door solicitation at private residence, chapter 118, business registry and licenses, chapter 157, notification and public hearings, chapter 159, fees, and chapter 178, outdoor vendors of the unified development code.

And again, we have already voted on this amount.

Jonathan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I feel like you very accurately described the process.

Uh the biggest differences I want to point out to the council are we were able to work with the city attorney's office, so there won't be a phase three that you all will see.

Uh, if you are navigating the packet and what those exhibits look like, you'll notice there are two columns.

One will have an implementation date, that's the enactment following, assuming council's approval here.

There's a second column that is a second enactment date, which will be a year from that time.

So if council approves this, you'll effectively be voting on the next two phases finalizing this project in one step so that you won't have to be revisited again.

Uh otherwise, there are four bullets that I included in the memo uh to note some uh I I call them changes.

I think they're mostly improvements in in our our processes.

Uh one uh perhaps most prominently is our engineering group recognize that there is a path for an easier permitting grading permitting process for applicants that have simple projects, and so we're proposing creating that new class of of project and an associated lesser fee associated with that.

Uh also we the other most prominent one I want to highlight uh uh and as a part of our ongoing housing conversations is we uh added a fee associated with our over-the-counter same day permit process uh in order to we we want to offer that service that we can review permits faster, but want it to be recognized that that comes with a uh an incurred cost associated with it and incurred service cost.

Uh otherwise I can take any questions that the mayor or the council may have on this.

Mr.

Wheedaker.

Thank you, Mayor.

My only request to the administration is that we would look for an opportunity to build in an automatic colour adjustment for these fees in the future as you have time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

That moves us to administrative item C5.

And I would like clarity from the senior assistant city attorney if after I read this, if a council member wanted to put this on consent, if that's appropriate.

It is a resolution pursuant to 166 166.04 B2 of the Fateville Unified Development Code to approve the request to not dedicate additional right-of-way along West Lyarley Lane.

Jonathan, this one's a bit unique.

Can you explain, please?

I can absolutely.

And I appreciate I so rarely get to suggest things uh could potentially be on consent.

So uh I appreciate you you borrowing my thunder there in that regard.

I'm sorry, I should have let you do that.

Would you like to make that request?

So just to see how it feels.

You did it very eloquently.

This property is in Northwest Fayville.

It's about three quarters of a mile north of the intersection of Mount Comfort and RuPa Road.

Uh it's probably most familiar to the council because this Magnolia Place is the subdivision immediately east of a subdivision that you all recently considered an appeal for.

So this is the subdivision that sits between that property and RuPa Road.

Uh it went through our preliminary plating process in 2019 as a five-phase project, so many phases over many years.

And in the interim period, we updated our master street plan with our comprehensive plan, City Plan 2040 in 2020.

And the crux of what that did is it changed what our right-of-way requirements are for certain street sections.

And so as this project is coming through for its fifth and final phase, they want to observe the street design that they built and not dedicate additional ride-away.

Uh it is in staff's estimation a fairly administrative item.

I do think it is appropriate that they go on res or on uh consent if the council is comfortable with it.

Staff recommends in favor of it, and the planning commission forwarded it to you all by unanimous vote.

It does come to the council, however, since by Arkansas state law, you all have the authority to accept or not accept right-of-way.

I'm very comfortable with it going on consent.

Okay.

Agree with Scott.

Okay.

I have a couple of clarifying questions before we make that decision.

Um, Jonathan, let me uh let me understand this.

So we had um we had our standards in 2019, and the right-of-way was larger or smaller than our standards are now.

Smaller.

It's smaller.

So okay.

So they want to continue with what they had in the past.

Correct.

They want to dedicate the right-of-way for what they built, which the biggest distinction is in 2019.

I believe we had a five-foot green space for trees between the sidewalk and the back of the curb.

We now require a six-foot green space because we found in the time since then that we get healthier street trees in those instances.

The subdivision had built the street and the sidewalk, and so that would necessitate potentially ripping out all that sidewalk, either requiring the right-of-ways dedicated, but uh it would not necessarily result in the sidewalk being ripped out and the new uh green space existing, if that makes sense.

