In 30 seconds
- All six council members were present.
- The council approved a permit for the Helena Community Fair, 6-0, marking 20 years since Helena and West Helena consolidated into one city.
- The council approved up to $15,000, turnkey, for a Tulip Circle culvert repair, 6-0.
- The council approved $12,600 and $1,600 in O'Neal invoices for roof repair at the water treatment plant, 6-0; two more water-department invoices stayed tabled because Superintendent Rose was absent.
- A $2 million Delta Regional Authority waterline project breaks ground September 11 in West Helena, about 23,000 feet of line on six streets.
- The council cut a truck purchase from two trucks at $260,000 to one used 2020 side loader at $130,000, passing three separate votes, each 4 yes with two abstentions; contracting sanitation out to a vendor was discussed but not decided, and no vendor was named.
Recap
The Meeting & Attendance
All six council members attended: Council Member Adrian Messina, Council Member Monica Davis, Council Member Don Etherly, Council Member Maxine Miller, Council Member Joe St. Columbia, and Council Member Dr. Kyle Miller . Mayor Joseph Whitfield chaired the meeting and City Clerk Sandi Ramsey kept the roll.
50-Year Employee Recognition & Community Fair Permit
The meeting opened with recognition for a police department employee who has served the city 50 years, since September 1, 1976 . The city plans a separate session to honor him with flowers and thanks . The council then heard from Kyron Williams and Yexalen Lopez, co-chairs of the group planning the Helena Community Fair . Mayor Whitfield said his office and the chief of staff commissioned the planning group to mark the 20th anniversary of Helena and West Helena's consolidation into one city . The council approved the fair's event permit 6-0 .
Tulip Circle Culvert
The Tulip Circle repair returned to the agenda because a collapsed culvert has made a dip in the street worse . Engineer Ken Weiland estimated the job at about $7,650 and recommended a $15,000 cap so the work could proceed without a second trip to the council . City Attorney Andre Valley explained the legal frame: the job costs more than the city's $7,500 competitive-bidding threshold but less than the state's $35,000 threshold, so the council must waive bidding by ordinance once a contractor is chosen . A council member moved to authorize up to $15,000 for the complete turnkey job, covering both the contractor and engineering fees, paid from paved-street funds; City Attorney Andre Valley restated the motion for the record . The motion passed 6-0 .
Water Department
Council Member Maxine Miller moved to pay two invoices from Eddie O'Neal for metal-roof repair at the west side water treatment plant: $12,600 for work received July 30 and $1,600 for work received August 13 . Both invoices passed 6-0 . The council also approved paying Bail Construction for an emergency valve that stopped a water leak at the Phillips County Library, at Columbia and Perry . Two more invoices stayed tabled: one from Progressive Tractor, because Water Superintendent Rose was absent and no one on hand could say what the equipment was for , and one from a contractor named Crawford, still waiting on Rose to verify the work was done . Mayor Whitfield told the council that a $2 million Delta Regional Authority grant is funding the city's first waterline replacement project, breaking ground September 11 in West Helena . The project covers about 23,000 feet of line on Cook Street, Cherryvale, Kentucky, Georgia, Chicago, and West Street . Engineer Weiland said the city expects roughly 70,000 feet of 2-inch line replaced within the next year, using the DRA grant plus $500,000 more from AEDC, with the current project running to February 27, weather permitting .
The Truck Purchase (Ordinance 16-2026)
The street and sanitation department's final agenda item covered both truck-purchase options and contracting sanitation out to a vendor, taken together . Chief of Staff Kevin Martin, the interim street and sanitation director, said the only good rear-loader deal he could find was a 2025 model at about $155,000, but it would not be available until February 2027; two used 2020 side loaders were available within a week or two at $130,000 each . He said the department hit 100% route completion in July using two side loaders and a rear loader . Council Member Don Etherly argued for a rear loader instead, citing a New Orleans sanitation operator who told him side loaders are not worth using unless a city has a heavy maintenance operation . Etherly said the department has already spent close to $200,000 this year on insurance, rentals, and contractors with no truck to show for it, which is why street funds are paying for this purchase . Martin's formal recommendation was two side loaders for $260,000 total, financed at about $5,000 a month . Mayor Whitfield backed the side-loader purchase, saying the department had just proved 100% pickup with this same equipment . On the floor, a council member moved to buy one truck instead of two: a 2020 side loader, truck number two, for $130,000 . City Attorney Andre Valley amended Ordinance 16-2026, the bid-waiver ordinance, from $260,000 for two trucks down to $130,000 for one . The council then took three roll-call votes, each passing with four yes votes and no votes against; Council Member Adrian Messina and Council Member Joe St. Columbia abstained on all three: to suspend the rules , to adopt the ordinance , and to add an emergency clause . The city buys one used 2020 side loader from River City Hydraulics for $130,000. Mayor Whitfield said he and the chief of staff will keep looking at rear-loader options and report back at or before the next meeting .
Contracting Sanitation Out
The council also discussed contracting sanitation out to a vendor. No company was named as a bidder, and no motion or vote was taken . Mayor Whitfield said the administration has already looked into that option and found no vendor willing to give a price the city could make public, because a public number would put that vendor at a disadvantage against competitors . He said the decision belongs to the council, and members should know the consequences either way . Council Member Joe St. Columbia said he thinks the city should get out of garbage pickup entirely . Council Member Don Etherly said the city is out of time to contract out this year: the rental truck goes back in 30 days, too short a window to run a vendor process . He said the January 2025 vote to buy three garbage trucks was, in his view, the real chance to contract sanitation out, and that chance is gone . He also argued the city's own recent history favors rear loaders over side loaders for a five-year purchase: side loaders are more likely to fail and cannot pick up anything when they do, while rear loaders picked up trash successfully last year . The only company named during the discussion was Metro Sanitation of New Orleans, cited as the source of Etherly's rear-loader advice, not as a bidder for contracting out; a member noted the company had a lawsuit, the same concern that sank the city's sanitation bid in October 2025 .
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
September 1, 2026 City Council Meeting Agenda
One-page agenda for the September 1, 2026 Helena-West Helena City Council meeting. After call to order, prayer and pledge, roll call, and approval of previous minutes, New Business lists four items: an event permit for the Helena-West Helena Community Fair; review of Tulip Circle repair plans for approval; Water Department business, consisting of invoice approval for two O'Neal invoices and a department maintenance update; and Street & Sanitation Department business, consisting of a review of purchase options for building the department's fleet and a review of option(s) for contracting sanitation service to a vendor. The agenda closes with adjournment. The agenda and the two O'Neal invoices were the only documents the city posted for this meeting. The posted packet contained no materials for the Tulip Circle repair, the truck purchase, or the text of Ordinance 16-2026.
| Meeting date | September 1, 2026 | |
| New Business items | 4 (Event Permit, Tulip Circle, Water Department, Street & Sanitation Department) | |
| Water Department invoice approvals | O'Neal invoices x 2 | |
| Street & Sanitation Department | fleet purchase options and vendor-contracting option(s) both on the agenda |
Text document — see the agenda link below.
O'Neal Invoice — $12,600, metal roof repair, west side water treatment plant (received 7/30/26)
Invoice from Eddie Oneal, 504 Desota St., Helena-West Helena, for repair and installation of metal roof panels at the west side water treatment plant, project contact listed as "Plant supervisor." The work description lists eight line items: installing metal roof panels, roof valleys, ridge caps, and trim rakes as needed; installing metal facial covering; installing wooden blocking along the building's exterior; removing exposed/falling roofing from the building's exterior; and clearing used/unused debris from all areas as needed. The invoice states a single total for "labor costs" of $12,600.00 with no itemized breakdown by task or materials. The invoice carries both a customer signature and a contractor signature (Eddie Oneal), each dated 7/1/26. The city's received stamp reads JUL 30 2026; the "BY:" line on the stamp is blank.
| Total/labor costs | $12,600.00 | |
| Work description line items | 8 (panels, valleys, ridge caps, trim rakes, facial covering, wooden blocking, debris removal, exposed-roofing removal) | |
| Customer signature date | 7/1/26 | |
| Contractor signature date | 7-1-26 | |
| City received stamp | JUL 30 2026 | |
| "BY | " line on received stamp: blank |
O'Neal Invoice — $1,600, metal roof repair, west side water treatment plant (received 8/13/26)
Second invoice from Eddie Oneal, 504 Desota St., Helena-West Helena, for the same project address (west side water treatment plant) and same project contact ("Plant supervisor"). The work description lists six line items, numbered 1 through 5 and then 8 (numbers 6 and 7 do not appear on the document): installing metal panels on the 2nd floor ceiling as needed; removing hanging insulation from the ceiling as needed; installing caps/anchors over vents in the pump room; installing caps/anchors along the exterior wall as needed; removing exposed/falling roofing from the building's interior; and clearing used/unused debris from all areas as needed. The invoice states a single total for "labor costs" of $1,600.00 with no itemized breakdown by task or materials. The customer signature and date lines are both blank; only the contractor signature (Eddie Oneal) is present, with a handwritten date that appears to read 8-13-26*. The city's received stamp reads AUG 13 2026; the handwritten entry on the "BY:" line is difficult to read and appears to say something like "In person, OK"*.
| Total/labor costs | $1,600.00 | |
| Work description line items | 6, numbered 1-5 and 8 (numbers 6-7 absent) | |
| Customer signature | not present; no date entered | |
| Contractor signature date | appears to read 8-13-26* | |
| City received stamp | AUG 13 2026 | |
| "BY | " line on received stamp: handwritten, uncertain* |
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 ↗
2:27
Unidentified those minutes.
