In 30 seconds
- No old business was taken up; the "approval of previous minutes" item printed on the agenda was not conducted at this meeting.
- Sanitation mechanic Dexter Smith reported only 2 fully dependable trucks in the fleet; the city is renting 3 replacement trucks for about $30,000/month for roughly 4 months, and Smith says the department needs 4 more trucks (2 residential, 1 boom, 1 commercial) plus stronger department leadership.
- Mayor Whitfield moved sanitation under Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold the evening before the meeting; a full-time sanitation director search is still open.
- Council approved 3 water department invoices (Ten Carva $6,248; West Coast Concrete $4,650; Quattlebaum Plumbing $6,250; about $17,149 total), 5-0, for grant-funded pump station, sewer line, and leak-repair work.
- Council adopted a resolution 6-0 asking the EPA to waive the local match on a $4.5 million congressionally directed water grant secured through Senator John Boozman's office.
- Council has about 4 weeks before the truck rental ends to decide between keeping sanitation in-house (mayor's stated preference, funded by sanitation fees) or contracting a vendor (GFL, Waste Management, or Republic Services); the city attorney warned outsourcing removes the city's ability to guarantee a vendor exclusivity under Arkansas law.
Recap
Roll Call; No Old Business Taken Up
Five council members were present for roll call, establishing a quorum . Although the printed agenda listed "Approval of previous minutes" under Old Business, the mayor stated there was no old business on the agenda for the meeting, and no minutes were presented or voted on .
Sanitation Department: Fleet Status
City mechanic Dexter Smith, who has worked for the department about three and a half years, told the council one truck (#55) was not repairable, a second (#32) was awaiting parts, and an 11-year-old boom truck was down for a PTO pump . Three replacement trucks (two residential, one commercial) arrived that morning under a roughly $30,000-per-month rental expected to run about four months . Smith said the department has two trucks it can fully depend on and needs four more (two residential, one boom, one commercial) to clear the backlog, and that the shortage involves both equipment and department leadership, with hiring authority resting with the mayor .
Sanitation Staff Report: Backlog and Leadership Change
New sanitation employee Mickey Dingus, on the job 11 days, said crews removed 116 tons (232,000 pounds) of garbage in that span using two working vehicles, covering roughly 25 commercial dumpsters and 400-500 residential cans a day . He said the department, serving Helena, West Helena, and Lake View, had been down to a trash truck and a pickup with large-item and boom-truck pickup unavailable, that billing adjustments require water-and-sanitation-supervisor approval, and that overgrown-lot complaints were forwarded to code enforcement . Mayor Whitfield told the council he moved sanitation under Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold the previous evening for administrative efficiency, and that a full-time director search remains open .
Vendor vs. In-House: Cost, Legal Limits, and a Deadline
Mayor Whitfield said the city has about four weeks, as the truck rental runs out, to choose between keeping sanitation in-house or contracting a vendor; it has contacted GFL, Waste Management, and Republic Services, with a Republic representative visiting the next day . Councilman Joe St. Columbia calculated that four new trucks at last year's purchase price ($250,000-$300,000 each) would cost about $1.2 million against a city debt Mayor Whitfield put at roughly $4 million , and Councilman Don Etherly warned that outsourcing could cut city revenue and raise residents' sanitation fees, since vendors typically pass truck costs to customers . City Attorney Andre Valley cited Hedrick v. City of Holiday Island (CV 24-659, 2025 Ark. 194) to explain that sanitation is not a legal franchise in Arkansas, so a city that contracts the service out cannot guarantee a vendor exclusivity, and relayed the treasurer's figures that sanitation brought in $1.5 million against $1.3 million in expenses in 2025 (about $140,000 profit) on a household rate unchanged at $28/month for over 10 years . Mayor Whitfield said his preference is to keep sanitation in-house, funding a fleet update from sanitation fees , though Valley cautioned those fees have historically also funded other city departments .
Debt, Equipment Auction Plan, and Next Steps
Mayor Whitfield described his approach to the roughly $4 million city debt as ongoing negotiation with creditors, without promising a fast resolution . He said the prior directive was to auction unusable sanitation equipment through Witcher Auctions, following the approach the landfill used in late 2025 to fund a new pickup truck, noting council would first need to authorize the auction . A council member raised paying off two old ANRC loans (roughly $300,000 combined) early to help cash flow, and the mayor agreed to get a total . As a next step, the mayor said he would task Chief of Staff Martin-Arnold with pricing used trucks, with a follow-up meeting planned before the next scheduled council meeting .
Water Department: Three Invoices Approved (about $17,149, 5-0)
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose presented three invoices: Ten Carva ($6,248) for automation work at the Midland Heights pump station, funded under a $75,000 Delta Catalyst Fund grant covering repairs to two pump stations ; West Coast Concrete ($4,650) for clearing access to an Oak Forest sewer line tied to the city's ADEQ consent order, after sewage was detected in a nearby ditch and reported to the state ; and Quattlebaum Plumbing ($6,250) for leak repairs in Helena and West Helena ahead of a $2.5 million DRA grant funding a five-area water-line replacement in West Helena . The council approved all three, totaling about $17,149, by roll call, 5-0 . Rose also reported that a recently drilled well is producing low flow, with testing underway on whether its screen is clogged or the local aquifer has been drawn down, plans for a chemical cleaning (contractor Jones Hydro) and an additional new well, and said this work draws on water department revenue and grant funds, not the city's general fund .
EPA Water Grant: $4.5 Million, Local-Match Waiver Adopted 6-0
John Edwards, representing the Helena-West Helena-Phillips County Port Authority, told the council a request he submitted in 2025 resulted in $4.5 million in congressionally directed water-system funding, secured through Senator John Boozman's office and now routed through the federal EPA . He presented a resolution asking the EPA to waive the local matching requirement, a provision available for this funding type, given the city's finances . Edwards estimated total water-system needs (plants, towers, wells, pumps, lines) at $60-80 million over the next 10 years and urged residents and crews to call Arkansas One Call before digging . The council adopted the resolution 6-0 .
Public Comment: Water Billing, Blight, and a Towing Dispute
With about 15 minutes opened for public comment (roughly five minutes per speaker), resident Shirley Garner described a family-property sewer dispute and said the city left water running at an empty rental house for three months, running up a bill of about $1,200-$1,300 before a returning tenant flooded the property, while her own occupied home was separately cut off over a second bill in the same period ; she said the mayor drafted a complaint letter for her to sign months earlier that no council member has since seen . The mayor responded that staff helped her seek relief through the Arkansas Municipal League, that general funds could not be used for a private resident's claim, and that he does not send personal correspondence on individual resident issues ; the city attorney separately noted state law bars the city from favoritism in utility shutoffs, with violators subject to prosecution and removal from office . Resident Nathan Robinson raised disputed water charges, delayed bulk-trash pickup, unresolved blight near his home, and a $100 late fee on a bill under $100 . Residents Lori and William Harris raised an unresolved code-enforcement towing dispute, with Harris saying the mayor had not returned his calls; the mayor committed to arranging a meeting with the residents' attorney, and the city attorney reminded the council it cannot restrict what public speakers say once comment is allowed .
Adjournment
Before adjourning, the council noted a legislative joint audit needs to be added to the next meeting's agenda . The meeting adjourned on a motion and second .
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
Meeting Packet Cover
Cover page for the July 7, 2026 Helena-West Helena City Council meeting packet. Shows the city seal and packet date only. No agenda or financial content appears on this page.
Tencarva Machinery Sales Quotation — Sewer Pump Parts and Service
Sales quotation T246734 from Tencarva Machinery Company (Memphis, TN branch) to Helena Municipal Sewer Department, dated 06/24/2026, prepared by sales engineer Jake Houston. Lists service labor and parts for pump repair: TMC service labor, thermostat, relay, wear plate assembly, Gorman Rupp spacer plate, O-rings, and field service supplies. Subtotal $5,655.10 plus tax $593.80 for a gross total of $6,248.90; quote valid 20 days, payment terms net 30. Standard Tencarva terms and conditions (warranty, liability limits, cancellation policy) follow on the next page.
| Quotation Gross Total | $6,248.90 | |
| Quotation Subtotal | $5,655.10 | |
| Tax Total | $593.80 | |
| TMC Service Labor (12 EA) | $2,256.00 | |
| Wear Plate Assy (2 EA) | $1,959.70 |
West Coast Concrete Invoice — Tree Removal and Debris Haul
Invoice #10676 from West Coast Concrete, Inc. (Las Vegas, NV) billed to City of Helena, dated 06/30/2026, due 07/30/2026 under net-30 terms. Charge covers Phase 1 work: removal of three oak trees and haul-away of debris from a pipe, done in preparation for phase 2. Balance due is $4,650.00.
| Invoice Total / Balance Due | $4,650.00 |
Quattlebaum Plumbing Invoice — Water Department Labor
Invoice #3624 from Quattlebaum Plumbing Company, Inc. (West Helena, AR) billed to City of Helena-West Helena, dated 6/22/2026, due on receipt, stamped received 6/23/2026. Covers pay period June 15-17, 2026: Crew #1 logged 20.5 hours of labor billed at $6,150.00, Crew #2 logged 0 hours, and miscellaneous repair parts cost $100.00, for a total of $6,250.00.
| Invoice Total | $6,250.00 | |
| Crew #1 Labor (20.5 hrs) | $6,150.00 | |
| Materials | $100.00 |
Helena Municipal Water & Sewer Daily Activity Log
Handwritten daily-activity summary sheet for Helena Municipal Water & Sewer, 702 Cherry Street, for equipment operator crew "OPR #2," signed and dated 6/22/2026. Logs three work entries on 6/16 and 6/17/2026 at addresses on Roosevelt, Main, and Valley Drive, covering service-line repair, replacement, and clamp work using a trackhoe and pump. Total hours logged: 20.5, matching the pay period reported on the Quattlebaum Plumbing invoice.
| Total Hours Logged | 20.5 hours |
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 ↗
0:20
All present Recording in progress. Meeting will come to order now. Our Father who art in heaven, be thy name. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, power, and glory forever. Amen. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
4:41
Roll call Roll call (attendance) — present: Maxine Miller, Dr. Kyle Miller, Adrian Messina, Joe St. Columbia, Don Etherly, Monica Davis. (Attendance verified in the Workroom review by Robert.) The clerk's spoken count differed from the verified attendance; the verified attendance stands.
4:54
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Five present. We do have a quorum and so we were able to conduct business today as there is no old business um currently on our agenda for tonight. We have five um business items and we'll start off with um our first item for the evening the sanitation employee uh some sanitation employees wanted to present to the council. Um, at this time I'll call them up, but this is a presentation by them regarding department operations, staffing concerns, and recommendations for approvement. So, at this time, I'll ask for the representatives from the sanitation department to approach the podium. Um, we're ready for you.
5:39
Unidentified How everybody doing this evening? Good. Good.
5:41
Dexter Smith - city mechanic All right. Uh, I'm Dex Smith from sanitation department, city mechanic. I'm here for any question that you need to have on the machinery we have or the fleet we have or trucks we have. I've been watching city council uh I guess about 7 8 months now. It's been a big agenda about the trucks we have. Why they can't do this? Why they can't do that. If a truck 7 anywhere from 71 years old a semi ain't too much you can do to it no more. Get rid of it. So everybody that want to know who I am I'm right here. If you need to have any questions about our fleet at sanitation department, I'm here to answer any question that you have. But the order is we need to get more truck.
6:23
Unidentified Can I ask a question?
6:24
Unidentified Yes, sir.
6:25
Unidentified What is our present situation in the fleet now?