So I described that kind of convolutedly.

Um so maybe so is it already uh is this already built or or not?

Yes.

It is already built.

Okay.

Correct.

They are looking for a final plat now, which is the final document uh that dedicates easements and rights of way before they can pull building permits for houses.

So if we held them to the uh the old the new standard or the old standard, whatever the wider one is, um they would have to rip all of that out.

No, I I misspoke a moment.

They wouldn't necessarily have to rip it all out, they'd be dedicating an additional one-footer right-of-way outside their sidewalk that doesn't serve a public purpose in our estimation.

There's not going to be sidewalk there.

Okay.

All right.

I think I understand.

Thank you.

Sorry, I did a poor job explaining.

Okay.

Clerk Packson, can you add this one to consent, please?

Thank you.

That brings us to our final item of new business, also an appeal.

It's a resolution to grant the appeals submitted by Swarm Arrow and determine that use unit 22 manufacturing is the most appropriate classification for this business.

Jonathan Thank you, Mayor.

Sorry.

Uh before walking council through this request, I do want to acknowledge that this is the first time uh that you all have considered this type of item, and it's the first time in staff's institutional memory that this type of item has come before council.

Uh so accordingly, I want to step back a moment to go through what the process looks like before it got to you.

Uh first and foremost, you all may know this, but the city maintains a business registry to which any business with a physical presence in the city must apply.

Business licenses are submitted through the development services department where they're assigned to our accounting fire marshal and planning divisions for review.

Accounting's focus is generally regarding hotel motel restaurant tax.

It's not something we're necessarily considering with this item.

Uh the fire marshal confirms that businesses uh uh can uh uh businesses in new buildings have permits submitted that include modern fire safety standards, uh, or if they're going into existing buildings, uh, that they that their existing fire systems are adequate for the the business uh as it's being proposed.

Uh lastly, and most pertinently uh for this agenda item, planning evaluates the proposed business itself and its on-site activities uh and whether they are permitted in the underlying zoning district.

Going a bit deeper, each zoning in Fayetteville has a permitted and conditional uses called use units, which I think the council is generally uh aware of and familiar with.

Each use unit is a broad category uh that includes more descriptive uh uses that are outlined in our development code.

Sometimes the use unit that a applicant is proposing aligns perfectly with something that is in our code, like a bakery, a single family house, a lawnmower uh repair service.

Uh almost as often, however, a proposed business does not explicitly align with one of those uses.

And in those instances, code authorizes our planning director to make a determination based on an evaluation of those use units, what uh classes of activities fall under those use units, and then what use unit it most appropriately falls into.

This brings us to the item that's before you.

Uh in December 2025, an application was submitted to operate Swarm Arrow at 3660 South School.

Uh, this is a roughly 130, 135,000 square foot building that's at the north end of Drake Fields runway.

Uh the application describes the business as aerospace research and development, which could fall under several use unit categories in our zoning code.

After investigating, our planning staff determined that the business, which includes office research and development, storage, manufacturing, and assembly activities, is most appropriately classified as use unit 20 manufacturing.

Part of this determination came from what else is explicitly listed in use unit 20.

This most prominently includes fabrication of machinery and fabrication of transportation equipment.

This business is proposing to research, develop, assemble, and manufacture drones.

With that in mind, we next looked at it as a as it relates to the zoning on the property, which is I1, heavy commercial and light industrial.

And the I1 zoning district allows use unit 22 manufacturing.

Accordingly, the business license was issued on February 17th.

It was appealed not long after by a resident.

Since this is a zoning item, it does not go to our planning commission, it goes to the city's board of adjustment.

They consider zoning variances, zoning determinations, zoning interpretations that occur within the city of Fayetteville.

As a part of the preparation for this item, staff was furnished with uh additional document with more details about the business.

This reaffirmed our determination with us still finding that this is most appropriately classified as use unit 22 manufacturing.

However, when the Board of Adjustment considered the item, they overturned uh staff's determination by a vote to of three to one, albeit with no alternative uh use unit proposed.

In other words, they said no, this is not use unit 22, but they did not say what it is.

