In 30 seconds
- Council moved forward on a 40-year lease for the Helena Health Foundation to keep running the hospital, on a motion by Councilman St. Columbia; the Foundation says it has already spent $2.2 million covering debt it inherited from the hospital's prior operator.
- The Foundation's president said the 40-year term is what its attorney says is needed to qualify for tax-credit financing to pay for hospital repairs, and that a city debt of over $200,000 in county jail fees has to be resolved alongside any lease.
- Council approved moving 911 dispatch service to the county, a change projected to net the city about $170,000 a year in savings starting the change.
- Weekly city payroll fell to $115,000, down from an average of about $140,000, and city headcount dropped under 100 employees for the first time.
- A city garbage truck was wrecked and likely totaled Tuesday morning; council approved one week of $125-an-hour emergency contract garbage pickup while it sorts out a replacement.
Recap
Hospital Foundation's Debt and the 40-Year Lease Ask
The Helena Health Foundation took over the hospital carrying about $3 million in bank debt from the prior operator, Progressive, plus vendor debt; the Foundation has already put $2.2 million into paying that debt down . Unpaid bills included $170,000 owed to a gas company and a $415,000 electric bill . Foundation president Ed Pat Wright told council the Foundation needs at least a 40-year lease on the hospital because its attorney says that term is required to qualify for new-market-tax-credit financing to pay for repairs . Interim hospital CEO Rex Jones cautioned council not to expect lease income, saying hospital margins are thin . Wright said the Foundation's community grants, normally $400,000 to $500,000 a year, have stopped while it pays down hospital debt .
County Debt, City's Role, and the Lease Motion
City Attorney Andre Valley said a court settlement requires the city to pay the county over $200,000 in jail-fee debt, money that was supposed to come from a hospital sale, and said that debt has to be resolved as part of any lease deal . He also told the public the city owns the hospital building but never operated the hospital business or its debts . Councilman St. Columbia moved that the city support granting the Foundation a 40-year lease; the motion was seconded and passed .
911 Dispatch Moves to the County
Council approved an interlocal agreement moving 911 dispatch service to the county, on a motion by Councilwoman Maxine Miller, seconded by Councilman St. Columbia. The presenter put the payroll reduction to the city at $252,000, against an $85,000 annual cost the county will charge, for a net savings of about $170,000 a year . Current city dispatchers' jobs move to the county on October 1; council was told the county makes no promise about who it hires and the city has no control over that decision .
Landfill Grant, Water Financing, and City Finances
A $500,000 state (DRA) grant was awarded to the landfill to repair its leachate system, a step toward addressing an environmental consent order . Financing for water-system repairs is nearing closing; the first loan, $1 million, covers preliminary engineering work . Weekly city payroll has fallen to $115,000, compared with an average of about $140,000 cited from prior treasurer testimony, a savings the presenter put at over a quarter million dollars a year . The city's headcount is now under 100 employees, described as the first time that has happened since the presenter has worked for the city . The city is now in a position to negotiate a payment plan on roughly $600,000 it owes to LOPFI, the police and fire pension fund, after previously being discouraged from doing so .
Garbage Trucks, Carts, and a Clerk's-Office Pay Change
Council approved $7,400 to buy 100 replacement garbage carts at $74 each, for residents whose carts are missing or damaged . Council also passed an ordinance (Ordinance 8) waiving competitive bidding for the landfill's articulated dump truck it had approved at a prior meeting . Base pay for a clerk's-office clerical position, unchanged since it was set at minimum wage in 2006, was raised to $14 an hour; the departing employee currently makes $15 an hour, and the seat will be filled part-time rather than full-time . Separately, council was told the base-pay ordinance exists so council can see who is hired and what they are paid, as a check on past practice . A city garbage truck was hit from behind on Fourth Street near what the caption transcribed as "Dotto School" (likely Desto School) Tuesday morning; the other driver was hospitalized and the truck is expected to be totaled . The city paid $218,000 for that truck when it was bought in 2016; losing it leaves one working truck for residential garbage pickup . Council approved one week of emergency contract garbage pickup at $125 an hour, on a motion by Councilwoman Davis, seconded by Councilwoman Miller, to be reassessed the following week .
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 ↗
0:04
All present our trespasses as we forgive those trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Thomass forever. Amenus stands one nation under God. indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
0:35
Roll call Roll call (attendance) — present: Maxine Miller, Adrian Messina, Don Etherly, Monica Davis. Not recorded present: Dr. Kyle Miller, Joe St. Columbia (captions incomplete; attendance unverified).
0:58
Unidentified we didn't get any minutes.
0:59
Unidentified No, not yet.
1:00
Unidentified Okay.
1:01
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly But uh meeting minutes for the last meeting will be on the next agenda for approval. So we'll move into our first items of business, but we have guests here um on the Helen Health Foundation presentation. And so we'll go ahead and let our guests come up. Uh Dr. Miller and Mr. Wright, you can come on up. So, uh, this they're actually gonna be making the presentation. Uh, but we have, uh, Mr. Air Wright, who is, uh, he's our president of the Helen Health Foundation along with Rex Jones, who is our interim, uh, CEO of the hospital, and so they'll be explaining to you what is it going to talk about. So,
1:41
Unidentified okay. Thank you.
1:42
Mr. Wright Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and ladies and gentlemen of the city council. We um I'll try to speak up loud, Mr. Joe, so you can hear me over there. I take I got the signal. Um what the main reason we're coming to y'all is, you know, trying to get this. We took over the hospital June 1st and we're looking at different, you know, areas of funding and grants and and looking into the new market tax credit program, which u you know, Progressive was also doing. And part of those deals, you know, when you're doing that, they really want to see that you have a strong lease. You know, that you're not going to be, you know, we're we want to do some repairs on the building. It needs a new roof. We've we just spent a h 100,000 on a new boiler. We've spent um money on chiller. We've, you know, we've already spent a half a million on repairs, but it needs a lot. And so we're going to, you know, for us to do that, we're going to have to go and get, we'll look at the new market tax credit loan. We've applied for that community assistant grant that I think everybody probably applied for some of that, but the governor had and and different but we can't, you know, our right now our lease is just um one year because nobody, you know, after progressive left um you know, there wasn't was anything done. And so I think when it when nobody does anything within 30 days, it automatically renews for one year. So when we put down on an application that we have a one-year lease, but we're want to, you know, $2.5 million for a roof or something, you know, it doesn't really well, what if you know what if you get kicked out after a year? But anyway, we just we want to come to the city. the old lease before uh you know the old lease was but before quorum and CHS took over that ended in 1998 was $100 a year paid on the first day of the year and it was like a 99-year lease that you know could be terminated with you know by either party with a certain amount of notice but you know we need a 20 40year lease or something just so we can go out and get funding for the hospital um you know just makes more sense. So that's the main reason that we're here and um you know we're about to get this hospital in a in a good point where it's going to it'll cash flow. I think it you know it's never going to be nobody's going to ever make a lot of money out of that thing. But we're going to we're I think we can get it where the foundation doesn't have to pump any more money into it and it will stand on its own. the if we uh uh the hospital right now, part of the situation, the deal for us to assume operations of the hospital when we felt like Progressive was just going to go bankrupt and abandoning it or whatever,
4:38
Mr. Wright (Ed Pat Wright) we had to assume their debt
4:42
Mr. Wright° which was a little over three million at the between the two banks. So they that they million and a half for each bank. Plus at the time they told us it was about $2 million in debt um that they owed and we agreed to pay all their vendors that they owed money to. And um about the time we think we've got them all paid, more show up, but it's probably more like 2 and a.5 million that they owed vendors. So you can kind of see that we've already we've already put 2.2 million of the Hellahal Foundation money into it paying bad debt and we don't really have any more money to put into it. That's why we're looking for other avenues because our money is tied up with we still owe some on these East building
5:33
Mr. Wright° and we've got a lot of it is um collateral for the loan at the bank. We had to cosign progressive loan for the $3 million at the bank. So, you know, we can't just keep putting money into it with, you know, but like I said, and um like I said, Rex the Rex is is a has been at a lot of hospitals. who's at Magnolia before he was here, but he has a lot of experience as CEO of a hospital. And through the rural health partnership, they're kind of guiding us, helping us with their CFO and and their expertise on a operations from day to on day-to-day operations of the hospital. And um once we you know we we get the um get this the the the hospital's doing great. We've got to you know there's kind of a misnomer with the um people think that we're just an emergency room which we are an RA hospital rural emergency hospital but people think that they can't be admitted or whatever. The hospital can do observation patients and if your doctor here in town wants to admit you he could admit you all day long. He just has to round with on you. the uh we don't have, you know, a hospitalist or anybody to do it, but the with the RE model, if our ER doctors think you need to be in the hospital for 48 hours, they can put you in there for 48 hours or whatever and get you hydrated or some antibiotics started or whatever. Once we start doing that, they'll increase our revenue, but we've got to get a lot of our nursing, we got to add some nurses and things like that, which we're working on. Um we just hired one more and so we're doing a lot to make the more cash positive
7:13
Mr. Wright° which you know I feel pretty good that six months from now we'll be in really good shape but we'll um you know
7:21
Unidentified we need that hospital.