6:29
Dexter Smith - city mechanic Well, the present situation of the fleet now 55. I don't think it's too much help with 55. 32. We got parts on the way for number 32. But as of this morning, we got three new trucks. We got two more residential trucks and one uh commercial truck to add in the one commercial one one residential that we already have. So we had three trucks to go out this morning. But I think they here for about four months ain't so we got to start thinking about the four months what we going to do about truck if y'all want the trash get picked up probably like y'all want to. They say [clears throat] the guys ting trucks up. I hear a lot of stuff going on, but I'm the one working on. Ain't nobody tying no truck up. If you use the same truck daily doing the same thing and you can't park that truck, money, we might be out do the maintenance on the trucks. I can't do them. But we had two trucks and every morning for three and a half years, almost four now. Every morning for three and a half years, almost four, I got to come and do something to make them trucks go every day. But I hear a lot of people talking though. Well, can you can you do that? Give me that rundown again. So, you got 55 he says dead. 32 needs parts and then
7:45
Unidentified Yeah, we got parts on the way for 32.
7:46
Unidentified Okay. And then where are other other vehicles?
7:48
Unidentified So, what now?
7:49
Unidentified And then what's the list of our other ones?
7:51
Unidentified We got a uh we got a boom truck down now. It's about 11 years old. It ain't a PTO pump. I think we got a PTO order for it. Okay.
7:59
Unidentified But the truck is up and running now. You got 37 the three uh uh the two residentials that y'all had got uh this morning and one commercial and we got uh uh one one brand new boom truck out
8:12
Unidentified after this morning.
8:14
Unidentified And that's a new the new mother truck.
8:16
Unidentified Yes, sir.
8:18
Unidentified Is it okay?
8:19
Unidentified It's okay. It needs some air conditioning work, but it's okay.
8:21
Unidentified That's the one we own.
8:23
Unidentified That's the one we bought.
8:24
Unidentified The one we bought, right? The B truck,
8:26
Unidentified right? It is working five days a week to boom truck.
8:32
Unidentified Sometimes six.
8:35
Unidentified At least five days. Sometimes six.
8:38
Unidentified So most of the time six.
8:40
Unidentified Most of the time six.
8:41
Unidentified Yeah. Cuz it goes out and have to do the commercial route for the commercial truck to get get the dumpsters. The only way to keep up the dumpster. You got to run that boom truck every day. What the commercial part of.
8:51
Unidentified You're using the boom truck to do commercial.
8:55
Unidentified Yes, sir.
8:55
Unidentified Yeah. So you see debris on side of the road, they aren't able to just get the debris because they got to keep up with the commercial part of it.
9:05
Unidentified So you got the So you got the boom. So the ones that we had are running this boom truck for now and then 37.
9:13
Unidentified That's it.
9:14
Unidentified Then we got the run the rentals,
9:15
Unidentified right?
9:16
Unidentified Which one is 37? Is that the res?
9:18
Unidentified Yes. The walk behind. Do you have someone assigned each day to check the oil in the trucks, the tires of the trucks, the daily maintenance? Do you have someone assigned for that?
9:34
Unidentified I'm the man to do that.
9:35
Unidentified You do it yourself?
9:36
Unidentified I do it myself.
9:37
Unidentified Every morning. Every morning. The drivers at by CDL by CDL drivers, they supposed to come in and pre-check their trucks. But normally they don't do that. I come in, start the trucks up, bring them down, get them ready to go every morning for three and a half years.
9:54
Unidentified You personally check the oil and the tires and the fluids every morning yourself.
10:01
Unidentified Yes, sir.
10:04
Unidentified So, omitting the trucks that we're renting, you're saying that we have a number 55 which is out. We have a number 32 that needs parts. We have a boom truck which you are using for commercial use and side debris.
10:22
Unidentified And then we have another 37 that's residential and is functioning.
10:26
Unidentified Mhm.
10:26
Unidentified So we have four trucks but only three of those are actually functional.
10:31
Unidentified Right.
10:33
Unidentified And then the commercial truck
10:35
Unidentified right now. Right now it ain't it ain't two of them actually functional. That's 37 in the new boom truck.
10:39
Unidentified The commercial truck. Is it still in the shop?
10:41
Unidentified I think so. Yes, sir.
10:43
Unidentified Why has it been taking so long? I don't talk to nobody. I just I just come do work.
10:48
Unidentified Yeah.
10:50
Unidentified Um
10:53
Unidentified do you think that it would be more um do you think it'd be better if we went with like leases? Like we just did a rotation of leases.
11:03
Unidentified I thought about this as I've been here in a while. They don't lease trucks up. That way you ain't got to worry about if you do have a major problem with a truck you leasing it. They'll go get you another truck while that truck ain't work though. That's what le all about.
11:17
Unidentified Yes, sir.
11:18
Unidentified They won't leave you just know what I'm saying? You can't do can't do nothing. They ain't gonna do that. They won't do that.
11:25
Unidentified So, if we were not able, let's just say we we could say if we couldn't afford to lease. If we were able to somehow purchase one truck, would that help?
11:38
Unidentified Not to keep up like we should. You'll see. You'll see in the next two days, you going to see the guys out there. You know, I heard people say they ain't they ain't trying to do it. If they got the right equipment, the drivers we got, if they got the right equipment, they going to go out there perform. I'm telling you, they going to go get it. I got all I don't know about the new guys coming in, but the old guys that we have here.
12:02
Unidentified And so, you're keeping records um of everything that you're doing in the morning. Is there like a a book, a folder, uh something that you're keeping?
12:12
Unidentified They came up with a certain platform at one time, uh a checklist that I should do. It just never kept rotating around to where everybody on one page. Now, we got some drivers. We got I think we got one driver still do it. Terry Terry Goss. I think he still does it. I signed him. But we supposed to have a uh I should have like a uh
12:37
Unidentified a log
12:37
Unidentified a log book every day when I come in. I should I should have to go make this up or none of this. I should have a log book that I should have. I can come in check everything off at the end of the day and write everything down that I done.
12:50
Unidentified Is there a reason why they are not doing that?
12:54
Unidentified It's been like that way before I came.
12:56
Unidentified Wait for my time.
12:57
Unidentified How long have you been here?
12:58
Unidentified I just been here three and a half years. All these problems going on now way before I got here and I come in working for myself through my own company. I join the city try to save some money but that ain't work cuz ain't nobody getting no trucks. Okay. So like one of one of the complaints that that been made from some people is that so we get a vehicle and then maybe two year or two later it's operated broke. Are you saying you're saying basically that's because they've been overused? Is that the city?
13:30
Unidentified Yeah.
13:31
Unidentified You got one 7 years old that's 32 and 55 almost 11 years old.
13:36
Unidentified Yes sir.
13:37
Unidentified What city or what county you know anywhere?
13:40
Unidentified No. I understand.
13:41
Unidentified Yeah. If they do they sitting back for bag up.
13:44
Unidentified Yes sir.
13:44
Unidentified In the corner somewhere.
13:46
Unidentified Yeah.
13:46
Unidentified Where where frustration was kind of like so like maybe you had the truck that's been we've had for a year or two and then some people like damn we just got this a year or two but it's already broke down. That's those are see those are the comments that come from us. And so like we getting the heat and so then that's why y'all probably feeling the heat from us.
14:04
Unidentified You see what I'm saying?
14:05
Unidentified I really don't feel no heat. I just sit here and watch what the heat going here.
14:09
Unidentified Yeah. Yeah.
14:09
Unidentified I mean cuz the heat is definitely coming. It's definitely coming and people if we don't have
14:14
Unidentified the trash is not getting picked up. They get mad.
14:16
Dexter Smith - city mechanic If we don't have the proper tools or the proper instruments to get the job done and the boys ain't making no money anyway. But yet still they show up every morning with the money they make. If they got the right stuff, all you got to tell them to go do it, they going to do it. They got family got to pay bills. It ain't that they ain't trying to do it, they don't want to do it. They got to have something to do it with. When I started with the city three and a half years ago, all we had was uh one boom truck, one residential, and two overheads. When I started that, no none of the tractors and all. We have none of that. I came in and got a lot of trucks up and going. Everybody hooray, hooray, hurray, hurray, hooray. But never thinking about in the near future, these trucks are already old. We need to try to invest in some more some shape form fashion. Used trucks or anything. So now they got to the point it's out in the open. Now everybody want to point finger. Ain't no sense point no finger. It's been sitting there been looking at it way before I got on the board. So, but when I asked you if we had a new truck, you said that it wouldn't help.
15:26
Unidentified One new truck.
15:27
Unidentified I mean, if that's all we can afford, would one truck help?
15:33
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1) To a certain point, it would, but to keep up and keep the demand going, it's not going to help. I mean, but do Okay, so we just got through approving renting, you know, those three trucks to the tune of about $30,000 a month.
15:48
Unidentified And from a financial standpoint, it's going to be difficult for us to do that with all the other bills that go on in the city and maintain a staff in that department. That's a lot of money.
16:04
Unidentified And I am sympathetic to the department. I mean, I've I've well, my brother and I have been talking over the years since we've been on the council that we were interested in hopefully someday being able to give raises in that department. I think all of us have.
16:18
Unidentified We But hear me out. We all have. The point where we are right now though is that we have a totally uh compromised fleet cuz from what you're saying we've only got two trucks that are even functional. We've got that we're trying to you know pay the 30,000 to rent those three trucks and then we've got a staff an in-house staff and it's a lot of money. I guess what I'm looking for is because I don't see or foresee unless they know something I don't know that we're going to be able to continue to pay $30,000 a month in rental
17:02
Unidentified trucks. So, I'm just trying to think ahead and you sound like you know what you're talking about. You sound like you're very involved in the department. You've been here three and a half years. You see the problem on the ground,
17:15
Unidentified something we don't see. And that's why I was asking, do you think that if we could find a way to get at least one good truck, would that help?
17:25
Unidentified I I before y'all would got those trucks, these trucks for $30,000. I was looking at along the line, go get some good used trucks for the same 30 anywhere from 60 to $30,000. Two of them, two residentials. We got overhead before we getting fixed in a minute. It's under warrant. I don't know what's going on with it. That's what I was thinking. Cuz you going to get new that's that's a lot that's a lot coming out of your money out your pocket. But you going to get used some good used material that we can keep up with. You'll save money that way I think until you can be able to go get a brand new truck. One brand new truck.
18:11
Unidentified I'm just curious. Did you apply for the sanitation department head job?
18:17
Unidentified Whatever.
18:25
Unidentified Are you speaking for the whole department or is somebody else coming?
18:33
Unidentified Cuz there's two spots on on the agenda. I don't want to start asking questions and somebody else wants to speak.
18:38
Unidentified I don't know. I'm up there right now though. Well, yeah, but I mean this at the end of the day, all these issues are going to be intertwined.
18:47
Unidentified Oh, my bad.
