All right, good evening, everybody, and welcome to City Council meeting.

This is Tuesday, December 2nd, 12th month of the year.

I'd like to welcome each and every one of you to City Council meeting tonight.

We'll go ahead and I'm calling it to order.

I'll go ahead and lead us in Pledge of Allegiance, and uh Councilman Coleman will lead us in prayer.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic with which it stands.

One nation, under God, individual with liberty and justice for all.

Father, we thank you for this time, and we thank you for this day that you have given us.

Thank you for the favor that you have given the city.

Father, the word declares that except you keep the city, the watchman that waited it is in vain.

And we thank you for keeping us.

Thank you for those men and women who serve us in the public.

Thank you, God, for their lives and their health and their strength.

Father, as we're doing the business that you have given us on tonight, I pray that we do it as you declare and as your will is.

We declare that in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You would please go ahead and mark your attendance by role, please, counsel, and I'm gonna go to the floor on special presentations.

All right, council.

We do have all members present, so we'll move on to item number four, and these are items on special presentation.

So this evening I'd like to start out.

We have a special presentation for Beverly.

Uh if you would please come forward, Beverly Parker for Jonesboro Beautiful, is to bring to your attention uh an outstanding young man in our community who loves to beautify the city of Jonesboro.

So Beverly, if you would please go ahead and give your brief statement and congratulations.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council.

Thank you.

I have with me today Everett Hutton.

And uh just to tell you a little bit about what he has done.

Keep Johnsboro Beautiful has partnered for the third year now with the Foundation of Arts uh for an uh art contest highlighting the beauty of our city and also seeking support and adoption of clean and green beautification efforts.

We want people to do beautiful things, as he's illustrated.

Everett here, his project was Bluebird Bungalow.

But as part of uh what we asked the participants to do was to portray how they might reimagine to beautify a street, a sidewalk, an intersection, a park, or even a stormwater drainage basin.

And he has addressed here habitat loss, uh, and he's proposed nesting boxes uh to provide the city's green space and parks uh with these um bluebird restoration uh projects.

So we really want to thank and recognize uh Everett for his participation in the FOA contest and for what he is doing and will do for the city of Jonesboro.

So thank you.

I'm not a professional, so let me put this out there.

Let me get Carol in there.

Very good.

Very that's always wonderful.

See, it's always important to get our youth engaged in the community.

Next, I'd like to go ahead and bring up.

We have John Wilkerson with the AML office, league office, John and Jack Critchard.

If y'all would please come forward.

I think they have a presentation uh this evening to make on behalf of AML to one of our representatives, Dewitt Tosh.

So Dwight, would you and your bride please come forward?

Floor is yours.

So good.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, good evening, council.

I'm John Wilkerson, General Council and Legislative Director for the Municipal League.

That's of course a Jack Critcher, and we're both up here today because this award means a lot to us personally, so it'll take a moment of personal privilege to say that we're we're we're awarding Representative Tosh with the Distinguished Legislator Award, but really it should be the distinguished human award.

He's an absolute gem of a person who's been a lot to me, a lot a lot to the to Jack, a lot to all of us, but really to you.

And the reason we're here is to highlight what he does for the city of Jonesboro, what he does for the cities and towns of Arkansas, and how blessed we are we are all to know him, and you are all blessed to be represented by someone of such a high caliber and really just an amazing human being that I have again I cherish knowing.

But again, because there's two of us, and we it's that important.

I want to ask Jack Critcher to say a word or two as well about Representative Tosh.

I can't add much to that except that you know Dwight Representative Tosh, Captain Tosh, uh has lived such a storied life, and I I always think back to the director of public safety, Colonel Mike Hager referred to Captain Tosh as the greatest captain in the history of the Arkansas State Police.

So I don't know how I can top that, but uh he also is one of the most effective, if not, I mean, there's not a more effective legislator than Representative Tosh, and he he just, as John said, just an amazing individual, and um it's I'm just honored to have him, he and Miss Joan as a friend, and that's that's why we're recognizing him tonight is because of his legislative uh oh, I know what I almost forgot.

He there's not a better friend of cities in Arkansas than this man right here, and that's why we're honoring him tonight.

So, in honor of Representative Tosh, who demonstrated exemplary service that benefited cities and towns and Jonesboro, the cities and towns of Arkansas during the 95th General Assembly, we hereby bestow upon him the distinguished legislator award.

Thank you, Representative Tosh.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor's okay if I say a few words.

First, I want to say I want to say thank you.

I appreciate you, appreciate uh my communications with you.

