In 30 seconds
- New water and sewer rates take effect August 1, 2024, at $7.58 per 1,000 gallons of water and $9.88 per 1,000 gallons of sewer above an unchanged first-1,000-gallon base, adopted at a state-required public hearing.
- The rates are set to 1.5% of the city's $31,118 median household income, a state loan-forgiveness threshold above the rate study's own break-even recommendation, after the study found a $700,000 revenue shortfall last year.
- The city has repaired about 51 of the leaks on its list, and leased sewer bypass-pump stations are down from 8 to 3, though sewage still overflows onto Highway 44 farmland when a pump fails.
- The council approved a batch of water-department invoices totaling about $42,000, or about $53,000 counting a pump-lease bill and three plumbing bills.
- The council passed both rate ordinances 3-2, Joe St. Columbia and Dr. Kyle Miller voting no each time; two council members had missed the public hearing where the rates were explained.
- Mayor Christopher Franklin arrived after the hearing closed, joining a meeting the City Attorney and Chief of Staff had run in his absence under a council member serving as mayor pro tem.
Recap
Public hearing on new water and sewer rates
The council opened a public hearing required by state law on new water and sewer rates . The ordinance sets sewer at $9.27 minimum plus $9.88 per 1,000 gallons above that, and water at $7.58 per 1,000 gallons above an unchanged first-1,000-gallon base, tied to 1.5% of the city's $31,118 median household income, the threshold needed to qualify for future loan-forgiveness programs .
How the rates and fees were set
City Attorney Andre Valley said the city's fees were last adjusted before 2005 and were set by comparing the city to Barton and roughly 15 to 20 other Arkansas water systems . Chief of Staff James Valley said the rate study found the water and sewer system lost $700,000 in revenue last year, the gap the new rates are meant to close . He said the rate study itself only provided a break-even number; the higher, loan-forgiveness-qualifying rates came from a separate in-house spreadsheet calculation .
Hearing closes, mayor pro tem opens the regular meeting
City Attorney Andre Valley closed the public hearing, noting no one in the audience had additional questions, and turned the meeting over to Councilman Don Etherly as mayor pro tem because Mayor Christopher Franklin had not yet arrived . Etherly opened the regular council meeting in the mayor's continued absence .
Eminent domain and the Boys & Girls Club well site
City Attorney Andre Valley reported that well number 9 had failed and the state Department of Health had approved only one replacement site, a 900-square-foot parcel next to the Boys & Girls Club . Mayor Christopher Franklin, arriving partway through the meeting, said the club had offered to sell the land for $10,000 cash . Valley said the club had earlier countered at $225,000 plus free water and lawn care, which the city rejected . Franklin said he wanted to work with the club and called for a motion to accept the $10,000 offer .
Well progress and yield
City Attorney Andre Valley said the new well's output would fall short of hopes, yielding around 800 gallons a minute instead of the 2,000 hoped for, meaning the city still needs another well . Chief of Staff James Valley said the well was more than 400 feet deep and nearing the screened-intake stage .
Leak repairs and the invoice batch
Valley walked through a batch of water-department invoices, including bills from Jones Hydro, Quattlebaum, and Xylem for pump rental, and said leased bypass-pump stations are down from 8 to 3, though sewage still overflows onto Highway 44 farmland when a pump fails . Councilman Joe St. Columbia asked for the invoice total, and Chief of Staff James Valley put it at over $42,000, or about $53,000 counting the Xylem lease bill and three plumbing bills . Valley said the water department had repaired about 51 of the leaks reported to it .
Two rate ordinances pass 3-2
Chief of Staff James Valley told the two council members who had missed the public hearing that the rates were set to match the state's 1.5%-of-median-household-income loan-forgiveness threshold, about $38.90 on 4,000 gallons, above what the rate study alone required . Councilwoman Latoya Harris said other utilities raise rates without a public process and called the increase a good idea if it helps the city qualify for grants . The council adopted ordinance 15, setting sewer rates, by a 3-2 roll-call vote . It adopted ordinance 16, setting water rates, by the same 3-2 split .
Transcript
Auto-generated from the meeting video's captions and lightly cleaned for readability — wording is kept as spoken, not corrected, except that caption-garbled names of city officials are normalized against the roster. Speaker names follow the attribution work in our governance record; a ° marks a name our reviewers have not yet verified. Every timestamp plays the city's video from that moment. Watch the full meeting ↗
1:53
Unidentified testing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 yeah let's getting audio let's getting audio okay test in
2:14
Chief of Staff James Valley good evening uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing called by the hel West H city council um in light of a recent rate study completed by the Arkansas Rural Water Association to provide uh information to the hel West Hela Municipal Water and SE utility and West hel water utility about the rates that are being charged to the customers this public hearing is required by state law and we ask that everyone who's in attendance please sign the signin sheet that is made available just outside the council room door uh what we're going to do is we're going to um play uh I believe Dennis stanberg from the Arkansas Rural Water Association if we can get that up uh he came and made a presentation to the city council on July the 2nd uh he presented his rate study now we have posted around the room uh what you call QR codes uh if you aim your camera at the QR code you're able to pull up uh tonight's agenda agenda packet which is about 62 Pages including all the information that we're going to uh consider so at this time he's going to the uh that meeting is going to play that audio we ready uh the city council member may not be able to hear that um but most of the city council members were present for that meeting are we able to get the audio in the room I getting audio yes [Music] H yes l
5:45
City Attorney Andre Valley° it looks like the technology is not not going to work as we like for it to so what we can do instead is we can just make the presentation um here tonight based on the rate study I get out of this live and ask make the presentation here tonight based yeah and entertain any questions that may be U submitted To Us by the audience that is present I'm going to go to the city council packet that we have and you may be able to show the city council packet
6:43