Um notably uh among the comments that the board made, uh one made several references to odors that could potentially result from this business as perhaps the grounds for their voting to overturn staff's recommendation.

Uh I think it is worth noting that our our city attorney who was in attendance at that meeting uh very specifically cited uh Arkansas law and that we are precluded, preempted by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality from uh applying an odor consideration uh as a part of this use unit consideration.

Uh after the Board of Adjustments decision, uh the business Swarm Arrow subsequently appealed their determination to the city council.

Uh staff was invited to the facility, we toured it.

We got to see the activities that they have going on today, including a description of the activities that they plan for the future that reaffirmed our determination that this business is most appropriately classified as use unit 22 manufacturing, which we stand by today, and brings us to the city council who are being asked uh to overturn the Board of Adjustments determination or the Board of Adjustments overturning itself of staff's uh recommendation.

Uh so with that, I can take any questions you have, whether it's regarding the process, which may be new new and familiar to many of y'all, or uh specific questions about uh this uh this item.

Great.

I think that sums it up.

Do we have questions for John?

Yes, Mr.

Stafford.

Yeah, only question you you you mentioned odors, but was there any other major point that the Board of Adjustments uh seemed to focus on?

I don't recall any specific from the board.

Uh the resident who was appealing the application uh made comments that this is more appropriately classed as use unit 23, which is a heavy industrial category.

Uh that takes our zoning districts are often additive, meaning if there's a lesser impacting zoning district and a higher impacting zoning district, the lesser zoning districts uses are added to the next one up, and then additional impacts are added.

So I'm I think I'm describing that poorly, but all the uses allowed in use unit 22 are also allowed in use unit 23, heavy industrial plus additional activities.

Um the the appellant resident is asserting that this activity is more appropriately classified as use unit 23, heavy industrial rather than manufacturing.

Uh I believe their assertion is based on the the size of the products that are being made and and uh some potential additional impacts.

Um that answer your question.

I think yeah.

Okay.

Great.

Ms.

Morton.

Um I I don't know if Councilmember Barno is before.

Okay, thank you.

Um during your tour, um, were you able to determine one of the things during the board of adjustments that um came up was the concern around, you know, this is basically small airplane manufacturer like a Cessna.

Um, and that typically, I think when uh the application was made, they said like nothing flammable or dangerous or combustible would be there, um, but the composite materials for these um like uh aerospace um production, uh just the dust alone, I think can be combustible, and then the epoxies and resins are flammable.

And so was that shown or was that information uh shared to you during the tour?

No, I don't believe we had any information to that effect.

I think at that time uh the only thing that would be interpreted as a flammable or combustible material would be associated with uh like their forklifts on the property.

Um I can make sure that the applicant knows that that's a concern and they can uh potentially speak to that on Tuesday though.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Great, thank you.

Mr.

Burner.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I think this is a question for uh uh Blake is could you give us an overview on what we're allowed to take into consideration because we have had a lot of communication about the type of uh product that this company is making and an aversion to that.

So is that something that we can take in consideration, or do we need to be focused strictly on what we see is light versus heavy?

Well, it's it's certainly focused on what is being made on in that building.

Uh you're concerned with the use of the property, and so uh I think there are a couple of memos in there that address it, but you can look at the different use units uh and you're basically standing in the place of a planning director in looking at the uses that are proposed for the property and making a determination about which use unit is most appropriate for that.

But you know, beyond what is actually being done on the property, that's not an appropriate consideration.

Okay.

Um a comment um just from the administration on this item, our plan um, because we do know that this is um last on the agenda, and we do um expect I'm sorry, um, Minister Jones, do you want to go do you want to go ahead?

I didn't see your light on earlier.

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

I was just gonna ask Jonathan, because the note that I wrote was the same.

Manufacturing and use unit in 23 is the same that could be proposed for 22 as well.

There was no difference.

I I did describe that poorly.

I uh I recognize that.

Our our zoning code is written so that there are incrementally increasing zoning districts with incrementally increasing impacts, and typically the uses in a lesser impact district are also written and included in the addition exactly.

And so the fabricated metal products category that is written in the use unit 22 manufacturing zoning district is also written in use unit 23, but then there's several additional uh higher impact activities like a metal foundry, I believe a petroleum processing facility, things of that nature as well.