7:23
Unidentified Oh definitely
7:25
Unidentified industry or anything in this community
7:27
Unidentified and people of this community need the hospital.
7:30
Unidentified Yeah.
7:31
Mr. Wright (Ed Pat Wright)° Uh what do you want from us tonight? Well, I I asked our, you know, attorney. I said, 'What do you think we should ask for? And we need 20-year lease. He said, 'I would ask for 40, but you know, whatever y'all decide, we need a you know, we need at least I think a 40-year lease is not too much to ask. I mean, you know, the hospital, it's a lot more facility than we need. And that building is for sure, but you know, but we're going to we're going to be here. We plan to be here forever. So, I mean, 40 years is not too much. I mean, if we have to if we end up having to get some funding, you know, we may need 20 years to pay it off, pay it back, you know.
8:15
Unidentified Yeah.
8:16
Unidentified Cuz it needs a lot of work.
8:18
Unidentified Um,
8:19
Unidentified so you you you feel comfortable with a 40-year lease?
8:23
Unidentified Yeah. From
8:24
Unidentified Yeah.
8:25
Mr. Wright° to get what? And I don't know if uh city attorney Mr. Valley you you you have the old do you know what the old lease? I brought pieces of it because I didn't print out the whole 95 old lease started out as a bond issue.
8:37
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yeah, it was
8:38
City Attorney Andre Valley° it was a bond issue and initially it was done in 1998 as bond issue
8:42
City Attorney Andre Valley° and for the sake of the public sake uh bond issue is a loan. The city owns the uh the hospital
8:50
City Attorney Andre Valley° the physical structure. However, the city does not operate the hospital. uh the city uh owns the land but we don't own the business
8:58
City Attorney Andre Valley° and the business is always operated independent of the city. Uh the the terms were that through the terms of the bond that that uh in le of rent they would uh pay the bond
9:10
City Attorney Andre Valley° and the bond was paid throughout from each lease leaseole to each leaseole. uh it was the rent was paid that way that by paying the bond and once the bond was paid for then after that I believe that the helen found start receiving the rental agreement rental income from
9:29
City Attorney Andre Valley° whoever the the uh occupants were and the city didn't receive anything
9:33
City Attorney Andre Valley° and so at the inspiration of lease the difficulties that former mayor Franklin had is he insisted that we have if we're going to lease it that we lease it for more money because previously
9:43
City Attorney Andre Valley° you had the relationship after the bond was paid for home health foundation received the lease even though city owned the month e even though the city owned it. Now the city didn't pay any didn't pay anything. We didn't pay uh for any repairs or any of that. All that was done
9:58
City Attorney Andre Valley city just owned the building. Uh at this point, one complication that we have and that you all are aware, you all uh this body settled a case with the county for all the pass through jail fees. And I can't remember what the amount is, but it's over 200,000. And we were supposed to pay that with the sale of the hospital. And so the county is still trying to collect that from us and and wants the city to uh to do something regarding that. I think that if you're going to lease it, we got to resolve that issue as well. whatever we don't pay to the county. Uh because Mr. Lee constantly calls about it. The county lawyers call Mr. Lee about it and they every month want us to give an update on what's the status of the hospital? Is it selling? What's going to happen? Are you going to lease it? What you going to do so we can pay the county because we made overage to the court
10:49
City Attorney Andre Valley° that at the end of the day whatever income we get from the sale of lease, we're giving it to the county uh to pay the debt. the not giving it all, but I'm saying paying the county. Madam cler, do you remember what what it was? Is 200 or something, thousand, right?
11:05
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey They said 150.
11:07
City Attorney Andre Valley° The city the county attorney says,
11:10
City Attorney Andre Valley° right? 150,000. And so that's that's what the the the obstacle that we have at this point.
11:18
Unidentified Yeah.
11:25
Unidentified Yeah. Well, I think you know that part, you know, Judge Hall has mentioned that to me in couple times
11:34
Unidentified as an option possibly and I was, but I I don't know how long that's going to take and which I will work out. But in the meantime, we just need we need to be able to show in writing to these like for the new market tax credit and um uh that we have u you know a long a long-term lease. We don't want to ask them for um you know $8 million new market tax credit which some of that will be forgiven but most of it will end up being a long-term loan for a building we only have a lease on for a year at a time. You know that's that's our
12:12
Unidentified we have to have that hospital.
12:15
Unidentified Yeah.
12:16
Unidentified And we need to do everything we can make sure it stays here. You got a board of directors and and run by the health foundation now financially. And
12:29
Unidentified I know at my age I'd like to I feel more comfortable. you know that is
12:36
Unidentified everybody in this room can tell a story of someone's been in that hospital and and I was 99% of them have positive things to say and it's um we are we're
12:45
Unidentified I mean I don't know I saw two one one or two helicopters out there today I mean I don't know where we'd be M Wilson may know but there were at least a couple people airvacked out today and you know I mean where would we be without the hospital to at least you know stabilize them and I' I've had my parents out there many times and you know it it is it's a blessing and we got we've got to have it. I mean
13:10
Unidentified you certainly have my
13:12
Unidentified you certainly have my support.
13:14
Unidentified Well, I appreciate it. whatever y'all decide. But we, you know, we just need to be able to show. You can't go to the bank and get a loan without saying, "Hey, you know, even the the the two banks would like to see us have a better, you know, we don't, you know, a long-term lease because a year at a time and you know, they've each loan a loan progressive one and a half million." And
13:37
Unidentified longer the lease you have, the more strength you have in
13:40
Unidentified Exactly.
13:41
Unidentified in obtaining money. Is that
13:44
Unidentified right? Right. Exactly.
13:46
Unidentified Yeah. Well, I I have no problem with that.
13:48
Unidentified Yeah. I don't think anybody at the table have a problem with the lease. I think the issue is
13:53
Unidentified the obligation of the 150 $175,000.
13:56
Unidentified Well,
13:57
Unidentified we need to resolve Excuse me. We need to resolve that issue as as well
14:00
Unidentified and see how we can do that um simultaneously.
14:06
Unidentified Yeah.
14:31
Unidentified We
14:32
Unidentified before he answers that I think one of the things we need to do is this. I think we need to get the county judge, the hospital, and the mayor in the same room. And it's in the best interest of the city for all three parties to get this resolved
14:44
Unidentified because the county needs the hospital, the city needs the hospital, the hospital needs to structure. And so I I think part of it is I'm not trying to bash the county or anything like that. I I I want to make sure that everybody's trying to operate in the same in in in the what's in the best interest of the citizens
15:01
Unidentified because on one hand
15:03
Unidentified the hospital uh can eventually pay something on on a lease. Uh but on the other hand, we have the immediate obligation to pay uh the county and the county has been very adamant that every month they they've been calling Mr. Lee like, "Hey, when you gonna give us some money?" I I think we need to go on record as a as a city council that we're 100% in support of the movement of the hospital and that we we
15:30
Unidentified I think we can do that by acclamation. I think everybody's able
15:34
Councilman Joe St. Columbia make a motion uh that we support the uh uh purpose of a 40-year lease if we possibly can and resolve whatever we have to do to to handle it. But we as a city need to support this hospital and grant them a 40-year lease if they desire it.
15:53
Unidentified I second.
15:55
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller I second.
15:56
Unidentified Okay.
15:57
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Okay. So, there's a motion by St. Columbia to grant a 40-year lease to
16:03
Unidentified Yeah. This hold on a second. The the corpor I want to make sure I get this right in in a minute. This is the Helena Hospital.
16:11
Unidentified It's Helen Health Foundation.
16:13
Unidentified Helena Health Foundation. is going to go to Hell
16:14
Mr. Wright° Her Health Foundation and we operate the hospital in Phillips um Phillips Hospital Corporation and then the the clinic and Hound and you know but anyway yeah that's the two entities we absorb and progressive were Philips Hospital Corporation and Philips Clinic Corporation.