18:56
Mickey (sanitation secretary) Good evening. I'm Mickey Dingus. I'm uh fairly new to the sanitation department. I've been working there since the 22nd. And I just wanted to share what what I've seen. Um, I've been there for about 11 days now. In that time, I fielded literally hundreds of complaint calls because of things getting backed up. And um, the things that they were complaining about was trash pickup that had been missed for two weeks or more, causing pile piles of garbage that were being stern about by strays and uh, you know, just different animals getting into it and causing bad odors and attracting insects. Um, another complaint they had was damaged or lidless cans that need to be replaced. And we've lost so many residential cans that it's it's really hard to keep up with the demand. We almost have to wait until somebody dies or moves to replace that can. Um the pile of limbs and yard debris and furniture and mattresses is getting higher and higher because of the uh issues with our boom truck. Um so large item pickup is it just isn't available right now. Uh the two public dumpsters that were placed at Hayes and behind city hall here uh helped some but they just at that time they just weren't enough to really help. they would fill up faster than we could dump them. Um, so it's it's really good to see those three uh trucks coming in. Um, but the biggest complaint I was getting was that the one at Hayes was highly visible and people coming into Helena on highway 49. That's the first thing they'd see was that, you know, piles of uh trash bags around that overflowing dumpster. And I also got a pl a complaint from one of the food trucks that that's, you know, the area that they usually park in and and it was affecting their business. Uh our citizens feel like they're being robbed by having to pay for a service that they weren't receiving. Um and the last one was uh not really our department in particular, but I heard about a lot about the overgrown properties. Uh these are all legitimate complaints. Our department was down to just two vehicles to pick up garbage. A trash truck and a pickup. Boom trucks out of commission. So, uh, large item pickup just wasn't happening. With those two vehicles, our crews have been trying to service our commercial accounts as well as the residential routes. Uh, it just wasn't enough. We have to take care of Helena, West Helena, and Lake View. It's no wonder that things were getting backed up. Now, these vehicles are not down due to lack of maintenance. The drivers complete a maintenance log every shift and they go through an inspection list. Um, these vehicles are are just very heavily used and it's, you know, it's impossible for them to stand up with the amount of miles and wear and tear that they see in a normal shift. Um, you know, the fleet's just too small to serve our area. In the short time I've been working here, this is amazing. Our sanitation crews have removed 116 tons. That's 232,000 pounds of garbage from our communities in 11 days. Um, you know, that's an average of 25 commercial dumpsters and about 4 to 500 residential cans every day with two vehicles in the heat. Um, and that's multiple trips to the landfill. It takes more fuel because you got to dump more often. Uh, our street crew has been outfilling potholes and removing the trees blocking the road. They're keeping our parks and our medians mode. Um, people have wanted a billing adjustment. In response to that, I spoke to the water department who clarified the process for me. Any adjustments have to be approved by uh the water and sanitation supervisor. If it's approved, then I can reach out to the water department and inform them of the adjustment to be made. The problem with that is those funds could be used toward the lease of working sanitation trucks and the repair of our existing trash haulers. Um, and the overgrown lock complaints were of course forwarded to code enforcement for action. And uh, thank you.
23:32
Unidentified Thank you.
23:40
Unidentified I got a question. How many trucks we have that's leaking hydraulic fuel
23:50
Unidentified right now? None. How many trucks were leaking hydraulic fuel before?
24:00
Unidentified One.
24:02
Unidentified One. Well, a lot of lot of these holes that's caused in the street and asphalt is caused by hydraulic fuel that's leaking and eating up the asphalt. Reason why I know because the guy that told me spent eight years in the military and he told me exactly what the problem was. Hydraulics fuel.
24:28
Unidentified Okay. I don't I don't know what to say about that.
24:34
Unidentified Well, I can tell you it's it's the truth because they got a lot of holes in the
24:37
Unidentified I know. I know that the weather has a lot to do with water and you know back in the winter snow on the ground that has a lot to do with the with the pavement.
24:47
Unidentified Yeah, but the hydraulic fuel eats out the asphalt.
24:50
Unidentified We had one truck.
24:52
Unidentified What?
24:53
Unidentified We had one truck, but not not not not saying that they come sanitation. We got a lot of trucks running around here. Farmers, I'm talking about we got a whole lot going on. So, I just can't blame it on sanitation by hydraulic fluid. We got a lot of trucks coming through with a lot of weight through neighborhoods.
25:13
Unidentified I think the most trucks with the heaviest load is going to be sanitation trucks.
25:23
Unidentified To to the um to Mr. Miller's uh point or Mr. Dexter's point, I do agree that the issues with the streets, I mean, that's a that's a myriad of reasons. It's uh it's weather, it's water leaks, it is heavy truck usage. Um maybe some of it could be hydraulic fuel, but um I think for the existing potholes that we have and some of the um repairs that we voted for within the last two months, I mean that's that's not just hydraulic fuel. That that's a lot of different issues. Well,
25:53
Unidentified I mean that's one of I think that's one of the big issues. Who who do you report to daily?
26:09
Unidentified Wilbert Stradder.
26:11
Unidentified Sorry.
26:11
Unidentified Wilbert Stradder.
26:16
Unidentified Wilbert Straw. I thought he was Adam. I thought he was at the landfield.
26:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield No. No. So I and I'll make this. So I did send an email today um to this body. As of yesterday evening, the current acting interim for the street and sanitation department is the chief of staff, Kevin Martin Arnold. Um that change, as was detailed in the email that I sent to you all earlier today, was made for administrative reasons and just efficiency with operations. Um so that decision is about 24 hours old right now. and um the search the uh search for a full-time director. That ad was put in the paper again a week ago. So, we are still looking for a full-time director. Um but that's the person who would receive all sanitation or street concerns at this point in time, the chief of staff.
27:07
Unidentified How many how many residential how many residential accounts do you have that we pick up garbage? Yeah, you have to basis. You have to go with the water department on that. the water park until you bet on that.
27:26
Unidentified Okay. I I personally experienced uh that they didn't pick up my garbage at my house for three consecutive weeks and I've had a lot of people call me and tell me similar stories. And I believe that because uh they didn't pick up my garbage for three consecutive weeks. And I was just wondering how many accounts we have that we pick up because uh they went three weeks without picking up my garbage. I personally experienced that.
27:58
Unidentified Well, I went a month and a half and I got to get the trucks out every morning. I got to wait I had to wait about a month and a half and I got to get the trucks out of every morning. Me personally, nobody will speak up. I I ain't complaining though. Okay. You don't know how many accounts we pick up each day?
28:26
Unidentified No, sir.
28:32
Unidentified I'm looking at the document. We have a we have a couple thousand to to be exact um when I I'll forward this information to you, but we have a couple thousand. And the reason why he's saying that we have to get with the water department, so every time somebody gets a new water service, they get a new bin.
28:46
Unidentified Have you had any days? Have you had any days that we didn't run any trucks at all that day?
28:54
Unidentified Not since I've been here.
29:02
Unidentified Before you got here, did you work someplace else? And
29:06
Unidentified I had my own company going around here. started my own shop.
29:09
Unidentified You did? How long did you do that?
29:11
Unidentified Uh, from 15 to 23.
29:16
Unidentified So, you have a lot of experience.
29:18
Unidentified Yeah. 30 years worth. I started in 97
29:24
Unidentified and you have a good relationship with the people on staff.
29:27
Unidentified Very good. Very good. I try to make sure everybody coach you in the morning time. We get there. I try to Are we current on the routs today?
29:46
Unidentified Yes. Yes, we started this morning on Tuesday rap and we should have finished Tuesday rather up today. I I know we did. We had three trucks out. Anybody have any more questions?
30:10
Unidentified What do we need to do to solve our problem?
30:18
Unidentified I think you all need to get together.
30:21
Unidentified I think you all need to get together at some point of time outside this room. I don't know. Go out and eat, do something, and come up with a way you can go buy two truck
30:32
Unidentified to buy two new trucks.
30:34
Unidentified No, two huge trucks.
30:40
Unidentified Is that what you came to ask us to do to buy two trucks?
30:44
Unidentified I did not come here to ask you to do anything. I come here for any question that you had on maintenance
30:49
Unidentified and sanitation on trucks cuz I've been hearing this and seeing this. I'm watching this.
30:55
Unidentified Mhm. So when they start asking who the mechanic is, if he ain't competent enough or we need to find another, I'm right here right now.
31:03
Unidentified In your opinion, in your opinion, what do you feel we need to do to solve the problem of picking up the garbage and trash in this community? And you've been here a long time and working in this for the city. And in your opinion, what do you feel is necessary that we do to solve the problem for these people?
31:26
Unidentified We need proper equipment to get the job done.
31:29
Unidentified You need proper equipment.
31:31
Unidentified Yes, sir.
31:32
Unidentified Such as
31:33
Unidentified God's trucks.
31:35
Unidentified How many?
31:36
Unidentified Two trucks.
31:37
Unidentified Two good ones.
31:40
Unidentified Two good trucks.
31:42
Unidentified You need two more garbage trucks.
31:46
Unidentified Yes, sir. Okay. You got one good one
31:50
Unidentified we bought last year. Yes.
31:52
Unidentified So you need three total trucks.
31:57
Unidentified Well, we bought one garbage truck last year. And you say you need two more garbage trucks?
32:05
Unidentified Yes, sir.
32:09
Unidentified How many boon trucks do you feel we need?
32:13
Unidentified One more. Anything else?
32:22
Unidentified One more overhead commercial truck.
32:24
Unidentified One more commercial.
32:25
Unidentified Yes, sir. But I wouldn't go that far yet. I just try to get two residential trucks.
32:30
Unidentified We need one more commercial.
32:33
Unidentified Yes, sir.
32:34
Unidentified Truck.
32:35
Unidentified They said two res.
32:36
Unidentified I said two.
32:37
Unidentified Two. Two more residents.
32:38
Unidentified Yeah, that's you.
32:40
Unidentified One you Okay. You say we need two garbage trucks, one boom truck, and one commercial truck to solve the problems we need.
32:51
Unidentified Yes.
32:51
Unidentified In other words, you need four trucks.
32:54
Unidentified Yes.
32:55
Unidentified Okay.
32:57
Unidentified Have you reported that to your superior officer, your your people have?
33:03
Unidentified Yes.
33:04
Unidentified Does is the mayor aware of that?
33:08
Unidentified Aware of
33:08
Unidentified that we need four trunks?
33:10
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah. Yeah, the the issue we definitely need a new fleet. That's not that's not new. So that's been exchanged between myself, the chief of staff, um the acting interim at the time when it was uh Mr. Stradder. Um so expanding and updating the fleet has not been a question. There's been an effort to make sure they were also prioritizing the structure of the department um to make sure that that equipment stays up to date.
33:33
Unidentified So it's a total matter of of equipment that the city lacks. Is that correct?
33:39
Unidentified Part partially. Yes. Part partially. Yes. That's part that's part of the equation.
33:44
Unidentified What what is the rest of the equation?
33:46
Unidentified Uh leadership for structure.
33:48
Unidentified Leadership.
33:48
Unidentified Leadership for structure
33:49
Unidentified such as
33:51
Unidentified a good department. A good department leader.
33:54
Unidentified A good department. Do you agree with this conversation?
33:57
Unidentified Yes.
33:59
Unidentified Okay.
34:00
Unidentified Equip money itself is not going to fix a problem. So the equipment is the money. Money itself never fixes a problem. You got to find what we going to have to do
34:10
Unidentified and and that's that's the answer I think as
34:13
Unidentified you need good leadership
34:14
Unidentified and equipment
34:15
Unidentified and who does the hiring u
34:18
Unidentified so those
34:19
Unidentified as far as leadership is concerned
34:20
Unidentified the mayor does the hiring
34:22
Unidentified sir
34:22
Unidentified the mayor does the hiring
34:25
Unidentified correct
34:25
Unidentified so that you can solve that problem
34:28
Unidentified by hiring good competent qualified leaders
34:31
Unidentified we we I we've been working on it and
34:34
Unidentified you've been working on it and You say you've only got How many trucks do you feel you have now that you can depend on?
34:45
Unidentified Two.
34:46
Unidentified Two. That's the two we bought last year.
34:48
Unidentified Yeah.
34:49
Unidentified Okay. And all the rest of those trucks you can't depend on them.
34:53
Unidentified Can't depend on them.
34:54
Unidentified I'm trying to get some information. Okay. Okay. Leadership. And that's going to be solved by the mayor. And uh you need four trucks, two garbage trucks, one boon truck, and one commercial uh pickup truck.
35:16
Unidentified Yes.
35:17
Unidentified Okay. Thank you, sir.
35:19
Unidentified Yes, sir. [clears throat] Anybody have any questions?