I'm telling you, he's got me on speed dial because during the legislative session, uh we talk quite often, and and he lets me know about pieces of legislation and how that affects our municipalities, and you know, whether or not uh the pros and the cons about it, and that's really a lot of insight, and I really appreciate it.

And I'm gonna tell you the municipal league and the municipalities around this state.

Uh you couldn't be represented by two people that has any more respect by the members of the General Assembly than the counselor here.

That's what I call him.

He's my friend, and I just called John the counselor, and of course, this is my this is senator.

So uh both these guys are outstanding, they're good friends, and and I'm honored to call them my friends, and I can tell you they have your best interest during the General Assembly, during the legislative session.

They really look out for our municipalities around the state.

You guys are the best, and like I said, I don't know of two people any more respected there at the Capitol than these two men right here.

And of course, if I walked away from this podium and I didn't recognize uh this uh lady beside me, I'd probably be in a lot of trouble.

So, you know, it goes without saying, and I hear it quite often when you as we travel around District 38, and and and when we go to an event, when you see me, you see her.

She's she's always with me.

And I I you know there's I'll tell one quick story.

Uh then I I told this a few times, but uh several years ago, you know, uh I was with the state police for a long time, and being a state trooper, I was assigned to a lot of different areas.

We lived in um so many different cities around this state.

But one day we decided we would just get out and we'd drive around and we'd drive back to some of the old neighborhoods that we used to live in when I was assigned there with the state police.

And so we was out driving, and we was in one of the cities where we once lived, and we went into this neighborhood where we actually had lived at at one time, and the neighborhood had really gone down.

And uh the houses were looking pretty rough, and we were driving down the street and we were commenting about it, and I looked up at this one house and I saw these two rocking chairs out on the front porch, and there was this gentleman that was sitting in one of the rocking chairs, and the other one was empty, and he was just rocking away.

And I kept looking at him and finally I said, I know him.

And I commented to my wife Joan.

I said, honey, I said, isn't that I won't call his name?

I said, isn't that John?

I said uh that we went to high school with, and she looked and she said, you know, I believe it is.

That is him.

Cord being a little bit facetious.

I said, yeah.

I said, I remember when we was in high school, I said, he was kind of sweet on you.

She said, Oh, she knows she said, oh, I hate that he was not, and I said, Yeah, he was, and I said, and I want you to think about it.

If you'd have married him instead of me, you could be in that other rocking chair on that front porch rocking away.

She's pretty quick.

She said, No, no, that's not the way it would work.

She said, if I'd have married him instead of you, you'd been that rocking chair, and he'd be the state representative.

So that's what she means to me.

And as I look at this city council, I think about how many of you, I I really are close friends of mine.

And and some of you obviously I know better than others, but uh some of you I go back many, many years with, and I look over here at Miss Porter, what a great friend she's been to, and and Brian, his dad and I uh when I was a trooper here in this county, his dad was with the Jonesboro police department, and we we established a friendship that uh it lasted uh many many years, and I still think so much of this family.

And the last time, Brian, that I saw your dad was at a little cafe in Smithville, Arkansas.

He bought my lunch that day, and uh I need to wrap it up.

Yes, good things happening, Smith.

Thank you for that friendship.

I'm I'm about to wrap it up, Mary.

You know, I I just love y'all so much and I appreciate this honor.

But and you know, you start calling names, you always forget, and I'll make it quick, but uh see Dr.

Coleman, and I remember when I first decided to get into politics.

I met with you, Dr.

Coleman.

You may not remember that, but we met at a McDonald's, and and I I seeked your advice, and you gave me good advice, and and then a few years later I remember running into you, and I thanked you for your support and asked you for your continued support.

And I remember what you said, and it's stuck with me all these years when I thanked you for that support and asked you for your continued support.

You said I will always support Dwight Tosh.

Now you may want to retract that.

I don't know if you wanted me to say that publicly or not, but you know, and I could go on about each one of you, and of course I got to say something about my neighbor down here, uh John Street.

Uh John and I live just uh just two neighbors between us, and uh what a great neighbor he is, and what a great friend he's been for years, and uh of course then LJ Bryant.

We go way back, and uh you know, I learned a lesson with LJ.

I they always have the rice festival in Wiener, and LJ would come down, and and my wife loved it because she didn't have to drive me.

They have a big parade if you've ever been to that rice festival.

I mean, there's how many people there, and I've been in the back of the truck throwing out candy.

Well, LJ would come down and he would drive me in the parade, and I said, This is not gonna work out.

I said, There's more people hollering and saying hi to him than they were me.