2:29
Council Member Joe St. Columbia I so move that we approve the minutes of meeting second as listed 4th, 18th, and 20th.
2:38
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes.
2:54
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. All right. Minutes are approved. With that, as we jump into our new business, I wanted to first before we get into the first item, um, just give a quick shout out. So, today we found out that we have a city employee that's been with us for 50 years. Um, that's a that's a a good length of time. 50 years. We have an employee that's been with us. Um, Mr. Michael Rea with the police department. Uh, Major Michael Rea, I should say, um, since September 1st, 1976. So, I wanted to just um say that that is a that's an honor, that's a feat, and felt like that deserved to be uh honorably acknowledged today at the beginning of this meeting to give the city 50 years. And so the city will put together um just a a session where we can honor him and give him um some flowers literally and um and thank him for his service. So I wanted to start the meeting off with that.
3:50
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Awesome. With that, I agree. And with that being said, we'll we'll jump into our actual new business today um which is our first item being an event permit. And this is in regards to the Helenoas Telina Community Fair. This is on um the front of your uh agenda packet and I'll yield the floor to um to our representatives to come up and and and talk to us about this event.
4:18
Unidentified The first page It's the first page in your packet.
4:27
Unidentified Signed by everybody. I move we accept their We got to listen to what they I think it's good that they um give a chance to explain it, too.
4:47
Unidentified All right. Good afternoon.
4:48
Unidentified Good afternoon.
4:50
Kyron Williams So, um I'm representing my name is Ky Williams. I'm representing the uh Hen Planning Committee.
4:58
Yexalen Lopez And my name is Yexler Lopez and I'm also co-chair.
5:03
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And so what we have in front of you today is our um event that we've been working hard on for a couple of months. Uh this event uh we built just as a group to go over and we wanted to like celebrate the consolidation of our two cities by this being the 20th year anniversary. Um, we worked hard on this and we wanted to uh put this event out in front of everyone to see if this is something that we can do. And if there's any questions about this event, uh, we can go into more details, but u, I just wanted to see how everyone felt about it and if there was any questions that you would like to ask. I I will say that um just briefly to add a little more context um to what was shared. uh in the audience and at the podium are a couple represent or a few representatives of the group that the chief of staff and I commissioned to put together a small celebration for the city where we want to um get people excited, get people together, um get people to celebrate the positive things that are happening in the city of Helen West and highlight those things um in a year that happens to be 20 years since we've officially consolidated into one. And so while um we know that that can maybe sometimes be polarizing, I felt like this commission and this group has done a really good job of uh planning a community fair where we get a chance to um basically celebrate as a community who we are and the fact that uh we're proud of where where we're growing. Okay, I'll make a motion that we accept.
7:10
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
7:28
Mayor Joseph Whitfield There will be some publications going out from the city following that approval. Um so please I think it would be a good event for all of the city council members to attend as well. Moving on to our next item of business, we have um Tulip Circle and this is a review of repair plans for approval. Um this was recommended to we were recommended to revisit this given the condition um the furthering deteriorating condition of this street and so I'm uh bringing up both the interim director for the street and sanitation department and Mr. Ken Wallen um the engineer. So I yield to y'all.
8:07
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin Uh this was something that we had u that had came up a few months ago. I think it started in June. Um we had a few discussions about some bad areas in the city streetwise that you all asked uh Mr. Wan to be able to come up with some plans on um but we end up tableabling um implement those plans. Since then the water department has uh basically taken care of that hole that was on um old rock road and so it was removed from this list. Um, since then though there's been a few times I've talked to a couple of residents off of Tulip Circle who um alluded to the fact that that what is it covert or whatever that's something?
8:52
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin Yeah, the co that's over there um had been collapsed and it's um making the street um sink more. And last week I actually drove over there and I could just literally physically feel that um the dip had gotten a lot worse since I had last been over there. And so, um, I just thought it was, uh, something worth putting back on the table so that people can be able to, um, so that y'all can maybe be able to make a certain about moving forward on that. Um, but also just wanted to make sure that that resident's concern was heard.
9:27
Unidentified Good evening.
9:28
Unidentified Evening.
9:30
Engineer Ken Weiland Um, I don't really have anything uh to add to that. Uh, I think I submitted a report. Uh, it may not be in your packages anymore. It it actually addressed Tulip Circle and the two real bad areas on Springdale and O Little Rock Road, which I think have been fixed internally by the city. Tulip Circle may be a little more than the city uh forces want to bite off, but it's there. And the main thing you need to remember is we came up with an estimate of what it would take to replace that. You know, we won't really know until we go out and try to find a contractor who will be willing to go in there and make the repair and give us a a hard estimate for it. And these days that's getting harder and harder to come by because everybody's busy and this is a small project and and so forth. So, uh I think Mr. Etherly had a real good suggestion the last time if you want to move forward with it. You may recall and I brought before you the relocation of the lines under the bridge and we had a we had a hard number on that from a contractor. Uh which by the way we're going to be putting under contract very soon. Um and I said we had his number and I estimated what the engineering would be just for our time out in the field. And Mr. Etherly said, "Hey, why don't we just put a a not to exceed price on there without coming back to the council and you may want to consider doing something like that here as uh as attorney has really kind of got us all thinking right now. You know, you have to abide by the state purchase uh purchase rules. Okay. But you have your own internal ordinance and rules and limitations on the mayor. And it goes back not just this mayor, it goes back, I think a couple mayors, y'all remember, u that he can't exceed 5,000 without council approval. But once y'all approve that, then we can proceed under the state purchase rules. And in this particular case, I verified with attorney valley just a little while ago. Uh, I think we can just ne ne I can or you somebody can negotiate with a contractor a contractor for up to 35. Once you approve exceeding his 5,000 limit, then we don't have to go and spend all the engineering money it takes to provide plan specs, contract documents, advertising the paper takes six weeks and all that. Uh, I can proceed under the state purchase rules which I and don't quote me on these numbers. I think up to 35 is just go negotiate with a contractor from 35 to around 75 or so. You get two written quotes, which is what I did for the bridge. And and somewhere around 75 or so, they just recently changed the law, but somewhere at that point, then we're required by state purchasing rules to go out and and and competitively bid them advertising in the local paper or statewide paper, whichever the funding uh source requires. Uh so that's kind of how you know we're starting to kind of get a game plan on how we can move especially with these smaller projects that don't you don't need to spend a lot of engineering you know on this one tulip circle I would suggest we've got enough plans and everybody in this room knows Raymond Hill works for me and he did it for 50 years we know how to go out and basically do a design build with a contractor with the with the plans you know the drawings that we have and get just call it replace without having to spend a lot of engineering money. We'll just keep our time like we're going to do down on the bridge. And so I would suggest since the estimate is 7650 could be higher, could be lower, don't know. Maybe uh and I don't think there's going to be that much engineering involved uh because it'll probably go quick once somebody steps in there and does it. You know, you may want to consider saying, "Hey, like you did on the bridge, say, "Hey, how about 15,000? We'll just cap it at 15. Maybe we can come under it." Uh but if for some reason it looks like it's going to go over, then we've got to come back and tell this council and say, "Hey, the estimates are coming in higher and we're going to need to we're going to have to exceed your cap." So that's just a suggested course of action to do this. Of course, obviously, as always in every project, do nothing is an option. Uh or you can you can approve it. we can go get the price and then wait to come back, you know, uh to to get authorization to issue a notice, proceed. Uh I mean, there's several different ways of doing it. I guess the question is is do you want to continue? Do you want to move forward and do it or do you want to defer it down the road? But I'm ready to go. Uh we're ready to go. It's not a big project. Hopefully, we won't hit a mastadon bone or something out there. you know, it'll be relatively quick. We'll take the material over the old rotten steel cover. We'll put a new cover down in there, bury it back, and put the surf the new surface back in. But we got to have somebody that's got that capability. And here we're we're somewhat limited. And any questions? Um well we did but no um the actual fix hadn't been implemented like no work had been done to we have we approved the spending of the funds but the project hadn't started and so go ahead
15:19
Unidentified so the situ go ahead
15:21
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin° actually um we had approved for him to come up with a project I mean to um look at it and come up with a plan of action. But when it came back to the table, I think the figure for all three were around 13,000. And there was um comments made about that being a lot of money to spend on that. And if we did that for them, then we got to do it for more streets. And we just got into that conversation, the end of being tabled. And so we weren't authorized to move forward with any of those projects. The only thing that we were we were told that we could do was to put the rocks down on Old Rock Road and to put the rocks down on Springdale and to basically keep those um maintained like that. the water department. I guess because that was a water issue, they ended up contracting someone within their I mean through their department to cover I mean to um fill that in but we were we weren't given the approval to move forward with the total that was presented by him which was like I think 133 or something like that.
