And any from the public in attendance.

Okay, seeing none, I will we will go ahead and we will take a vote to approve our minutes.

Okay, that item does pass, bringing us into the next item on our agenda being new business.

We have two ordinances to be introduced tonight.

First one being ordinance two five zero three zero.

An ordinance modifying ordinance twenty-four zero three seven, which established and consolidated special traffic patterns near Jonesboro Public School campuses and for other purposes.

Whereas the City of Jonesboro adopted ordinance 24037, which established and consolidated specific traffic patterns near Jonesboro Public School campuses, whereas the City of Jonesboro has been asked by Jonesboro Public School Administration to designate Wilkins Avenue as a one-way eastbound from MacArthur Park to Hillcrest Drive between the hours of 715 a.m.

to 815 a.m.

and 245 p.m.

to 415 p.m.

on school days.

Whereas the traffic control committee has reviewed and supports the request.

Whereas, in order to allow for education and preparation by Jonesboro Public School patrons, our area motorist, the school hours one-way portion of this ordinance will not take effect until January 1st, 2026.

Now therefore be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, that ordinance 24037 is hereby modified to designate Wilkins Avenue from MacArthur Park to Hillcrest Drive to be a one-way eastbound from 715 a.m.

to 815 a.m.

and in between 245 p.m.

and 4 o'clock p.m.

on school days effective January 1st, 2026.

Moved forward to full council.

Second.

Okay, have a motion and a second to forward to full council.

Are there any questions or comments from the committee?

Okay.

Any from the administration?

Okay, and any from the public in attendance.

Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and we will take a vote on this ordinance.

That motion does carry and forwards on to full council.

Thank you, everybody.

Moving on to the next item under new business, ordinance two five zero three one.

An ordinance to the city of Jonesboro to place various traffic signs at designated locations as determined by the traffic control committee.

Now therefore, be it ordained by the city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to make the following changes as recommended by the traffic control committee.

Establish and sign an always stop at Cobra House and Burke Avenue, establishing the following school zone speed limits.

Success School 613 North Fisher Street, 25 miles an hour on Fisher Street from Hoover Street to Belt Street and on Belt Street from Alice Street to Fisher Street.

MacArthur Junior High, 25 miles an hour on Wilkins Avenue from Metzlore Lane to Hillcrest Drive.

Nettleton Intermediate, 20 miles an hour on Race Street from Mary Jane Drive to Thorne Street, and on Thorn Street from Ray Street to School Street.

Jonesboro High, 25 miles an hour on Main Street from Campus Street to College Avenue.

Fox Meadow, 25 miles an hour on Fox Meadow Lane from Stadium Boulevard to Caraway Road.

And leadership 25 miles an hour on Washington Avenue from Floyd Street to Walnut Street.

Move forward to full council.

Okay, I have a motion second to forward this item on to full council.

Are there any questions or comments from anybody on the committee?

I have one, Ms.

Chairman.

Yes, but just curious why we didn't um stick with the same speed limit, maybe in so I see some are 15, some are 20, some are 25.

Just curious what the thought was around that.

One of those is through the middle of Valley View School that's 15, and there's two large speed bumps, and literally that road is between two buildings.

So I I can understand that.

So just okay, so I guess if you don't mind just to explain a little bit, these are how the streets are currently signed.

So they currently have that speed limit already.

Okay.

All we did is we went and inventoried them and we made sure that they were all covered by an ordinance as they're currently signed, and then we can come back and address any oddities or changes, but we just didn't find a consolidated list of school zone speed limits for our school zone flashers.

So that's what this does is just basically puts it all into one ordinance so we can keep track of those better in the future.

But I say these are the established speed limits on those roads already.

Thank you.

Thank you, Craig.

Anything else?

Um Councilman McLean?

No, I'll save.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Um any other questions from anybody on the committee?

Okay.

Any from the administration or from the public in attendance?

Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead to vote on this item to forward the full council.

That item does pass.

Thank you, everybody.

Moving on to the next item on our agenda being pending items.

I know of none.

And on to the next item on the agenda being other business.

First, on our other business is vector mosquito control report for July 2025.

And I believe that we have um Vector Mosquito Control in attendance to answer any questions regarding these items.

Are they presenting or are they just waiting for us to ask questions?

I believe we're just asking questions.

Vector, can y'all hear us on the other side there?

Oh, they are yes.

Perfect.

Good deal.

Um deal.