And so, and I'm throwing out the candy, and but anyways, I appreciate him and our longtime friendship, of course, Kevin.

We go way back from all the days that we spent at meetings with the fire department and stuff.

I don't mean to leave anybody out, every one of you I could think for something in my life, but I want to thank you again tonight and what this award means to me, and I thank you for allowing me to be one of your voices at the state capitol.

It's truly a great honor for me, and it's a great honor for me to stand here before you tonight and receive this award.

God bless you, and thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Okay.

All right, Council.

Next, we have a presentation of the long-range first department plan draft by the emergency services consulting group.

Um chief, are they in the room?

All right.

Council, earlier this year, we contracted with uh merchant services consulting international to conduct a long-range study to ensure we're doing the best for the public as a fire department and be planning for the next 10 to 15 years.

Uh, we finally completed that study, and we can get him pulled up here.

Uh our project director is going to come on, Mr.

Michael Hogan, and give you a brief summary of what they found during the study and some action steps that we can take.

And then obviously I'll be happy to answer any other questions y'all may have as you get a chance to look through the complete document.

Mike, you on?

Yes, can you hear me?

Yeah, we got you.

I'll turn it over to you, sir.

Awesome.

Well, thank you, everybody, for being here today.

My name is Mike Logan.

I'm with emergency services consulting international.

And as the chief mentioned, uh, we were tasked with conducting and drafting the long-range master plan for the uh the department.

And what that plan is is that is basically that long-term roadmap.

Uh so with that plan, what we did is we took and we interviewed both internal and external stakeholders, gathered multiple sources of data, looked at growth data, where the needs are going to be, and we took a look and say, all right, where is the organization at today?

Um, and then from that data, we said, okay, what are the needs of the city?

How are the needs of the city going to change both in growth call volume, future development, and putting that together?

What how can we address these immediate needs?

And we basically divide these immediate needs up into short-term, which are things that we recommend zero to three years, midterm, three to seven years, and then long term seven to fifteen years.

Now, when you go through our report, it's all um today's presentation is only going to be 11 slides.

I'm not going to go through the entire report.

The entire report's about a hundred and seventy-five pages.

Um, and I believe that that will be available for those that want to read through that whole report.

But what today, what I'm going to focus on is the recommendations.

Um, from this, we'll cover that.

And at the end, if there's any questions, we can go from that.

So we'll go right into the short term.

So, short-term recommendations.

First one that we recommend is adding a second a second assistant chief position to improve the executive oversight and divide responsibilities between operations and administration.

Um, this will just help enhance accountability, succession planning, and help with the day-to-day managing of the fire department from the admin standpoint.

Then the next two we look at wellness.

Uh today in the fire service, mental health, the things that that firefighters and emergency responders are constantly exposed to.

Mental health that wears on responders.

So, one of the things is there is the wellness coordinator through the police department that shared well through our interviews.

We discovered that a lot of the personnel were unfamiliar with that person.

So, one of the things that we recommend is having that position out in the station, doing station visits right along to help foster that trust before a actual intervention is needed.

So they're they feel comfortable going with that person, and that basically goes in the next one, which is our the peer support team.

The fire department has a peer support team.

Uh, one of the things that we recommend is adding stipends to those members that serve on peer support, uh, just to give them those that that extra resource that they would have there.

Also, with not which is with mental health, but firefighters have a very high risk of occupational diseases such as cancer.

Um, they're a lot higher risk than the than the public is.

So one of those things is early detection.

So we recommend that the city look at offering full NFPA 1582 screenings to all of the department members.

What this does is it allows us to allow the department to detect anything that could be going on with responders beforehand.

That way, if we can get that treated and it will help allow a more resilient workforce.

So being able to have a capture system that would capture this because a lot of times the firefighters are out in the apparatus floor with this exhaust fumes where they might be uh using workout equipment, they might be training out there.

So this just helps provide them a better, safer atmosphere within the station.

Within each of the short term, midterm, and long term, we do recommend additional staffing.

Our first one in the short term is going to recommend increasing the daily minimum staffing for currently at 29 personnel.

We're recommending to increase that to 33, um, which would with a staffing factor recommending hiring additional 15 firefighters.

With this, it would allow the ladder trucks minimum staffing to go from two to three, and it would also allow the minimum staffing on engine seven to be increased from three to four.

The reason we picked engine seven, engine sevens in the outskirts, um, and in order to do an effective firefighting force for OSHA two and two out, you need at least two responder two firefighters to go inside and then two firefighters outside to maintain that.

With engine seven being on the outskirts, it's some it's gonna take longer time for backup units to get there.