Chief of Staff James Valley talking yes it's it's all in the city council packet the sewer ordinance is found toward the end of the packet and I'm um I'm covered up and I got my mouse pack because I've been to the dentist uh it was the same way at our last council meeting but the SE ordinance is as proposed is found on page 56 of 62 of the council packet uh it is an ordinance to set sewer rates and customer charges and fees for the city of hen West Hela and it reads that whereas the city of H West Hela was presented with a rate study for the adjustment of the current sewer rates for the city and all of its utility customers and the rate study has recommended certain changes with the city's rate structure whereas the city of H West H desires to set new customer fees and for its utility customers and whereas the city of hel West Hela owns and operates a public water system comprised of the Hela municipal water and sewer system and the West to water utilities whereas the city must recover through charges and Rise charge to customers for of the systems the cost associated with the operation and maintenance of the system together with the cost of certain betterments and improvements to the system which are necessary to make the systems adequate to serve the needs of the city and its inhabitants whereas existing rates and charges established by current ordinances are no longer sufficient to meet the requirements of the system and now therefore being ordained by the city council of the city of Helen Westown Arkansas Article One the sewer rates for the city of Helen West T at those sites within the city limits and outside the city LS are as follows sewer minimum Bill $927 per 1,000 gallons all water usage over 1,000 gallons shall be build at $988 per 1,000 gallons article two the sewer rates for those sites outside the city limits and service by the city of Helen West hel will be an addition 25% higher than rates of those in the city limits these sewer rates shall be subject to an automatic annual increase of 0.25 Cent per 1,000 gallons plus 3% to account for periodic inflation article four the following customer fees shall be charged by a water and SE utilities beginning upon the effective date of this ordinance service charge $25 service charge same day $40 new customer fee $7.50 water $750 sewer or $15 late fee 10% of the total amount Bill Safe Water Act 40 water provider assessment fee $11.50 return funds for all payment types $35 if there are two separate instances of return funds with within 6 months then cash or Cashers checks will be the only authorized form of payment return funds must be paid in cash met a tampering residential and irrigation $100 met a tampering contract commercial industrial $500 lock broke or missing $115 stolen meter $80 home inspection for real estate sales Etc $30 after hour service call $50 after our utility locate $75 arol Department of Transportation utility permit $1,000 50 with a th000 of that being refunded upon approval by the Aransas Department of Transportation the back comes sewer riding machine to be determined trailer mounted SE riding machine for the first hour $175 each additional hour $75 smoke testing first hour $100 $50 each additional hour sewer track camera inspection $125 the first hour $50 each additional hour and the sewer push camera inspection $75 for the first hour and $35 for each additional hour disconnect notice fee $15 collection visit $30 disconnect or reconnect fee $50 second disconnect or reconnect within 12 months $100 additional after hours disconnect or reconnect fee $100 security deposit for homeowners $150 renters $175 landlord $200 commercial $250 five $500 all those deposits are refundable at the end of the customer usage water tap fee for 3/4 on a 8 in $1,200 3/4 on on a line larger than 8350 one inch on one inch on8 inch or smaller $1,400 one inch on 8 inch or larger $1,550 2 in on 8 in or smaller 4700 2 in on line larger than 8 in $4,950 sewer tap fees for 4 in residential or commercial $450 directional booring $2,500 up front um and there is some provision for a refund on the directional barding um larger diameter system tapping fees 2 in 500 3 in 650 4 in 720 6 in 800 8 in 1200 10 in, 1500 new construction meter inspection $325 for 34 meter $650 for 1 in met and beginning January the 1st 2025 and on January 1st each following year seore volume rates and based or fixed charge chares may be adjusted based upon the increased Revenue requirement percentages calculated by using the US consumer price index for water seel and trash collection Services CPI dwst as published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis increased for the previous 12 month period provided that the city council at this discretion May adjust the increase to a lower percentage than the CPI wst volume rates and basee fixed charges will be adjusted by updating the current city of H West hel s a rate study pursuant to Arkansas code annotated section 14- 234 sub chapter 8 requirements as well as 14- 234 d223 this also will require a public hearing before it goes into effect each year article 7 um the median household income but hell West Hela Arkansas according to the most recent census data provided by the United States Census Bureau is $31,000 $118 to qualify for certain loan forgiveness programs or grants our SE rates must be 1.5% of the median household income based upon 4,000 gallons of water usage this ordinance and the charges rates and fees meet that requirement such that our community can Will qualify for future longan forgiveness I.E grants article eight all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict with this ordinance are hereby repeal article 9 if any portion of this ordinance is held to be invalid such invalidity shall not affect other portions of the ordinance and to that end the Clauses in this ordinance are declared to be severable emergency Clause the city council finds that said charges rates and fees are reasonable and necessary to provide adequate funds for the operation maintenance and financing of the city of hen West H public water and SE utilities as set forth here and above and the same shall be charged for services be on or after August the 1st of 2024 these charges rates and fees are necessary such that if they are not charged the fiscal sustainability of the operation of the city of Helen West H Public Water and Sewer utilities are in Jeopardy putting the health safety and Welfare of the citizens of Helen West Hela at risk such that an emergency is hereby declared passed on the 23rd day of July 2024 signature by the mayor attestation by the clerk and that is the sewer ordinance the water ordinance reads likewise except for the water rates anybody got any any questions based on what I presented questions or comments huh questions or comments yeah either one questions or comments I'm [Music] sorry included in the city council packet on page 53 54 and 55 um are some calculations that were done to show how these rates would um pan out um and of course as Mr Steinberg recommended the starting rate was not increased on the first 1,000 gallons of usage by our customers so any customer that use a th000 gallons or less per month would not experien any increase but on the subsequent uh gallons of use uh the water is $758 per th000 the sewer is $988 per th000 so for example the customer that used 2,000 gallons or less more than 1,000 but less than 2,000 gallons of water would be be $ 4293 and customer that use more than 2,000 but less than 3,000 gallons of water will be build $60. 39 and this is for water and sewer it does not include the other fees that may show up on the uh water sewer bill at 4,000 gallons um a customer use more than 3,000 but less than 4,000 gallons to get around the 4,000 gallon average they be charged $778 and the 1.5% requirement is that it be at $778 so you 5 Cent uh over that based on this calculation you probably couldn't get it any more precise than that customer using between 4,000 and 5,000 Gall be build $95. 31 customer using 6,000 gallons which is typically outside of our general use uh would be charged $22.77 Cent and it will continue to go up whether it's residential or commercial depending on how many gallons of water are used and while like guess I got the mic you know people tend to uh have leaks periodically and they are encouraged to fix those leaks soon as they can because the water department has a policy where it gives you a adjustment or a discount if you repair your leak and bring it in and show some bill for having that leak repaired but that adjustment is based upon your six months average so if it leaks for six months your average bill is going to be equal to the amount of the leak so the sooner you make the repair uh the greater opportunity for you to get a uh adjustment that is favorable on your water bill if you have a Lea um most of the leaks that we find are in the toilet tank uh the flapper or something of that sort is gone bad which you can go to Walmart or the local hardware store and buy the part just about replace them yourself but that's one of the greatest areas where we have people experiencing higher water bills is that the toilet continuously flushes or it continuously runs you're here making a little noise for a little while and stop little o for a little while and stop but it's doing that 24 hours a day and that'll add up and run your bill up um so if you have a leak please get it fixed as soon as you possibly can not only because our system is fragile but because the longer the leak goes the more your average bill will be and the less discount you're likely to get the other thing um just as a potential talking point I guess at the 7780 um for water and SE at 4,000 gallons that's about 2 cent of gallon of water so it's still relatively cheap although won't feel that way to the average user just take that 778 divid by 4,000 and you come up with a number it's right around 2 cent uh for their water are there any questions or comments uh the floor is open for any questions or comments or statements regard relating to the information that's been