16:32
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Okay motion by St. Columb to approve a 40-year lease to the Helen Health Foundation
16:39
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly in support of those other entities which essentially are the hospitals. second by
16:43
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Dr. Miller. Um, is there any discussion?
16:46
Unidentified Yeah.
16:47
Unidentified Okay.
16:56
Unidentified Yeah. You right now, you just said
16:58
Unidentified Yeah.
17:32
Unidentified Yes,
17:34
Unidentified Can Mr. Jones say something?
17:36
Unidentified Yes.
17:37
Rex Jones° Um, I apologize coming in late in the game here and then kind of getting a handle on what's going on. But one of the things I I do want to to say is I I absolutely agree with Ed Pat that the hospital I think is going to make it, but I don't want to go under or provide any assumption to anyone that this is going to be a money-making operation. So I the money the hospitals make is going to will be very thin margins and I think the money that the hospital makes is going to need to go back in for capital expenditures on the facility. So if you're trying to look at this as a potential income eventually for some type of lease, I just I don't see it. In my experience, I I don't see that that's something to to count on. I think I think we're going to be here. I think we'll be self- sustaining, but I just want to throw my two cents in to make sure that we're not looking at this as the potential income.
18:34
Unidentified Yes, sir. And and I think we all probably understood that without it being SP we we have a similar story to tell at this table. And so we we we were counting our coins as we were talking about paying the the the county debt, which is a separate issue from from your
18:48
City Attorney Andre Valley right. And and the other the other part about it is just simply uh because there's this court obligation to pay it. Uh as city attorneys, we can't go ahead and obligate ourselves just to say, "Oh, we're going to give $100 a year for 40 years and throw my nose at the county is what what we were trying to avoid doing." Just just for clarity.
19:13
Unidentified Yeah. I think you know the when the judge talked to me, county judge, he mentioned he would for the city to deed over the hospital that he would forgive the debt. Now that's not what I came, you know, that's to me that was between y'all and them. I wasn't going to, you know,
19:29
Unidentified well, the hospital's worth over $2 million while we deal,
19:36
Unidentified I understand the appraisal stuff.
19:39
Unidentified I know. I mean, we've even considered even building our own building and just leaving it because it's so much more than we need. We need something more like what they have in West Memphis now and we could do that but it's it's we want to try to keep that facility going but
19:55
Unidentified understand but
19:56
Unidentified yeah and this is something here I'm going pass around but this shows what other communities are doing for their hospitals they're giving them money.
20:06
Unidentified Yeah.
20:07
Unidentified Yeah. We understand.
20:08
Unidentified Yeah.
20:20
Unidentified I mean,
20:23
Unidentified yeah,
20:24
Unidentified I like to think I we're we're looking at, you know, maybe 2 million to put a new roof on it.
20:28
Unidentified Yes, sir.
20:29
Unidentified We've already spent 100,000 on boiler system this year, which is, you know, but you know, I mean, you look at the city of Stuckgart gives their hospital there $2.3 million a year. Dwit gives theirs. Let's see. What was that? U went little town. $850,000 a year. They get
20:54
Unidentified those from sales taxes.
20:55
Unidentified These some of these are sales taxes. Um millages.
21:01
Unidentified I mean, they realize the importance. They're
21:03
Unidentified sure. You know, the city of um Conway, their hospital, they their cityos, their city leases their hospital to them. It's not on this, but you can pass right there for $1 a year.
21:18
Unidentified Yeah.
21:19
Unidentified I mean, that's they that's the importance. You've got to have the hospital.
21:23
Unidentified Well, that's what we need.
21:24
Unidentified Nobody I mean, I'd appreciate it if y'all would mow the grass for us. That'd save us about 3,000 a month, you know.
21:29
Unidentified 3,600.
21:31
Unidentified 3,600. I mean you could you mean you know it is
21:35
Unidentified you know
21:36
Unidentified progressive left us y'all know we settled up the water bill finally over several months you can imagine what the electric bill was they left us you know
21:47
Unidentified gas bill
21:48
Mr. Wright (Ed Pat Wright)° gas bill we just had to settle with a company they owed a gas company $170,000 never paid them the whole time they were here
21:58
Unidentified so if they made y'all believe that that building is worth two or three million ion dollar. They're they were I mean they're they were you know
22:08
Unidentified they were coming from you know
22:11
Unidentified tell them how much the electric bill was.
22:12
Unidentified Well electric bill was $415,000.
22:17
Unidentified Yeah.
22:18
City Attorney Andre Valley° Now for the sake of the citizens this is again what what we were discussing before uh the city owns the hospitals
22:28
City Attorney Andre Valley proper. the city has never run the business of the hospital. And so a lot of the lot of the things that were said and privately and publicly about the city's fault that the hospital is in this condition, etc., uh, as you're hearing again, the city does not operate the business of the hospital. City owns the structure.
22:48
Unidentified Yeah.
22:49
City Attorney Andre Valley° And so I just want to emphasize that and and as they've eloquently articulated, all those debts that were there were done by progressive. They had nothing to do with the city of Helen West.
22:59
Unidentified Yeah.
23:03
Unidentified Yeah. Well, I appreciate it y'all's time and what you know, y'all guess you have a motion in a second and we had discussion. Y'all can
23:12
Unidentified vote on it, but we just need a good lease so we can go out and get some money to keep it open.
23:17
Mr. Wright (Ed Pat Wright)° But we agree. you know, we can't give, you know, Helen Health Foundation, we, you know, we were giving out a 400 to $500,000 a year in grants to the community that we can't do anymore
23:30
Unidentified because we we're paying bills,
23:36
Unidentified you know, just
23:38
Unidentified Well, I thank you very much for your efforts providing that hospital for us. We absolutely have to have that hospital. you're ever going to draw industry to this community, they're not gonna come here if we don't have a hospital. I can tell you that.
23:53
Unidentified So, we we need that hospital and we need to support it. And this city needs to back it. We need to be paying y'all, like you say, instead of y'all paying us anything. So, that's my feelings about it.
24:07
Unidentified And we can we can have an attorney draw up the lease or look at a lease and we can agree if y'all, you know, decide to go that way. Yes.
24:16
Unidentified Did we ever vote?
24:17
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° No. No. I'm waiting on you. Let's call for question.
24:24
Unidentified Yeah.
24:26
Unidentified To um decide and try to work it out.
24:30
Unidentified Who's going to set that up?
24:32
Unidentified City attorney.
24:34
City Attorney Andre Valley° The mayor and I set that up. The only reason the only reason I keep mentioning it is you have a court order telling us that we supposed to pay it. And um that's the reason why we as before we enter into a lease and say here court hey I don't care what you say we're just going to lease it out for
24:51
Unidentified 100 bucks a year. That's that's all I'm saying.
24:54
Unidentified No. Yes sir.
24:55
Unidentified I am for us having a hospital here. I am for all that. I just want to make sure that we do it in a proper way. That's all. But I I think that the mayor's ready to call the question so we can Yes, sir. Solve the issue. Um, madam call.
25:10
Roll call Roll-call vote — Joe St. Columbia: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
25:23
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Right. Motion passes.
25:25
Unidentified Thank you.
25:26
Unidentified Contact how we proceed.
25:30
Unidentified Okay.
25:31
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Mr. Right. D before you leave, I know you all spoke, but could you introduce yourself to the public for for the sake of uh uh chairman of the H Health Foundation and have with me?
25:46
Rex Jones I'm Rex Jones, the interim chief executive officer for Helena Hospital.
25:50
Unidentified All right.
25:51
Unidentified We thank we thank you all for being here.
25:54
Unidentified All right.
25:56
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Okay. Um I'm going to go back up to the old business portion of the agenda. Um the first item on the agenda is the proposal for dispatch and we have a contract now that would be the four page agreement.
26:17
Unidentified Yeah.
26:20
Unidentified Looks like this second page. Yrench.
26:38
Unidentified Okay.
26:41
Unidentified I don't think it's that's a uh ordinance resolution. So, you have your agreement in front of you and it's a it's a five-year agreement. Um the total cost is $85,000. That's what we would pay to the county. They've asked for four quarterly pay or a quarterly payment during the course of the year, which would be four payments per year. And the total will be $21,250 per payment. I still see a few people thumbing. I don't want to get too far ahead of you. Miss Davis, yes, that's it. M looks like that. Got it. Okay.