So in the short term, we're recommending to increase the minimum staffing on engine four from three to four.

We're also looking at the training grounds.

So currently uh the city's very fortunate that the training grounds they rent at a very low cost.

But the downside of this is it kind of ties their hands on making improvements and adding things that would be important for responders to be able to train.

So we recommend that looking at a negotiating a deal to purchase those training grounds from the county to be able to use and be able to add more props that would help responders train and be more well prepared for the emergency responses.

The next uh we look at workforce development.

So, with this, you guys are very fortunate that Arkansas State is right in your backyard.

So a lot of departments nationwide that have colleges within their response areas have partnered with them to develop leadership tracks, education paths for helping develop our future leaders.

We do a really good job in the fire services of training firefighters on how to pull hose lines, how to throw ladders and do the everyday stuff of the job.

Sometimes we lack the ability to getting them to move into those supervisory roles and those skills that would we would need from those company officer and chief level ranks.

The next one is a lot of the stuff that I mentioned uh cost money.

So one of the things in our report, we wanted to look at okay, what type of ways can we bring in additional revenue to help pay for some of these things in the report?

Uh, one of the first that we looked at is a hotel occupancy fee.

Um, so basically it's a nominal fee that could be anywhere from a dollar to two dollars a night that's added to the hotel bills to be able to bring that money directly into the fire service because the taxpayers already pay for the fire service there, but the people that are visiting from out of town, it allows them to pay and contribute to have that high level of service.

We also looked at adding a fee to Arkansas State students.

Um, again, same thing kind of with the hotel.

It's recouping some of that cost.

The fire department's responsible for the emergency response there.

So it looks at recouping some of that cost as well.

And then the next one is just looking at safer and AFG grants.

These are just two fire service grants.

The uh the department's always applying for these, so being able to have those grants there would be able to help maintain that long-term operational assist for success.

All right, now we're gonna move into midterm.

So midterm recommendations, these are those that we're saying in that three to seven year time frame.

The first one is another staffing increase.

So in this, we're gonna move the staffing, recommend moving the minimum staffing from that 33 that we moved to in the short term to 36 in the midterm.

This is accomplished by moving to four-person crews on the ladder trucks.

We also look at advanced life support.

So when the fire department responds to EMS calls, um, where there's two two types of levels of response basic life support and then advanced life supports, which which can do a lot more.

Uh, so being able to have advanced life support and being able to have paramedics quicker arrive quicker is going to give the citizens and visitors of Jonesboro a lot better chance of survival when the fire department arrives on scene.

Next is as we're adding all these additional staffing spots, we're needed gonna look at we're gonna look at people to train these people.

So we recommend adding another FTE, another full-time position to the training department.

And then the final one on this slide is everything in the fire service today is becoming data-driven.

Um, and one of the things that would help with a lot of the recommendations that we lay out in the report is being able to have a somebody dedicated within the fire service that can look at the data and interpret, okay, when do we need to add additional personnel?

When do we need to add additional stations?

Uh, what's needed to include um maybe we need to relocate units, maybe we can add additional units, but being able to have that data analysis with internally within the department would help out a lot with these recommendations.

And kind of mentioned with that is when we went through the report, we looked at is there a need for fire station eight.

We believe when we get to that midterm, that three to seven years, there will be a need for fire station eight.

Within our report, we broke down there's some situations depending on growth on call volume.

Again, this is there's a uh a lot of different options, but being prepared to construct fire station eight and figuring out where that's that that's gonna be.

The next one is going to be hiring a PIO for the department.

So being able to have that public information officer for the department to be able to get that information out for not only emergency times, but being able to engage the public more to know what the fire department's doing and being able to operate with that.

We want to continue the heart once they continue when we recruit personnel.

We want to be able to continue to retain our personnel.

So the third bullet point on that slide is being able to make sure that the compensation reviews remain competitive.

Um, so not just looking at it statewide, um, but also looking at it regional wide as well.

So there may be departments that are across state lines that are closer and making sure that the compensation and the benefit packages that Jonesboro Fire Department's offering is comparable to other jurisdictions.

So we're the department, so the department's not losing personnel to those agencies.

Currently, uh the last bullet point currently the uh EMS transport is handled by a private agency within the city.

Um, so this fourth bullet point isn't saying, hey, Jonesboro should take over EMS transport.

It's saying that we should begin to have a plan just in case there is the need to supplement the private, or if for some reason the private company is no longer meeting the needs of the city to be able to start to have a plan in that midterm of okay, we if the city needs to take over EMS, these we at least have a plan to move in and to move to accomplish that.

And then we're gonna look at long term.