21:55
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° provided well I have a question
22:00
City Attorney Andre Valley° so state your name for the record Derek
22:02
City Treasurer Derrick Turner terman City Treasurer so you have a race study and the yes it helps to to determine the rates the SE rates and the water rates correct right so how are the fees determine so what now fees fees not part of the race study I know but how would they determine oh I'm sorry let me answer
22:25
City Attorney Andre Valley that the feed was determined by uh me and and working with Jackie the the I guess the head clerk over in the water department um looking at the fees will last adjusted prior to 2005 prior to consolidation when we Consolidated we made the fees equal one side or the other but it was no upful adjustments so we looked at what Bon is doing and about 15 to 20 systems in the state of Arkansas of what they are charging and we found what we thought was kind of the happy medium on what people are charging around the state of Arkansas since it's been so long since our fees were adjusted most of these fees won't be charged to our customers because the customers are not new so they don't have to pay a new deposit uh customers is not bouncing checks or sending that's the won't incur those fees uh customers paying before the time of the 10% add-on won't incur those fees uh people paying before they rebuild won't pay that fee so most of the fees are avoidable um except for new construction and stuff of that sort and what we basically been doing is giving away our services on new construction and stuff like that as if we are just basically desperate for people to do it and what we're finding is they're not even repairing the holes that they've created whether it's directional booring or if they fix a gas leak like on Fourth and that's for Fifth and Anderson they repaired that several times it's the gas company but that has not been covered over um and it's a it's a host of those things and one of the other things this isn't aside we got to find a way to get to hold these utility companies accountable because as we've been doing cleanup we find that like you have a storm and a power pole is broken they leave it they leave the broken pole over there in the weeds and you know things go up around it the average person can't pick it up can't move it and so we're encountering that so I've been in conversation with some of the people with energy about the howto what they reported is they always get them and and of course you know we're all human so we make mistakes so I'm not trying to Blas them anything but uh we got to do a better job with some of that stuff too but most of those fees are avoidable okay except if you a brand new customer or you build a new subdivision or you cut a street kind of thing so so the fees that are not like you said uh something falls in the ditch and the utility company does not come and get it or pick it up the Fe the fees don't address that I just I just mentioned that as an aside that you know we all as utilities responsible for our scrap and we should pick it up and take it away the water company shouldn't leave rocks on the side of the road I'm talking about the big chunks of rocks where they dug up the road they shouldn't leave that on the side of the road uh neither should the gas come to utility company leave their scrap but we experiencing some of that and we and the way we find is is over in some weeds so there are some fees that the city needs also basically is what you're saying
25:46
City Attorney Andre Valley° yeah the city is having to pick up those three to pick that stuff up haul it off dispose of it you know paying you know city employees using City trucks see the hydraulic flu oil all that stuff that it takes to operate the equipment to do that
26:03
City Attorney Andre Valley° okay yeah are there any other questions or comments from from anyone whether city council Administration or someone from the audience how are these
26:13
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) rates comparable to other cities surrounding us the the rates in terms of our water
26:23
Unidentified and SE rates I I haven't done a comparison on those you have not other
26:28
Unidentified cities around us is to what they're charging no and part of the reason that
26:35
Chief of Staff James Valley that wouldn't necessarily be the best route is that your rates are based upon your set of circumstances in terms of what your expenses are what your needs are and what you're designed to do and that's what the rate study was done to show you that you lost $700,000 last year in revenue and so the rates are adjusted to account for that uh to a point of break e and then and and when you lost the $700,000 the loss is not like money disappear the money was used um in the water department that was sanitation fees so the water department as an operation over there didn't physically go into deficit it kept money that was sanitation money so the water and sewer Revenue did not cover Water and Sewer expenses I hope I'm understand that right and so um that's part of your rate studies and the rule that Dennis Sternberg shared with us was that you can not go below what the rate study recommended but you could go above and this one our recommendations only go above to the extent to qualify for those loans and grants that we've been talking about uh since last year that's that 1.5% of median household income so it's $466 for water $466 for sewer for any household that uses a average of 4,000 gallons a month and that'll be the yearly fee I'm I'm I'm very much concerned
28:18
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° about the people of this community being able to handle uh any substantial amount of increase in water and sanitation feed suddenly brought upon yes sir well I
28:31
City Attorney Andre Valley° understand that I can concern is I I can fully appreciate your concern as I have a 86 year old mother who's retired she ain't going back to work for nobody for no reason so her income is fixed so I appreciate your concern but at the same time we live in a community to pay our bills we all Collective understand we all gotta pay our share my suspicion is her us gonna be a uh less than 2,000 gallons so her bill is going to remain relatively speaking low unless she has a leak but you know I I don't I don't know that but we have to pay the fee for service and we asking people to pay two cent for 1,000 gallons of water whereas May it's two cents for a gallon water I forget what it is we we pay more than that for everything else whether it's gas lights gas at the gas station all of it have
29:25