27:29
Unidentified Right.
27:30
Unidentified Agreement for
27:32
Unidentified 911 dispatch and service.
27:34
Unidentified Yes, sir. That's it.
27:36
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And this agreement would take would take effect on October the 1st.
27:41
Unidentified First day of
27:42
Unidentified October.
27:44
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes, sir. And that would give all of our employees essentially two weeks notice. The highlights of the agreement. I told you what the payment terms were. That's a total of $85,000 per year. Uh four payments, one per quarter, $21,250. It's a five-year agreement. They would be the employer for all dispatchers. We would have no liability as it uh relates to let's say the the the the operation of dispatch and how they perform their job duties. We would have no liability for that. Um they would be in charge of those employees and any terminations or disciplinary actions would flow through the county, not through the city. Going in this direction now. What is the bottom line savings that we will save by doing this over the year? Right.
28:58
Unidentified What what
28:59
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Okay. So, so the the the pay reduction for us, the payroll reduction for us projected through we took the numbers through half of the year, projected them out over the course of the year. Included uh wages, overtime, apers, payroll taxes, uh health coverage was $252. $252,000.
29:22
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° The cost to the county is cash $85,000 annually. So the net is about $170,000 savings to the city. That's the net.
29:32
Unidentified 200,000.
29:33
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes. Yes. And of course, one of the things
29:36
Unidentified Is that about the number explains that's perm. Yes. That's that's annually. Annually.
29:42
Unidentified That's annual. That's that's per year. Per year.
29:44
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yeah. So quarter of a million dollars in payroll savings. We take on a debt for 85,000. So the net is is 170,000. Yes, sir.
29:53
Unidentified That's quite a bit of savings. Yes, sir. Five years.
29:57
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Um there's no motion, but is there any discussion?
30:02
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° Motion.
30:11
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion by Miss Miller to approve the agreement as presented for 911 dispatching. Is there a second?
30:17
Councilman Joe St. Columbia I'll second.
30:18
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Second by St. Columbia. Is there any discussion? Madame clerk, would you call the role?
30:27
Roll call Roll-call vote — Joe St. Columbia: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
30:39
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And that will take effect October the 1st.
30:41
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° October 1st. Uh that will take effect and at that point the county will be handling all of the dispatch.
30:47
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And of course the what a lot of people don't know is that the county has done a great deal of dispatching for us over the last month. We had some radio problems and so they had already been doing it for a certain period of time. I have not read this till they don't hire any of our dispatched people.
31:05
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly They make no promises about who they will hire to to do the job. And by us adopting this agreement, we have no control over who they hire. Okay?
31:12
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° They will be responsible for any liability that arises out of that employment and that operation. Uh they'll be responsible for any discipline that comes out of that. If somebody needs to be disciplined or terminated, the county has complete control over that. Uh
31:25
Unidentified Headache we don't have.
31:27
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes, sir. And the agreement does set out our responsibilities. And I didn't say this on the front end, but I I talked to the chief just to make sure there were no operational issues uh that arose out of the agreement, shared it with the city attorney. Everybody gave the green light on it. And so so it's been approved.
31:43
Unidentified Right. Now, what what's going to be the difference for them as far as the actual dispatching? Because I would think city is a lot more intense, isn't it, than county dispatching? Or is it not?
31:56
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yeah. If you're asking if there's more activity in the city, certainly there's more activity.
32:00
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° The county will pick that up and you know, like like like anything else, uh they they'll adjust to the traffic level.
32:07
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And like I said, they they did a I can't remember what day in August it was, but the we had some radio problems. We actually had to call someone in to fix it. We had a twoe period of time just in the last month where the county h handled all of the dispatch. Okay. When when our phone lines were down last year, the county handled all this. Yeah. So, they've done it before.
32:27
Unidentified Okay.
32:29
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And just for the public sake, 170,000 times five is $850,000. That's the total savings over five years.
32:39
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Next item on the agenda is going to be the resolution for DRRA, that's Delta Regional Authority. Uh the grant, they sent over a form that they want us to um it's a resolution. Should have that in your packet. And it looks like this. I guess I just need to start numbering these pages, these items, but it looks like this. It's a resolution. This comes from East Arkansas Planning and Development, and they want us to adopt this resolution. This is on the landfield grant. Last meeting, we did a motion to authorize me to sign off on the award notices and any documents that need to be signed. They also need us to pass this resolution. And this again is the half million dollar uh landfill grant that's been awarded to the landfill so that they can fix, repair, upgrade the leech system. And so they're going to need us to pass this resolution. And some parts of this, it's a form. This is a form. So everything in it doesn't necessarily apply, but we have to fill in the blanks as we go. Uh so
33:40
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Because it requires us to, if I may, may
33:42
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yes, sir. Go. It requires us to note uh this is kind of resolution but at the same time it's kind of a recordation of minutes cuz it we have to note who made the motion, who made the second, who all voted for it etc in this resolution and the date was passed and etc. That's why it isn't completely filled out because that hadn't occurred at this point. But this is just a uh Delta Regional Authority um resolution that authorizes the the grant and your support of it. So the so that the landfield can collect the funds that Mr. Wilson has already applied for. It also appoints me to perform all the duties of said award which means the signing and in the event that there's uh someone else who who takes the the the mayor's chair says the ch under the change the new mayor would also be authorized to perform those dut um and what's the number on
34:37
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° None
34:39
City Attorney Andre Valley° Number nine
34:44
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Is there a motion to adopt
34:46
Councilwoman Maxine Miller So move
34:47
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Okay motion made by Miss Miller. Is there a second?
34:53
Councilwoman Monica Davis° Second.
34:54
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° I'm sorry. I didn't
34:55
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Miss Davis.
34:56
Unidentified Mavis.
34:57
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Mrs. Davis.
35:00
Councilwoman Monica Davis Second.
35:02
Unidentified Oh.
35:04
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Any disc is there any discussion?
35:08
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° Let me read it. I had Yes, sir. Go ahead. Go ahead.
35:11
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Had a chance to read it. Take
35:13
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Take take your time. Yeah, Mr. Columbia, would you like we just have city attorney lead so everybody
35:32
City Attorney Andre Valley Uh this is resolution number nine as well whereas the Delta Regional Authority hearing after DRA was created by Congress by the Delta Regional Authority Act of 2000 as amended as a federal state partnership now comprised of 252 counties and parishes within eight states Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee in order to remedy severe and chronic economic distress by stimulating economic development and fostering partnerships that will have a positive impact on the Delta Regionals economy. Whereas the city of Helen, West Hen, Arkansas, acting by and through its city council, proposes to apply for a an award with the DRRA for the fiscal year 2025 federal award program cycle. Whereas the DRA requires that a person be designated, appointed, and given authority to perform certain duties and administration of said award for and on behalf of the awardee. Whereas the city the Helen West hel city council met in a regular session on September 16 2025 u and those present are uh Mr. St. Columbia Messina Dr. Miller Miss Miller and Miss Davis the city treasurer city attorney and and the uh mayor pro Tim Etherly uh and that was a quorum present and whereas a motion was made by Miss Miller and was seconded by Mrs. Davis to designate and appoint Don R. Etherly to perform all duties in administration of said award which carried a a unanimous vote and was recorded in the minutes. What this is. Uh whereas a motion was made and seconded by there hadn't been one yet, but that has to be a motion made and seconded to provide additional funds in the amount of blank amount to award e uh which okay by voice vote and recorded in the minutes. Whereas a motion was made and seconded by blank person for any inind there's no inind required by this and it says and whereas the motion was made and seconded by ex person that in the event of ad administrative change the new mayor shall continue to have the authority under this resolution now therefore be resolved by the city council of city helas false that donor eth is hereby designated point and appointed to perform form on behalf of the city of Helen West Helena. Uh it has authority to make those acts and assume any and all duties in dealing with the war with DRA for fiscal year uh 2025 and that Don is authorized to execute and submit any and all documents including but not limited to applications award award closing document request for funds staff reports DRA for the fiscal year 2025 that the award that the award awardee agrees to provide uh no extra funds and that in the event that his administration change the new uh mayor shall constitute to shall continue to have authority under this resolution read and adopted on this September on this the uh 16th day of September 2025. So we would actually execute this uh to serve until uh the election of a new mayor,
39:03
City Attorney Andre Valley° Election, appointment, whatever, whatever comes out.