16:22
Unidentified We did
16:22
Unidentified that was my comment about taking the cheaper route but they disagreed. They they both like $14,000 and
16:30
Unidentified it wasn't my suggestion about the line. Someone brought that up. And you remember you called and you said that you were going to put the lime on there for old rock road and then you were going to come back and start the repairs.
16:42
Unidentified I can go back to the minutes but from what I recall from that meeting we we didn't I don't even remember us voting on this much as we commented on it and then it just kind of got tabled and we moved on from there.
16:54
Unidentified We voted on that.
16:55
Unidentified Yeah. I think at this point what needs to happen is is simple.
17:05
Unidentified Uh most Mr. Wilder has given us update.
17:09
City Attorney Andre Valley° I think what needs to happen is as he goes through it's going to be less than 35,000. Once he selects the contract we just do ordinance waving bidding for that one contractor and then that'll be the final approval. Y'all y'all made the authorization, I believe, but I don't think you actually approved the actual contract.
17:26
Unidentified Okay.
17:29
City Attorney Andre Valley° So, I think the course of action would be
17:31
Unidentified Yeah, I think it was going to go back and do something.
17:33
Unidentified Get your get your get your two or three bids and
17:37
Unidentified and then we'll approve the two or three uh proposals.
17:41
Unidentified I'll try,000.
17:43
Unidentified I'll try.
17:45
City Attorney Andre Valley° No, no, no. I said it's going to be less than 35,000.
17:50
City Attorney Andre Valley Well, Mr. Wland was speaking after just as me about $35,000. No, this is this is somewhere between 7 to $10,000. It's above the city's competitive bidden uh ordinance of 7500, but it's less than state law of $35,000. And the 35,000 figure random was Mr. Eth. I said, "Wait a minute." Because he was saying, "Wait a minute. 35,000 that's not what you all approved." Okay.
18:11
City Attorney Andre Valley° I think y'all approved somewhere around 10 to 15 or something like that. But once we select the once once once the mayor selects the actual contractor, we need to do an ordinance to wave the bid on that is what we are.
18:26
Unidentified Do we have to wave competitive bidding if we're under the state purchase rules for competitive bidding
18:31
City Attorney Andre Valley° for the city? 7500. Yes.
18:34
Unidentified Okay.
18:35
City Attorney Andre Valley° Is that's about the city, not about the state.
18:37
Unidentified I got you. Okay.
18:38
Unidentified Right. So on your normal project if you if you did with some other municipality where they don't have the 7500 uh you wouldn't have to have this ordinance at all.
18:45
Unidentified I got you. Okay. Yes sir. Okay. So we're that's then we're good to go. We want
18:52
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I think I think what wasn't I don't know if there's any other discussion. I think part of what was also thrown out too was whether this group wanted to cap um the total estimate including the engineering fees at a certain um at a certain amount. 15.
19:10
Unidentified I think
19:11
Unidentified that's engineering and construction.
19:12
Unidentified Yeah. Somebody's just like I don't know why 15 just some I had to go back and look the minutes, but I don't know why it just seems like 15 was what we were the number we were looked at anyway. But yes, um
19:24
Unidentified I think the the
19:25
Unidentified I think Mr. Mr. W just asked out of bund. Let's go ahead and do it so we won't have to come back to it.
19:30
Unidentified Yeah.
19:30
Unidentified So he don't have to come back for another approval.
19:32
Engineer Ken Weiland° Yeah. Maybe maybe we'll get lucky. I haven't I haven't looked at the old minutes, but out of bundle of cost, it wouldn't hurt for you to approve it again up to $15,000.
19:40
Unidentified Okay.
19:40
Unidentified For two circle.
19:42
Unidentified Okay.
19:42
Unidentified Include engineering fees and contractor fees and everything.
19:45
Unidentified Now, this is going to be pay street funds.
19:48
Unidentified Yes. Correct.
19:53
Unidentified Yeah.
19:55
Unidentified What? So, do we have to
19:57
Unidentified There's a motion for right now.
19:58
Unidentified I I make that motion.
20:01
Unidentified I'll second. approving approving up to $15,000 including engineering feesclud contractor fees complete
20:09
Unidentified complete job
20:10
Unidentified right if it goes over and we have to come back and get everybody's approval right
20:14
Unidentified yes sir
20:15
Unidentified yeah okay
20:15
Unidentified over 15
20:16
Unidentified all right
20:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° is there a second
20:19
Unidentified I second
20:20
Unidentified you going I think Dr. And Miss Miller was motioned second.
20:25
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I'll pause for extra discussion.
20:28
Unidentified What What's the motion now?
20:30
City Attorney Andre Valley To authorize up to $15,000 for the complete turnkey job, including contracting cost and engineer fees.
20:37
Unidentified Okay.
20:38
Unidentified For Tulip.
20:39
Unidentified That's this is appropriation
20:41
Unidentified for Tulip Circle. Spring,
20:42
Unidentified right? For Tulip Circle.
20:45
Unidentified Okay.
20:45
Unidentified I have a question before we miss Sandy. Do you remember the vote that the
20:53
Unidentified still there?
20:54
Unidentified Yeah.
20:54
Unidentified Okay. You don't remember? Is it in the minutes?
20:57
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey It would be in the minute. I don't remember what it was.
20:59
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah. I don't think I think um worst case scenario, we probably we may have in that discussion whatever that um in that discussion during whatever meeting that was would have maybe just kind of agreed to that but maybe not so clearly. as the chief of staff pointed out, no action has been taken, no money's been spent. So, we this is not going to be um a duplicative spin or anything like that. So, no. Is there any other um discussion? If not, madam clerk, will you call the role?
21:33
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mer.
21:34
Council Member Maxine Miller° Uh yes.
21:37
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Monica Davis: yes.
21:47
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you, chief staff. Thank you, Mr. Wild.
21:51
Unidentified Hey. Hey, Mr. Mr. Wild. Ju real quickly. I know might be open up a can of worms, but you you did mention the bridge project. What what what's up with that? I mean, I know we haven't talked about for a while. I know there were some issues going on.
22:06
Engineer Ken Weiland We had we went to the contractor and told him to go ahead and get get his performance and payment bonds. we'd have a full contract on it even though it wasn't bid. We don't have the the the front end to the contract which is all the bidding stuff because remember we took I took two sealed bids.
22:23
Unidentified Yes, sir.
22:24
Engineer Ken Weiland° And and open them in front of the the Okay. So anyway, we chosen A and B construction.
22:30
Unidentified Okay.
22:30
Engineer Ken Weiland And we've sent them the uh contracts. They they have to send that to their bonding company and they bonding company got things mixed up a little bit. But we now have everything that we need. This it's ready actually for the mayor's signature and their signature and we're going to be ready to go to work
22:48
Unidentified on that just as fast as we can get those signatures now.
22:51
Unidentified Okay.
22:52
Engineer Ken Weiland Uh again, my project rep Raymond Hill had a family emergency and he had to leave and I don't I want to make sure he's involved because he kind of has been managing that for me and I don't want to I don't want to get out ahead of it.
23:07
Unidentified Yes. But we should be starting that uh as soon as soon as we can just get everything executed and get them here.
23:14
Unidentified Okay.
23:19
Engineer Ken Weiland° One of the first things we'll do is get the highway department come over and confirm our shots where where their corners are going to be. That's that's the thing that I'm most concerned about is make sure we're on the same page with the highway department.
23:29
Unidentified It'll be a while before they get started. Okay.
23:35
Mayor Joseph Whitfield More questions.
23:38
Mayor Joseph Whitfield If there are none, thank you, Mr. Wall. Thank you. All right. Our next item of business this evening is U number three, water department. Consist of a couple updates, but also some invoice um approvals. You're going to find a total of five, not five, sorry, four invoices. Um starting on page 2A um in your packet. So, we have progressive tractor, which was equipment that was used by the water department. We have two invoices for O'Neal. Um these were repairs and construction or not construction but work done to the west side water treatment plant. Both of those and uh the third one is bail construction valves which be the middle page. Uh there I'm sure many of you saw it. Uh there was a leak that was happening at the Philips County Library. This was a purchase that was made to make sure that that um that leak could be contained with the water that was shooting up um at the corner of Columbia and Perry. So these are all above um spin limit and so they would require approval pending any questions or conversation that this body may have.
24:49
Council Member Maxine Miller I'd like to make a motion that we pay um Mr. O'Neal's uh invoices, the first one uh for July 1st, 26 and the second one for August the 13th, 26. I had a I had had an opportunity to speak with the water department director superintendent and he shared with me that these um uh repairs were necessary because the leaks had gotten to the point that they were affecting the gauges in the water department. So I would I would like to go ahead and make that motion.
25:32
Unidentified And is that motion excluding the other two?
25:34
Unidentified Oh no. I was just going to I was doing one at a time. I didn't know if we wanted to.
25:42
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Um, is there a second for that motion?
25:48
Mayor Joseph Whitfield If we are ready, we'll take a vote on approving both Eddie O'Neal invoices. Madam clerk, will you call the role, please?
25:55
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes. Clerk's count: 6 yes (2 further votes the captions did not attribute).