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° you taken the average water percent ation bill as it is right now and compared it to the new uh rates and all and see what the increase how much increase it'll be on the average looked at an average no no no no I haven't um I can
29:47
City Attorney Andre Valley° tell you the difference in I find where I put my glasses on 4,000 gallons um on 4,000 gallons uh the customer be Bill somewhere between 12 and $15 more 12 to 15,000 12 to5 more to meet the medium household income than just the base break even on your rate study and do the break even on a race study and that's not to say that the numbers that were given to them on a race study were were bad or anything of that sort but if it's it break even and that's something that wasn't included somehow because it wasn't disclosed to Mr Turner you're still operating at a deficit Mr B can I ask you another
30:47
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° question oh so okay so the last time we
30:50
City Treasurer Derrick Turner changed rates they gave us a break even number and then they gave us a recommended number or something like that so did he give you two separate numbers or he just gave you break even
31:01
Chief of Staff James Valley he gave us the race study with break even that's all he provides the other numbers that that are in this on this page in here is we took a spreadsheet and put the numbers in it to calculate on page 54 of the spreadsheet are you saying these numbers
31:19
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° that you put together here are a break even number now the break even number is
31:26
City Attorney Andre Valley° the number that the R study recommended and that's in the left hand column on page 54 but in order page
31:35
Unidentified what
31:39
City Attorney Andre Valley° 54 but on the to qualify for the loan forgiveness and you're about to borrow $1 million yeah to qualify for that your rate need to be a little higher than Break Even yeah
32:03
City Attorney Andre Valley okay it is now 605 uh we need to move to final comments so that we can move into our regular schedule city council meeting was any other well we had you have any questions or comments sir did you have any questions or comments no sir okay that's fine anybody else questions or comments M St Columbia any other members of the council or the head table any questions or comments all right no okay is a to move into the council meeting the Mr E it does not appear that the mayor is here at this present moment I believe that you are the pro team will you will yield to you for you to move forward with the council meeting okay
33:16
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) we'll call the meeting to order and start with the prayer and the pledge this Val will you say a pray let's pray father we come
33:29
City Attorney Andre Valley° to you in the name of Jesus father we pray for this city we pray that that as we go forward that we find resolution to the water issue father we pray for this meeting that all will everything will be done decently in order we would get the city's business done and not order professional and be courageous one to another and that we would be quite productive today Father we pray for the city for this County and for this country Lord and we pray for for your will be done in Jesus name I pray pledge allegiance to the flag of
34:03
All present the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
34:20
Unidentified call here
34:28
Unidentified pres Mr
34:31
Unidentified here
34:39
Unidentified Davis
34:48
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° okays is this everybody's page five okay if you would turn to page five of your agenda um first item on on the agenda is uh BPS resolution request from Mr John Edward as relates to BPS and if everybody has it um it's page five of your agenda page five of your printed agenda page five yes sir page five of your Mr Edward was here last week and he did one for uh another nor norak yeah and he asked that we adopt this one tonight for BPS BPS we discussed that at our last meeting that correct right we discussed with nor our
35:38
Unidentified last meeting and this is exact same
35:41
City Attorney Andre Valley° what's that resolution number it should be
35:45
City Attorney Andre Valley° 11 it was 10 last week 10 okay well we'll call it 11 11 11 and if not we'll get the clerk to change the number
35:58
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° is there a motion to adopt I
36:02
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° move motion by St Columbia to adopt resolution number 11 is there a second
36:07
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° second second by Maxine Miller is there
36:11
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° any discussion M CL call
36:16
Unidentified Ro
36:18
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° yes M Harris yes Mr E yes and yes
36:28
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° next item on the agenda is uh under old business City treasury resolution amending 2023 budget it's not in the packet done okay so we do that on the next regular meeting what's the next regular meeting date the six six it's on the bottom of the agenda okay next regular meeting date August 6 that item will appear on the next regular meeting agenda um City attorney is up next there's no item specified but City attorney you have a presentation well the only thing I had
37:03
City Attorney Andre Valley to update you on is tomorrow we have a hearing relating to our imminent domain petition uh the mayor and I have been trying to negotiate with the boys and girls club uh the mayor um has met with them on Friday I do not have an offer from them I asked the mayor to give us an offer so we discuss it uh at this time we are still uh moving forward with the hearing to to my uh it's been set by court order at 10: 10: a.m. the morning tomorrow before The Honorable chalk Mitchell uh the issue is just to clear up some of the public scrutiny there is an existing easement that the city owns from 1973 uh from the former uh veneer company before H&M and that the easement runs across the rear of the property goes from as you know the Boys and Girls Club two doors down from our water utility that's e ement that went to well number nine well number nine has now failed and uh the selection the site was selected by numerous factors for the public to understand those factors the engineer was Ken W of of w Engineers what he did was he looked at various sites and looking at various sites he he sought the state's approval and the state only approved the Department of Health only approved this particular site now for the public sake the site is 30 by 30 and it ties into an existing easement the city has an existing easement and there's a a road for for Ingress which mean entry and that's Road for egress which is exit and there a 30 by3 uh plot that is 900 square feet and has a 100 foot uh perimeter around it to make sure there's no contamination when you see the maps as as I emailed all the counsel you see the maps it's just a narrow line that goes around in between the ball fields it's not overly intrusive or or any of that and so uh the city needs the property this is a public health crisis let's be specific about this uh if that well is not constructed the city will run out of water let's be very specific about that and so there were some that were offended that the city in own the property and as it relates to when the city ended own the property city was going to look at its own easement which any utility company can do utility compan have a right to come inspect their EAS and Etc and then they came to also do the boring the engineer met with boys and girls club in February and gave them the detail plan and met again with them in May and in the May meeting uh the mayor was there I was there and Mr W was there and Mr W explained in detail this is a public health crisis if you all remember the city was out of water for approximately 13 days what H was and at any point if we have some major thing we could have some issue and so this issue where we're petitioning for is we're not trying to take advantage of the Boys and Girls Club the city needs the land the city must have a whale and before even if we dig the whale with the state has said is until we have ownership of the 30x30 or 900 foot plot as well as an easement the 100 foot easement around that 30 by3 plot uh then we cannot activate the whale even if you dig it can't be approved without the state having proof that the city is in ownership of the actual land and Fe simple but 30 by3 and that the city has the the perimeter around it uh as I said the mayor is here now we we went to the Boys and Girls Club they told me they were gonna have an attorney so I left the meeting and allowed the mayor to talk to them one onone and make an offer to them and uh at this point I don't have an acceptance of offer I will y to the mayil on that to see what what the actual issues are at this point Sorry