So you'll see it written in both, but it doesn't necessarily mean that uh it is only allowed in that use unit 23 uh use.

Mr.

Berna.

Uh thank you.

Uh got one one last question.

Jonathan, could you provide for us uh on Tuesday um any past uh occupant of that building and what their um uh uses for that building were and if they had an appropriate business license I will have that, yes, thank you.

Ms.

Turk.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I'm just also wondering if in the past um if you could provide examples of use use use unit 22 and also use unit 23, and if there were any associated permits, so like a discharge water permit or air permit, um, you know, if any of those came into consideration about how to differentiate these two use units, is does that make sense?

I I think so, yes.

I believe I believe I do understand you you're trying trying to for your sake to distinguish what the the difference in impact is between those.

What's an appropriate delineation line between those two?

And if if I may, Mr.

Pennington, to the feedback that we heard from uh Mr.

City Attorney at the Board of Adjustment meeting, one of his guiding comments to our board of adjustment was that air quality issues were not something that we can consider.

Was that am I recalling that correctly?

That is correct.

We are specifically preempted in state law from regulating uh pollution.

Thank you.

So I sorry go ahead.

Right.

It's just whether they had a permit or not.

Not that we're regulating anything, but just if one exists, I guess is my question.

Okay.

Okay.

Mr.

Witeker.

Thank you, Mayor.

And Jonathan for me, the the issue is the threshold between those two use units.

So if we could just even have a handful of examples of previous decisions by the zoning administrator of other manufacturing uses, it would be kind of that compare and contrast and being fair if we've allowed use A, B, and C in use Unit 22, and they resemble this or don't resemble it, those would be helpful examples for consistency.

I'll see what we can come in.

It can't be exhaustive, I realize that, but just enough to give us the sense of the past practice and procedure of the organization.

Thank you.

And Ms.

Ridiger or Councilmember Weediger, is that to the extent possible?

You mean in near the airport specifically or generally in the zoning district?

Okay.

Yes, so just general.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Um moving back to what I was going to say is we I know that this will um has the potential to be a lively meeting with a lot of public comment.

And so one of the things that I conferred with our assistant city attorney about is that it is my intent to request at 1030 a motion to adjourn and then resume immediately the next day and evening.

So I'm just preparing you that I, you know, I cannot that that I will be asking for that motion to be made once we get until 1030.

I do not think anybody does any good after five hours.

So anyway.

Um the last thing for tonight, we have a presentation from Devin Howland, our direct one of our one of our directors of economic development.

Um, we also have Chung Tan here as well, as well as members of the Faithful Chamber of Commerce leadership.

But Devin has a presentation, and I will hand it over to you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, council.

Let me get my screen shared and then we'll get started.

Perfect.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Devin Howland, Director of Economic Development for the City of Fayetteville.

And our purpose to be here tonight at this agenda session is to introduce you and our community to a brand new way of reporting economic development in Fayetteville.

However, before I get started, I wanted to introduce some folks that are with me tonight because this is not just me from Chung.

We also have the Chamber of Commerce here with us, Jennifer and Mark and Brett from Startup Junkie Consulting.

Thank you.

Council, if you're wondering where this report is, you're gonna get an email from me the moment this presentation's done.

It'll put it right into your inbox, and our final slide includes a link to this report as well.

So council, this report um represents a new quarterly model for how we communicate.

Its goal is not just to report on activity, it is also to show outcomes, momentum, educate the community around the work of economic development, and also educate the community on where we're headed as the year progresses.

Today we're gonna touch on some very high-level points out of this report.

But it's my hope that after this presentation, you and the community can spend some time with it.

Read it in its entirety.

It's dense, and it provides expansive updates on a wide range of projects in the city of Fayetteville.

Economic development is not a single activity, it is an intentional coordinated body of work.

Its focus is aimed on growing jobs in the city.

Its focus is supporting businesses, its focus is supporting entrepreneurship and the long-term competitiveness of the city of Fayetteville as it competes for projects.

At its core, the department's work is to attract and retain companies.