39:06
City Attorney Andre Valley° Appointment. What what what it's saying is they want to make sure in case the governor appoints somebody that uh not only does he have authority that they don't have to come back to the city
39:18
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Right
39:39
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Okay. Is there an urgency to do this tonight?
39:46
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes.
39:47
Unidentified We we
39:48
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° You applied for the fun Mr. Um when John Ed was here, he talked about the the the the grant that received from DRA.
39:58
Unidentified Oh, okay.
39:59
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And when Mr. Wilson was here, he talked about the grant from DRA. It's been pending for a while. We just need this is part of the process that they need you to prove that we have authority to go forward,
40:10
Unidentified Okay,
40:13
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Let me say it a different way. Mr. St. Columbia, the landfield is operating under the consent order and this is one of the things that they have to do to get off the consent order. So the sooner we pass this, they can get that money that allows them to repair and upgrade the Lee system.
40:28
Unidentified Okay.
40:32
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly So there's a motion. There's a motion and second on the floor. Is there any other discussion?
40:36
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
40:56
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Right. Um, next item on the agenda is water department update. Uh the water department super superintendent is not here tonight, but there's really only one update, but it is fairly large. Um last week we learned that we had we've done everything that we need to do. You've heard us talk in the previous weeks about loan closing. Um that's the money that we have to start the repair of the water systems. Uh we've done everything that we need to do from a city standpoint and so we are now just simply awaiting further instructions and uh to come from ANRC uh but we've checked all of our boxes now and so hopefully within the next uh I'm just I'm making up this number because I don't have any information hopefully within the next 60 days or so we'll actually get closed but the big news is we exhale for a minute this past week because we've covered all of our bases on this one So, uh, that's the water update. Um, oh, and the Okay, so this money is going to be broken down into several loans. The first is going to be a million dollars. It primarily covers preliminary engineering. And so, our engineer will be on the ground once it closes, and they'll be doing the work that needs to be done to plan all of the other things that will come out of the money. Uh just as soon as we get closed on this one, we'll actually go to work on. There'll be another closing and another closing, another closing. And each one of those closings will fund different items, but those will come out of the engineering plan. So, the first one is going to cover preliminary engineering. But like I said, this is the one that kind of kicks it all off. So, we've done all we need to do at this point and we'll wait further instructions on this.
42:37
Unidentified You're talking about our engineer.
42:39
Unidentified Our engineer.
42:40
Unidentified Yes. Do
42:41
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Mr. Wild?
42:42
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Mr. Wild has been submitting all the documents on this. Yes, sir. So, that'll be a little positive news for everybody. Um, next item on the agenda is the finance update. Mr. St. Columbia, I think you're aware Miss Ramsey is still putting together that list of debt uh that you've requested and once we get it again, we'll share with everyone. Um, I think I can probably wi without that list, we can't put put a calculator to this, but I'll tell you that there are several positive signs, more anecdotal, but there's positive signs that that you know I love to report to you. Um, I talked to uh Miss Ramsey's staff on uh Friday. U I told the payroll clerk, I said, "I'm going to hold my chest and you tell me how much payroll is this this month this week." and it was $115,000. Um, to give you some perspective, when Miss Ramsay testified over in Little Rock, she said average payroll was about $140,000. Uh, so 115 is a significant significant drop. If you project that out over an annual basis, you're talking about the difference between 140 and 115. My math tells me that's 25,000 times 10 12. That's over a quarter of a million dollars. And what that represents is is the way you're going to see that.
44:02
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Hold on. That's 26
44:04
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly 26 times 26. But what's embodied in that is another thing. Uh we counted employees on Friday again. We have 98 employees for the city. So we're under 100
44:15
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Uh for the first time since I've been here.
44:16
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° 98 now.
44:17
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° 98 employees. So we're under 100 for the first time since since I've been here. Um, we're able to pay a few bills now and so it's good.
44:27
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° When you testified, it was 130. When you testify, how many was it?
44:34
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° We we we need to get it down to close to 70.
44:37
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Oh, you can't get to 70, Mr. St. Cloud. I promise you, you can't get to 70,
44:40
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Right?
44:41
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° You can't get to 80 either. Unless you want
44:45
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Unless you Unless you want to abandon some services, you're not going to get to eight.
44:49
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° No. No. Right. You're not going to get to 80, but but we are under 100 now. We have a significant payroll reduction. I don't think they struggled to make it. Mr. M Ramsey can answer, but I don't think they struggled to make payroll this past week. And so that's that's that's good news. I know they're able to pay bills. And uh that's something that we weren't able to do.
45:06
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° That's right. Need to pay our bills
45:07
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Uh a short time ago. And I know that some of those have been paid, but again, once we get the list, we can put pen to paper, pull out your calculator, and we'll see where we are. Can we get a print out on what we what we owe now?
45:20
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Well, that's what she's working on right now. Mr. Stone. Oh, um Liy Liy. Um we're in a position now to entertain a payment plan on LIY.
45:32
Unidentified Okay.
45:33
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Um I don't know if some of you remember the email traffic from earlier in the spring. Uh at that time we owed lot fee maybe about $600,000 and they discouraged us from engaging in a payment plan because they said if you if you start a payment plan and you don't make it it's going to be really bad for you. And so we didn't entertain a payment plan. But now we're in a position to actually discuss a payment plan. And so what we're doing is they want to meet with with me with the city attorney with the treasurer. I think we're supposed to have somebody from the municipal league uh maybe general counsel on the line as well and we'll we're trying to set up a conference call so that we can discuss the the the terms of a payment plan. And so we hope to have a report on that uh within the next couple weeks maybe at the next meeting so we can tell you how that goes. And uh that's one of the really big debts that we have right now, individual debts. And so if we can get a on a payment plan on that we feel comfortable about our ability to actually make it and hold to it now. So,
46:31
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° How about the uh I remember the internal revenue. We owe them a large amount of money. We're doing anything on it.
46:41
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Uh the treasurer has been making some payments on that. I don't know what the balance is and he's not here right now, but he's been making some payments on that as well. So, that's going to be less than the last report. Put it that way.
46:54
Unidentified Good.
46:57
Unidentified Going up.
46:58
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° It's not It's not going to I'll tell you what he told me. Uh just yesterday he said we were able to pay something on that debt and when we made payroll we were also able to pay the current and so we we made the payroll and we also paid the current taxes is what he reported to me yesterday so it it there's some positive signs again I don't know what the numbers are going to be but there are some positive signs and so uh but just as soon as we come out with the actual list we'll be able to just put like I said put put a calculator to it and we'll be able to determine where we are at this Okay.
47:31
Unidentified Uh I I I saw this today garbage truck accident and all.
47:40
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes, sir.
47:41
Unidentified Give us some update on
47:43
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Mr. St. Columbia if if you will. That I actually I added that to the agenda because of what that happened this morning. And so I added it to the agenda because we need to discuss that. Can we we'll come back and catch that in just a minute. We have uh two ordinances that we need to pass
47:58
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And then uh we'll we'll talk about that garbage truck because it's going to impact our garbage pickup.
48:03
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Um next item on the agenda is the millillage ordinance.
48:08
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Um the millage ordinance is a standard millage ordinance that's passed every year. Um the city has to pass it before the the collection of the taxes. As you all aware our taxes are due at property taxes are due next month and we have to pass this prime. It's the same standard.
48:26
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Same as every year.
48:27
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Every year. But it's required that we pass it every year.
48:30
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° Uh where I saw it here somewhere, I think.
48:35
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° What number is this, matter of fact? Number
48:37
Unidentified Seven.
48:38
Unidentified Seven.
48:39
Unidentified Okay. So,
48:42
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° Real real and personal properties, right?
48:44
Unidentified Yes, sir.
48:46
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° That's the same same old same old every year.
48:48
Unidentified Yes, sir.
48:50
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° What? Seventh number seven.
48:52
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yes, we will. If I may.
48:56
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yeah, I know what you're about to say. Go ahead.
48:58
City Attorney Andre Valley° We intend a motion to to suspend the rules places on third and final reading, reading the title only.
49:03
Councilman Joe St. Columbia I so moved.
49:04
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion by St. Columbia to place ordinance number seven on his third and final reading reading title only. Is there a second? Second by Miss Davis. Is there any discussion? Madam cl.
49:16
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes.
49:28
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Ordinance number 72025. Have an ordinance leving taxes on the realest real and personal property located within the city limit city of Hel West Helma based on 2024 assessment to defay general expenses of the city of Helena West Helena Arkansas for the year 2024 to pay pensions to retired police officers and firefighters and pension of widows and minor children of deceased police officers and firefighters and for other purposes.