41:20
Mayor Christopher Franklin for beinged but the boys and girls did make an offer of $10,000 cash uh they would like to have $10,000 for the land uh and they kind of want to be on the agenda for the next meeting because they feel like they got to kind like a they wouldn't represent it right they feel like they offered to sell it to us for 10,000 yes but but but they they want to have a conversation with us because they feel like you know they didn't get the right representation they they they don't want you all to think them against us and us against them they they want to work with us uh like you know the boys and girls club they only rece receive donations of whatever were telling me and that is true but they they they're willing to uh give us the land for $10,000 U the appraiser I called him we haven't gotten back together yet but he'll be at the hearing tomorrow to give us the actual value of the property uh the city is the post to $10,000 tomorrow once the orders in it and so that's what the council approved for BN now the $10,000 say the bond you all previously voted that the city would Place $10,000 with the court and we're waiting on the hearing because the court had to sign an order to authorize us to do so and so I've ordered the the check from the the water utility water utility has done so but we cannot place it with the court until we have a court order and that is that is where we are uh I asked for 10,000 because when I talked to the appraiser he didn't think it was worth 10,000 but we wanted to pay to make sure that we didn't have to come back to you all again for the actual value of the property now it it is a lawsuit uh you all can sell it for whatever amount you want to sell it for you can make whatever offer you want to I can't make it you all in charge of of the finances so if you all want to to accept that uh the previous offer uh when the mayor went back and forth let's give the history of the public understand we met
43:23
City Attorney Andre Valley with them and then apoc 21 days later they set an offer for $225,000 which is equivalent of $1.2 million an acre 900 sare feet uh an acre is 43,560 square feet and so the price that they were asking for was that equivalent in addition they were asking for the water utility to be them to have free water and for the city to cut the grass it's my understanding from the mayor at this point that the only thing util only thing Boys and Girls Club black for is $10,000 they say they pay their own water V that's the the thing they said they would be they'll be responsible for their own water bill at this point and what about the grass they didn't say anything about the grass so it's $10,000 cash and that's me as as the mayor you I
44:12
Mayor Christopher Franklin kind of want to work with the boys and girls club I don't want it to be like we got an issue uh you know they need what they need we need we need and uh it's a lot of a lot of things in this community that we're trying to do and I and whatever the boys and girls come need uh we kind of I kind of want to work with them and I hope they work with us but this $110,000 all they asking for I think we should just give them that just get them out the way of that so we can keep moving forward with this well because we already know what was did and what was said you know we here now $10,000 I mean if you all want to do this let's just go ahead and get this out the way tonight
44:51
Unidentified so have they put that in writing to you Mr then you say we had an appraisal has it been a praise yet he's
44:58
Mayor Christopher Franklin a praise he hadn't given it to me he's going to be at the hearing in the morning but but but even even so the water bill is like what I'm right5 or $6,000 so we the money is going going back into the water department so you know they they owe us so once we give them money you know I just think that to keep from going to court let's let's let's go ahead and handle it tonight me if if you all with let's go ahead and give them the $10,000 let's move forward so we can keep moving forward as well because we need to be trying to put another well in the ground as soon as possible as well so let's just get this out of the way let's move forward and anybody want to make a motion to accept the $10,000 for the boys and girls club I'd like to make
45:44
Unidentified that motion I think that's Anonymous say
45:46
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Miss Miller makes the motion to accept the $10,000 for the boys the boys and girls club for the land that the world will be placed on the motion is $10,000 for the land
45:57
Unidentified and they are paying their own water yes
46:00
Mayor Christopher Franklin° yes without any kind of water deals or anything yes sir that's correct Miss St
46:06
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3)° CL seconds the motion any discussion I
46:09
Unidentified have a question why wouldn't you wait until the appraisal comes and then try to determine because the appraisal may say $3,000 that's my that's my question you
46:25
Mayor Christopher Franklin° can I mean but we we we we we we here I understand it but we we we here uh we we trying to move move it forward even even if it comes back lower high we still gota wait we still that means we still got to go to court in the morning am I correct so so yes we have a here in
46:40
Unidentified tomorrow 10 so we you know any more discussion they my understanding they've
46:47
Unidentified agreeded to the 10,000 is that correct
46:49
Unidentified yes
46:52
Unidentified sir we need to move along this thing we don't need to what
46:58
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Madam CL Mr St Columbia yes Miss Harris
47:03
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° yes Miss Maxine Miller yes Mr E yes
47:07