35:23
Councilwoman Monica Davis (Ward 3)° I have a question for the mayor.
35:25
Unidentified Thank you all. Hey, before you go before you go, I just want to thank you and the rest of the sanitation attendant for coming. When I when I put together the ordinance that we put past, this is really kind of what I really was looking for cuz we were kind of in the dark about what was going on. You know, a lot of the information comes to us. And so, that's that's what we were wanting was some someone like you who would come explain to us, you know, what what was going on. I don't know the process on how you wind up getting here, but now I feel I feel a whole lot better. At least I have information. I know what's going on. So, thank you to you and to the rest of the team for y'all coming.
36:04
Unidentified I thank you all for having me.
36:06
Unidentified Yes, sir.
36:06
Unidentified Thank you.
36:09
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Councilman Davis, uh, you had a question for me.
36:12
Councilwoman Monica Davis (Ward 3) Yes. Uh, Mr. Strat said that he gave you some quotes on some good used trucks a while back.
36:20
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So, he gave within the last week and a half, two weeks, he did. So, um th those quotes came at a time where it was pretty unanimous that you all wanted me to look at quotes for um vendors. So, and I was going to give an update at the end of um the sanitation department's presentation. The the vendors that we've reached out to are um GFL, Waste Management, and um Republic. Uh Republic has a representative that's coming into the city tomorrow to meet with us to give us a quote. Waste Management is also someone that we filled out a contact form for this week. And as of last week, um
36:59
Unidentified Yes, sir.
36:59
Mayor Joseph Whitfield The third one that I just mentioned, GFL, they have our full list of accounts to understand where we are and what we would need for services. So, the the consensus was or the decision was to pause on looking at the trucks until we decided whether or not we wanted to go with the vendor route or keep the services in house. But um as was said just a moment ago, you you have to have equipment and a proper fleet. That's not that's without question. But I do believe that we also have to make the investment in in leadership and making sure that we have quality people um that are overseeing that. So if this body decides to go, I'm still working on those quotes for um vendor services and and where we are now. We have those we have these trucks for the next four weeks roughly. And so the clock is ticking for us to make a decision. If we're not going to expand that um rental agreement for another beyond a month, which we put in the ordinance that we're only going to do this for a month, that means within the next four weeks we have to decide are we keeping these services in house or are we going the vendor route and as of the last meeting it was pretty again strong a strong sense of we want to look at the vendor route. So that's where we've been putting some time and attention into.
38:13
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) Mr. Mayor, uh, from the information this gentleman just gave us, uh, and of course visiting with you about the personnel that you can we can solve that. Uh, we bought two new trucks last year between $250,000 and $300,000 each. So at four new trucks would run us $1,200,000 in funds
38:42
Unidentified if they were the same val if they were the same value
38:45
Unidentified roughly.
38:45
Unidentified Roughly I mean this is roughly we have to have come up with $1,200,000
38:53
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° and that's if we're buying new. Um I do as as he mentioned you can have you can have quality the plan initially
39:01
Mayor Joseph Whitfield when when I started and and at the point at the point of which I started uh the plan was to get a qualified director to make the decision on which two um used trucks to purchase and that was the route that to me seemed most economically feasible for the city so that we didn't have to carry extra debt or extra payments into um our financial situation. So getting used trucks that were dependable and I think having the right person make that decision on which trucks those two would be that was that was the original plan. And so I don't necessarily think we have to go out and buy new to solve the issue. I do agree that we need to expand the fleet and update the fleet to solve the issue. But though that for the time being can be two quality used trucks so we wouldn't have to purchase new to to um get to that total that you just named or mentioned. We owe about how much money now the city how much money do we approximately I've asked for that information and
39:58
Mayor Joseph Whitfield we've got no we've gotten that we we we still owe about $4 million about
40:02
Unidentified we owe we we are in debt some $4 million now
40:06
Unidentified correct
40:07
Unidentified and to buy four new trucks is going to cost us another million200,000 um thank you for that information
40:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I don't think that's new but that That's that's where we are. Um so that is part of um I I do want to say again the clock is ticking and those two com those two decisions are ones that we have to look at keeping these services inhouse or moving into a vendor route where we're going to outsource the services. Um I do want to provide and make good on the um commitment that I said to provide you with the numbers for uh the rough estimates that these companies would be willing to give to us and at the same time make sure we're having the conversation which is why we made space for the sanitation department to be here to see if um the services can be rendered in house and yesterday I mean the consensus is I think within the department that this can be done in house but I do think it needs We just have to do some tweaking structurally in terms of leadership and in terms of equipment.
41:14
Unidentified Do we do we have an inventory? And I guess because what I'm thinking is if there's equipment out there that is busted, we know we can't use anymore. Is there any way we can get an idea of what that is and maybe, you know, sell some of it or part it out or, you know, at least do Okay, so I had a gentleman stopped me in Walmart and he shared something with me and and you know, I'm just throwing this out here that there was some piece of equipment that although it was not functional that he felt like we could at least get parts off of it. And so I'm wondering, you know, are we keeping up with that? Are we keeping up with inventory and at least having an idea of what we can piece and part out, what we can sell maybe and and at least get those funds. It's no sense in things just sitting up places and they're not functional.
42:15
Mayor Joseph Whitfield No, I agree. And so to that point, at the time before the switch was made for the chief of staff to be the interim, the directive was to get with Witcher auctions. They're out of wind, Arkansas. Um they come and sell equipment similar to what the san the sanitation department actually not the sanitation the landfill actually used them earlier or late last um year in 2025 to get rid of some equipment off of their yard and the proceeds or funds that they were able to make, they purchased a new pickup truck for the landfill. And so seeing how that was successful um that information was passed along to the stream sanitation director at the time and um they have not basically um auctioned off those items yet. But we do have a pretty decent stock of things that if we can afford to go through the same process that the landfill went through with Witcher with the sanitation department, we would stand to get some funds to put funds slashparts to put towards the new um more updated fleet.
43:13
Unidentified Yeah.
43:13
City Attorney Andre Valley° Right. But city council first has to authorize you to to uh auction the property.
43:23
Mayor Joseph Whitfield But I do just want to say that that was a directive um and I relieve the chief of staff of everything administrative here internally so that he could focus on doing just that amongst other things. So yeah, if if there are no further questions about that at this time, um we'll move on.
43:49
Unidentified Go ahead.
43:54
Unidentified You got Republic and then the other
43:56
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So Republic Services, they will be here tomorrow at 400 p.m. for um a meeting. the representative David Green because who we're sitting with. GFL already has our list of service accounts and they're working up a contract or a I should say a range, not a contract, a range because we haven't put anything out for bid. Um so they're working up a range and as of this week uh we submitted a inquiry to waste management as well. So those are the three vendor services that we've reached out to.
44:27
Unidentified Waste management, Republic Services, GFL.
44:30
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Okay. And we're also gathering information as to how that's going to affect whatever income that we make from sanitation
44:40
Mayor Joseph Whitfield that and that will ultimately that's what we're waiting on. So based on the number for what or the range that we would get um I had one representative already tell me that when they expand a service they have to expand their trucks. Um some of the comp some of these types of companies don't have trucks sitting around. when they expand their service to a new city, they have to purchase new trucks. One of the representatives shared with me, as is common practice, that that um that cost of that new truck gets passed off to the customer. So, what if we went the vendor out, what we're going to see is an increased sanitation bill because they're there are costs that um the vendor have the vendor's going to want to cover. So what how that impacts us exactly directly depends on which range or which quote which contract we would choose. But one thing's for certain we would see a loss of revenue as a city as it relates to sanitation. Um we would see that
45:37
Unidentified that's kind of painful
45:38
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) but that that's but that's the what I was trying to say at the last the last time we talked about this. You could see a loss in revenue for the city and an increase in sanitation fee for the citizens. A company is not going to come in here and say we will take what you collect for your going to assess their own cost and their cost could be greater than what we pay already. So that's why you can't just run out and say we got to contract it out because it and we still have two trucks that we owe on as well.
46:11
Unidentified So we generate about $1.5 million from sanitation. I'm saying I'm you know we have to be open to it. I think we have to openly discuss the issue but it might not be a very good answer that we get back once the numbers come in.
46:26
City Attorney Andre Valley° Well the other thing I want to continue to give you the caveat that was a case decided Hedrickk versus Holiday Island the city of Holiday Island when a city decides to contract it out. It's clear now as relates to contracts. We don't know how it affects if the city owns or operates the sanitation department, but it's open season. If citizens say, "I don't want to use that company," they could contract with somebody else. Uh the Supreme Court decided that case uh and we went over detail. I emailed it to all of you all uh December of last year. And so when we do a contract, part of the thing about it is when they look at their overall cost, they als they're going to look at the cost of doing business for the whole city. And now contractors are increasing their cost more because they say, well, we don't have the right to be exclusive. And the city can't compel if the city says because sanitation is not defined by Arkansas statute as a franchise.
47:21
City Attorney Andre Valley Uh, and so the city cannot franchise it to someone. The city has to do a contract and the city can't enforce an exclusive civity. And so a per third party, they're going to charge more money because the city cannot compel it to be an exclusive contract. For instance, what one of these groups can come in and say, "We have the contract." Another group starts mailing people out. Hey, we want to pick up your trash. There's nothing we could do about that. It's open season. If we start contracting it out, just uh we went in this and I emailed it to you all last year. I have the case. I can forward to you again. But the case is Hedrickk versus Holl City of Holiday Island is decided it's CV 24659 is 2 2025 Arkansas 194 if you want to look it up. Uh but the issue is that once you start contracting it's it it's a change in the ball game. And so uh when we we discussed this at the last M League conference as well because all the citizens was asking what what what should she do when all the city attorneys met together and we talked to Mr. Lee they would say we have no advice because we're in new territory. So until the legislature decides something next year we won't know how does it face the legislature may come back and and and make it a franchise. We don't know but sanitation is not considered a franchise by law and so the city cannot compel exclusiv exclusivity um franchises by law like telephone gas all of those things but sanitation is clearly exempted from that.
49:00
Unidentified You know that's kind of painful to think about. I mean, from what the mayor says, so you get a company, they don't necessarily have all the trucks that they need to satisfy your contract. So, they pass off the fact that they've got to buy new trucks to accommodate you. And then it's like, we could have used that money to buy trucks for ourselves. I mean, that's it's kind of a painful thought to think about that.
49:26
Unidentified The sobering thought is you're going to pay for trucks either way.
49:30
Unidentified Yeah. the city's going to pay for trucks either way.
49:33
Unidentified Yeah.
49:34
City Attorney Andre Valley And the other sobering thought I want to remind you all, we're already four or five days into the $32,000 contract.
49:43
Unidentified This is not something that you all can can be lacks of days ago trying to say, well, we're going to let's meet again. Let's let's decide that everyone at this table's hair is on fire. We need to act like it on this sanitation.
49:58
Unidentified I agree. Well, in that we've had okay with the whole water rate change and I know that the water department is doing much better and sanitation fees are being collected. Do we have any idea as to what our income for sanitation has been? And can we not look at taking that money and let's focus it on getting a couple of new trucks.
50:31
Unidentified Okay.
50:31
Unidentified Or is it just to simplify it? I don't know.
50:33
City Attorney Andre Valley The income, your ordinance for sanitation has been $28 per month per household for years. We have not increased that rate. Uh it was discussed during the Smith administration was not increased then. The the Franklin uh administration didn't raise it. Entra Mayor Ethlet didn't raise it and Ed mayor and mayor uh Whitfield has not raised it has not presented to raise uh it's been over 10 years since the race rates were raised the practical problem you have with sanitation rate and a lot of citizens may not want to hear it is I don't know if it's cash flowing that's a question for you all that's a question for the the sanitation directors and etc we need to see if it's properly cash flowing and what what would it take to make it cash flow if it's The treasurer sent an email a couple weeks ago. He said that um last year our revenue from sanitation was 1.5 million. Our expenses was 1.3 million. We had about $140,000 profit from sanitation in 2025. So,
51:39
Unidentified can we not take I mean, I know it's
51:42
Unidentified it's to the penny, but can we not take that 125 and at least get one good truck?