49:53
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Is there a motion to adopt?
49:55
Councilman Joe St. Columbia So move
49:56
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion by St. Columbia to adopt ordinance number seven. Is there a second?
50:00
Roll call Roll-call vote — Joe St. Columbia: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
50:23
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Okay.
50:25
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly All right. That motion passes. This I mean that ordinance is adopted. Uh next item on the agenda is request for approval to purchase 100 garbage cans at $74 each. That comes from Yeah, it's next. It's Saturday. I'm sorry. Um the next item is a request for approval to purchase 100 garbage carts $74 each. Uh that comes from sanitation. We have a quite a few people who don't have carts or the carts are damaged. It's been a number of years since we bought carts. They actually wanted more than that. And uh we got together, talked to Miss Ramsey, uh talked to uh sanitation uh people and agreed that we could do a 100 carts, start off with 100, and then as we move on, maybe we can acquire some more. But this would allow them to replace some of the damage. You
51:20
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Got the money to buy Yes, sir. That
51:24
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° That's my concern.
51:25
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We We do.
51:28
Unidentified We definitely need them.
51:30
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And that's And that's $7,400 is is what the cost would be to purchase on the car.
51:36
Unidentified That's all. We're not dancing. 30 days. Put the button at the top. Put it on top.
51:48
Unidentified Let me show you. Time. How you put the thing off? That's what I'm trying to tell you. This ain't
51:55
Unidentified Nine years.
52:02
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° Where's the ordinance on that? I I didn't see it.
52:04
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° There's no It's It's below the bidding requirement, but it's above my my spending authority. And so, council would have to approve.
52:11
Unidentified Okay.
52:13
City Attorney Andre Valley° Okay. But I just ask for approve. 7,400. If it's 7,500, you have to bid it out. But it's below his it's above his spending limit is 5,000. And below bidding. But so you all can adopt it by just voting in the immediate.
52:26
Unidentified So we need to vote on it.
52:27
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yes, sir. You have to have a motion in a session.
52:29
Councilman Joe St. Columbia Okay. I'll make a motion that we buy the carts. We got the money to do it with like you say we have. So I'll make a motion that we buy the 100 carts.
52:41
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Yes, sir. Motion by St. Columbia to approve purchase of 100 garbage carts, $74 each. Second by Miss Miller. Is there any discussion? Madam clerk, please call.
52:52
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
53:03
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Missed it. Uh, motion passes. I'm sorry. I missed an ordinance to wave competitive bidding.
53:10
Unidentified Yeah.
53:18
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yeah. Last meeting. Yeah.
53:20
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Uh the clerk and the city attorney uh not well or they told me over the last couple weeks said, "Hey, we need to pass an ordinance to wave competitive bidding." And so that's what this is.
53:29
Unidentified Yeah.
53:32
Unidentified It's a dump truck. Huh.
53:34
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes, sir. The articulated truck.
53:35
Unidentified That's a very large dump truck.
53:39
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° It's designed to operate in a landfield is what what it is.
53:44
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° But you all already told the chief we could do it. Uh we've uh I reviewed all the contracts over the past couple of weeks. We've changed some of the language. The lawyers for for the finance company got back with me and we are ready to sign it, but we can't sign it until we have the approval.
54:02
City Attorney Andre Valley° Well, the mayor cannot sign until we have the approval.
54:04
Unidentified I don't
54:05
Unidentified What is that ordinance going to be?
54:07
Unidentified Number eight.
54:08
Unidentified Eight.
54:09
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Yes. Is is there a motion to suspend the rules placed on third final reading of time? Motion by Davis to place ordinance number eight on the third and final reading. Reading title only. Is there a second?
54:22
Councilman Joe St. Columbia I'll second.
54:24
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Second by St. Columbia. Is there any discussion?
54:28
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes.
54:37
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Yes. Ordinance number 8, 2025, ordinance waving competitive building in accordance with Arkansas code annotated section 1458303 authorizing to contract to purchase certain property for the city of Helma and for other related purposes. There need to be a motion to adopt.
54:52
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion by Sun Columbia to adopt. Is there a second?
54:57
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Second by Miss Davis. Any discussion, questions? Madam clerk, would you call the role?
55:03
Unidentified Yes.
55:05
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Davis. Yes. Messina.
55:08
Councilman Adrian Messina° Yes.
55:10
Councilman Joe St. Columbia Yes.
55:11
Councilman Joe St. Columbia I move we accept the emergency clause. Says emergency clause in there.
55:17
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Yes, sir. Uh motion to approve the emergency clauses by St. Columbia. Is there a second?
55:22
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Second by Davis. Madam clerk, would you call the role?
55:25
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Ma,
55:26
Councilman Adrian Messina yes.
55:27
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mayor Eile.
55:28
Unidentified Yes. Mr. St. Columbia. Yes. Dr. Biller. Yes. Miss Miller.
55:31
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes. Miss Davis. Yes. That ordinance passes. Uh the next item on the agenda is a base pay ordinance amendment for cler clerical position for the clerk's office. Uh you should have in front of you.
55:49
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yeah, this is a rough draft in front of you is ordinance number 9 2025. Uh so that there wouldn't be any alarm. We only dealing with one position in this whole ordinance to amend it. uh so that this body could know and this is a position that madame clerk wanted u uh and I'll defer to Mr. Eth and madam clerk.
56:11
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Okay. So um Ramsey, correct me if I'm wrong, Miss Ramsey is losing a full-time employee this week and that will leave her with one deputy clerk in her office. And so this particular position had been filled by Miss Diane Tyler for a number of years. Miss Tyler at the time that she left the city was making approximately $50,000 a year. This particular item in the base pay ordinance has not been changed since its creation in 2006. It was set at minimum wage. And so, um, for the duties that this person will have to perform, and let me say this, the person who's leaving currently makes $15 an hour. What we asked to do is to set it at a competitive rate at $14 an hour, and Miss Ramsay is not going to take on a full-time person to refill the seat. She's going to try to find a part-time person, but we have to change the base pay in order to do it. Uh we talked about this over the last couple of weeks. Uh we tried to find some options. We we could not, but she believes she can fill it with a part-time person if we can find one. Uh the concern is the types of duties that this person will have. They'll have to do reports for Apers, reports for Lafy. And you heard some of the horror stories that were told by Mr. Edwards when he was here about reports being sent to different agencies. I don't know how to I want to say it nicely, but we want someone who's going to have a certain skill set to be able to handle these reports. And in the past, we've had people who had that ability, but we want to be able to attract someone who has that ability to do these reports. But again, she's going to try to fill it with a part-time person. And so, this level of pay will be less than what the person who currently holds the position makes. It'll be less than that. and going to try to do it with a part-time person so that she has at least two people in that office.
58:14
City Attorney Andre Valley° Right? This does not fund the position. This creates the position and creates the parameters for the pay. Uh you still would have to fund the position. U but you funded it a larger amount already in your budget if you get what I'm saying. Uh but this is doing the the base pay uh to show that you could start the salary out commisserate with this type of salary. And madame clerk has said she wants a part-time person in l of a full-time person.
58:41
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And she's here, so I don't want to I don't want to talk over her. She she she can.
58:47
Unidentified So if I said anything wrong, please correct me. I don't want to say anything that's wrong.
58:50
Unidentified I'm just curious. Do do you have to do a base pay? Can you just give them more money? Can you just pay them more money?
58:56
City Attorney Andre Valley° Well, no, because the person who comes in will be taking the position new and then they will be bound by at least for the first six months at minimum wage.
59:04
Unidentified Okay. whatever that current.
59:06
Unidentified Yeah. And that she this person is going to have to do some things that we we really want somebody who's going to bring, you know,
59:13
Unidentified I understand the say and I think that it should be increased. I was just wondering because it seemed like I had heard that somewhere, but I may have misheard that that a base pay is just a base, but that you can pay somebody more than the base pay. Well, with the council's approval, you can the council can amend it, but it really is for the council to know what's being paid when people walk in the door.
59:36
Unidentified I got you. At least for 6 months.
59:38
Unidentified Well, then the other thing is it cuts off the negotiation part of it. Uh when we bring people into the city, you know, um
59:45
Unidentified this is the pay.
59:46
Unidentified Yeah. This this is what it pays. And so you don't have to deal with all that how much am I going to make? And
59:51
Unidentified some people negotiate a starting rate. This is what it pay.