And the work includes proactive employer recruitment, work like Conagra, that you saw over this earlier this year, but also the core economic development work, where the Chamber of Commerce really helps us lean in, things like workforce development, sector strategies, et cetera.

But also entrepreneurship and small business support, which is what sets Fayetteville apart with our contract with startup junkie consulting.

The common threat across everything.

It includes intentionality, including the city's focus on retail and restaurant recruitment, given it makes up 68% of sales tax revenue that goes that the city collects.

Council, Q1 was strong across 2026.

The city issued 60 new business licenses, 181 new full-time jobs associated with those business licenses.

Jung does those calculations herself.

If you go to the business license registry on Jonathan's website, they're going to be different.

We remove sale transfers of businesses.

We don't want to have duplicates in the past.

We only want to have new employers.

And so we try and take that out to hone that in.

More than 250 million dollars in employer investment has been announced.

That is a conservative figure.

That is just Conagra.

We've also folded packaging specialties in from late Q4 of last year.

Does not include OSM.

It does not include Givingtons who had ribbon cutting as well.

Development services alone, just in commercial business licenses in Q1, issued 272 million dollars.

A lot of that primarily being housing and multifamily on their permit side.

And as you go in through the report, as you click on these buttons, it will take you into the city website where these reports are housed.

So we hope it's also functional.

One of the most important takeaways as you read this report is that the city's economic development team is showing up for the business community.

As I mentioned, 191 unique businesses have been assisted across Startup Junkie internal team and the chamber.

42 women minority and veteran owned businesses.

18 events and networking opportunities were held that brought 1,500 attendees.

23 businesses participated in what roundtable discussions directly with Mayor Ron, a series that we started late last year that's proved a lot of great inroads with our business community.

Council, this is what an economic development team out of a city should be doing, being visible, showing up and being accessible.

Economic development in Fayetteville is very much a team sport.

And we rely not just on startup junk, we rely on chamber and startup junkie to help expand our capacity.

The chamber's focus on core economic development really helps on the business retention and expansion side.

Existing employers, those types of efforts.

Whereas Startup Junkie creates no-cost consulting, free programming, and a lot of free resources that come into the community.

However, I wanted to take my opportunity tonight to also acknowledge that partnerships go well beyond formal contracts.

They include the city's partnerships and relationship with employers, developers, prospective employers, realtors, and brokers.

Because economic development projects move at the speed of trust.

And so that is why maintaining outrageous lines of communication through our division is something we're focusing on very much so.

A major focus of our work continues to be strengthening Fayetteville's employment base in regards to raise wages in this city.

The South Fayetteville Economic and Employment Corridor is one of the clearest examples that economic development sees where we can leverage land infrastructure and partnerships to drive more long-term growth.

Most energy we're seeing in Fayetteville right now is stemming around the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, the Commerce District, and Drakefield Airport.

At the same time, the Chamber of Commerce is also spearheading the development of a health care cluster analysis.

This work is going to help us bring a much more disciplined and intentional approach to economic development's efforts in the healthcare sector.

Again, all this ties back to affordability.

We are seeing project across Fayetteville that reflect real confidence in this city.

And I really challenge you to dive into the report because this just tops line a very few.

There are many others that we deep dive into.

OSM and Conagra were two major employment wins for the first quarter.

But at the same time, we've got massive large-scale developments such as Drake Farms moving forward, Cato Springs moving forward, all coming online that will shape Fayetteville's housing and employment future for many years to come.

But we're also seeing momentum across retail restaurants in downtown and in midtown.

Projects such as the Strip and South School redevelopment where Fossil Cove will open their next location.

Fossil Coast Poplar Area Redevelopments and all that work that Leffler Capital is doing.

1834 Tavern Lafayette opening in downtown Fayetteville and expanding the outdoor freshman area.

And we've also worked a great deal with Fox Glove Bar going into the former damn good pies space.

A major part of our work is focusing on helping them navigate through cities' processes.

And our concierge approach to this helps make problems become become helps solve problems before they become barriers.

Council, we're going to do this quarterly.

And in Q2, we want to maintain a really aggressive momentum that we've done in Q1, and we want to continue to convert it into execution.