51:51
Mayor Joseph Whitfield That's that's what my preference is. Um, in two meetings ago when we talked about vendors, I I do think we have an we when I say we have enough, I mean I think we've done the practice of operating sanitation enough in house. I do think the concept of using our sanitation fees for sanitation is what we should be doing. Um, and making sure that if there's equipment that we need, that's where we should be getting it from. And to the attorney's point, the rate increase is something to look at. But I I think if we're if we're going to entertain a conversation around raising potentially raising a rate, we we have to be able to guarantee that people are going to get the service. Um myself personally, I'm a customer that if if something's not what I paid for, I'm going to tell you. I'm gonna let you know. And so I think that when citizens and residents of the city have questions as they've had over the last couple of months, um it's warranted. So, but I don't again I don't think we need to outsource as a solution for sanitation. I think we can do that in-house and that would be the model. Um that would be the model looking at specifically um our sanitation fees and allocating those towards a new fleet or updated fleet.
53:05
Unidentified When that we've only got what three and a half weeks left, do we need to go ahead and get a estimate for a new truck?
53:12
Unidentified I mean we can
53:13
Unidentified plan to purchase a truck and when I say a new truck, I mean you know what I mean.
53:17
Mayor Joseph Whitfield It takes a day maybe two to I think ask enough thorough questions from what I've seen. We have um the former interim director um he looked at a couple trucks that were located in Michigan um and through asking those questions like he sent the quotes to us but through asking some followup questions realized that the trucks weren't in good shape or condition. So um I think it's like used car shopping. I mean you you'll be able to find something. The question is just what what state or or quality is it? So, um, the interimm director currently is the chief of staff, as I mentioned earlier, and that's something that as I continue to make the calls for vendors, I can make sure that, um, I give him that directive and task to look into, um, options for two appropriately or or reasonably priced used trucks. We we can get on that.
54:06
City Attorney Andre Valley The other part of the conversation that you all need to have currently, according to the city treasur, and Mr. Etherly, is 1.5 million. you have 1.3 million uh approximately $10,000 per month in profit. However, discussion that the clerk and the treasur needs to inform the council is how much of that are you using to rely on to fund other departments. And that's a practical reality that sanitation fees have always funded other departments. And that's part of the overall discussion you have because while it may appear that you have decent funds, you'll have to figure it out. I'm not suggesting you raise your rates or anything like that. I'm saying you have to have that healthy conversation. You have to make informed decisions about what you're discussing, how you're doing it in order to arrest the the the fall.
54:57
Unidentified Yeah.
54:57
Unidentified And the tipping fees as well.
54:59
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yes. Tipping fees as well. Yes. The city on with our contract, Mr. Anthony is saying the landfield we now have to pay the tipping fees to landfill per our tonnage and that also comes from that um the funds that you would be paying the city would be paying. So, as an a as an actionable next um step, what I will do is reach out to the chief of staff to task him with looking for trucks and we can have um we don't have to wait and I don't think we can really afford to wait till our last meeting of the of the month to have that conversation. We can have a meeting before that. Um ideally early next week for sure. Are there any other questions about um sanitation or time to say I've been on this on this uh on on this council for about a year and a half now. Came on. We're about $4 million in the hole then. We're $4 million in the hole now. I don't see how we can buy anything. We cannot buy a truck. We need to figure out how we going to pay what we've got. We got to pay it all. So, and
56:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield if we have to go out and get somebody to pick up our trash where we can come out ahead, we need to do that. We cannot spend any more money because what what if uh other parts of this uh other parts of this uh of our business, I'll call it a business, what if they need something? Where we going to get the money for that? We just been talking about sanitation. I guarantee you there'll be some more things that we're gonna have to buy somewhere along the line. And to that point, um, every day we negotiate, I spend some portion of time negotiating with um, creditors and debtors to make sure that we can get some forgiveness and we've been able to get some. That's been a an approach that's been successful, but the reality of it is um I I haven't sat in the seat and made anybody a promise that you're going to see $4 million erased in in 24 hours.
57:23
Unidentified Well, I'm not you, mayor.
57:24
Unidentified No. No. And I'm not saying you are walked into a bad situation.
57:28
Unidentified $4 million in the hole.
57:30
Unidentified Um
57:31
Unidentified and we hadn't got out of the hole.
57:33
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Not Not yet. But but every every step that we take is um is geared towards making sure we're a step closer to to being in the black and and out of the negative. Yeah. All right. So, [clears throat] moving on to our next item of business. Um we have a water department invoice approval uh process. This is the approval of three invoices that are located in your packet between pages um two and seven. So, this is your complete city packet, I should say. These are invoices from uh projects that the water department has previously um had work done on. And I have the department head here, Mr. Rose. I'm going to ask him come up. You will see one invoice from Ten Carva, one invoice from West Coast Concrete, as well as um one invoice from Qualab Plumbing Company. So, these three projects um are different in scope and I'm going to ask him to just share with you the work that was done for these three.
58:40
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Good evening everyone.
58:41
Unidentified Hey, good evening.
58:42
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose All right. um to speak to the invoices. Um the first one I'm sorry I don't have a packet in front of me. You mind? Thank you. Okay. This 10 Carver invoice. Um this is to get some work done at our Midland Heights pump station. And this is actually just a quotation for the work to actually get the station running in auto to where we're not having to go out every few hours to uh check the pump, which is happening now to prevent overflow and backup in certain areas such as Stone Brook and um Oak Forest. Pretty much everything along Oakland and uh 49 will get backed up if this pump station is not running. And so, keep in mind this will fall under the uh Delta's Catalyst Fund grant that we received for $75,000 to do repair two pump stations. And so, we've actually done we got some repairs done to a few of the stations before we even received the grant. And so, these items that I'll be presenting uh moving forward specifically for pump station repair will fall under that 75,000. Okay? And so, uh, we look forward to getting that, um, getting these stations running correctly and as I mentioned, uh, before removing continuing to remove our bypass pumps that's been, you know, eating us up on the Pocketwood Rentals. Okay, so this is part of that process with this particular quote from Tink Harbor. All right, next quote. Okay, we have West Coast Concrete here. Now this um particular invoice is for the work that is um continuing in Oak Forest. We've had um some sewage backup issues there and took a little time to actually get that resolved. We had to clear out um wooded area that covered our our rideway where our manhole and sewer line was located. And this also ties into our consent order um with ADQ to have one of our main sewer lines replaced properly with the proper specs. And uh that's removal of pretty much the patch job that was done some years ago of plastic piping and installation of actual uh cast iron pip piping that's steel base supported to where um anything happens across the ditch is secured. [music] And so this work has started um to clear out access routes to get back there to do the construction work. And most of that is done. Now, we are going to have to move to another contractor to continue this work. All right? And uh that's going to be a process, but we're not alone in this process. Um like I said, this falls under our consent order, and we have, I believe, a task order three with Wild and Smith Engineering to help us plan out how we're going to approach getting this done. and uh and also that's going to be tasked with a corrective action plan that we have to submit to DEEQ on how we're going to go about not only getting this particular issue uh resolved but also bypass pump removal and treatment u system evaluation on our wastewater process through our whole system and so these are all things that's in this uh consent order that we have to address and have to present a plan okay I'm working on a progress report. Not to get too off just talking this in invoice, but I when I had the progress report um finalized and this is just a a response from the city. This is not going to be the official corrective action plan submitted from the engineer, but this is something I would definitely would share with you all on just where we're at on um inspection corrections such as our discharge, our um wet testing corrections. there's a various process flow test corrections that we had to it took time to gather this information uh to be able to submit to DEQ and um to actually you know go on addressing the multiple things that's on this consent order and so this is all in play but um for this West Coast concrete they've u I believe done a great job with this clearing the route to get to these heavily wooded areas where our manholes and our lines are. Um, I'm actually going to speak to Miss Leslie Galloway is here this evening and we spoke uh multiple times, but we got to really speak um today on there is sewage detected in a ditch uh back in this area. And this is properly now reported to um Department of Water Quality. So, they know this is u something that we're working on. But we're going to have to continue to go further in this wooded area to identify exactly where this leakage is coming from. It could be a manhole. Um, which I'm kind of leaning to is not because we'll have severe backups and residents will let us know if their sewer is not flowing properly properly. But we could possibly have a a break in our force main coming from one of my pump stations, particularly the Midland Height pump station that we need to investigate and get to. And so I am going to be looking uh either equipment rental or a bigger excavation or a competent contractor that can help us get into these areas to get this resolved um soon as possible. So it'll be a process, but I will definitely be um bringing information to the council as soon as I get it on how we're going to approach this. Okay. And move on from this. And I just want to add um I just wanted to add for the council what I'm going to send to each of you because um I did have a chance to go this this site in Oak Forest has been um as Mr. Rose just mentioned something that's kind of been continually put off. Um code enforcement has been involved. I I myself had a chance to do a a site visit. Um but I wanted to reshare through email after this meeting the official letter. I'm not sure if everyone would have gotten that at the time that they sent it, but the official letter from the Department of Environment Quality as well as the consent order that Mr. Rose just mentioned. So, that's the order that we'll be working off of. And um I do want us to be able to take consent orders like we just got off the one at the landfield. I'm hoping that this is something else that we can make sure we tackle um as aggressively, but I'll be sending that to you so that you're able to see what the project entails, if um as Mr. Rose mentioned contractors are needed what they will be needed to do potentially. So I'm just saying I'm I'll be sharing that with you again this evening. Okay. This last invoice will be for Quadabon Plumbing. This particular invoice it's in reference to leak repair. Uh mostly this leak repair is in Helena and West Helena and um these are some continuous repairs um that we're doing. And while I'm up here, I will mention we are going to be moving in the final phase of approving the bid for the line replacement to begin in West Helena. And so we're really getting close to construction kicking off and actually moving away from replacing and patching the same line over and over again. And so the phase one of this um particular and this is the DRA grant for 2.5 million will be in West Helena. I believe is um five five different areas that the work is going to begin on and um it's going to be a big step big step to us actually and it's going to be continuous after we get this first phase going. Uh we're already in planning of um surveying and identifying lines that we're going to do in Helena as well and then going back to West Helena for the second phase. Same thing in Helena. So, I think we're finally at that that ball rolling downhill point to where continuous things are going to start taking place. All right. Anyone have any questions for me while I'm up here?
1:07:31
Unidentified Not related to
1:07:32
Unidentified Okay. Okay.
1:07:33
Unidentified Just just the whale
1:07:36
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose uh what's the update on that? So, um, for our newest well that was done a couple of years ago, right now we are currently only using it periodically and I mean not much of at all. Um, this particular well, we're doing some geological testing on it to see if it's possibly the screen is clogged up on it or have we just dissolved the aquifer because we got four wells running continuously in the same area. I mean, not more than even a mile and a half radius. And so, uh, with that being said, that new well is producing a very low amount of flow. And when we do use it, we have to use all of our wells. And so our old seven, eight, and 10. So our three wells that we were using previously before we got the new well is what we're con totally relying on right now. And we're still able to use the new well, but like I said, we have to use those all in conjunction at the same time to get the match production. And so, um, we are in a sensitive time in West Helena, but we've learned and adapted to keeping the leaks down. Uh, we're looking at working on our, um, filteration process to where we're backashing less if that makes sense. So, we're lessening the water loss when we backwash. And um the aiator, I know that's been an issue I talked about, but just making sure that's running properly to where the iron is being removed from the water, which has increased our flow tremendously since just some simple repair work that we done ourselves has in within the last month has helped us out a lot. And so we we've making the proper adjustments to maintain. Uh, but the next steps for the actual new well is doing a chemical clean to see if we can clear that screen off in that well, get more production out of it. Uh, we should be able to use at least 1,500 gallons or no, I'm sorry, that's a little too much. 1,200 gallons from the new well by itself. Um, but right now we're actually with all wells in production, we're at about 1,300 gallons per minute uh with everything running at the same time. And so the cleaning is the next step. And also we're we're moving forward with hey, we got to we got to get a new well put in the ground. And so the planning is is is moving up the line on getting that done as well as being a priority that was kind of down the line. We we're moving it up to some of the media that we need to look at doing.