26:04
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you. Um what we're left with um are the other two invoices which are progressive tractor and bail construction valves. One was an equipment rental for the water department. And the second bell construction valve. This was an emergency purchase again to um contain the leak that we all I don't want to say we all witnessed it but there was a leak happening at the Philips County Library. Yeah, I think the leak had been occurring for about a week and a half and probably 5 days, 3 days into that um water began to spout upwards and so to get that contained, they had to get this um emergency part.
26:43
Unidentified That's what all the trucks were down there. Okay.
26:46
Unidentified Yep.
26:47
Unidentified I'd like to make a motion that we pay bail constructions uh invoice. Um, what's the date on August? For August the 27th, 2026.
27:02
Unidentified I'll second there.
27:03
Roll call Roll-call vote — Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Adrian Messina: yes. Clerk's count: 6 yes.
27:20
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. Motion passes. The third item is progressive tractor. Um well, I wanted the department head uh Mr. Rose to be here for this one to be uh more in detail than I could provide. But I I do understand that this was also um equipment but al and part purchases as well for the water department. Um also in the nature of making sure leaks were contained. Not sure exactly which job this would have been a part of but um similar purchase made just as the one that we approved.
27:55
Unidentified So okay so this was used also too to
27:59
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° not for not not for the same job. Not not for the same job. Okay.
28:02
Unidentified Yeah.
28:02
Unidentified Okay. What what is what is this track?
28:05
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So that's that's what I don't have the detail about. Um I wanted the department head to be here for to explain that but um wasn't able to make it. you think maybe we should table this until he can come here and explain
28:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° if um if that's the body's um preference I think that um I don't think that hurts
28:26
Unidentified yeah because I don't quite know
28:28
Mayor Joseph Whitfield it's a worthy purpose seems like we have a consensus to pause so we'll table that one I'll make sure that we have a presentation on that All right. Um the la the second um the second item for the water department is a maintenance update. This is in relation to one of the grants that the water department received. Um when I started in this role, the the um water department had received a $2 million grant from the Delta Regional Authority. That grant has basically been um finalized now. We had a meeting and I will invite Mr. is welling up if he wants to provide any extra detail, but what I do know is that um we have our first waterline replacement project actually kicking off on September 11th. Um there will be excavation and digging happening in West Helena. I was able to track down some of the areas that are going to be affected and the city will put out um um some statements about this. So Cook Street, Cherryale, Kentucky, Georgia, and Chicago, and um West Street will all see construction as it relates to water line replacement. The total length of line is about 23,000 um maybe just shy of that in terms of replacements um that will be done. And so there will be signs in those neighborhoods to let residents know exactly what's happening. um the con the construction company as well as the water department will also be proactive in making sure that any
30:02
Mayor Joseph Whitfield service um interruptions will be acknowledged proactively so that residents know um what's happening but that grant is actually being started and I do think it's uh a worthwhile u moment to just celebrate the fact that that that first excavation project will be happening. So September 11th was when they'll break ground and I don't know if I missed anything Mr. while you want or if you wanted to add anything to that project.
30:28
Engineer Ken Weiland Well, I guess the biggest thing is is that the way we're going to conduct this is boring the lines. We're not digging trenches all the way down each side of the street. Now, there's going to be some limited excavation where we have to put in valve and where we're tying in, but in in most cases, you really shouldn't see or feel the fact that the new water line went in because it's going to be bored. And of course they have to reconnect all the services. So there'll be a little small potholes. So that I think that's one good positive thing about it. The other thing that we don't need to lose sight of on that project everybody everybody's so focused hyperfocused on the 2-in water line, but we have quite a number of new fire hydrants, valves, and insert valves much like the ones they did out here to fix the library leak. Uh where we have areas where Mr. Rose has areas in the city that he has difficulty isolating when he has a leak short of just turning everybody's water off. Uh by by putting these valves in, not only will it help us conduct this project, but it will will hopefully give him more uh ability to isolate smaller sections of town when a leak breaks out. You all understand that if you got a break here and you got two valves on each side of it, you can till the water just that area. Well, if one of those valves doesn't work, it goes up exponentially because now you've got to go further out and and the looping effect of all the water lines means now you've got to you've got to get more valves turned off to isolate. And with these old valves and the old system, sometimes that doesn't work and it's very difficult. So, this project not only includes the 2-in water line replacement, but uh you got a lot of leaking fire hydrants out there that are leaking quite quite badly. And uh so it will replace fire hydrants that will put in valves uh replace the 2-in water lines and and anything else. And of course with the mayor expand on that with the uh with the that's the DRA and and actually it's also a half a million from AEDC and I figure our state guys out there put in a half a million on that. So that project is underway and then the mayor can can fill you in also on what's underway which is the design all the preliminary design that we're doing under the ANRC projects for uh we've got all the surveys accomplished for about 25,000 more feet over on the Helena side and we're beginning the surveys for another 25,000 ft. So you're looking within the next year, 6 months, 7 months, actually having approximately 70,000 ft of replacement on the on this this wretched 2 in that's causing all these leaks, plus biles, hydrants, and in addition, of course, we're working on I don't want to steal the mayor's thunder, but we're working on all the other projects, too. Tanks, the treatment plant, West Island treatment plant. uh try to figure out how we're going to uh do that and I'll be back in front of you guys uh quite a bit as we move into the third the fourth quarter uh of this year. So there's a lot of action taking place. Uh it's kind of like the the duck going across the water. You don't see the little feet underneath there, but but there's we have a lot going on right now and it will eventually turn into uh what you see actually on the ground with the orange piece of equipment digging stuff and doing repairs. Mayor, if that
34:07
Unidentified I have a question.
34:08
Unidentified Yes, sir.
34:09
Unidentified I remember Mr. Sternberg emphasizing cap and replace all the lines
34:15
Unidentified because we had all those lines over on west side, right?
34:18
Unidentified I guess two systems laid down at the same time. What ended up being two systems because the first lines weren't capped. Are we capping those the old lines as we replace them?
34:29
Engineer Ken Weiland That's correct. they they they are disconnected and we're taking even one step further uh because in other locations uh people we've learned that not we but engineering in general has learned that sometimes uh sometimes in the past somebody may have run a line trying to get some water to somebody and they hooked in and and it's not on it really on any plans. So what we added to this project those those lines will be cap and plugged once they're disconnected new lines are alive but we also are going to install bas basically a valve on that old line and when we have determined that that old line is truly completely disconnected we'll turn that valve and if any water squirts out of it then we go say okay there's still something hooked up somewhere we don't want any of that old water leeching into the new system so yes sir they will be capped and plugged if That answered your question.
35:25
Unidentified Yeah. And I was trying to make sure I understood it right. But I remember he emphasized that when we had the water crisis going, we needed to replace the lines and be sure that the contractor kept them cuz it didn't happen. I guess many years ago in West Helen, it didn't happen. So,
35:39
Unidentified right. Yeah. We we bore the line and and it it's tapped into the main generally 6inch mains in West Hull, you've got different sizes over here. Remember, we're doing this on both sides. We're doing the same thing in Helen as we're doing West Hull and probably about the same amount. U but once we bore into that line then the old lines are are cut and was called cap and plugged so that they can't leak.
36:07
Unidentified Thank you.
36:08
Unidentified Oh the thing I was saying you have maps of what's going to be worked on. Um at some point can we get those disseminated to the council like six copies
36:17
Unidentified uh the for the DRA project? Yes, for the DR project.
36:21
Unidentified Sure.
36:21
Unidentified Cuz mayor and I was were there at at the the final planning mission and also I think one of the things that both y'all admitted this project starts September 11th and concludes February 27th. Is that correct?
36:32
Engineer Ken Weiland Well, February 27th based on weather conditions. Remember that he has so many days, but if we get in the middle of winter and we're like last winter we had two weeks where you couldn't even walk out your door. So that's that is the date from the date that we issued and those proceed if you take the number of days they're given it comes out to February 27th but remember doing anything in the middle dead of winter is is always tricky. So
36:59
Unidentified I understand
36:59
Unidentified but I'll be glad more than happy to provide um you know do you want all the details or you just need the plan view showing where the streets are so everybody knows
37:07
Unidentified where the streets are because this isn't a full replacement but it's placed in the problem areas the most
37:12
Unidentified Yeah.
37:12
Unidentified Well I can provide you I can provide whatever information is needed.
37:15
Unidentified Right. Just so they can see what we're discussing.
37:17
Unidentified Yes sir.
37:20
Unidentified Thank you.
37:22
Unidentified Thank you. Are there any other questions of discussion for that? last week. Last weekend by the library there was the there was some kind of a water I don't know exactly what water was running everywhere and then across the street there was some drilling going on and
37:46
Unidentified what what what was all that about?
37:49
Engineer Ken Weiland Well, I wasn't directly involved in that. Uh but I I think what what and I was looking at y'all's package. I think what uh the your water manager did, they they had a val they couldn't isn't isolate that area and so they had one of these insert valves I was just mentioning to you put in there. Now again, I'm going to qualify this is that I was not directly involved. I'm going by basically what I was told was going on over there and watching what was happening, but I think he he inserted a new valve.