I'll tell you, would you uh mind giving us a overall update of um the report that you have that you've submitted both for July and for August, and just kind of read us a little bit into um the mosquito abatement process and the way that we're currently um implementing that and running operations for the city of Jonesboro.

Sure.

Um during the month of July.

Uh we we did or we did spray with the ground units uh uh quite often uh each each night.

Um we flew the city before the fourth of July.

We uh we continued that uh after the fourth uh Jonesboro would like eight consecutive.

Um we flew last night the north half of Jonesboro.

Uh that would be number five.

If the weather lets us tonight, which it doesn't look too good, uh that would be number six.

So we'll still owe you a couple.

Umskitoes have been uh have been populated mostly south of town.

Um that's not to say they're not in the north section of town, but uh um but the heat seems to have uh slowed them down a little bit.

Um hope uh I mean I don't like the heat either, and uh I don't uh I would like for it to cool off and then we can fight the mosquitoes again if they come back.

However, uh price should be draining in the next couple or three weeks.

I know there's some late fields out there, but uh hopefully they'll be draining uh shortly as well.

Um as far as service request, uh we've had quite a few right before the fourth of July, and they have slapped off a lot here lately.

Um we're probably averaging uh four or five a week now as opposed to doing twenty twenty-five a week.

Um I have my supervisor here, Mr.

Ted Green.

Um you have any questions, we would uh you can direct them to him, and uh uh hopefully he can answer any questions or concerns you may have.

Sure.

Thank you, Mr.

Jim.

Um just to begin on the July report that I reviewed previously.

I just had a couple of questions on this that I noticed that in reference to larva siding specifically, that it was considerable amount of less inspections from year over year.

Is there necessarily any reason that we're seeing less inspected sites versus what we did in July of 24?

Yeah, yes, sir.

That's lack of rain.

Everything was dry.

Um exceptionally dry weather, so we you know we don't have that we're not finding we're not finding anything larva side, and that's why you see those numbers.

Gotcha.

Okay, thank you.

And I'm guessing I'm guessing that that answer is probably the same as far as adulta siding uh adult deciding that the total spray miles has also gone down from 1900 to approximately 1300.

Um I'm guessing that that's probably going along with the light trap surveillance of the total mosquitoes going from 5,500 down to approximately 3700.

Is that due to the numbers being uh yes, sir?

That is correct.

And uh also the heat.

Uh we do not like, I do not like to spray when it gets you know above the hundred degree index, 105 index.

Um, so there was really no need to go out it if it being that hot, especially with the numbers as low as they were.

So we just we just thought we'd save the chemical that we can uh for when it does cool off and and they do return.

I mean, with the extreme heat, we can't actually apply because there needs to be a temperature inversion, and so if it gets to be too hot, uh the chemical is sort of just it it doesn't actually hang around, it floats too high.

So yeah, it will come down, but then uh somewhere it won't it won't actually come down on target.

Okay, thank you, gentlemen.

Um, you know, I was going over some previous numbers in regards to budget that we had set aside for mosquito abatement, and uh noticed that um in the 25 budget as we were applying a lot of our ARPA funding that we had out there that we had set aside an additional 241,000 approximately for mosquito abatement.

Is there anything else that we can be doing proactively to um get ahead of this mosquito population?

Or is are we really throwing everything that we've got at it at this current point in time?

Yeah, I mean at this point we're winding out of the season.

Um once the rice is out.

I mean, that's that's it will be pretty soon to be the end of the season after that.

We are uh we are actually partnering up with Dr.

Alzbrook for the University of Arkansas for medical sciences um across the region and has been a really active West Nile and St.

Louis Encephalitis um season.

And so we are going to be testing a lot of mosquito samples.

Um Dr.

Osbrook also had um a sort of an interest just because uh he was gonna be collecting a bunch of samples anyway.

And so if we're already collecting a bunch of mosquitoes, we might as well submit them to him for testing.

Um he's also interested in uh any sort of malarial activity that we could be seeing.

There were or there was some look required malaria cases past couple years in Arkansas, and so that is a concern because one of the primary mosquitoes that does like the wooden rice fields is an anophaline species which can carry malaria.

Gotcha.

Thank you, sir.

There are any questions from anybody else on the committee?

Just to figure back off to what Ted just said.

So, how often are we testing mosquitoes for diseases?

Well, as of now we're testing as needed, and so we um we have some mosquitoes that we've collected that we're gonna test at the end of the month because really it's it's I'm really gonna more like a month handoff, but just because we are starting to see a lot more virus activity in some of our other locations.