1:10:15
Unidentified Looking back in retrospect, do you think that was the right location? I'm not passing blame. Well, um
1:10:20
Unidentified I I was in a sense cuz I was in the mud literally when all that was going on. Um but really for the time crunch that it had to happen in Yes. Because with with the
1:10:34
Unidentified location of our raw water line for it to tap right into it after the well was dug. I mean, that all happened. I I know it took a it seemed like it took a long time, but the construction of it happened like within a three-month period. Yes. And that was pretty amazing for a new well that
1:10:50
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° took us out of a crisis, you know. But during that time, we've learned how to adjust and adapt, bow off the system when we have to make adjustments at the plants, making sure we're staying on top of the water loss. These are the things that's keeping us up now to where, you know, we're not losing pressure in the system, which is working me and my staff all the, you know, 24 hours around the clock. But, uh, but we're doing what it takes to keep us afloat until we get to that next phase. And so as I get up here in the future, near future, and start discussing where we're at on our actually um loan, well, I don't want to say loan process, but the execution of our first loan and planning and actually looking into what we're going to be doing on uh smaller projects pulling from this ANRC fund is um each part that we're going to address is going to give us a little bit more stability until we get a well placed in a better area in a more productive area, you know, with a
1:11:55
Unidentified let's say unttop untapped aquifer. And so, um, it's it's going to be a process. It's going to take time, but everything that we're doing is slowly moving towards that.
1:12:06
Unidentified Thank you,
1:12:08
Unidentified Mr. Rose. Who's who's doing who's doing that work on the whale?
1:12:11
Unidentified On the whale?
1:12:12
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:12:13
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Okay. We're uh Jones Hydro is between Jones Hydro and Smith and Wland Engineering, but Jones Hydro is literally doing the testing and the planning for the uh chemical cleaning that we'll do on that particular well.
1:12:28
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:12:29
Unidentified Mr. Rose, you're doing a good job.
1:12:32
Unidentified I appreciate that. Now, I know this might be impossible for you to give an answer, proper answer. How much money are we going to have to be paying out of the city treasury to get all this done? I know we get something I know we're going to get some kind of grants or something somewhere along the line,
1:12:53
Unidentified but how much is it going to cost us out of the treasury that we're going to have to pull out?
1:12:58
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Okay. Now, keep in mind everything that we're doing is the water department funding. That's the water department its own general fund and operation and maintenance fund. So, this will be pulling nothing from the city funding at all. Okay. Now, most of the bigger projects that I'm mentioning, we're going to be pulling down from the ANRC funding that we've been approved for and now that we're finally accessing now, along with the ANRC funding, we're going to use the grants that we have coming in. Uh we have a DRRA grant that's 2.5 million. That's actually a grant. We don't have to pay that back for the line replacement. And then a smaller delta catalyst fund grant for the pump station. And so these are grants that we don't have to pay back. And so more grants that we actually bring in can help us
1:13:47
Unidentified pay back the loans as well. Exactly. Pay back and offset the loans. And so this is a process that is not going to long as we do what we need to do with our rates which we've have done and keep to that. We're going to show that we're able to pay back in the timing that we need to pay back. This is not going to be a burden on our city to get our water system stable. you know, it's not going to take away from the city and it's going to anything that I'm especially like these invoices, things that I'm working on um that has to be done right now will be coming from our operating mason funds that we that we're able to support now equipment, bringing on more staff, uniforms, all of these things. And so with the recent rate increase, we're we're able to do these things now and it's going to start showing
1:14:41
Unidentified in our system and in our work.
1:14:42
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:14:46
Unidentified So there's not going to be any money coming out of the general funds.
1:14:50
Unidentified No, not the city general fund. Not at all. Not at all. Not for any of these projects
1:14:55
Unidentified because it's very important. What you're doing is very important to this city.
1:15:00
Unidentified Yes. We we just can't afford to be pulling money here and there to support different things, but your operation is very important to this city.
1:15:13
Unidentified You you do have someone continually checking on leaks. Is that right?
1:15:19
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yes. Yes. That's pretty much uh that's around the clock. We're um not only identifying leaks, but getting leaks fixed as much as possible.
1:15:26
Unidentified Are you aware of two leaks? Uh I on the way down here tonight I passed two of them. Uh one by that church on Springdale Road. I came down Springdale Road. I know we fixed that one two or three times.
1:15:40
Unidentified Right.
1:15:40
Unidentified It's right there in front of the church.
1:15:42
Unidentified Are you aware of that lake?
1:15:43
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yes, sir. And uh just to kind of go back to that quarter bun invoice. They've been a critical contractor vendor that is helping us get to these leaks that's all over. You know, because we have one crew that's able to work on leaks maybe just in West Helen or wherever they may need to be, but when we have these contractors, we're going to a be able to get more of these leaks quicker. And
1:16:05
Unidentified there's one uh leak uh it looks pretty it's getting worse uh there on uh Springdale Road coming down from the College East and that subdivision up there. Just water keep coming out on Springdale Road.
1:16:21
Unidentified We got that one scheduled hill there.
1:16:24
Unidentified You aware of that? Yes, sir.
1:16:25
Unidentified Okay. Yes, sir. Holiday Hill.
1:16:27
Unidentified Holiday Hill.
1:16:28
Unidentified Holiday. Exactly. I know that's been running for a long time. So
1:16:31
Unidentified I don't know how bad that's But I I notice more water all the time.
1:16:36
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Right. Yeah. And and that's another thing as it it's hot right now and um it's going to continue going to continue to deal with heat waves. It's just going to be more leaks popping everywhere. You know, that's just the season that we're in right now. So we're going to do our best to stay on top of it.
1:16:50
Unidentified Okay.
1:16:50
Unidentified So more in the summer than the weather,
1:16:53
Unidentified more in the summer.
1:16:54
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Well, that's the thing. I'm I'm seeing that it's almost equal cuz in the summer it's going to be a lot. In the winter it ground shifts again and it starts getting getting hard and that cause leaks as well. And so summer and winter we're battling year round to try to keep these leaks down as much as possible in the system.
1:17:15
Unidentified I I just Yes, sir.
1:17:16
Unidentified Mr. Messina kicked my brain about one thing and I would bring this to the attention of the body and and Mayor Whitfield. Um, we had those old loans from ANRC and we got those $100,000 loans
1:17:30
Unidentified loans. Yes, sir.
1:17:31
Unidentified While we're still in a period where we don't we haven't started a payment process on the big ones that we have now and we haven't really fully engaged the new financial responsibilities we're going to have. We might want to consider paying those off. They're not the payments are not that big, but just to the extent that it impacts cash flow,
1:17:50
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) we're in a position right now we can just pay those off. we don't have to worry about them down the road. So, I think that's something we should consider going forward.
1:17:57
Unidentified Congratulations on that.
1:17:59
Unidentified Two 200 maybe. There was there was one that we got before the
1:18:03
Unidentified this went back to the Smith administration.
1:18:06
Unidentified There's another one that we got at the first water crisis. We may have gotten another one after that. But, but I mean, we can Yeah, we can if we can get rid of those, it might be in our best interest to do that.
1:18:15
Unidentified That's a great idea.
1:18:16
Unidentified Yeah.
1:18:16
Unidentified Yes.
1:18:16
Unidentified Yeah. I mean, that's totally maybe a little off around 300,000 to get
1:18:22
Unidentified all of that done. And we are currently making payments as Mr. Dunn just mentioned on those loans right now.
1:18:27
Unidentified Yeah. So,
1:18:29
Unidentified what would be the pro? We just see what the final total is and see
1:18:32
Unidentified Well, yeah,
1:18:33
Unidentified you got a method of just
1:18:34
Unidentified just get a total on them and and
1:18:37
Unidentified then we can
1:18:38
Unidentified knocking it out,
1:18:39
Unidentified right?
1:18:39
Unidentified Yeah. Good idea.
1:18:44
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° You all have a good evening. Okay. Thank you.
1:18:47
Unidentified No. Oh, we need to approve.
1:18:48
Unidentified We have to make a motion to approve uh the invoices.
1:18:53
Unidentified Yeah. That above the mayor spending limit but below the bidding limit.
1:18:58
Unidentified I'd like to go ahead.
1:18:59
Unidentified Go ahead, man.
1:19:00
Unidentified I'll make that motion.
1:19:02
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Is there a second?
1:19:04
Unidentified Second.
1:19:05
Unidentified That's for all of them. Dr. Yeah. All three.
1:19:08
Unidentified Is that a total $16,000?
1:19:10
Unidentified All three. They total 16,000. Is that right? Is
1:19:19
Unidentified that what you're
1:19:20
Unidentified It's a little closer to Yes, sir. Closer to 187.
1:19:25
Unidentified Not exactly, but right now
1:19:27
Unidentified 10 carva for
1:19:29
Unidentified 6,2480 10 West Coast concrete for 4,
1:19:39
Unidentified 6,50, and then quad bomb for
1:19:42
Unidentified 6,250. That's 22,900. West Coast.
1:19:47
Unidentified Yes, that Well, West Coast is is uh West Coast is 4,000.
1:19:54
Unidentified 4,650.
1:19:59
Unidentified That's That's West Coast. That's it.
1:20:02
Unidentified That's West Coast right there.
1:20:03
Unidentified It's got three.
1:20:05
Unidentified Yes, three of them. So, 10 car for 6,2480. uh West Coast West Coast concrete for 4,650 and Quadabon Plumbing for 6,200.
1:20:23
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
1:20:40
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. Um, moving right along, our next order of business, uh, we have Mr. John Edwards here, um, to present a resolution in regards to congressionally approved funding. Um, this is also in line with water. So, um, yield the floor to Mr. Edwards.