City Attorney Andre Valley motion carries thank now one thing I want to say for the record the city has not engaged in any way trying to bash Boys and Girls Club we that we have not said anything negative in this meeting about the Boys and Girls Club we've stated the facts as they are and so while some people want to cause disension the issue is this is a crisis and the one thing that the chief of staff and the mayor has previously cautioned us about is we need another will and maybe even a third well depending on where we find the site and we have to be cautious about dealing with individuals because we're in a crisis and we want to make sure that we get the best value for uh the land when we do the well we're nowhere near over we have to we have to keep moving forward to try to get this done because we hop that that well would be yield two th000 gallons a minute but mind understand it's going to yield around 800 gallons a minute that's ad minder to you all that we still need other whals and and and I want to say this to the Boys and Girls Club you know maybe we didn't maybe I didn't communicate with them as well as I should have maybe and that was was break down and I apologize to you all and them for that because sometime in the scheme of things you know you don't get a chance to communicate the way you should and I apologize to you all for not communicating with you all or the club so that's an apology from to you all and the club public that you know maybe I didn't communicate it right my my goal is to be in a hurry to get this thing going I apologize to everybody and the club U if they feel like that something no I know they feel like something was wrong or would commun right so I apologize to you all and them because trying to move fast if in a hurry on things you don't really you know know that you've done something but when people bring to your attention you want to acknowledge their feelings and the boys and girls club is doing great things in this community I want I want to keep keep a relationship with them and keep watching them grow that's what L uh man will you communicate with them that we need that something in writing from them I I I I not a text message we need a document and writing we'll still be a court to 10 to make sure because if let we get something right and we don't have an acceptance off acceptance I'll make sure miss P give me something tonight and we'll go from there all right um ladies and gentlemen
49:43
City Attorney Andre Valley° of the council Mr Mayor the next item on the agenda i' hope you either deal with it summarily and uh approve either all of those minutes or delay them to your next meeting uh but there it's getting to be quite a few of them and I know you didn't get them until well maybe a couple weeks ago now but you got minutes from I think six meetings that are in here in your packet and that's not all of your meetings that you had you had quite a few meetings in June and July seem like it's been an average of one a week we at two and one week in June but if you having to review them why don't we just coming back to them August the 6 and maybe by then we can just pass them all at once you see what I'm saying I ain't trying to rush you but I'm just saying we don't have to sit here to read them um we can just pass them all tonight um the DAT listed of May 7th May 28th June 4th June 11th June 12th and July 2nd I'm not sure how that lines up what's in the packet I didn't individually go through that I see June 4th I saw May 7th I see see July 9th so the dates on there not matching up with what's back here July 10th so the the dates are a little different as what's listed on the agenda and what's actually in your packet
51:27
Unidentified I got May 7th um J for July 9th special meeting July 10th and then the rate study
52:11
Chief of Staff James Valley so that yeah this letter come to that on the six and we'll have them to you days before in well you got these I'm going see what El the clerk is saying it hasn't been passed make sure we at least get you those minutes so you can just cuz it's really performing when you pass do the minut reflect what you did um so then the next item would be ordinance on water rates ordinance on SE rates and some pending invoices for um leaks in the water department um that you want to do the invoices first and then the ordinances last that's the way they lined up in the packet um and while we flipping Pages we'll go to the invoices while we flipping Pages I'll tell you that the update on the whale is that we're over 400 feet deep we're down to the area where you put in the screen the screen is what they use to suck the water out of the ground so it's a solid casing from the ground down over 400 feet and then after that it opens up like a netting type thing where they can suck water out of the out of the aquifer and so we're down to that point now so they should be completing within the next week or so the underground portion of the work and then they'll have to do the above ground that is where they run this line over from the wh site to the existing line that connects to our water plant and then put the instrumentality together the pump and all of those things on top of it and I suspect weather permitting Manpower permitting and money permitting within a couple weeks they should be able to get all that done if all the parts have arrived and I haven't talked to either Ken next door Ken wild engineer or Jeff Jones with uh Jones Hydro out of stud guard about the timeline but I have been on the scene and made observations of what they've been doing out there and they work until the last couple days they've been working 24 hours a day on that well so it's it should be some uh soon that it's operational uh pending the ownership of the ground uh the invoices that we have in here I'm trying to go back and find the pages of are they before or after right study we got Andre yeah they start with Andre Crawford on page 44 and essentially he's build for 51.5 hours and 5 days usage of a minx which is a small excavator what page we on
55:15
City Attorney Andre Valley page 44 thank you uh I think the mayor sent out something designating this has been approved um with the 16 ,950 for profit and I'm just going to go through them just real quick so you can see them we can come back if you got then on 47 Jeff Jones sent an interim bill of 18,000 8 9630 and this is for this current whale project if I remember right let me go back to the top um well now this is some work he's done on the wayb I can't tell exactly from looking at it because it's packing grease and um repairing the motor okay on the bottom of page 48 not quite the bottom it says lab and support equipment to pull High service pump number one at hel plant installed repaired pump and started up so this is where where the pump fell down on chicka Street that's where this this work for Jones Hydro $118,000 for $ 7,467 of that being uh label and almost 1,800 of being sales tax so we get we'll get a little bit of that back uh qualum has a bill in this one for 16 hours or $5,050 and then xylm has a bill for 9600 I believe it is and this one we talked about at a previous meeting not this bill but uh why we getting a bill like this it's $957 85 and the location here on Highway 44 our sewer puns um so until we repair those pumps at that pond we're renting this pump to operate them when the pumps don't work our raw sewage overflows the banks of our puns into that farm ground on Highway 44 and that's why we have this one but we also have two other PS so we're down from 8 to three but we still have two other that we are leasing vym says they are maybe $2,000 a month a piece so maybe that's why they are not uh in this packet but I just wanted to be clear I just asked one how many we were Leasing and it's down to three according to Michael gates at xyum so those are the invoices
58:27
Unidentified we down from we used to be on 12 right I don't remember I knew it was 8 at one point down from 12 to eight to three
58:38
Unidentified yeah we we down three we start we started with 12 yeah
58:46
Unidentified and the one at the SE P you paying this almost $10,000 a month for it's so big it has to be lifted and lowered by forklift
58:56
Unidentified yeah it's not it's a pretty intense machine turn on how many hours the thing run before we have to F it
59:10
Unidentified up yeah I'm a diesel is hold that'll run three or four days before we refill it but we set is it a th000 gon that we sit out there with it that it automatically fees it so they have to go out and check it and make sure it's still running but these others there they're toting Diesel and cans and pouring into the so okay what is the wish of the councel yall want take this all all them all together one by one I think if we take
1:00:07
Unidentified them all together just approve all them together we can keep moving along Mighty fast instead of this one by one so there a motion to approve all the bills one so moov M Miller moves to approve all the
1:00:18
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3)° invoice to Mr V presented second Miss Harris second motion is there any discussion that's a motion to pay all of