38:17
Unidentified It was involved in all that uh water deal. I I'm pretty sure it was it was strictly the water well the water the water company
38:27
Unidentified and then that ball the ball contractor I think they were the contractors that actually installed the insert insert valve that's that not everybody can do that that's a that's kind of a special
38:38
Unidentified water was running out like it was just gushing out for about
38:41
Unidentified Yes sir
38:42
Unidentified two days
38:43
Unidentified yes sir
38:43
Unidentified is unbelievable
38:45
Engineer Ken Weiland yes you understand which is why I think the the manager uh got right on it and got those people in to get that valve installed so they could isolate it so they could repair. It's just very difficult to repair those leaks when the water is is blowing out of them under pressure. It's just it it could be done. I've seen it done different ways, but it's very difficult. You can't you just can't get the water off of you and you can't get things on, you know, with that water coming out under that pressure. And remember here at the library, you know, the tank sitting right up there 100 feet above you. So it's there's a lot of pressure and you got the high service pumps running to pump that water over the hill. So you got you just got a lot of pressure and so it it it became critical to isolate it and I think that's what Mr. Rose was doing was getting to where he could isolate that area and get that water shut off.
39:40
Unidentified So are we finished with that project?
39:43
Engineer Ken Weiland Uh Mr. Rose would have to Mr. road would have to give you that that uh I don't see anything leaking and I see them putting the grass and stuff back. So, I'm assuming that we're they're they're pretty well wrapped up, but again, Mr. Rose needs to brief you on that. I I was not directly involved in that.
40:02
Unidentified Okay.
40:02
Unidentified Didn't need to be. Uh you know, your water manager was perfectly capable of handling it.
40:06
Unidentified Had a couple people ask me what was going on. I didn't know.
40:10
Unidentified Had a big water leak. had a big had a big water leak and couldn't get it isolated. Which is again is why I wanted to point out that this new project and all these projects are going to have it's not just the lines. We're going to be trying to get valves in so that you can isolate smaller areas of town without having to turn the water off, you know, to to fix something. So,
40:33
Unidentified Thank you, Mr. W.
40:34
Unidentified All right.
40:34
Unidentified Were you going to add some
40:36
Unidentified Hey, before you I was about All I was about to say when we met with Mr. Rose the other day when we had the proposal meeting with Messina. What he said it it it looked a lot worse than it was. He said was a highly pressurized 1 in line. So that's why it was shooting up so high, but they were taking a while to try to get it repaired. And you just approved the repairs on it. I don't know if it's done, but I believe it is. They covered it up with dirt, so I assumed it's done.
41:03
Unidentified I don't have a certification that done. I'm saying but the fact that they filled it in, I'm pretty sure it's done.
41:08
Unidentified Yeah. And they're going to get another contractor to fill the that part that got drilled in in the street. Probably gonna go back with the guy who did the one on old rock road. Hey council, there uh you remember we also had a invoice that was tabled from Mr. Crawford or do were we still looking for information or somebody didn't make the
41:32
Unidentified Yeah. Do we need to have any updates on that? Was there still a course of action to take after that? I
41:42
Unidentified y'all were just waiting on Mr. Rose to come back.
41:44
Unidentified Yeah, we just he was going to verify that the work was done and then it would be approved.
41:48
Unidentified Okay. And I did again I did ask him to be here but okay once they
41:54
Mayor Joseph Whitfield all right just um if there no other conversation or other discussion on uh water our final item for the day is stream and sanitation department um and this includes a review of purchase options uh for rebuilding the fleet and uh options for contracting sanitation to vendor. The these are the last pages in your packet starting on page or starting right after the uh progressive insurance or progressive um invoice. So 4A and I'll yield to the um interim director for street sanitation to detail what was found on side loaders but also what was found with uh rear loaders in the area as well.
42:40
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin All right. Uh first I want to address the council and say uh my apologies. Um, I did misremember the U minutes from May 19th. I went and looked them up and especially you, Miss Monica. My bad, cuz I saw you that made the motion and so I appreciate it. Um, and again, I don't mind apologizing when I'm wrong. Um, but yeah, moving forward, um, you all received the information. Again, apologies about the U rear loaders. I was just going as fast as I could to get them when I got them. Y'all got them. Um, I know you guys had the um information on the side loaders um and probably have had time to review that. Um, if you want to take some time to look through it, please feel free to. Um, the only good deal I was really able to find from one of the trusted vendors that we usually use between Arkansas Municipal and River City um won't be available to February. And so it's kind of up to y'all in terms of how you would want to move with that. um it was about $155,000 for 2025. Uh the other two were a little more pricey. They were in the $20 and some thousand range. Um again, they has the financing options that goes with those. I tried to put some decent summaries in there so that you guys didn't have to read through too much of that for the email thread. Um but yeah um they for the rear loaders the financer did give both four and fiveyear options. Um I will point out today that we worked with two side loaders and a rear loader and we got a 100% of the route completed. Um the side loaders did most of the um residential route while the rear loader was able to make up some of the previous routes and assist with the uh route for today. And so that's what I'm still team side loader but you guys make the choice. Um, we're not completely caught up yet, but I mean we're on track to be able like this week we're we're hitting everything. I mean, the only thing is we're still operating with that the broke down one of the broke down side loaders, which at any point, you know, might give us a problem and then we have to get it back up and that might slow us down. But again, we got the the rear loader that'll be able to help out with that. Right now, the rear loader only really operates on the smaller streets that the side loaders are a little too big to get down and stuff. So, you know, about probably 80% of the streets are getting hit by the side loader, maybe 20% by the rear loader. Yeah.
45:15
Unidentified This option too for the rear loader. Are you saying that it's not going to be available?
45:20
Unidentified Yes. February 17th, 2027. I think it's February 17th.
45:24
Unidentified 12th
45:25
Unidentified 12th. Yeah, February 12th, 2027. It's one of the ones that's currently in um cycle. I actually meant to reach out to see if like based on the year of it, would that be one that we would be able to get in that um that B deal that we talked about where it would be um cycled out every two years just based on the fact that it's not at the age where they normally would just kind of get rid of them.
45:47
Unidentified Yeah. I mean, you know, you know, we could go get one of them next year, too. You know, get us a a fuller fleet. So, so in a situation like that, do how do you secure that? How do you secure something?
46:07
Unidentified I think we just let him know that we would have intent. Um, unless he and I mean, I doubt he's not going to be able to sell to anybody else until then. And so, kind of got to just make sure whenever it's available, we move quickly on getting it.
46:22
Unidentified When would these two um either these two side loading trucks be available? Um, my understanding is that we will be able to get them within a week or two. They're on the ground. That's what he kept telling me. Somebody help me remember if you can. Uh, truck 32 and truck 55. One of those was a 2016 and one was something else. Does anybody, Miss Ramsey, do you remember what years those were? 55 and 32. Those two side loading trucks. I can try to find my email.
46:57
Unidentified Did we get one at 25?
47:00
Unidentified No, I mean the the 32 and 55. 55 the one that was that was total was like a 16. Was that right?
47:08
Unidentified The older model, I believe.
47:13
Unidentified I was ask
47:14
Unidentified and I don't remember 32.
47:16
Unidentified Turner sent me some of the previous purchases um on the trucks and I can see if I can find them if they label by number. I think they're both around the same time frame though. I mean, 15 to 16.
47:30
Unidentified Yeah, it sounds about right. 16.
47:36
Council Member Don Etherly Why Why am I asking that question? Um, I think the ship may have sailed on the immediate reloading truck and that probably happened many months ago. Um, I don't want to dive into the uh the side load rear load discussion in too deeply, but I guess let me share some information and then I it'll at least explain what I'm about to say. Um, I had a chance to talk to a uh a gentleman who co-owns a sanitation service in in New Orleans uh this past week and I got a chance to just ask some questions about side loading trucks versus re rearloading trucks and they pick up trash in in the New Orleans area. I don't remember what parish he told me. They also contract with the city of Nachez, Mississippi to pick up trash. So, it's a pretty large operation. And I asked him just generally, "Tell me what you think about sideloadading trucks versus uh rear loading trucks for residential trash pickup." And he gave me his spill and he said, "We use reloading trucks." He said, "At one point we had two side loading trucks and da da da da." But I asked a question at the end of that which was you said at one point we had sideloadading trucks and he said yeah. He said we didn't we decided not to use those anymore. and his his reasoning was uh the the maintenance um he said even in New Orleans it was difficult sometimes to get those side loading trucks fixed quickly when they would break down. So what he said is if you don't have a maintenanceheavy operation if your operation is not maintenanceheavy I don't recommend that you use the side loading trucks. Use the reloading trucks. Even the big corporations have reloading trucks as backup. Um, so I'll throw that in to all everything that I said before we had this conversation. When I say I think the ship is sailed, we gota we have to do something before the rental goes out. And
49:38
Unidentified I think because every time we have to we have to get help picking up trash, we call in a contractor who uses a real loading truck. And so we in fact pick up garbage using real loaders. I think we would ignore everything that we've learned over all these years if we don't have two rear loading trucks in our inventory. It would be just to take all that knowledge and throw it away. We need to be able because what we also know is that and I ask you about the year of the truck being 2016 is because these are 2020s and we know it's inevitable that those arms are going to have problems at some point and we don't want to be stuck with one reloading truck in arm trouble. Um, so what I'm thinking is, um, we're presented with two side loading trucks. If we buy just buy one and then we continue to look for a more affordable rear loading truck, I think we have to have two rear loading trucks in our in our in our fleet to make sure we can always pick up trash. I would say I agree just in general to have another backup for the rear loader that we currently have too. Um, based on the emails, and I could be wrong, um, Derek Turner did for me some purchases from 2020. Was that when y'all might have gotten those last uh, side loaders?