1:20:57
John Edwards Thank you, Mayor Whitfield, and Madame Clerk, Attorney Valley, and members of the council. Um, we're here with some great news tonight. It's one of the first steps of hopefully more great news. But a journey that started in 2025 has resulted in $4.5 million being awarded to the citizens of this community to help repair the water system. This $4.5 million was championed by Senator John Boseman. Uh on behalf of the Helen West, Helen Phillips County Port Authority, I wrote the request. They call it in the in the vernacular they call it the congressional directed spending request. And we submitted this request back in 2025. It got approved earlier this year and Senator Boseman's office uh contacted me to let me know that the money would be coming down, but like everything else, it's a process. We just don't get a call one day and the checks in the mail the next. I wish it worked that way, but that's that's not the business we're in. What's going to happen next is that this money that was appropriated by the Congress has been sent to the federal EPA. The federal EPA contacted me and I'm working through the process of doing the paperwork to get it to where it can get out on the street where it needs to be. One of the first steps I wanted us to consider is that because of the way this money was funded, congressionally directed spending, there's a special provision in the rules that says we can request, we got to ask, but we can request to wave any local match requirements. And given the financial condition of the city, given the fact that we need to save every dime we can, uh I've got a resolution for your consideration that would go into a a packet I'm pulling together that would uh request to the EPA that the city of Helen West Hela not have to provide any local match. So would get the 4.5 million matchfree. And then as we work through this process, we're going to have to have some very serious discussions about where is the best place to spend this money? What's the highest priority given the time of the work that's starting to take place? Many of y'all uh had some good questions tonight. I can tell you right now a lot of the problems we have in this system at their genesis is due to the fact that we have so many old leaking pipes. Those pipes cause it's it's like a human body with your arteries and veins. You know, if you've got nicks and cuts in those, you're not going to be around too long. And it it works everything else in your body. We've got to replace these leaking pipes because when you do that, it it relaxes the pressure on the wells, on the pumps. It reduces utility cost. It's a real cost-saving measure. Many of y'all have seen this before, but when some of these pipelines have been dug out of the ground, and I'm talking about the old ones, you may have a 50-ft section of pipe that has 10 or 12 patches on it. You know, that's that's kind of ridiculous, but that's that's where we've been. That's not where we need to be in the future. So, mayor, I I I'm excited about this opportunity. I think this is the single biggest congressional directed spending u fund that we've gotten in this city in decades. I'm not sure, but I I think we have to go back to the late Senator Dale Bumpers in the 1990s when we got some money uh for West Helen Sewer. And uh as been mentioned a couple of times tonight, this money will help with uh once we get it out the door and make sure we spend it wisely, it will help with our consent decree that we have with Arkansas Department of Health. And the final thing I will say um about this particular grant because of the dollar amount that it is, I'm fairly confident we're going to have to go through an additional level of of of auditing. U normally when you get over a million dollars in in federal grant funds, you have to go on a higher level of auditing and that's, you know, that's fine by me, but I just want to make everyone aware of that. So, mayor, subject to your questions and or any questions of the members, I I'm I'm complete.
1:26:23
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. I mean, so as he mentioned, we have a resolution that we would have to accept as a body to want to ask um collectively to wave the match. And I I think this is a no-brainer. I'm thankful and I just want to say in person that we we very much appreciate the um the efforts of the Helen West Helen Phillips County Port Authority because every dollar that we get for this issue in particular counts. So I'm in favor of this resolution and I don't want to rush any question or discussion but I am in favor of this resolution.
1:26:58
Unidentified What was your question? Well,
1:27:01
Unidentified um, in in the proposal, will you have a superintendent or like a construction supervisor?
1:27:09
John Edwards° We're nowhere near that. Okay.
1:27:11
John Edwards Uh, phase at this time, but what I would imagine we would want to do. Um, we would want to kind of with the work that's now starting to happen, we would want to find a rational way to fold in there. Yes, sir. Uh because ladies and gentlemen, you know, it's my belief if we handle this money properly and we show everyone that we can do a good job with these funds, I genuinely think we'll have a chance to come back again. If we don't, you know, we'll probably have a door shut in our face. But I genuinely believe we got a lot of people uh in Washington DC that want to help us. Uh, every time I've ever talked to Senator Boseman and his staff about this issue, they're they've been ready to help and they've proven it by their work. But, uh, that's a good question, but it's a little premature. The the next step I'm going to have to do subject to this resolution in the packet, the first thing I want to do is make sure that we get the waiver approved. Yes, sir. And then even though the money is in the bank so to speak uh on these kind of directives, I will still have to submit paperwork through the EDA, excuse me, EPA for the grant just like I was applying for a competitive grant, except this time we we already know we've got the money and and the agency knows that the money is there. So, it's it's kind of a pro- fora of thing, but we still have to obey, you know, all the the rules about contracting and bidding and just like any other large federal program.
1:29:01
John Edwards° I was led to ask that because like sometimes, you know, we have the projects and it's like the money gets exhausted, but the all of the work doesn't get done and and some of that's not improprieties, it's just you don't really have a efficient person to supervise the work. So it's kind of that's why I was asking maybe and let me say this and I've shared this with many of you in this room before this is going to be a phased process. Um if and I'm just talking about water over the next 10 years we could spend you know 60 to 70 to 80 million on the city rebuilding water plants or building new water plants working on the towers wells pumps water lines. I mean, there's it's a lot of stuff to do. And uh you know, all you got to do is is drive around and you can see, you know, I tell someone, you don't need a leak detector. You just need to have eyes and ears and a nose. You can find a lot of things. Uh but mayor, I will say this while I'm here. I'll close with this unless there's any other questions. I'm a real big believer in in uh uh call Arkansas one call before you dig. We've had a couple of leaks around here that happened because you know someone was thought they were doing a good deed but you know they hit they hit a water line and we had some leaks and and maybe they did. I don't know. But I mean, I'm I'm this my pitch is that always call Arkansas one call uh to cover yourself and tell your constituents that's always a good thing to do because these water lines may not always be where everyone thinks they are. So,
1:31:03
John Edwards but mayor, that's that's what I have.
1:31:05
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. Um is there a a formal motion to adopt the resolution?
1:31:11
Unidentified I'll move that we'll we pass this resolution reading the title. There.
1:31:18
Unidentified Second.
1:31:19
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
1:31:31
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Resolution of the city of Helena, West Helena, Arkansas. A resolution supporting waving the local match requirement for an environmental protection agency grant to improve the water system of Helena West Helena, Arkansas. Is there a motion to approve the resolution at this point? Is there a second?
1:31:48
Unidentified Second.
1:31:50
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Madam clerk, will you call the role, please?
1:31:53
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes.
1:32:01
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank Thank you all. And thank you again, Mr. Edwards. Um, at this time that yes, there there were a couple items that were out of sync, but at this time that brings us to the end of the agenda. I do ask that the body I see that we're moving, but I I'm going to ask are there residents from the city that wanted to speak
1:32:22
Unidentified from the what?
1:32:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Residents from the city that wanted to speak. I was noted I was um tapped on the shoulder. Um, so we will we will all lot 15 minutes, which I know is not a lot, but by the show of hands, that would be five minutes per person. I do want to be respectful of the body's time, but I do know that I see some cases that I was tapped on the shoulder that might want to speak. So, at this time, please come up and um I do ask again that we ask that each person that comes up just five minutes Hello.
1:33:04
Unidentified Hello. Good evening.
1:33:05
Shirley Garner I'm Shirley. I'm at the meeting tonight. I don't know if I was placed on the me on the agenda. If I placed myself on the agenda because the last meeting it was stated that I was on the agenda. However, I wasn't notified that I was on the agenda. So, I apologize for not being present. You can't be somewhere that you're not told you need to be. I found that to be very disrespectful as well. Um, and it's in reference to I see Mr. S stood up and talked. In the water meeting we had, I discussed that I had spoken with the city attorney Andre Valley and acting mayor Joseph Smith in reference to a sewer leak in the backyard at 304 South Kenanza where I grew up at. Um, Mr. Valley said, "Yeah, I remember that." I told him it was back during Anneil Nolton's tenure as a city plumber. They put a sewer line, septic tank or something which causes the land to cave in and in doing so it has caused a blockage. I heard Mr. S tell Mr. um Larry Delk on that water meeting that yeah the machine that we have to work on that was broken and we've just got it fixed so we're headed your way but a week prior or 3 days prior to that conversation attorney Val and I had a conversation and he said uh say he went out and he didn't see a blockage in this and that and he texted to me that say told him But my concern was it triggered a thought. If Larry Del tells you that he has some behind his property and you tell him the machine that checks that wasn't working, how did you check mine? The machine couldn't have been working then either because they were days apart. Um I don't know what you call it. I have cameras up. So, it was said that he went out there and looked. He's not on a camera. Again, I go back to I mentioned in the water meeting about I pay my water bill online so there's no confusion and I don't feel like coming over here and the disrespect of the young ladies in the water company that are young enough to be my daughters. I don't take it from my kids and I'm not going to take it from anybody else kids, especially people in that are supposed to be in a professional setting. I paid $300 and something dollars for a water bill last month without my consent. They just took it when I tapped the button to put in the amount to pay. They just took the whole amount. However, it goes back to December of last year. I had a tenant move out of my house in October, which Joseph and I and some of the officers sat there and talked about how they beat around the bush. They served me with a warrant for harassment for evicting the tenant, but they couldn't find the tenant who when you come in, I don't know if y'all know this or not, but if you go in to sign an affidavit on someone, they run you too to see if you have an affidavit. So, I couldn't understand that when that tenant came in to sign an affidavit on me for harassment for evicting her, how did they not know that she had one on her? But they didn't serve her. Subsequently, leaving her with the key to my house, the ability to get back in, the city went for 3 months, 90 days, left the water on in that empty house. The tenant went back over, turned the washer hookups on, and flooded my property. Had a city employee with the water company going out when the bill was $600. Cuz see, they cut my off two months ago for it said it was one of mine. I paid it and two weeks later I had another bill in the same month. They're here. I explained that to some of you [music] then. So you cut mine off at six o'clock in the afternoon. But you left that empty house with a $1,400 $12 $1,300 light bill. I'm sorry, water bill. And you left the water on for 3 months and the house is empty. How do you not know that this house is empty? But you see, I'm living in mine and I've never missed paying a bill except for when I skipped it to see would you cut it off and they didn't for 2 months. So I went ahead and paid the fee and I paid the late fee cuz it was mine. But I just wanted to see what we were doing with the water coming in. How do we do shut offs? Um, December 22nd was the day they flooded my home, my rental property, which caused me thousands of dollars in damages. I met with Joseph. He said, "Miss Garner, you're right. The water company dropped the ball on that. There's no reason no water shouldn't have been cut off in 90 days. I don't have any money." So I said, I think the city is responsible for that because the water company is part of the city and there's no reason they can cut off somebody else water bill for $40 but allow these people to end up with a $1,200 bill for 3 months. In December 22nd, I spent seven hours sitting in my vehicle waiting on someone from the water company to do a eent cut off because my house had already been flooded due to negligence of the water company. Nobody ever showed up. So I told a young lady, I said, "If something else happens, you going to have a problem." but ain't coming out there and the bill ain't yours. So I don't know why you wear I'm worried because you allowed someone because you didn't come out. Whoever reads the meter had to have seen that this house is empty because there's no curtains to the windows. And even if you didn't see that they got $1,000 water bill and they ain't paid paid in three months. And in three months, you have not cut off the water. What are you getting paid for if you're not out there doing what you're supposed to do? And that is see a house with a $1,000 water bill and nobody's in it. And you cut off the water that cost me thousands of dollars. Then you turn mine off for a second bill that you say you didn't pay your bill in March. So, we cut your water off in June, but you paid your bill in April and you paid your bill in May. Now, mind you,
1:40:45
Shirley Garner° Miss Garn, I was just going to say out of out of respect for the other time, I remind you of [clears throat] this. I still paid all these bills. I still have not heard, and this I'm going to say this. Our mayor sat down and wrote a letter of complaint in his office for me to sign to give to the city attorney to ask for the monies that was supposed to be given to me. And that was 3 months ago. The mayor did the letter on my behalf. And I guess that was supposed to fool me into thinking that he was helping. And I have the letter that the mayor [music] compiled for me against the city and the audio. So, I think we need to look into a lot of things that's going on, not just with me, but with other people. And I'm going to give you that one, Joseph.
1:41:37
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank Thank you, Miss Garner. Um, and so for clarity for the body, um, for for Miss Garner, we'll make sure that the water department I wrote a note to make sure that the water department sets up an appointment with you. for the body. Um it was requested that funds that are general funds be used to address um a private residents and I instructed Miss Garner that we could not use general funds to do that. Um the chief of staff and I explored options for what can be done and we did help her write a letter to the Arkansas Municipal League to figure out how to seek um relief. So um I just want to make that point of clarity for for you all. was not
1:42:27
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Miss Garner, respect, Miss Garner, respectfully. Um, I have no issue with the body understanding that we are here to help citizens. If we're at fault, if Miss Miss Garner, I'm not I'm not
1:42:38
Shirley Garner° I had a copy of that from when you got it. As today, not one person sitting at this table, your table, has a copy of that letter. Why?