1:00:25
Unidentified them yes all the bills that were menion
1:00:27
Unidentified in your packet
1:00:29
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° tonight the please M Harris yes Mr yes M
1:00:36
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Miller yes and Mr St columia yes I'm
1:00:40
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° here yes oh sorry how much is the total
1:00:43
Chief of Staff James Valley on there got a total for all of
1:00:47
Chief of Staff James Valley° them um let's see 17 36 41 it's over $42,000 about $53,000 when you count zym and the three uh pluming Bill three well Jones is not a plumber but Jones is 18,000 almost 19 CR 16 and quad bomb in this instance is five you approve 30,000 for Quad bomb last meeting now um the only other items you have left is your water ordinance and your sewer ordinance I read the sewer ordinance in it's entirety during the uh public hearing um I could uh and the differ s and water is just the water rates um and the water rates what I mean by that is per meter size and all of that what you charge for water race per meter side and the number that's in there I think $758 for water for the additional th000 Gall for water and on the sewer side as we read it is $988 I asked about the rates being the
1:02:11
City Attorney Andre Valley° break even but in the coordinance is that that number that the state of Arkansas required us to have the number that's in the or yes and that's what the
1:02:21
City Attorney Andre Valley° the comparison has MDI mhi at the top so to meet that mhi median household income number is the third column on the page I got the page number but it's the third column and that's where the rates are set at that number $758 for water $988 for sew with the base rate remaining unchanged uh in this increase so for the first thousand gallon no increase which is exactly what R water uh suggested but then each successive thousand gallon it goes up but even at that on the 4,000 gallons was about two cents a gallon that the customer will be paying for water and so about a penny each roughly if divide 7780 by 4,000 the other thing uh Mr St Columbia mentioned and may have just been out of habit but he mentioned sanitation rates this does nothing with sanitation rates sanitation rates are unchanged and certainly what the administration hope here when the water begins to collect adequate funding and sanitation rates start going to the sanitation department have better Eye For What need is needed in the sanitation department uh just very small attention article four you had a little small typo on which ordinance it's on article four of the sewer uh says the following customer fees that D twice it's just a small Ty page 58 62 article four just following custom pleas duplicate Article 4 article 4 56 of 62 yeah it's just a small type okay so
1:04:29
Unidentified just oh okay you got the word z twice
1:04:32
Unidentified yes sir
1:04:34
Unidentified okay
1:04:36
City Attorney Andre Valley° yeah so we when if it's pass we have a m strike that out oh we can reprint it
1:04:43
City Attorney Andre Valley° yeah we can reprint that just with corrections passive with corrections recommended correction is there a motion to [Music] adopt vote for either I'm I'm sorry what happened
1:05:24
City Attorney Andre Valley° nothing it was just discuss and we're talking about the water okay water
1:05:30
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° ordinance had two council members that weren't here so they they don't know
1:05:34
Chief of Staff James Valley° what the oh well I I can go back through it real quickly um before I do oh no I'm
1:05:39
Unidentified I'm I'm good with this my question was um did anyone from the uh I did not make the the the public meeting though was there any comments concerns feedback that anyone gave all of it came from
1:05:51
Chief of Staff James Valley this side of the table okay I didn't see the online but the thing said you had to appear to comment and none of the audience had any questions or comments uh Mr cin just G me a list and told me we got about 20 more leaks than this and this one has 31 on it that have been repaired so we repaired about 51 leaks okay I just wanted to share that with you yeah
1:06:20
Chief of Staff James Valley but but as a as a as a general principle um the ordinance ask presented for water and SE rate amounts to be set matches what the uh state of Arkansas Natural Resources Council or commission says You must have in order to qualify for forgivable loans or grants and that's 1.5% of the medium household income uh for each water and SE which is about $38.90 on 4,000 gallons of usage and so mathematically for those of you who are mathematician you take the 3890 and subtract it from where you start at to $162 Cent on the water side and whatever that difference is you divide it by three so you can add 3,000 gallons to the $16 amount and that's how you got $758 and on the suicide Sue earth side you take the $38.90 subtract $9 27 C from it and divide that number by three and that left $988 and that's how you got the subsequent rate to match the 3890 on 4,000 gallons of water usage and that's that's where they come from and you can set that rate as long as it is equal to or higher than the rate study required you can't go below the rate study and those num are a bit higher than the rate St required so I'd be happy to entertain the motion to approve what this matter I
1:08:09
Unidentified don't have to the increase on the water i' like to make that Mo okay you have
1:08:15
City Attorney Andre Valley° two different ordinances one is on page 56 56 ra is first the most 56 Mr St 56 yes the motion would be to approve one by one most be suspended rules plac on third and final reading reading the title only ordinance the sewer rate ordinance motion Miss Harris R read reading the title on on the S ordinance [Music] the price yes yes is there a
1:09:04
Unidentified second second motion any discussion
1:09:07
Unidentified what's the number's ordinance number I don't know
1:09:14
City Attorney Andre Valley° the ordinance number but just toate ordance two rate ordinance I'll text the clerk and see let us call number 15 for now it need to be corrected cler to correct ordinance number 15 any discussion ordinance number 15 yes sir Mr St M you call the RO Mr S [Music]
1:09:40
Unidentified no C
1:09:48
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Miller Miss Harris yes Mr eely yes M
1:09:54
Unidentified Miller yes
1:09:56
Unidentified yes
1:09:58
Councilwoman Latoya Harris (Ward 2)° yes can I say something like with our other utilities interg ARA hundreds of dollars every month they do it when they feel like it is a a huge difference in our water rate and if it's gonna help us with our grants and things to come I think it's a good idea not I'm happy Miss because
1:10:24
City Attorney Andre Valley° you're absolutely right uh next month CER point is gonna go up on your gas energy energy hundreds of dollars right so where I understand people say well this is the thing we can't get any forgiveness or anything back for none of this because the governor has told me that she is not going to help us until we raise water rates so we and it's not it's nothing personal we need all the help we can get you we've heard the choir sing the best song in the world Ral water came and stood up and sung that we have one more issue in West hel we we done we're trying to keep the state from coming in taking over our water system we and I understand it affects all of us but see we we say we want change and want better for H but here we are so so my thing is we we we we we got to be consistent on what what we want so the next
1:11:26
City Attorney Andre Valley° go ahead procedurally the only thing that's happened is you suspended rules for the read it you haven't adopted anything at this point
1:11:33
Unidentified procedurally go ahead man I'm