51:03
Unidentified Yeah, it was it was it was during that that administration. So,
51:07
Unidentified okay. Um, I see a purchase of three 2008 sanitation truck side loaders. I'm not sure if these are the same ones, but it just shows that that there was a purchase made for 75,000 for three of them. I'm not sure. But I'm also in agreeance though that I I do think that there that we could purchase another uh rear loader at some point. Um not to say that we still couldn't properly purchase these two side loaders. Um I mean that's 5,000 a month by February. Who knows where we're going to be with the new budget. And you know that's based on that one that's 155. That note is about 4,000 a month. and you know 9,000 a month on on three garbage trucks that's going to keep us going. I'm just saying I'm I'm you know just put it out there. I pork a no do you know
51:55
Unidentified I I do understand my position is this it's 130,000 that we add not to what we call our claims or you know potential debt. This goes on the operation side because it's actually being used. It's not something, you know, some closed account or something, but wow. Caution has been my word for the year. Caution. And so, um, if if if these if one works out, it gives us what we have right now that's on the streets right now, which is two side loading trucks. One which may work one day and may not work the other day, but at least it gives us two trucks in operation. So, are you suggesting we only go with one of the side loaders?
52:39
Unidentified I mean, that's what I'm suggesting. One I'm suggesting one side loader and then I'm suggesting that we continue the search for a rear loading truck.
52:47
Unidentified Well, and because this February 12th truck, you've only got 20,000 miles on it, only 2,000 engine hours. Now, it is 155,000, but I mean, that sounds like a pretty good deal for a 2025 I mean, I'm just thinking like a person who doesn't know everything about trucks, but 2025, 20,000 miles, which I know with these kinds of trucks, I mean, you're talking about a lot of
53:18
Unidentified a lot of wear. And
53:21
Unidentified I mean, this one is a 18 yard. That's why it's also a little cheaper and smaller.
53:24
Unidentified Yes.
53:24
Unidentified Yeah.
53:25
Unidentified I mean, we between now and and next year, we may be able to find a a rear loading truck that's really really inexpensive. I mean,
53:36
Unidentified and if it's I imagine
53:38
Unidentified I'm going say 32, y'all. It's like 32 is like last legish, y'all. Like Monday it broke down like twice by 10. And again, we were able to get it back up and running cuz we learned that you just need a couple of extra cylinders and then you just replace them out, get the cylinders replaced so that way you keep them in rotation if it happens. But I wouldn't count that's we're we're operating with like one and a half side loaders right now. One is a rental. And so I wouldn't just count on that one. That one we only got like one or two drivers that like, "Yeah, I know how to use it." And if you got to say that about a a truck, I wouldn't consider that a viable option.
54:17
Unidentified It sounds like you're keeping uh really good records with the parts and all of that. How much are you running for those parts?
54:26
Unidentified Um to get the two cylinders, it only cost I think $800 total. Am I mistaken? Miss Ramsey, I think you probably remember that check. Yeah, it only cost like $800.
54:39
Council Member Don Etherly I I hear Let me Let me be clear about what I'm saying. Um is $260,000 or $130,000. My My concern is that we spend that much money. And I think y'all to be clear about what you're doing. We the more investment we put in sanitation, you can start waving goodbye to contracting it out as you get down the road cuz we still owe these people, right?
55:04
Unidentified But you put that much investment into it and we have it into in that much investment in two trucks that we know will eventually fail us and then we know we'll be calling in a reload loader to help us pick up garbage. So what I'm saying is is maybe we get if we get another side loading truck. It's not my favorite. You can tell I'm not a fan of them, but we get another side loading truck, but maybe we go if we get two, we get two later. We keep we get one side loading truck, then we keep an eye on a real loading truck. That way there's no day, no event where we can't roll out two trucks to pick up garbage. And I think that's for me that's learning the lessons that we've been taught over the years because we put two side loading trucks out there, we got the winter coming up
55:48
Unidentified and then they don't operate when we got no more money to buy another truck. I mean, we really don't have money to buy this truck.
55:54
Unidentified And so my question
55:56
Unidentified I think you
55:57
Unidentified I just got a question, I guess. Um I mean, we we're newer here, but my question is maybe how much of that do you attribute to maintenance schedule versus the type of equipment? because I I was um I I got a chance to spend some time with the sanitation department this past Friday and got up early in the morning, spent the half the day with them and got on the truck. And I mean, I hear what you're saying. I don't think that inevitably it being a rear loader makes it means it's going to work longer. I think that there's a variable that I'm curious to know like it do we feel like that's because of the truck type of truck it is or like do we need to just make sure we have a strict maintenance schedule?
56:41
Unidentified Well, and that's the reason why I told the story about me talking to the gentleman in New Orleans. His instructions to me were clear. If you don't have a maintenanceheavy operation, don't do it. He said the the not only do you have the hydraulics in and the uh u the hopper of the truck, you got the arm. it's exposed during the winter time. He said those parts just wear faster. And he said, "We learned over a number of years, just it wasn't really worth the investment that they put into it." Now, a lot of people love side loading trucks. They understand the trade-off is you can pick up more trash faster. You only need one person to go out and do it. But I think we have to be honest about where we are. Um and and where we are right now is we can't pick up trash. And on the financial side, which is always my biggest concern on the financial side, you know, we've the opportunity cost that we put into this is tremendous. It's just absolutely tremendous. Uh we had what was 109 that we got on that on that total truck and we didn't we didn't buy a truck and that got absorbed into payroll or whatever dayto-day expenses and then we spent another uh 30 on a rental and now we spent another 10 on a rental. So now we're up to uh what's that 110 plus 30 140 one one we're up to 150. And you guys know how much we've spent on contractors this year. Um,
58:15
Unidentified we've exceeded I know we've exceeded um I know we've exceeded 45,000.
58:20
Council Member Don Etherly Yeah. Well, $45,000 to a guy who brought us a rear end loader. So, that's nearly $200,000 with no truck. So, we don't have a truck in our fleet after spending that much money. And which is the reason why we're looking at street funds to even make this purchase. And I'm saying we have to learn something from that. And I understand what I'm being told and what I've seen. The side loading trucks have always given us trouble. I'd love to have one because it makes picking up trash more efficient. I don't disagree with that, but it it's really a luxury at this point. And if we had two reloading trucks, we wouldn't have spent the 40 on the contractor, right? We save it. So I think we need to going forward put ourselves in a better position than we have in years past. And that just means I keep saying learn what we've learned. We know now I hear what you're saying about maintenance and I don't know um look I haven't worked in sanitation all these years so I don't know what the the maintenance effort has been. Uh clearly um well I don't want to say that but but we'll have to do better. We're not maintenance heavy. We can all agree on that.
59:32
Unidentified Yeah. And I was going to say I think I think this is an opportunity for us to evol evolve. Um that that's that's kind of how I see it. So um because I mean looking at two 2020s for the price of 260 which would have been roughly the price that we would have spent for one brand new truck. I mean that's that's a good deal for two side loaded trucks.
59:57
Unidentified Um
59:59
Unidentified yeah.
59:59
Unidentified Yeah. I also sorry my I also just wonder
1:00:01
Unidentified like so like when winter comes
1:00:03
Unidentified Mhm.
1:00:04
martin-arnold-kevin° that's not going to be a easy pickup when you got guys it's going to be slower I'm sure for those guys that's outside on that walkbehind and worse conditions to have them working in. Again y'all we don't pay these people much. And again, yeah, they chose the job, but that don't mean we can't make sure that they're able to do the job more comfortably. And let alone like again, like we're not the most staffed department. And so if I'm putting three people on this walk behind and another walk behind the combo, however y'all are doing it, like that's going to take away from our ability to do more.
1:00:43
etherly-don° I understand. But primarily we're talking about the sanitation department. And I say that because their primary responsibility is to pick up the trash. So doing more becomes a luxury. And I I hear what you're saying because you you've said this repeatedly about not being able to pay them.