So long term that's at seven to 15 years.

Uh, the first one is hiring and creating a city emergency manager role.

Uh, currently there is a countywide emergency manager, um, and there's also one for the university as well.

But being able to, as the city starting to experience or uh the uptick in more natural hazards, um, to be able to have a dedicated emergency manager for that that spot.

The second bullet point is a community paramedicine program.

What this is is this is basically a prevention program for EMS.

Uh so having that fire analysis, we could look at say, okay, where are our call volumes?

Do we have a lot of repeated callers?

Are they just are they calling things for us that are truly emergencies, or can we pair them with a social worker?

Maybe you know they're calling 911 because they don't have the resources to get to the pharmacy to refill their medication.

Well, can we pair them with resources?

So they're not calling 911 and they're not tying up the fire department's units there.

As the department continues to grow, uh, we look at growing not only the operation staff, the the people that are responding to calls, but we also need to make sure that we have the personnel to manage a larger department.

So with this, we look at adding a logistics manager.

Um, so someone that's solely responsible for managing the day-to-day supplies, gear, equipment, fleet, and then also looking at a chief of staff uh spot that would help strengthen the administrative support, basically an aid to the chief.

Um and not only does that help the chief with his day-to-day responsibilities, it also helps with the succession planning of the department because being able to have somebody that is underneath the chief assisting him with his daily responsibilities also allows that person to learn those those jobs as well.

And then the final one again, looking at increasing the staffing standards.

Uh the national standard is adding four personnel to every unit.

Uh again, we realize this is a costly thing.

We have it in the long term, and we lay out some some options on different ways that that we could accomplish that.

Long term, there may be a need for fire station nine.

Again, as the city continues to grow, as population expands.

Uh, there may be the need to add fire station nine.

Again, it's very tough when you look at seven to fifteen years out, where that's going to be.

But being able to prepare and being able to figure out okay, hey, our response times are not so great here.

Our population is growing here, our emergency call volumes growing here.

We may need to add our add a station nine.

The second bullet point looks at adding additional units.

So we may not need to add new stations, but maybe our units within the stations are running so many calls that they're not able to keep up with the call volume in in that current response area, and then the personnel don't have the time to train um and to be fit for responses.

So maybe instead of building a new station in some of these areas, maybe we add a second engine, or maybe we add a ladder truck there.

And again, financial planning, as I mentioned, there's a lot of information in the report about different sources of for is such as the uh potential looking at increasing uh dedicated sales tax for public safety, um, looking at how hotel occupancy fees that were mentioned along with those university fees, looking at a cost recovery programs for certain responses.

Maybe it's a vehicle accident where the city would build the insurance company um to be able to recruit some some costs for that and be able to add some revenue to the fire department to help pay for some of the things in the report here.

And that is it.

Uh so I'm ready to open the floor for any questions or clarifications.

First of all, um council, we appreciate the opportunity for uh allowing this to occur for our fire department uh internally.

We've had a lot of discussions with staff and chief uh and with this commission on first steps, and uh so I think you'll see that uh we'll be enhancing uh as we go with all of our other uh plans as well and the coordination of efforts.

But uh if you had any questions, please feel free to ask.

Any questions?

Okay, I don't see anything else, Chief, you'd like to add.

No, thank you for your work.

Um and there's a lot of the stuff that we talk about in the short term that we are already in the process of working on.

Many of those items we're gonna be able to accomplish, hopefully within the next year.

So that's a good thing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

You bet.

All right, Council.

We'll move on to item number five, and these are items on consent agenda.

Move to adopt unless changes are noted.

Second.

Do you have a motion on the floor?

Do we have any discussion?

Don't see any.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Next we'll move on to a resolution removed from consent agenda.

This is resolution 2516.

Resolution requesting this closed.

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Resolution requesting free utility services from City Water and Light for traffic signals.

Whereas the City of Jonesboro is requesting that city water and light provide free utilities at the following location.

1506 U North Church Street Hawks signal.

Now therefore be it resolved by the city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one city water and light be requested by this resolution to provide free utilities to the locations listed above.

Section two to permit such services to be provided without charge.

The City of Jonesboro hereby firms to citywater in light that the ultimate use of the CWL utilities so provided is now and shall remain a use or purpose which the city is engaged in as part of its governmental or proprietary functions under authority to it by state law.

Move to adopt.

Any discussion or questions by council?

Mayor I'd ask I'll be recused from voter discussion due to my membership on board of directors, city water and light.

Duly noted.

Any discussion by members?

Anyone in the audience?

I don't see any.

If you would please go ahead and cast your ballot.