Um, we're probably gonna be doing a lot more active testing from here to the end of the year.

And if we do actually find that there is a lot of virus in the area, we will respond appropriately with abatement actions.

So you just we haven't started testing yet, but we plan on testing here in the next month, or is that what I'm saying?

Probably next week.

Next week.

Probably next, yeah.

I'll be setting my gravity traps out uh the end of this week or first part of next week.

So we'll so we'll start our collection of few legs then.

And on the when it comes to the traps, where are the traps located?

I know they're probably all over, but is there is there a particular area that any particular hot spots that we see?

Yeah, I particularly, yeah, it's our particular hotspots or uh like Ashwood area, um uh partridge area.

Uh in other words, mainly south of the bypass.

Uh not to say that we do not catch a uh an abundant north of the bypass.

Uh like uh, for instance, out on Shady Lane.

There uh we usually have high counts at Shady Lane because just off the west of the ridge, there is rice there.

And and the closer you get to rice fields, the more mosquitoes you're gonna catch in the traps.

Okay.

Um if I can one more.

Yes, what uh what improvements and maybe new strategies will we have uh going into next year?

I know it's been dry this year, so it's I know you you didn't have to work as hard, but what are some changes maybe going into next year that um that you guys plan on doing?

Not saying you didn't work hard, Jim, just saying we being dry, you know.

Yeah, so we are purchasing additional aircraft uh to be based out of Cleveland, Mississippi, so that um just in case there is an additional spraying that we need to do from the airplane in response to virus or else like that, we will be able to respond quicker.

Um also let's get back to uh let's get back to larva siding.

If we if it does start to rain quite a bit here in the next you know few weeks, yeah, well then the larva siding will uh correspond with that.

Um every season is different.

I can't I can't predict what 2025 2026 will bring.

Um if it's a wet year, then yes, we will arcide more than we did this year.

Again, if it's dry, then you'll see less larva siding.

But uh so and in other words, I I don't know what is in the card, you know, for 26.

Thank you.

Gentlemen, anybody else on the committee have any questions for Vector?

Seeing none.

Is there any um comments or any questions from the administration or from the public in attendance?

Okay, good deal.

Gentlemen from Vector, we do appreciate your time and thank you for um answering these questions for us.

Yes, sir.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

That brings us on to our next item on the agenda being communication 25034, a special presentation by Martin Smith of EDG Incorporated regarding a potential downtown special traffic pattern pilot program study funded by the Jonesboro AMP Commission.

And I think it's worth noting that um this is um we're we're seeking the reason why this is being presented tonight is seeking public uh opinion and getting um any notes from this, and we won't be taking a vote on anything this evening, but go right ahead.

Uh committee members, thank you for the time uh tonight.

Andy Shatley from the uh connectivity committee.

Um it was a project that was brought to us uh several months ago uh off of the uh shutdown of Main Street.

Uh obviously shutting down Main Street and the things that had came from that had some negative effects.

But what one of the positive things that we heard resoundingly from citizens was how much safer it felt for pedestrians in the activities that were happening on Main Street.

So we we were asked to kind of look into what changes could possibly be done to the 200, 300, 400 block of main street that would improve the safety um and the environment for pedestrians and patrons uh and individuals that are going down to experience our businesses downtown.

Um our committee approached the Jonesboro A and P Commission.

I believe you put that on the uh the ordinance there.

Um and they funded a study, and we asked Martin Smith from EDG to look at the 200, 300 and 400 blocks of Main Street to see what could be done to continue traffic flow, smooth traffic flow, and to incorporate uh protection for pedestrians, bicyclists, um disabled individuals, those types of things, and interacting downtown.

So he's gonna present what his design looks like, and we're gonna talk about that.