59:55
Unidentified Also, Dr. Miller, before um when you first came on, you had talked to Mayor Franklin, most Etherly about why don't we change B pay to do like ranges. We still haven't gotten there.
1:00:06
Unidentified Yeah.
1:00:07
Unidentified Like you you discussed how typically jobs have a salary range from this to this.
1:00:11
Unidentified Yeah.
1:00:12
Unidentified We wanted to go there, but we haven't done so.
1:00:14
Unidentified I'm sorry.
1:00:15
City Attorney Andre Valley But in next year's budget, that may be something that when we do the budget, we'll do salary ranges to start from here to here. Yeah. To give some discretion. But the the the primary intent of base pay is so you had a history of mayors who were just basically slipping people in and paying them and so I'm pulling this line on this line out the council would look up and say how do we have all these employees and where they come from and how how do we know how how this person is being paid
1:00:40
Unidentified and so it was for clarity
1:00:42
Unidentified and that's basically what the base pays for. So you all would nothing be pulled over your eyes and you say well how did how did Andre Val get on payroll and when did we start paying him? why how do you make this much money?
1:00:53
Unidentified You would know from the front door that here's the line item, here's the position, let's start with the where the position is, where is it is in the budget. And so that's the two work together like that.
1:01:03
Unidentified I I was just thinking more like if so you if you do the base pay then you're locked into a higher salary, but in this case it's so low,
1:01:11
Unidentified right? Typically it starts
1:01:13
Unidentified it probably needs to come up anyway.
1:01:14
Unidentified Yes. I'm sorry to interrupt you.
1:01:15
Unidentified That's okay. But typically what it's done is the council set it lower and then raises um after six months. Yeah.
1:01:23
Unidentified But you know it's up to the body how how you do it. Uh but basically it hadn't been really been being dealt with because of
1:01:32
Unidentified the looming financial issues etc. But again for clarity you can change it to say hey I think this should start from this range to this range or this range because you did the c body did change as part of the other base pays like CDL driver we saying did a range from like $13 to $17 something like that. So you going to have a So you'll have a a deputy and then there'll be a um
1:02:03
Unidentified partner person.
1:02:11
Unidentified Right now we don't we won't have anybody but we'll
1:02:14
Unidentified she has one deputy one full-time deputy and when she loses that other person
1:02:17
Unidentified stand
1:02:18
Unidentified right
1:02:19
Unidentified this person stand.
1:02:20
Unidentified Okay. And then you okay this is this is less
1:02:24
Unidentified this is less than the person what the person making who's leaving.
1:02:26
Unidentified No no no I understand that I just I was making sure it was fully it was properly staffed. Okay.
1:02:32
Unidentified And of course in in her office they they need to have enough people to have proper segregation of duties so that they don't cross over each other as well. and and so yeah, we but we're trying to do it as a and still save some money on on the payroll by trying to attract a part-time person. So
1:02:56
Unidentified So what if we don't never mind?
1:03:02
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° This will require a motion um to adjance number nine by placing it on his third and final reading, reading the title on it. If the council so chooses to adopt.
1:03:17
Councilwoman Maxine Miller So move.
1:03:18
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller I'll second.
1:03:20
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion by M. Maxine Miller, second by Mr. Kyle Miller to adopt ordinance number nine of 2025 by placing it on its third and final reading reading the title only. Is there any discussion? Madam clerk, would you call the RO?
1:03:39
Roll call Roll-call vote — Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
1:04:06
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion to adopt by Miss Miller. Is there a second? Second by Miss Davis. Is there any discussion? Madam Cler, would you call the role?
1:04:20
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
1:04:31
Unidentified Emergency.
1:04:32
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly There's an emergency clause. Is there a motion to adopt?
1:04:35
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Some move. Motion by Miss Miller to adopt emergency clause. Is there a second?
1:04:43
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Second by Miss Davis. Any discussion? Madam clerk, please call.
1:04:48
Roll call Roll-call vote — Maxine Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes.
1:04:59
Unidentified The garbage truck.
1:05:01
Unidentified Okay.
1:05:02
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° I I sent you all some an email this morning along with some pictures. Uh we got a call this morning around 10 10:30 or so. There had been an accident on Fourth Street down by Dotto School. Uh we had a garbage truck. Um I'm learning these numbers from the guys in sanitation. It's 55. It's one of the automated trucks that has the arm. It was hit from the rear by a car that apparently uh was driven by an individual who was not paying attention. Uh there were no skid marks. It slammed into the rear of that garbage truck. Uh I'm told that uh uh there were injuries. I do not know the condition of the person who um who was driving the vehicle. They were taken uh to the hospital by by ambulance. Um the it was a minivan. It was it looked really bad. It looked really bad. The windshield was completely crushed in. Um but uh the garbage truck suffered some damage to the rear. The wheels were completely knocked from the uh from the from the unit. itself dislodged. I sent you. You can see that in the pictures. Also, the uh the rear of the truck uh was damaged and just the um the eyeballing of it says that truck is is basically it's not going to be usable anymore. Probably going to be totaled out. Uh that's just the eyeballing of it. Yeah, that that the hydraulics on the back were completely um
1:06:28
Unidentified Is this the new one?
1:06:29
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° No, that's not the new truck. That's not the new truck.
1:06:31
Unidentified I thought that at first. That's not Okay. The new truck is a rear-end loader. It's not the rear end loader. It's one of the automated trucks.
1:06:38
Unidentified The arm on the
1:06:39
Unidentified Yeah, it's one of the arm. But Okay. So, let me go back a couple weeks. Couple weeks ago, uh, garbage was late being picked up.
1:06:47
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly This particular truck, the arm did not work. This is a 2000. Miss Ramsey did the research on this. We bought this truck in 2016. Apparently, we paid uh $218,000, I think, what she told her, back in 2016. So, it's been in use for uh close to 10 years now. Uh we had some trouble out of the arm a couple of weeks ago. It took for an entire week. We had to have We had one truck that picked up garbage. That was the new truck, the rear end loader. The rear end loader requires people. Uh the guys walk along, they walk the carts up, they dump the trash. Also, they had to use one of the front end loaders. That's the one that picks up the dumpster. They they use it to pick up a dumpster and carry it around. And then guys dumped carts in into that uh into that dumpster. That always scares me because people can get injured that way. However, uh it took them all week using that one truck to pick up the entire city. Uh on Monday of last week, after two trips to Memphis and some some telephone conversation with the company in Memphis, they got that arm working. And so we got back on schedule last week. That's this particular truck because of of course the automated truck can pick up more garbage than the walkbehind. Walk behind is more reliable, but the automated truck can pick up more garbage. Need to handle it faster. So this one is not usable anymore probably total. And we're down to that one truck again to pick up residential garbage. So that's why I said garbage pickup is going to be impacted. So, we're down to that one truck. Um, Miss Ramsey uh got on got on the ball today. Try to get insurance claims filed, but we don't even have a report yet. So, we'll try to verify coverage for the the person who hit the truck. It's probably not enough to buy a garbage truck. We have some coverage. I don't know what they'll pay on. Those things are unknown to us at this point. So, we don't know what time frame we're looking at if we're trying to replace it. Um but but we'll know as in the coming days and weeks. Uh our immediate concern is that during that period of time when we only had one truck, we had guys working around the clock every day picking up garbage. That meant overtime. So we're going to have some more overtime. We also have a second alternative. I asked them to assemble some numbers for me so that we can find out how how much we spent in overtime uh have using all of those our people versus sometime a year or so ago, a couple of years ago, we paid someone to come in and we rented a truck and had a guy who came in contract. That's $125 per hour. And so what we need to decide is if we're going to pay the overtime or we're going to pay the contract. Um, probably for our citizens, it's better if we do the contracting. Uh, but that's for you guys to decide how you want to spend your money. It's going to cost us some extra money in the short run. That's because we only have one operational truck. This is one of those things when I say we're fragile, this is one of those things we were really fragile on. Uh, we got one boom truck in operation. We had two garbage trucks and one front end loader in operation. And we lost one of those residential pickup trucks today. So, my suggestion, approve a certain approve a certain amount of money for contracting. Um, the guy's picked up for us before, so he'll know the routes. Minimize
1:10:37
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly contract cost us. How much? It's $125 an hour. So if you if you do that, let's say let's let's let's look at it a different way. Uh how many hours a day? Let's say maybe eight hours would take
1:10:59
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° six I'm I'm just making up these numbers because I don't know how many hours it would take. Let's say 6 hours a day. 6 * 125 is 750 * 5. That would be 3,700 a week. Um, the overtime I don't have. Let's see if I can figure out who did send me something. I don't know what the total is on the overtime. I don't know what the total because we haven't finished the pay period yet. So that overtime hasn't been totally calculated in the system yet. But I know they they they basically work seven days because they only had that one truck to pick up all the garbage. So um my suggestion is maybe you approve a week and then we see where we are next week.