And that does carry.

So now council will move on to item number six.

These are items in new business.

And the first one is ordinance 25040.

Move suspend the rules and offer by title only.

Second.

Do you have a motion on the floor?

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

An ordinance to amend ordinance 17026 relating to towing services in the city of Jonesboro.

We have any discussion or questions by council.

I don't see any.

Anyone in council chambers?

Anyone in council chambers?

I don't see any as well.

That will now move on to its second reading.

Now we'll move on to ordinance 25042.

Move to suspend the rules and offer by title only.

Second.

Do we have a motion on the floor?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

An ordinance to amend chapter 117 known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from I1 to C2 for property located at 213 North Main as requested by Shameen Wilkins.

Any discussion by council?

Questions?

I don't see any.

Anyone in council chambers?

I don't see any as well.

So that item will now move on to its second reading.

Now council will move on to ordinance 25043.

Move to suspend the rules and offer by title only.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Ordinance to amend chapter 117, Article 3, known as the zoning ordinance of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, providing for changes and zoning boundaries from R1 single family medium density district to C3 General Commercial for property located at the 2000 block of West Matthews, Washington, Jonesboro, Arkansas, is requested by Ron Kraft.

Any discussion or questions by council?

I don't see any.

Anyone in council chambers?

I don't see any as well.

So that item will move on to its second reading.

Next we'll move on to ordinance 25044.

Move to suspend the rules and offer by title only.

Second.

An ordinance to amend chapter 117, Article 3, known as the zoning ordinance of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, providing for changes in zoning district boundaries from R1 single family medium density district to C3, General Commercial for property located at 2000 block of West Matthews, Washington.

Jonesboro, Arkansas is requested by Andy Craft.

Any discussion by council.

Anyone in council chambers?

I don't see any as well.

So that item will now move on to its second reading.

Council, uh, we'll move on to item number seven, and this is unfinished business, and we don't have any ordinances on the second reading, so we'll move to ordinances on the third reading.

This will be voted on by council.

Ordinance 25033.

An ordinance to amend chapter six alcoholic beverages to comply with changes to the Arkansas law regarding private club permits.

Move to adopt.

Second.

We do have a motion on the floor to adopt any discussion by council.

I don't see anyone in council chambers.

I don't see any as well.

If you would please go ahead and cast your ballot.

All right, and that ordinance does carry.

Now we'll move on to ordinance 25038.

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

Move to adopt.

Second.

You have a motion on the floor to adopt any discussion by council members or questions.

Don't see any.

Anyone in council chambers?

Don't see any as well.

Council, if you would please go ahead and cast your ballot.

And that ordinance does carry.

So now we'll move on to ordinance 25039.

Second.

Do you have a motion on the floor?

Any discussion by council.

I don't see anyone in council chambers.

Anyone in council chambers.

I don't see any as well.

So council, if you would please cast your ballot.

That ordinance does carry.

All right, council.

Next we'll move on to item number eight.

And this is mayor's report.

Got a few notes for this evening, so hang with me just a little bit.

I know you're excited.

I'm going to start out with uh first of all.

I know each of you are aware, and uh that there is a current investigation process today, as I stated earlier in a public statement.

I know what you know.

We plan to fully cooperate with any investigation to help bring it to an expedient closing.

I do want to state that an investigation is an investigation, and we will provide no further comment until that process is complete.

Jim Stearns will serve as interim director during Danny Capallus leave, and we expect no disruptions in park programming or youth athletics.

As a matter of fact, we have a tournament going on this evening uh in the parks.

Uh so everybody, we've already met with the park staff.

Uh Jim's gonna do a great job, and I appreciate your leadership there, Jim.

And and uh we're moving right ahead.

So, next now on the mayor's notes.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed your time with family and friends, and we are equally thankful to have been back here again at the city council tonight and doing a good job of representing the people of Jonesboro.

So on the first day of Christmas, the mayor gave to me 12 minutes of notes.

That was a corny joke.

Anyway, Brian wrote that.

So anyway.

I know I knew you wrote that.

So we're gonna start out with the employee of the month.

I want to start by announcing this month's first security bank employee of the month was Charles Martin.

Charles works in our sanitation department and always goes above and beyond his work and duties.

He always got a smile on his face, too.

I really appreciate the work he does.

Not only though is he over the incinerator, but at the same time he manages our bulky junk campaign, glass recycling and cardboard collection efforts on the Lacey Drive facility.

This year alone, he has been instrumental in helping the sanitation department collect 198,000 pounds of tons of ton and bulky junk, over 20,000 pounds of glass recycling and 6,000 pounds of cardboard and well over 500 tires this year.