ordinance there um and they funded a study and we asked Martin Smith from EDG to look at the 200 300 and 400 blocks of main street to see what could be done to continue traffic flow smooth traffic flow and to incorporate uh protection for pedestrians bicyclists um disabled individuals those types of things and interacting downtown so he's gonna present what his design looks like and we're gonna talk about that any questions field any questions that the committee may have Martin thank you Andy and uh thank you all for the the time and ability to to look at this little project I'm here mainly to answer questions but I want to um run through and make sure you guys are clear with exactly what we're looking at at um as far as the the modifications and when I say modifications I want to stress that our goal was to do this as efficiently as possible with as um uh little to zero infrastructure uh changes so keeping the cost at the absolute minimal as we can it would be only uh striping keeping the existing infrastructure which I which means the the from curb to curb um pedestrian sidewalks all stay the same and it would uh only uh uh rely on um some striping modifications and and I want to show what what that might be uh be so the existing street the blocks 200 to 400 so let's think of it from basically main street when you get to Washington all the way down to Kate Avenue one thing that is uh very critical here is you know we don't want to lose any parking um so all the the parking would stay the same I'm gonna make that point um clear and um and so our task was to look at um making downtown a destination for cars that are coming to downtown it's a destination place that's I would get we didn't do a study on it but I would guess that that 85 to 95 percent of the cars probably just move through town um and I think that the the shop owners and so forth that down there probably probably uh see that as well so we want we we want it to be a destination if you come into that 200 to 400 block you are parking and you're you're a business patriot patron to the businesses that are there and then uh church street would be the bypass or as with the uh street closure you saw a lot of different ways that cars moved from the south to the north and it seems like it it all tend to work out um so these planes are are small but to stretch it out but you'll see basically what we're doing we have a 35 foot um cross section from front of curb to front of curb we have a seven and a half foot I'm gonna just go and go so we can we can I can go back and forth it's easier to to read this one which um you can look at so we have a seven and a half foot existing parallel parking you have two uh 10 foot uh one-way travel lanes and another seven and a half foot uh parallel parking for 35 feet right so the most critical aspect that we have on this entire thing is that uh fire safety is going to require 20 foot clear uh lane for for um servicing any of those businesses uh so we need to keep a 20 foot clear lane so how are we going to do that we keep the uh seven and a half foot uh parallel parking we put a two foot buffer other thing that we see is like getting out of your car on those streets it's very dangerous on the on the the the active uh traffic lane side so um we would we'd like to have a larger and two foot buffer but a two foot buffer is definitely better than um what you have now and then we'd have one 10 foot one-way lane and then you would have a six foot we're calling it a bike lane but it could be a it could be a delivery you know pull off the the fact of the matter is that you know more than likely there's not connectivity to the north and south right now for for bike traffic moving through there but it's a this is a free lane without car traffic right and then you have another two foot buffer and then you have the existing seven foot six parallel parking um so that I think I know that one of the questions are there's a lot of delivery traffic through there's already an ordinance on on that Craig probably could speak on that if we need to but with the two lanes stop delivery trucks can stop and cars can still go by and I think that was a big a critical aspect so with the eight foot the six foot plus the two foot buffer it provides a um uh potential place for those delivery trucks to stop for a short period and traffic can continue to move um so I I mean it's I want to keep it as simple as possible again we're not changing any of the streetscape none of the um intersections I will say that you know you have two lanes coming in on main street when you get to Washington you would the right lane would have to be a would have to be signaled on the on the ground and signage to be right turn only and there could be some you could put up some some just some uh visuals that that lane is ending when you cross I I would expect that you're gonna have a little bit of time um that you'll probably have cars that will continue to go and then have to merge over and get in as just part part um of the process so I'll be happy to flip this back and forth and take any questions uh whatever helps you the most thank you sir any questions from anybody on the committee I'm just trying to make sure I I see it correctly it starts at Washington yes sir starts at Washington and goes to K yes sir I'm sorry basically we're taking we're going one lane

So I'll be happy to flip this back and forth and take any questions, uh whatever helps you the most.

Thanks, sir.

Any questions from anybody on the committee?

I'm just trying to make sure I I see it correctly.

It starts at Washington.

Yes, sir.

Right, starts at Washington and goes to K.

Yes, sir.

I'm sorry.

Oh, so basically we're taking we're going one lane, bike lane, or as you said, the transition lane, right?

Service lane.

Um speed limit stay the same, or you want us to change that?

What is the speed limit on downtown?

Um I think that's something that could be it could should be looked at.

Um it's but we didn't propose changing speed limit in the study.

Just curious.

Uh Mr.

Chairman, one question.

And if we have some of the data going back for the the volume of traffic that goes down there, if we've done traffic studies in the past, if we have a history of that, cutting it down to one lane, what will that do to the volume of traffic?

Will it create backups that's going to go from light to light to light?

That that's a question I don't know, but have we done some traffic studies in the past that you kind of give us a little bit of relevance of how that's gonna do bottling it that bottlenecking it down to one lane?

We have a six month traffic study of what no traffic looked like.

Right, that was zero traffic.

Well, I mean, we saw you saw it in real time, what people did when they came on Main Street for six months with no traffic, and it I mean, I lived down there uh six or eight blocks.

It really never seemed like a terrible traffic jam.

