The Jonesboro City Council met on Tuesday, May 5, 2026 at 5:30 PM at the Municipal Center, with Mayor Harold Copenhaver presiding and all 12 council members present. The meeting included a proclamation for Building Safety Month, recognition of graduating Mayor's Youth Council members, approval of Consent Agenda items, passage of two resolutions and multiple ordinances, and a contentious discussion leading to a 60-day postponement of the proposed Sports Tourism Committee ordinance.
All right, everybody. We'll go ahead and get uh City Council started. This is Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. I'll have Dr. Charles Coleman will lead us invocation, and before that, I'll do pledge allegiance. Everybody, please join. I pledge to the United States of America and entertain the republic. One recognition. Undervisible liberty. Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to be stewards in this community. We pray, Father, according to your will, your purpose, and your plan that we operate in honesty. Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Council, if you would please go ahead and mark your attendance. All right, we do have full council present this evening. And council, before you, um, I just wanted to go ahead and recognize uh Tim in our department on the third floor. We do a proclamation every year for building safety month. That's 2026. City of Jonesboro is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depend on safety and a central role of our homes, buildings, and infrastructure play, both in everyday life when disasters strike. Our confidence in this resilience of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of guardians, building safety and fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, tradespeople, design professionals, laborers, plumbers, and others in the construction industry who work hard year-round to ensure the safe construction of buildings in our community. Building safety month is sponsored by the International Co-Council to remind the public about a critical role that our communities largely are unknown protectors of public safety, and these are the people behind the scenes. They assure that our community is safe, sustainable, and have affordable buildings that are essential to our prosperity. Build to last. So I there now for Harold Copenhagen, mayor of the city of Jonesboro, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Building Safety Month in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Thank you, Tim. Okay. Thank you. And then Council, if you would, uh I didn't have it on the uh agenda, but this is real quick, but it's very important. As you know, we have graduations that are going on throughout the community, and I'm always proud of our mayor's youth council. Um, and we've had several graduations uh this past weekend, but I do want to recognize three of the 22 graduating seniors of the mayor youth council. So Charlie Stagal, will you please come forward? Mary Hoffman and Jansen Marcico. Charlie's a graduate of Jonesboro High School, Mary Valley View High School, and Jansen from Nettleton High School. And they're representing their senior class, as you can tell. They've already got the mayor youth council. Uh many of them had how many do you have? Six or seven. You had seven, I think, Mary, and you probably seven. You had seven. I had two, I think, something like that. But anyway, we're honored as a city uh to always see our youth prosper. And I know you three, and I look forward to the future of what you're gonna have for not only your future, but our community's future. So I'd like to give you city medallions on behalf of the mayor of Jones for our next word. Come on, James. Council, thank you for allowing me uh to do that honor this evening. Now we'll move on to item number five. These are items on consent agenda. Move to adopt. We do have a motion on the floor to adopt all in favor, say aye.