Charles does a little bit of everything, including volunteering when we are in need of a knuckle boom or roll-off truck driver.

Thank you, Charles, for all the hard work.

You're a great example of our wonderful city staff.

Now we'll begin in this month.

The transition fair.

I enjoyed by stopping by the fourth annual transition fair at Nettleton Baptist Church.

This program, hosted by Project Care, is targeted toward special needs juniors and senior high school students in the region to help them connect with valuable resources, employment opportunities, and educational training.

I'm grateful to all of those who participated in that event.

It shows that these wonderful students will now have options to exist on our area and explore careers that are a good match for their unique challenges and talents.

And I will say that we had many departments represented in the city at that job fair as well.

Now I'd like to go ahead and announce some events that are going to be coming up.

Uh, this Thursday night uh is NEA Sounds of the Season concert.

Uh that'll be held at uh Fowler Hall.

And uh please come.

It's 7:30, and this is a combination of many of the ASU choirs along with a local Jonesboro Corral choir and and uh Jonesboro Camarada singers.

Uh it'll be a great evening for all.

This Friday is the Christmas parade.

It's our annual time to all come together as a community.

Special thanks to Ms.

Tally for all of her efforts in coordinate these events and dozens of volunteers, police, and fire department staff that will ensure we have fun and a safe event.

I know it might be a little cold, but nothing warms souls more than a Christmas spirit and hot chocolate.

So come down, enjoy these festivities and floats and bands.

For more information about the event, please visit Jonesboro ChristmasParade.com.

I know there's some early concern regarding winter weather.

If those concerns escalate to the need to postpone the event, we will coordinate the effort, organizers, and public safety personnel to quickly work through the alternative date and whether if the weather doesn't clear.

Joyfest, this coming Saturday, come downtown and check out Joy Fest.

The programming begins at 3 p.m.

on Saturday, December 6th at Union Park downtown Jonesboro.

The award winning Festival of the Year by the Arkansas Recreation and Parks Association features a Hallmark Christmas like event and will include the annual lighting of the Wright Fiber 64 foot Christmas tree at 5 30 p.m.

Live music, kids, and over 50 local vendors will be there at no cost to attendees.

Low cost rides include the Ferris Wheel, Teacups, Miniature Train, Ice Rink, and Carousel.

Big thanks to Sarah Rickert, our park staff, and DJA for all their efforts to make this event a wonderful event to attend each year.

Winter Wonderland.

Joyous kicks off the opening night of Winter Wonderland and the first community bank Wonderland rank by the City of Jonesboro Parks and Recreation Department.

Winter Wonderland will run through December 23rd at the 2000 215 West Monroe Avenue with the first community bank Winter Wonderland Rank concessions open through December 31st.

Then we move on to Christmas at the park.

The Christmas at the park is now open at Joe Mac through December 23rd.

2025 schedules run from November 26th through December 23rd with sponsor highlight nights, special events, and holiday offerings through the season, including Pay What You Canight on Wednesday, December 3rd.

Thanks to our area sponsors and Adam Sarton and the ground crew team for all their years of hard work literally brightening Christmas for the whole region.

The Delta Symphony Orchestra will host the Enchanted by the Sounds of Christmas from 3 to 5 on December 14th at the Fowler Center located on 201 Olympic Drive.

The Delta Symphony Orchestra will perform holiday classics, and we all know in Santa Claus himself will lead a sing along.

So for more information, please contact the Delta Symphony Orchestra Facebook page.

The Foundation of Art performances of ELF, the musical junior will take place on December 19th through the 22nd at the Forum Theater on 111 East Monroe Avenue.

The musical production follows Buddy, a human accidentally raised by North Pole Elves.

I don't have to explain Elf.

I'm not even getting into elf.

But I think it'd be a good idea for everybody to attend, especially to have youth in the community.

For more information to purchase tickets, visit FOA Jonesboro.org or the Foundation's website.

University Lions Park, construction of new playground is complete.

University Lions Park located in North Side Park.

December neighborhood cleanup.

The final neighborhood cleanup of the year is Saturday at South Side Softball Complex from 8 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

Big thanks to our city staff who work weekends to provide the service.

Totals this year have surpassed a hundred tons with nearly a thousand tires.

That's a lot of junk in our neighborhoods and row sides.

I'm proud of this program and how it's been accepted by the community.

Now we move on to holiday shopping police patrols.

Friday marked the start of our special assignment holiday patrols to provide residents and out of town visitors an elevated feeling of comfort and safety as you're all hopefully spending lots and lots of money in our local stores.