I knew at that point a lot of the traffic was shifted over here to to Church Street.

But I and I assume that's and there was a lot of traffic also shifting over to Bridge Street that just bypassed it completely, but with it being open and still as an ideal for a primary artery through there, will people continue to try to go down there, but will it create a bottleneck?

And that's something I don't know if anybody knows, but I'm just curious about the amount of vehicles that travel down there now.

And if you go down to one lane, will that create too much congestion and backup at peak hours?

And I don't know if we have a specific answer for that.

Would that be on like on the actual 200 to 400?

Yes.

Yeah, once you enter from Washington Street to the bridge, going down to one lane, are you basically going to have traffic bumper to bumper from each intersection in each light from Huntington to Kate?

Yeah, I would.

I mean, it's a good question.

I don't know, I think the the real-time study is the y'all's best indication, but it it was a complete blockage, so we do have to understand that.

I think that individuals traveling to get to the north side of the railroad tracks are going to bypass that situation because it's not going to be advantageous for them.

I think it will make that those blocks a destination place, and you'll get I said 85 to 90 percent may bypass through now.

I would say that would flip the other way that where 85 to 90 percent are going and parking and and being a part of a patron to those businesses downtown.

And I think that's what we're looking for overall.

I would expect just thinking about about this, you know, the traffic is all gonna come down Main Street, and then you're gonna be forced washing around.

You may have some stacking there at that light and it coming back on that on the right lane of Main Street, but that's gonna start to uh dissipate pretty quickly as people start to figure out other ways to traverse and move around.

Um I don't have like technical studies and traffic counts and things like that.

I think it's more of just the general feel of of how human nature is and how you're gonna traverse.

I was very curious about is the impact it's gonna have on the traffic flow through there.

And obviously, one of my primary concerns is gonna be emergency traffic being able to get through, whether it's amuses, fire trucks, or whatever, being able to trans transition down between to get over the tracks.

I I so the the uh critical point there is people trying to parallel park and and and having to to stop.

That's what I like about having the um let's call it the service lane.

Service lane, yeah, whatever.

It allows you to get out of if you're parking on the right side, allows you to get out of the the the flow of traffic to do your maneuvering to park.

Um and on the if you're parking on the left side, that lane.

I mean, I would expect that if someone is parking, you could you could you know move around.

So I I'm not overly concerned about the that you know, fire safety is the number one concern and making sure that that that the fire trucks have access and um can maneuver uh down the street.

All right, thank you.

I think one of the uh things I talked with Mr.

Shatley, wasn't there also some designated delivery parking spots at the corner of Monroe in Maine, and then one in uh the 200 block and 300 block for delivery drivers can actually get off.

Right, and I I believe there's some now, if I'm not mistaken, and that and that you know, at the at those um pedestrian crossways that could be striped off.

That could be I you could you could have that still to where you completely have designated delivery um places, but in worst case scenario, at least the delivery truck is in the service lane access and not not uh completely stopping traffic right now.

The default delivery spot is the left lane when you're headed north.

Everybody, all the delivery trucks just stop in the left lane, and that in essence makes us one lane most of the time down there.

It's it's right between the parallel parking and delivery trucks.

I mean, uh I don't think you're gonna see the concerns you have, Mr.

Miller.

I I don't think that I really don't feel that wasn't ever really a an issue in our minds when we were looking at this study.

We do have a delivery ordinance on the books.

Um Craig can speak to that.

I will say that that probably needs to be addressed because there is one spot that is on Monroe that no longer exists in front of the forum, so it probably needs to be updated.

It'd be a great time to review that.

Uh, but there is uh ordinant on the books with time frames and offloading on Huntington and Kate.

Yep.

I think the you know the last point really is the fact of how efficient this could be.

I think this probably project could probably be handled completely within the city, you know, engineering department.

Um simple um overlay, um, like a seal coat overlay and restriping, you know, and signage and so forth, which is which is pretty amazing when you think about the cost of projects nowadays to be able to pull something like that off the questions from anybody on the committee.

Okay, any from the public in attendance on this item?

Any questions or comments?

Okay, good deal.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

Thank you.

Great, thank you, sir.

Moving on to our next item on the agenda for public safety is public comments.

This is an opportunity to come before the public safety commission and to speak on anything that was not on our agenda this evening.

Okay, seeing none, that brings us to our next item on the agenda on the agenda being adjournment.

So move to have a first and a second.

All in favor, uh any opposed?

Okay, we do stand adjourned.

Thank you very much.