1:11:54
Unidentified It was
1:11:55
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° I said my suggestion is maybe you approve a week and then we Miss Ramsey says the adjuster will be here to take a look at the truck on Monday. So, we'll have someone here next week. So, perhaps we'll approve a week. I'm just guessing at that number, $3,700, and then the adjuster will be here. Maybe we'll know more about the truck, the damage truck.
1:12:15
Unidentified It might be the thing to do in an emergency.
1:12:19
Unidentified Yeah,
1:12:21
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° that's fine. But yes, sir. What Mr. Valley was saying is you'll have to call a special call meeting. If we don't, you know, if it's not, if we don't have something resolved by next week, and clearly we probably won't, but we'll know more next week.
1:12:35
Unidentified Yeah.
1:12:36
Unidentified So, if we can approach it in that manner, at least you'll know what you're getting into.
1:12:40
Unidentified And we don't go down the road of, you know,
1:12:42
Unidentified we have a habit of spending money on things and then figuring out months later that we should have bought something.
1:12:48
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° And so, let's let's if we take it in small bites, we can figure out next week where we are and then we can do an assessment as to what we need to do. That's my suggestion
1:13:05
Unidentified to pick up our garbage for one week
1:13:09
Unidentified and that's at $125 an hour.
1:13:14
Councilwoman Maxine Miller Second
1:13:17
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly motion by Davis to approve uh retaining the contract to the pickup garbage at $125 an hour. Uh second by Miss Miller. Is there any discussion?
1:13:29
Unidentified Clar your one week that will conclude this week and next week's route.
1:13:33
Unidentified No, that's that's going to be
1:13:34
Unidentified that's this week's route.
1:13:35
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° That'll be this week's route and then we'll reassess next week.
1:13:38
Unidentified Okay.
1:13:40
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° We'll take it on a weekby-eek basis.
1:13:45
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Any discussion? Uh madam clerk calls.
1:13:49
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
1:14:02
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Just this week.
1:14:03
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Another truck since it just happened today. Haven't had time to do all of the the research. One of the things that we need to do is just check to see what it's going to cost to replace it. And then that'll also play into what we find out from the adjuster. Um, we're pretty certain it's going to be totaled out. We don't know how much money that's going to get us because we'll only get market value for the truck. Market value is not going to be what it was 10 years ago, right? So, we'll have some money to play with. We just don't know how much. So, we'll see. We'll search the market over these next few days and we'll see what's out there and what's available for us. So, when we come back next week, we'll know that we're what we're doing and we'll know what the cost of replacement is going to be.
1:14:44
Unidentified So, again, it happened at 10 o'clock this morning. So, don't know all the the moving parts this year. That's why I saw five police cars going in a straight line on for street.
1:14:54
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes, sir. That that probably was.
1:14:55
Unidentified That's what it was.
1:14:56
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yes, sir. And by the time I got there, they had removed the uh the minivan. They were towing it away, but it was uh it was not a nice looking scene. And so hopefully, you know, the person who was driving that vehicle is also okay. Uh but we don't know the condition of that at this point.
1:15:12
Unidentified Amazing. You can walk away that accident. That car is in bad shape.
1:15:18
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Pretty bad accident. Um, next item on the agenda is going to be uh I just got this today, so I I slipped in two event permits, and that's because they came in late, but uh these are timesensitive, so we want to go ahead and try to take care of them. Uh there's an event permit for Central High School homecoming parade. And as you know, every year during homecoming, Central has a parade. I think they start on Fourth Street or Plaza, I'm sorry. They start on Plaza, maybe at Fourth and Plaza if I'm not mistaken, and then they go all the way down to uh the high school. They have turn submitted a permit to conduct their parade. It's going to take place on uh what's the date on that?
1:16:03
Councilwoman Monica Davis October 10th.
1:16:04
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° October 10th. Thank you, Miss
1:16:06
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Davis. October the 10th. And that's a Friday and it usually takes place in the afternoon. Um, I have it here and all of the department heads have signed off on it. Um, so
1:16:17
Councilman Joe St. Columbia I move we approve uh their request.
1:16:20
Unidentified Okay.
1:16:21
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion by St. Columbia to approve the event permit request for the homecoming parade for Central High School Homecoming. Is there a second?
1:16:28
Councilwoman Maxine Miller Second.
1:16:32
Roll call Roll-call vote — Joe St. Columbia: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
1:16:44
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Next is an event permit from Delta Magic. Uh they're having an October Fest block party. Um that's going to take place uh the date is October the 2nd, I believe. No fourth.
1:16:56
Unidentified October 4th. And and so No. Well, it says October 5th.
1:17:01
Unidentified Oh, sorry.
1:17:02
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° Yeah. No, no problem. No problem. October 5th at 10:00 a.m. Oh, well, they have inflicting date. They got October 4th and October 5th, but it's their permit. It's going to be on whichever date is a Saturday. It marks it as Saturday. So, they got two dates in there. October October 5th. That's going to be a Saturday. So, Delta Magic and they're having an October Fest event down there. Says Block Party celebrating a fall festival with local vendors, food trucks, and activities. They also have all of the u the signatures. And is there a motion to approve that permit?
1:17:38
Councilman Joe St. Columbia I move second.
1:17:40
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Motion by St. Columbia to approve the permit of Delta Magic. Second by Mr. Messina. Is there any discussion?
1:17:47
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Madam Clerk, please call the RO.
1:17:49
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mayor.
1:17:50
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Yes.
1:17:53
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Dr. Miller. Yes. Mr.
1:17:57
Unidentified Yes.
1:17:59
Unidentified Yes. discussion.
1:18:00
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly Also, that's the last item on the agenda. You should have in your packet an ordinance permitting the disposal of grass clippings, yard waste, and other litter on the public streets, sidewalks, and rightways in the city of Helen, West Helena. This is for your review. It will actually be on the agenda for the first meeting in October, but wanted to get it to you so you can take a look at it between now and then. Uh, see if you have any questions on it. That's going to be for code enforcement. Yes, sir.
1:18:24
Unidentified Also, I want to say something too. I sent you guys a text. I know it's last minute, but there's a a event that's being planned for the same time as Bluesfest uh on the on the river at the River Park. And uh I was want to know if maybe Chief can kind of look into that because we got things going with Blues Festival and that going on at the River Park. That could just all be kind of a confusion. I sent you guys a text about it, but you did. Yeah, but they have not they have not asked for a permit yet.
1:18:52
Unidentified They haven't asked for a permit. I did. They may not know that they needed to do that.
1:18:56
Unidentified And this is on the group.
1:18:58
Unidentified Well,
1:18:59
Unidentified that's I think that's on the
1:19:01
Unidentified It's just Cherry.
1:19:02
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° I reached out to that individual.
1:19:04
Unidentified Okay, good.
1:19:11
Unidentified Okay, good.
1:19:12
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° He called me the other day. He told me I told him that in order to use city facilities, you have to have an event permit and it has to be approved by the council. He told me that they do not intend to use any city facilities. Um and so uh he he asked a different question about a different u a different something and I told him he needed to see code enforcement for an occupational permit. So what was presented to me is that those things that are on that advertisement are not going to happen that they they are not going to have any events at the river park, the Helena Park or the like. That's what was told to me. If they do, they don't have a permit, they would be subject to being shut down because you have to have a permit. And so, I understand what you're saying about the blues festival and different events going on. But right now, there's no permit that's been pre um presented. And so, I would imagine that the the chief would say, "No, we can't handle all of those things at once." Yeah.
1:20:10
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly° But so, he would have to get past the chief first before it even made it to this to this form. So, right now, what was told him is that they do not intend to have anything that uses old city facilities.
1:20:19
Unidentified Okay. So it looks like it's a good a good event just you know just all those different things going on that makes it kind of difficult.
1:20:27
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly So um I don't think there's any other business to come before the body. Is there
1:20:33
Unidentified we then
1:20:34
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly motion by St. Columbia to adjourn second by Mr. Messina. There's unanimous vote.
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.