1:01:01
Council Member Don Etherly That's why I think you have to think about this in terms of what do we lose? What do we lose this year in renting and contractors and then not buying truck though? we gave away their raise, a raise for those people by not addressing this in a different fashion. And the point I'm trying to make is is is I think about all the people who come and ask for for payraises. Uh courts has been here. We have other departments who want payraises. I said last summer that guys in street and sanitation need a pay raise. I said it and the guy in the newspaper wrote an editorial about it. I was crazy. So, I agree they need a raise, but we have to efficiently handle our money to create the pool for them to get the raise because we still got all this claims that we have to address. So, we got to do two things at once. And so, I hear you. But the other thing is if we allow ourselves to be in a position because see to buy those two trucks is to assume that everything's going to be all right down the road. And the one thing I've said consistently if you're listening to me is I said the things that we can't plan for the things that we don't know about the things that are going to happen that we didn't anticipate. And so given our financial situation the only thing I continue to kind of advocate for is that we use caution. We use caution and we can do all of these things if we're meticulous. count our coins and just my thought has always been we're in survival mode right now. So the luxuries maybe we can't do. I would love to have a whole fleet of side loaders and they don't have to get out. They can drive around and pick it up and and every there was a time when trash got picked up by 6:00 in the morning at consolidation. If you didn't have your trash out at 6, you might miss the garbage truck. The boom truck came on the same day every day. Boom truck came, picked up the curbside trash. It's not like we have never been able to do it. I want us to be able to do it again. But in order for us to do it again, we kind of have to face where we are right now. Plan for us just being able to pick up trash. And if we can just pick up trash, you know, walk before you crawl cuz we got a deep hole to dig out of. So anyway, it's it's a it's a risk. There's no guarantees in any of this. And I I agree, there's nothing there's nothing we can do that's guaranteed success, but to the extent that we try to manage our risk. I think risk management would be more in at this point, I say, you know, do a side loader, but our next eyes ought to be on a rear loading truck just so that we're safe in sanitation and then we can acquire another. I just I just I just kind of I I gotta disagree up to a certain extent. I mean, I just
1:03:57
martin-arnold-kevin° based on the data, when we have one side load and one rear loader, sir,
1:04:00
martin-arnold-kevin° we're not getting the job done. And so, again, if we get one more in and we match it with 32 the day that 32 goes down, we're not going to be able to adequately get the job done. I'd rather us have two side loaders and 32 that we can at least try to depend on if something does happen to one of the side loaders that we bring in to where we're able to still run the operation in the way that's been the most efficient, which is if we had the two side loaders and the and the rear loader just helping out. And so again, I I get where you're coming from, but like I I don't I know you said you emphasize being able to have at least two out at once. One being the side loader, one being the walkbehind. We've done that and we weren't able to complete the routes. And so I'm I'm that's that's the only reason that I'm advocating to have the two side loaders is because based on the data from July, we had a 100% pickup when we operated with two efficient side loaders and a and a rear loader.
1:04:55
Unidentified Mr.
1:04:56
Unidentified Um haven't gotten to him yet. I didn't even look at them until I was going to hear anything about get them approved.
1:05:04
Unidentified Did you I think you had hired uh two extra men.
1:05:10
martin-arnold-kevin° One well yeah two extra um
1:05:14
martin-arnold-kevin° two extra laborers and then we had one driver start yesterday.
1:05:17
Unidentified Okay. So how many now are in that department?
1:05:19
martin-arnold-kevin° That will put us at 21 or 22 and again you have three doing you have three on grass. You have five trucks with drivers. Um, and then you have your two guys that are on tractors. Um, we usually put a guy with the guy on a boom truck so that somebody's able to kind of like get all the debris and stuff together so he's not having to climb down and get up and having to redo all that. Um, and then you got the walk behind that has
1:05:49
Unidentified I mean just in a standard run around town picking up uh garbage. How many men on the ground?
1:05:57
Unidentified Oh, so just for sanitation alone?
1:05:58
Unidentified Yeah. I mean yeah just for that part. So yeah, if we um if we're operating where we have the two side loaders and a rear a rear loader, that's five people.
1:06:10
Unidentified Mr. Martin, do you think that Okay, cuz I'm I'm I'm hearing something. For some reason, in my mind, I feel like y'all are more agreeing than not. Do you think that it's possible? So we approve a side loader and then we continue to qui quick quickly set a find a rear a rear loader that's affordable.
1:06:36
Unidentified Would that do it?
1:06:37
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin Cuz that's that's what that's what I'm hearing. That would put us with two operational nice rear loaders, which is great, but that would still only put us with one side loader that would be operational and half of a side loader, which is why again, I'm like, we could get the two and wait till February and get the one rear loader.
1:06:56
Unidentified Okay.
1:06:56
Unidentified And again, y'all, that's $9,000 a month.
1:06:59
Unidentified Yeah, cuz I think I'm hearing cuz what I was hearing was a side loader and two rear loaders. No, I mean
1:07:08
Unidentified that's what I'm hearing. I mean hope with the hopes that eventually that we that we pick up that one in February, but not necessarily we be waiting to till February for for the other rear loader. We try to find something a little bit more affordable um you know to to pull into the pool and then look at that.
1:07:28
Unidentified I mean considering how
1:07:30
Unidentified that fed the lipan of the
1:07:32
Unidentified That's what I was hearing. Maybe I was
1:07:34
Unidentified Yeah. Considering how known it is that the lifespan of a reel loader is better than the lifespan of a
1:07:39
Unidentified um sidearm on then you might be able to find a older more affordable reel loader that we could be able to get in. I mean but yeah again that would then we would have a nice rear loader older rear loader and then again depending on what you guys do with the other that's going to determine what we have in terms of the side loaders. But again, y'all like winter is coming and it was cold last year.
1:08:07
Unidentified And the side loaders work better for in cold weather.
1:08:11
Unidentified I'm sure side loader work better than the people.
1:08:14
Unidentified I understand. I mean, just I don't know. I don't know. I'm not a garbage expert, so I don't know.
1:08:20
Unidentified That's why I'm asking that question.
1:08:21
Unidentified Oh, for sure. For sure. I think it's been said to some degree between the chief of staff and um uh Councilman Etherly, but there there will be should we go the route of another rear loader, there will be an adjustment in terms of um salary expenses too for personnel because
1:08:38
Unidentified it takes more personel to run.
1:08:40
Unidentified Yeah. I just believe that we might want to go ahead and let's go ahead and vote for one for right now
1:09:01
Unidentified of the side loaders. Get that here. Get that operational. And then at least that would have us with another operating truck before our 30 days is over with. and then we can come back and look at possibly getting one. I just like the idea of having something that we don't have to do as much maintenance on and the rear end loaders seemingly we don't have as much. So, I would like to come back and possibly look at purchasing one of those. I understand that'll be completely up to y'all. Um, just know that this is something that is really going to frustrate the department. Like the guy that that does operate 32 is not happy about operating 32. He begs for equipment. And so again, he's going to be stuck with 32 though cuz he's one of the only dudes that can drive. My other guys on the overhead. And again, y'all, that's that's somebody who's dealing with that dayto-day, eight hours a day, five days a week, who's going to be dealing with those frustrations.
1:10:11
Unidentified And you don't have a way of rotating those people.
1:10:15
martin-arnold-kevin° He does he's not trained on the um the front loader. So, he he's he does residential. That's his that's his niche. That's what he's good at. And we don't really have that much time in the dayto-day to train somebody on that other one. That's why I got the new guy that's coming in though. And so the what he's been doing is he's spending four days a week in each truck and on the fifth day he gets to try it out. Four days, fifth day try it out and he's doing that with every truck. That way we're starting to get more guys who are able to be able to sub in. And then that way eventually I can once he's good at something I can get him to get stable in somebody else's and like hopefully like 32 and then that guy can learn how to do other things. But right now, y like we we got specialization over there. Like people good at what they're good at and they you know 17 hour I might only know how to drive one truck too.
1:11:15
Unidentified Question. What have you got in inventory right now that's working?
1:11:21
martin-arnold-kevin° Um so the three trucks that we purchased last year all work. the front loader, the knuckle boom truck, and the uh rear loader.
1:11:31
Unidentified Talking about some garbage pickup truck.
1:11:33
martin-arnold-kevin° Garbage pickup trucks that we have that work is the rear loader and sometimes the side loader.
1:11:40
Unidentified Sometimes the side loader.
1:11:45
Unidentified Which one you have more trouble with?
1:11:48
martin-arnold-kevin° The one that's the older side loader.
1:11:51
Unidentified The side.
1:11:53
Unidentified I'm not saying it's apples. oranges. But again, one is a brand new truck which is running oper which is running great. It was purchased last year.
1:12:00
Unidentified The brand new truck we bought last year with what
1:12:02
Unidentified was the rear loader?
1:12:04
Unidentified Rear loader.
1:12:05
Unidentified Yes, sir. It's
1:12:05
Unidentified working okay.
1:12:07
Unidentified It's working pretty good.
1:12:08
Unidentified Working fine. They're more dependable than a side order side loader truck. Based on our
1:12:19
Unidentified correct
1:12:20
martin-arnold-kevin° based on our fleet, I couldn't tell you because the only thing we have to compare it to is a way older side loader. I if we're talking about the two side loaders that we rented, can Can I Can I If we're talking about the two side loaders that we rented in July compared to the the real loader that we have, they both run at the same rate. Great. Like great. We didn't have a single issue. hydraulics you have. I know for a fact the more hydraulics you have, the more hydraulics you have on a truck,
1:12:51
stcolumbia° the more problems you're going to have in repairs, right?
1:12:55
Unidentified Sure.
1:12:55
stcolumbia° Is that correct?
1:12:57
Unidentified Sure.
1:12:58
stcolumbia° Okay. There's more hydraulics on a side lift than there is in a rear lift. Right.