1:42:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I sit with tens of Helena was heling residents a week. I do not send I do not send personal
1:42:54
Unidentified correspens a week and I do not send personal correspondents for issues that residents come up for whether it's trash whether it's
1:43:14
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank thank you Miss Garn um next up uh thank you so you can come on up
1:43:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° while they're coming up my question is uh in a situation just for my education in a situation where you have a a house that's empty uh but the water is on because I know I had a situation like that years ago with a neighbor of mine. How is that handled? I mean uh are they still build for the water? what what the chief of staff and I have seen and I'm not sure you looking at I don't know if you want to say something but um what the chief of staff and I have um observed and to miss Garner's point I will credit this that we've noticed that there haven't been consistent um cut offs that have happened and so we've talked to the water department team the water department director to talk about making sure that water shut offs have happened that's not something that's happened within the last two years five years I feel like that's just kind of been a thing that's arbitrarily happened over time. Um, and I think for different reasons. Um, at times it seems like the department has wanted to help residents that needed some extra time. Um, I think that at times it's been treated like a grace period. So, it it really depends what we've seen on the specific situation and every situation that we've seen since in our time here we've looked at individually. So um and it it so it really depends on is this intentional? Is this something that we should have done? Does this need to be cut off today because this person is for sure has moved out of this address and cut their service off. Um it depends. It should not occur. 1442 108 I believe the statute is we c the city cannot show favoritism as it relates to water utilities or any utility and everybody must be the same if they hadn't paid the bill it should be cut off immediately unless they have uh paid it
1:45:13
Shirley Garner° but that one wasn't cut off the damage I understand what you're spending you're absolutely right but on cla we didn't do that we left it on 90 is $1,200 worth of bill and because of that negligence my house was ruined. So you're right in what you're saying. I've done screening too, but how do we overlook that part that damaged my house and it it's okay. It's fair to everybody else. That's the that's the issue that I
1:45:48
City Attorney Andre Valley° one thing that the statute clearly says about these type of things, the city is absolutely prohibited from showing favoritism relating to these lines and it says specifically there were there were people who were prosecuted for this in the past because it says that anyone that found evidence of showing favoritism whether it's the uh waters manager, general manager, superintendent, employees the mayor, city council, uh they're supposed to be prosecuted and removed from office. They're serious about these bills supposed to be paid. No, period or disconnected. It's it's just that simple. That's what the law law didn't provide any leniency on that. Unless the city has a payment plan that's that's available to every citizen.
1:46:30
Unidentified I guess I was I was thinking more in the sense of like if where there was no tenant there, the house was empty, but the water would still continue to run. That's what I was talking about.
1:46:44
Unidentified When they reading the meters, they should be able to determine whether it's on
1:46:49
Unidentified and turn them off.
1:46:50
Unidentified Okay. [clears throat]
1:46:54
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank Thank you. We have the floor to you, sir.
1:46:56
Nathan Robinson I have an assortment of things that I want to discuss with you guys. One, I moved in my house about two years ago in March. In May, I received my first water bill. In April, I got a water bill that was significantly higher. I live alone. My water shouldn't have went up that high. Okay. When I called the water company, they tell me I got a leak, which I didn't have because I had people come to test my lines. Okay. And then uh when I called they turned off my water and they said that uh when I called about that they said that uh the guy that reached the meter couldn't get to my meter to turn it back on because uh my boat was parked over the water meter. My boat was parked in the same place it was parked when I moved in. When I talked to the guy to read the meeting, he questioned the people at the water company and he told them that, "Hey, well, he really got on them. He really got on them." But every time I call the water company, I get this here. You treat me like I'm ignorant. Okay. I've worked in this field most of my life, 45 years, 50 years. I retired and came back home here because this is where I want to be. I had rubbish in front of my house for three months. It took me calling you, Mr. Whitfield, or your office. And your secretary called sanitation. But before that, when I called sanitation, lady told me say, "Uh, they'll come pick it up, but you got to pay them." I was under the impression I pay that in every water bill. Okay. Other than that, I got blight on each side of my house. I pay terminates an exorbitant amount every month to take care of my property. I've seen cotton, what is it? Copperheads. I've seen them crossing my lawn. Okay. I got rats and roaches coming in my house. Their tires on one side of the property, an abandoned house. The administration before you started cleaning up the property on the opposite side of me and they put all the rubbish in the middle of the property that is haven for snakes. I call the owner exhaustedly. She do not do anything about it. I'm looking for the owner with the house over here that's abandoned. I can't find him. I converse with your code enforcer. They send a guy over there and he jumps on me telling me if I keep talking like that he going to have to leave and report me. Well, I'm going tell you all. If something isn't done soon, I am tempted to strike a match because this is getting ridiculous, man. My grandchildren come down here, I can't let them outside. I can't have company in my lawn. That is ridiculous, man. And then on top of that, recently here I was late on paying a bill, $77. See, I'm on disability. I get a check once a month. Then when I go to pay my bill, it's $177. Then I get another bill for $285 immediately after. Why are we paying $100 late fee on a water bill that is less than $100? And why do we have to put up with these here absurd people at the water company that works in there that don't know how to respect the citizens? Last question is, are we paying for the money that that credit whoever use the credit card? Are we paying to replace that money?
1:51:19
Unidentified That's a that's county. Just want that. That's a county.
1:51:22
Nathan Robinson° Either way, where is the money going?
1:51:25
Unidentified That's a county. That's a county issue.
1:51:26
Unidentified Okay. That's a county.
1:51:27
Nathan Robinson° Yeah, that's the county. Where's the money going to the city? I hear you talk about you getting millions of dollars to replace this water system. Seem like we're paying for it, the citizens, because the water bill keep going up. I can't drink it. If I don't have my water, I have PTSD. If I don't have my water, I got medicine not supposed to take. If I don't take that medicine, there's a problem. I can't afford to pay you $100 on $77. I can't afford to pay you a $285 water bill out of what I get every month. And I'm pretty sure there's plenty more citizens here that can't afford it.
1:52:16
Unidentified Now, when I go to pay my water bill this month, you can come, you can turn me off, but I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to have letters going to the congressman, the governor, and everybody else I can think of. I'm tired, man. I can't even live like a human being in my house because you're a blight. I can't drink the water. I catch hell getting people to come and do repairs on my house because there's nobody qualified around here to do it. Then you going to charge me every dime I get once a month for a water bill? That's insane. I yield to the next person. I'm out of here. Y'all figure it out.
1:53:07
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Could you state your name for the record?
1:53:08
Nathan Robinson Nathan Robinson.
1:53:09
Unidentified Thank you.
1:53:10
Nathan Robinson 321 North 9th Street, West H, Arkansas.
1:53:14
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you, Mr. Robinson. in our final. Um,
1:53:29
William Harris how's it going? My name is William Harris. Just so you know,
1:53:36
Unidentified speak your mind.
1:53:37
William Harris° We just I just want to know if we were going to get put on the agenda because that's we requested it last week, but we haven't heard back from anybody. Um, our attorney, James Valley, has sent everyone paperwork and he, as of tonight, he said he had not heard back from anybody. And I'm just trying to see when we were going to be able to to discuss it and try to get a solution to our our problem.
1:53:58
Unidentified There's so much work over this
1:54:01
Mayor Joseph Whitfield for for the body. I don't I don't know if you all um was that email sent to the entire city council. So, this would be the um towing issue that um was referred to in I think an email from Thursday or Friday if I'm
1:54:16
Unidentified I believe. Yes, sir. I believe it's from Thursday, I believe.
1:54:19
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um so, and could you all state your names for the record as well?
1:54:23
Lori Bernard° Lori, Bernard,
1:54:24
Mayor Joseph Whitfield William. Um so Lori and William are here because of a dispute around um towing for um vehicles that have happened through the city city of Helen was heling the code enforcement department. Um as part of code violations um our code department addressed a couple of situations um at their home and so they feel as though there's a dispute um that they wanted to discuss. But
1:54:50
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I'm sure that your attorney wants to be present with you all before speaking. So,
1:54:56
William Harris° we get we're trying to get some resolve to this issue, y'all. You know, if I call your office, nobody answers the phone for me. You know what I mean? I I live less than four blocks from you and then I can't even get a hold of you. And you told me right over there, standing that corner, you looked me dead in my eye when you shook my hand and told me a lie. And I mean, you lied to me straight up. You lied to me about some what I asked you on the issue what we're having. Now, what I'm saying is there's got to be some there's got to be some responsibility on on the people where we put in office to do these things for us and these and these liberties which y'all have. You know, instead of acting like, oh well, you know, I tell you a lot of your problems, a lot of your problems is that your money was getting spent. And I'm sorry, I bow out. But y that's the issue that that you you sit there and tell the citizens, a taxpaying citizen what I am. That's me. You know, we pay y'all. We put y'all in office to do these things for us. And then you sit there and lie to me standing over there last almost a month ago and I can't even get a hold of you in in in an office where you got a number to call you. You're four blocks from the house. You jog every morning down the road when I'm going to work and then but I can't get a hold of you and then you lie to me when I do. I mean that that there should be some accountability for that. I'm I'm going to bow out. Okay.
1:56:18
Unidentified So, Miss M. So, for
1:56:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield the body um I will organize a meeting with um Mr. Valley as and um his clients to discuss the the nature of the issue in short is that um um there's a dispute around whether or not to vehicles as part of code enforcement um was warranted. And so we will discuss that in a in a meeting and the outcome of that can be shared because I do believe what might come out of that is precedent for um particular situations around vehicle towing as it relates to code enforcement. So um that that would be our actionable step.
1:56:58
William Harris° Okay. So when can I expect maybe or when can he expect maybe to hear something or
1:57:03
Mayor Joseph Whitfield he will he he will hear tonight. I will send that email before I leave this building. Um tonight.
1:57:08
Unidentified Okay. All right. Well, I thank you.
1:57:10
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank Thank you. Um, at this time, um,
1:57:14
Unidentified if if I may, [music] the thing,
1:57:18
City Attorney Andre Valley° as I've said before, the city council usually determines whether you allow people to speak. Uh, you all allow the people to speak tonight. You regulated the time that's appropriate. Uh, the issue that that I want to continue to remind you of, we cannot control what someone says. We cannot deal with the content. Whatever they say, if you give them opportunity to speak, they've said it, that's it. Uh because the thing is to try to stop them once you forward them the time to speak would be a violation of the first amendment. So when you authorize people to speak before the body, I thought at the beginning of the hear you already voted not to do that, but tonight we did. So uh when you allow people to speak, they are free to say whatever they want to say under the first amendment and that we cannot regulate the content. We just have to sit and listen.
1:58:12
Unidentified Thank you.
1:58:12
Unidentified Just want to remind you that
1:58:14
Unidentified I I I just want to say I have no issue with with with the exchanges that we have had I just had. But um but I do thank you all for making the time to stay a little bit longer to um to listen. Um and
1:58:26
City Attorney Andre Valley° I I wasn't saying it that it was an issue. I'm saying now that you're allowing people to do so whenever people say they say.
1:58:34
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Is there a motion to adjourn?
1:58:36
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) Uh before we adjourn, we need to put on the next council meeting uh time to discuss the uh legislative joint audit that we received
1:58:47
Unidentified that needs to be put on the agenda. And I move that we adjourn at this point.
1:58:52
Unidentified Second
1:58:53
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° the legislative audit. and Councilman um Davis, I I didn't remember to put the grass on there, but I'll put it on there for the next one
1:59:06
Unidentified tomorrow.
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.