1:11:35
City Attorney Andre Valley sorry so order number 15 2024 an ordinance to set sewer rates for customers charges and fees for the city of H West H now there needs to be a motion to motion to
1:11:47
Mayor Christopher Franklin° adopt Mr E so move Miss haris second the motion any discussion yes um I
1:11:54
City Attorney Andre Valley° appreciate appreciate your comments Mr Man Miss Harris I believe in having a concise and Consolidated message and mind has been all year long if your water department is underwater and losing money you can't maintain your infrastructure you can't maintain employment if you're against raising your rates to maintain your department then what is your plan and that's the message that people have to understand the reason why the governor says I won't help you is because you have a water department is losing money it can't fix leaks it can't fix infrastructure it can't employ people who are qualified that's not I'm not talking about the people who are work now I'm saying you can't go out and attract other people to come because the people you have are underpaid and so what is your plan if it's not to raise the race and if you have one I'm listening but if you don't and then if we raise the rates to the level where we get loan forgiveness all of this multi-million dollar infrastructure repair potentially can be forgiven so we don't have to pay it back but if you don't have a a plan then this is the only thing this the only train is leaving the station I would love to keep my bills as low as it used to be 15 years um I just challenge anybody who's against it to tell me what your play and it's just I don't want to pay it I mean none of us do right I don't
1:13:26
Unidentified well I mean I think we I think the thing is we reserve our right to have our opinion and I don't want to raise rates that's my that's my opinion
1:13:36
City Attorney Andre Valley° so we just go ahead and have the vote I I respect that opinion but understand and I respect and I'm addressing like has a vote and let it let it fall where it may and it's not just the people at the table it's like the community there a lot of people who say we got to pay more we got to pay more and then they complain about the water was out the water but these things go hand in hand the garbage trucks because water is living off sanitation fee it it's just it's one big train to knowwhere and so I I don't want to do it either but I like to tell people why I did what I did and right the what we're doing right now is and thinking that it will change for me is not it's not going to happen the math is not going to get better it's going to get worse in time and so to that I just like to explain why I'm doing what I'm doing because there is no alternative at this point if somebody has one I'm all L to listen to it but there is no alternative so also I want to remind the body uh that we have three cons ministrative orders relating to the water uh and sewer and they require significant expend from the city uh to reemphasize what is saying is to water department has been barring from sanitation to to try to stay up flat it has been losing money since 201 19 18 as far 18 as far as we can 2018 been losing right and there's some significant things that the state has ordered us to do so I want you all to keep that in mind as relation to it I know this is uh when you see citizens on the on the street what they do is that they tend to say don't raise my water bills but the options are um we' we're at a point where we have no choice in fact when you try to get some more money you may have to raise them again but that's for a further discussion would hope raise again and this is why um as the breakout shows in your packet on the recommended rate you raise $ 1.4 million new dollars which is actually like 7 00,000 because you were 700,000 short on the one you're doing is $2.8 million which is about 2.1 million new dollars since you were 700,000 short so with that 2 point with that $2.1 million we should be able to sustain anybody saying you're not charging enough I think you going to be fine on that for for a while except for uh inflationary increases two or three% a year and if I'm correct I think they owe us about half over half a million dollars in sanitation feet so it's no small amount yes that the city could be using but the water company needs to stay afloat right and I add this when when it's time when it's time the clerk's always saying a box of bills the money that we're we're not getting we could be paying some of our debt so we need the water department to be functionable and we also need the city to be functionable so I think this is a the the right step in right direction for us to not see what it needs to be so Madam CL will you call the rooll please um what's the motion to adopt the
1:17:13
Unidentified SE rate ordinance okay that number okay so 15 15
1:17:19
City Attorney Andre Valley° it's the same one you suspended the rules we haven't adopted at this point so we suspended the rules of adopted now we're now we're voting to adopt it
1:17:30
Unidentified yes so okay uh Mr s
1:17:35
Unidentified Columbia Mr
1:17:38
Unidentified Miller come back to me
1:17:41
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° please he said come back come back to me
1:17:43
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° I'm um Miss Harris yes Mr E yes Miss
1:17:48
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Maxine Miller yes mayor
1:17:52
Mayor Christopher Franklin° yes come back I got she passed it anyway that account as my note we'll come back to it there needs to be a vote on emergency Clause Is there a motion to approve the emergency Clause emergency
1:18:08
Mayor Christopher Franklin° Clause so Mr Dr CL Miss Harris second Motion in discussion Madam clerk call
1:18:18
Unidentified the okay uh Mr St columia
1:18:22
Unidentified no Miss Harris
1:18:25
Unidentified yes Mr Miller
1:18:29
Unidentified no Miss Max Miller
1:18:36
Unidentified yes
1:18:43
Mayor Christopher Franklin° mayor mayor yes mayank motion passes you now have ordance number 16 we're going to label at 16 uh but it's the water ordinance is there a mo spend rules place on thir final reading reading the
1:19:01
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° tone Mr E moves order number 16 third and final reading Miss Harris second motion any
1:19:17
Mayor Christopher Franklin° discussion Madam C please call Miss
1:19:20
Unidentified Harris yes Mr E yes M Maxine Miller yes
1:19:27
Unidentified Mr S columia
1:19:29
Unidentified no Mr C Miller
1:19:34
Unidentified no yes motion
1:19:40
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° passes M you want to read the title yes
1:19:43
City Attorney Andre Valley° sir order number 16 2024 ordinance to set water rates and customer charges and fees for the city of hel West Helman to be a motion to adopt a motion to adopt Mo number 16
1:19:55
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° so move Miss Miller moov or number 16
1:19:58
Mayor Christopher Franklin° Mrs haris second motion any discussion Madam cler would you call the
1:20:04
Unidentified RO Please Mr
1:20:07
Unidentified no Mr Miller
1:20:10
Unidentified no M Harris yes Mr E
1:20:15
Unidentified yes Mr May
1:20:19
Unidentified yes motion
1:20:23
Unidentified passes m motion to it need to be a motion to adopt motion to
1:20:29
Unidentified adopt M makes a motion to adopt second motion any discussion Madam cler call the RO Please
1:20:40
Unidentified Mr no Miss Harris yes Mr Miller
1:20:47
Unidentified no Miss Max Miller yes Mr
1:20:53
Unidentified yes yes
1:20:56
Chief of Staff James Valley motion passes s that concludes the agenda move to S MO e e e
How this page was made: built from the city's own meeting video (YouTube ↗) and its posted meeting packet (Drive folder ↗). Dollar figures are quoted from the documents; nothing here is paraphrased from memory. Corrections: cheekforhelena@gmail.com.