We'll be completing the healthcare sector strategies analysis.

We'll also be strengthening Fayetteville's economic development digital presence.

We'll see a new website roll out that's aimed at more inbound employers.

The economic development partners exchange is an initiative that the Chamber of Commerce will be kicking off, bringing together the city's entire network of partners from downtown Fayetteville to the university to Startup Junkie to the Chamber for collaborations.

On the small business side, you can expect to see an entire new suite of resources that make it more clear and more easier than ever to open a business in Fayetteville.

Council and the public, the report can be viewed on the city's website on the economic development page at this link.

I will also be sending you a direct email that has a link to this reporting page right now so that you can dive in.

I want to thank you for your time tonight.

And also, Mayor, I want to thank you for a great quarter and Blake for all the work and all the projects that we've worked on.

And we're excited for the rest of the year.

Happy to take any questions the council may have.

Great.

Thank you, Devin.

And these are this was a direct request from members of the city council to have more regular reports from different departments.

We have our quarterly, I believe, energy report from Peter, and we are working our way towards a more regular housing department report.

And so it only makes sense that economic development also is a part of that.

We do have questions.

We'll start with Mr.

Wheedaker, then Ms.

Moore.

Thank you, Mayor.

Business is hard.

Restaurant business is brutal.

Do we have uh restaurant survivability data that's included in your report?

Great question.

Outstanding question.

And this report, when you dive in, you're gonna see it was a little dense.

I had a lot of words I wanted to put in.

It's also an introductory report.

It walks into what is economic development.

What are the various facets of our work and why do we do it?

What I can say is in Q2's report, you're going to see in a section on business survivability rates by sector.

That is work that Startup Junkie has done.

It just didn't make it into this report.

But when you see their small business and entrepreneurship section in the Q2, you'll see survivability rates in there.

Ms.

Moore.

Thank you, Devin.

I'm excited to dive in, and I do appreciate because this was conversations I think we've had to be able to get ongoing conversations with Ward 2 in particular, you know, being the most small businesses in the city, you know, they're coming and going and really trying to be mindful.

Um had a few things, and if they're in the report, just let me know.

Um, but I wanted uh to understand, you know, I'm hearing one-on-one conversations, which is the pressure of rising costs in particular for small business.

And so I'm curious if we're highlighting and kind of you know, going through going back to kind of survivability, but kind of additional hurdles that might be being experienced, be it for for rent and some of those smaller incubators about their survivability.

Is that what contained within the report?

Um, in regards to specifics on that, no.

In regards to have we been having active conversation and has those very issues informed a great deal of the output you're gonna see in Q2?

Yes.

Okay.

Um we've had a lot of great discussions that mayors led with the business community, and there's a lot of things that we can do to make things a lot more simpler for folks to understand.

Oh, oh gosh.

Oh, hello.

Is somebody on Zoom?

Oh, uh Dr.

Jones has his hand up.

Um, Dr.

Jones, uh Sarah Ms.

Moore's almost done with her question, and then I'll call on you next.

And thank you.

Oh and then um I wanted to check in and see.

I believe with the designation of the startup junkie contract that there were particular populations that we um had specifically mentioned.

And so I was curious if the report does it cover, like for instance, people have been previously incarcerated.

I believe um kind of our differently able-bodied community, maybe was was worded in the contract.

I'm kind of going off the top of my head.

I know we had specific communities.

Um, do we dive into those particular communities and kind of how they're being served with that contract?

In regards to diving into specifics of that, no, you're gonna see some of the specificity in the report just through the nature of the round tables that Mayor Ron has had, whether that be with working artists or the creative economy.

Um, in regards to what we're doing to try to get that information out into those populace, it's a yes and one of the things that came out from these round tables was we can do a lot better job increasing the spotlight, the fact that the city is offering these services to the general population in general.

Um, you will find in the Q2 in the Q1 report of a section, not a whole lot, but where we talk about startup junkies really shooting out through a lot of new feelers.

That is something that um I've had conversations with um Minister Jones about getting these resources out, but also too, it's the reason why they bought strawberry outfits and they'll be participating in the strawberry festival this weekend.