So Chris and April, do your part, please.

More shopping.

We all have a lot to do when it's only one penny at a time.

But seriously, I'm a big fan of this program and thankful we can afford to spend the money to do it.

JPD has partnered with some other agencies on a special shoplifting sting program this year, and I believe already popped a couple folks who have committed similar crimes in other areas.

They learned the hard way.

Jonesboro will dedicate the resources necessary to protect our residences and our business.

City Water and Light Sewage Project.

For those of you who have driven through the West End over the last few months, you undoubtedly are aware of the utility work going on in the area by City Water and Light.

For those of you who may not know the whole story, the major upgrade in Jonesboro sewer system is underway in that area of town.

City Water and Light is replacing the sewer sanitary system.

That in some parts of the area is pushing over a hundred years old.

This is nearly a $10 million investment in our infrastructure and is helping prepare Jonesboro for the growth of decades to come.

Now, this investment does have a side effect.

I know that we've all got, especially our office has gotten a lot of calls about it, but they will all be repaved.

But we can't do it until the work is done.

We are working with City Water and Light on what the timeline looks like and look forward to our most recent historic part of town that have newer sewer and newly paved roads here to come.

Nobody ever says progress was easy, but literally didn't have bumps in the road along the way.

I don't ever want to miss a chance to say thank you to our friends at City Water and Light for all they do for this community.

With winter weather approaching this week, and for all the next several months to come, I know we'll be thankful for their first class efforts in servicing our grid when Mother Nature takes her best shot at us over headlines and water.

That's the end of my report, Council.

I know you're probably pleased to hear that.

I hear hearing applause.

Thank you.

Now we'll move on to item number nine, these are city council reports.

Ms.

Porter.

Oh thank you.

Mr.

Emerson.

Nothing at this time.

Thank you.

Dr.

Charles Coleman.

Uh yes.

Uh D sum of the 22nd uh Fifth Street Community Action will be uh have a toy drive, will be a drive-through.

The children must be in the car.

We'll be giving away uh toys from ages 0 to 12.

So uh I'm repeating the point that the children must be in the car.

What time is that?

Dr.

4 o'clock to 7 o'clock.

Uh it's the uh building across from uh well I'll just say 330 North Fisher Street because that's next to the building would be uh giving away the toys that evening.

Yeah, four to seven.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Moore?

No, ma'am.

Miss Williams, thanks.

Mr.

Gibson.

Uh yes, just one thing, and I was going to address this off the council floor, but I think it's imperative that I say it in public.

Um I think most of this group knows over my last 17 years I've been an advocate for youth sports in this community, and I'm especially partial to swim because my daughter is involved.

And I know that this time of year it falls off the radar.

But last night at our city pool, there were 10 children from 12 to 18 swimming in the water with no heaters in 32 degree weather.

So I would ask that that be given attention, please.

And I know Jim is already on it.

We've already had conversations, but I just want to make that a priority.

Thank you, Councilman.

Ms.

McLean.

Nothing.

Dr.

Anthony Coleman.

No thing.

Mr.

Hefner.

Uh yes, um with the budget books now being ready, um, at least the first version of them.

Um we're looking at scheduling a working session.

And this would be a session just for the council to hear from staff about the 2026 budget.

Um, no action would be taken, but one time that was thrown out to me is um 11.30 this Friday.

Um I'll be reaching out to see how that works to see if we get enough people there that would make it a worthwhile event.

But you know, obviously, this is just the first, this would just be a working session.

No chance to ask questions, no action would be taken.

Um we'd follow that up with you know a finance meeting and then another chance to ask questions.

Um, and then you know, if it gets forwarded uh to City Council another time to ask questions.

So be thinking about 11:30 on Friday, look at your schedules, and I'll I'll try to reach out to you tomorrow to see how that works.

City buy and lunch.

What?

City buying lunch.

I I would think so.

They have they have done so in the past.

Send us your request.

All right.

But anyway, I'll reach out to y'all.

I know it won't work for everybody, but we're just trying to find out a time.

We wouldn't never get there, so that works for thank you.

That's all I've got.

All right, thank you, Councilman.

Mr.

Bryant.

No, thanks.

Mr.

Miller.

Oh, thank you.

Mr.

Street.

No, thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilman, for your reports.

Next we'll move on to item 10.

These are items in public comment.

You do have up to five minutes.

Anyone from the audience can come up and talk about items that uh were not talked about on the agenda.

I don't see any.

If you will, we'll move on to item number 11.

That's adjournment.

So move.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Any opposed?