It's a new venue to shed us to show this is entrepreneurial services that are aware, and that's the kind of aggression that's the kind of push that they're doing right now.

So, yes.

Okay, I'm excited about this.

So I have two two more questions and I'll relinquish the floor.

Um, I'm really excited about the chamber's focus on health care, and this won't surprise them because I recently just had this conversation with them.

Um, but we declared many years ago, it's probably three or four years ago that we are in mental health crisis in the state of Arkansas.

And here locally, as I talk to people over some of our health systems and with the chamber, you know, we have less behavioral health uh resources, staffing and resources, things like the crisis stabilization unit who've closed.

And so um, I just want to make sure when we're looking at health care going forward, that it is holistic and want to just make mention and hoping that behavioral health will be flagged in there, um, that we actually have lost resources.

You know, there are struggles with the the staffing, and I know we have some different possible avenues to pursue.

So I'd really love to make sure that that's a part of that focus and and would uh volunteer my time um as someone you know who has close family members and who have to navigate these systems that have gaps.

Thank you very much for that question.

And in regards to that, I've actually gone back to the healthcare cluster slide.

You'll be able to zoom into this and actually read it in the report.

It's a very high resolution image, but it gets into that and talks about all the different facets of health care.

And so when we think about sector strategies, those are the exact things we're looking for.

Where do we have opportunities to expand services and stock care network leakage that comes out?

It makes the most sense.

And so absolutely deep diving into those types of different sectors, whether it be sports medicine or behavioral health, etc.

That's all part of what we're looking at.

Okay.

And then um I saw you know the the areas kind of of the focus between between the triangle.

One of the things I know uh the chambers focus on is like with with construction jobs, and I think about how that has applicability to the public uh the private sector, you know, with those different um things are happening, but also the public sector with filling like city staff roles, think about sidewalks and roads and things like that.

Um I didn't necessarily see it mentioned in these particular slides.

Is that kind of in the report as well about the focus that's happening too around the construction trade as well?

This sector, um, this report, we really dove into we talked a lot about healthcare in this one too, and we talked a lot about manufacturing with Conagra's announcement as well.

As we dive in, you'll see us work through some of those other industry sectors.

I've got a huddle with the team.

I've not looked at wind construction, but those types of trade work, that trade work is part of our targeted industry sectors in the master plan that guides our work.

Well, I really I appreciate this, and I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation and seeing how this evolves going forward.

So thanks for all the efforts on it.

Thank you, Dr.

Jones.

Uh yes, uh Devin, uh thank you for your hard work on this.

Uh I wanted to ask you about this.

Uh in your report, uh, what about uh women laid and minority owned businesses?

Absolutely.

Thank you for the question, um, Councilmember Jones.

In regards to that, I can what I can speak to is what we've been able to impact in Q1.

And so from across our economic development efforts, we've assisted 191 unique businesses.

42 of those were women minority or veteran-owned.

That's the breakdown of the data I have at this point in time.

Okay.

Um, you uh hosting any like meetings or any opportunities to engage with uh with those populations.

Oh, absolutely, yes.

And we're even gonna ramp up those activities in Q2.

Um, I will actually just give a preview.

I've had some meetings with council member minister Jones, and she's helped me get plugged into the local chapter of the NAACP.

And I've also got a meeting with black-owned NWA about how can we?

It's not in regards to it's just about awareness.

How can we increase awareness that these events are happening?

And our comms rollout plan is working on that too.

So, yes, thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you, David.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Great.

Okay, great.

Devin, thank you so much.

This was tremendous, and as always, you uh did a very thorough job and very proud to have you on the team.

Okay.

I don't think we have anything else.

Oh, water sewer.

Yes.

Water sewer.

And is it on if you're if they're attending virtually, is it on the same link or separately?

No, it's on a separate zoom link.

It is on a separate Zoom link if you were attending water and sewer virtually.

And it is downstairs in room one oh one.

Mayor, we also have the food commission meeting over in the annex today.

And we also have the food commission meeting in the annex.

Is there a virtual link for that, Minister Jones or Keith?

No, there is not.

Okay, there's not, but that is in person in the Jordan Annex.

Thank you.