1:13:06
Unidentified Correct.
1:13:06
stcolumbia° Okay. So, it stands to reason you'd have less problems with a rear loading truck that you would sidearm on truck, right?
1:13:18
Unidentified Correct.
1:13:18
Unidentified Is that correct?
1:13:24
martin-arnold-kevin° You would also have less trash picked up and you would have less people to be able to do the other jobs that need to happen. So either y'all will be able to amend the budget if we go keep going side lo I mean reloaders and we can get more staff to make sure that we can do what we do which is still going to end up in some type of operating expense anyway that's probably going to be more than it's going to cost to fix the trucks.
1:13:45
Unidentified I or we could
1:13:48
Unidentified I have seen
1:13:49
Unidentified go with the more efficient option. I have seen the number of employees. I have seen the number of employees on your sidearm truck with two sometimes.
1:14:00
martin-arnold-kevin° You haven't seen that since I've been over there. You have not you have not seen that since July?
1:14:06
Unidentified Since July.
1:14:07
Unidentified You have not seen that since July.
1:14:09
Unidentified Well, I I mean I can't tell you the date that I saw it, but I've seen as many as two in the truck on the sidearm. If if I may, chief staff, my my personal feelings about the various trucks you're going to deal with hydraulics and trucks, you uh the rear one would be more pro more appropo than the sidearm. I'll be honest with you, you have less problems in repairs and damage. Attorney B.
1:14:54
valley-andre° Thank you. Uh, chief of staff, uh, Mr. Martin, a short-term solution. What is, what is your recommendation for the most cost effective route and why?
1:15:09
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin It would be to purchase two side loaders. That way we don't have to run into not having any we we don't have to run into the issue of if anything goes down that we don't at least have another side loader that would be available even if it is broken. And then if something does go down we're not getting behind on trash to the point to where all you guys are receiving calls.
1:15:36
valley-andre° Do you have a specific recommendation for a course of action this evening?
1:15:38
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin My specific recommendation for a course of action would be to purchase the two side loaders for a total of 260,000 at a finance rate of about $5,000 a month.
1:15:52
valley-andre° And that's $5,000 a month for two. Is that correct?
1:15:55
martin-arnold-kevin° No. Yeah. Total would be $5,000 a month for two trucks.
1:16:04
Mayor Joseph Whitfield One of the things that I if it makes you feel comfortable I I I don't think um I think Councilman St. Columbia also brings up the fact that um we heard this multiple times. There are different components on a side um loader versus a rear loader. Um, but just a week and a half ago, the chief of staff and myself, as well as the director for the water department, we're going to utilize our community partners like PC to make sure that we have ongoing continual education opportunities so that we can get the training we need to maintain the equipment we need. Um, I don't think that we ought to put ourselves in a in a in a box because of what we've you what we're used to doing. Um, I do think that this is an opportunity, like I said a while ago, to evolve. Um, and I think that there's a variable in this that makes a silo a reasonable purchase, and that is um that is maintenance. And I know that that's we keep saying that, but that's a variable to consider. It's not a given that it's going to break down. So my plea and ask is as the attorney tried to I think just pushed now is um there have been some really great moments over the last uh month and a half two months where the interim director has um proven that that department can get 100% pickup with the equipment that he with the equipment that we rented at that time which is now the equipment that we have a chance to purchase and finance for a reasonable price for still fairly new equipment. And so I think that it would be I just want to echo the chief of staff and say I think it'd be really prudent for us to consider listening to the person that's been in the department the last two months working with the people that have been there for years um and show showing that they can get the job done and if they follow the recipe that they had before.
1:17:58
Unidentified You totally dismissed the uh thought of hiring some a company to do all this?
1:18:05
Mayor Joseph Whitfield No, no, no. Um, not at all. That's that's something that we we have exhausted those that option as much as possible. Um, no one is going to give us a number until uh that especially that one that we can share publicly because that will put them at a disadvantage with another vendor.
1:18:21
Council Member Joe St. Columbia person think we need to get out of the san garbage pickup to be honest with you.
1:18:28
Unidentified Well, we talked about it as recently as Saturday and Monday and uh yeah, we've we've still been having that discussion about getting out the garbage business.
1:18:40
Unidentified That's a decision that this body will have to make if that's the route that you all want to go. Um, and I just want to reiterate if that is the route we want to go, know that know the um the consequences for that action um and and what comes with that. So, I think we're boxed out of that at this point.
1:19:01
Council Member Don Etherly I mean, when you start to consider contracting out, there's no time. We're on a 30-day clock and I think we're boxed out of it. This is something that needed to be considered. I'll tell you a secret. By the way, back in January of 2025 when the council voted to buy three new garbage trucks, I abstained from that vote. And I made a statement at this table, we need to do this as a part of our overall budget. But what I was thinking is if we're ever going to consider contracting our garbage, we need to do it right now. But that ship sailed. Okay. Right now, I think the ship on contracting has sailed because we're up against the wall on being able to get trucks. I think the only question that we have right now is what kind of trucks we we we get and how long of an investment are we going to make. And look, there's no guaranteed gold at the end of this tra this rainbow. The the we could buy a rear loading truck that fails. We could buy two side loading trucks. They could both fail. We don't know. What we do know is that side loading trucks are more likely to fail, and when they do, you can't pick up anything with them. We do know that we've picked up trash before using reloading trucks because we did it last year. We know that. And this is a five-year deal. So based on our financial condition, the most likely thing that's going to happen is if we buy two side loading trucks and something happens, and sometimes it's not even our fault. Sometimes our truck is driving down Fourth Street and somebody has some kind of health episode or something and they rear in the truck and the truck can't drive anymore. Sometimes it has nothing to do with anything that our guys have done. But when it happens, what are we going to do? And the thing that I keep emphasizing is is what I'm trying to say is if we invest that much money in two trucks and we lose one, we're not going to have the ability to go out and probably buy another one. So, what's the safest thing to do at this point? I think it's to buy one side loading truck and then add supplement that with a rear loading truck uh at some point, but I don't want to beat this dead horse continuously. So, I I'll I'll leave it at that.
1:21:43
Unidentified Is there a consensus that this group will support at least purchasing one um siloer to this evening?
1:21:52
Unidentified Can we come to that agreement?
1:21:54
Unidentified Oh yeah,
1:21:55
whitfield-joseph° okay. So I see head nods of the of the two I do see truck two has fewer miles less hours um and is also priced at 130. Um, if you're looking at page 485
1:22:11
Unidentified 155.
1:22:12
Unidentified I thought you talking about 155. I thought it was 155. You talking about truck two from
1:22:17
Unidentified the side.
1:22:18
Unidentified Oh, the side. Okay. Sorry.
1:22:19
Unidentified That's the one with fewer miles and the fewer
1:22:22
Unidentified and fewer hours and it's priced the same as the previous one.
1:22:27
Unidentified Talking about two side load. And what about the rear?
1:22:34
whitfield-joseph° I don't think I think right now the body is still kind of torn about um what the what we're willing to support if we're willing to support a second rear loader or not a second reel loader, a second side loader or a second rear loader. But I do think we can move tonight. It seems like there's a consensus we can move tonight with one truck. And I think that that's going to help us um dramatically make sure that we can have services continue for the city.
1:22:58
Unidentified How many side numbers do we have this work? one
1:23:04
Unidentified sometimes.
1:23:05
Unidentified Sometimes and then we have right now.
1:23:16
Council Member Maxine Miller I'd like to go ahead and make a motion that we purchase um truck number two, the 2020 side.
1:23:29
Unidentified Yeah. to which one this is.
1:23:33
valley-andre° Well, sorry. There's no right now. There's no ordinance for that one. He would have to do a uh way of competing competitive uh bidding. I had put them both on one.
1:23:41
Unidentified Okay.
1:23:42
Unidentified You said you didn't put it on there.
1:23:43
valley-andre° I had put both on one. It was Yeah.
1:23:48
Unidentified Don't know if you could just scratch it. We put one for one 30. Yeah.
1:23:54
Unidentified We a minute. Edit it tomorrow. Okay. We need to um
1:24:12
Unidentified just edit the ordinance and place it on the third lady.
1:24:14
Unidentified Probably need to edit the ordinance.
1:24:16
Unidentified What's the total purchase price?
1:24:19
Unidentified Uh 130.
1:24:22
Unidentified 130. And that doesn't include the warranty, correct? The war warranties weren't discussed. We won't find that yet.
1:24:29
Unidentified Is that from River City Hydra drivers?
1:24:32
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:24:34
City Attorney Andre Valley Okay. So, we can just amend the ordinance. I'm amending the top one that says 260,000 to 130,000. If you flip a flash of quotes, you have se several ordinances in here. And the very first one is if for River City instead of saying 260,000, it's going to be amended to 130,000. And that's the which one there?
1:25:00
Unidentified Uh truck two. Uh trying to see if there's it's truck two from our packet.
1:25:07
Unidentified Yeah, silent.
1:25:08
Unidentified I don't think so.
1:25:10
Unidentified She was supposed to be one,
1:25:14
Unidentified 155.
1:25:15
Unidentified Uh it's going to be before those.
1:25:17
Unidentified Yeah, it's after that first um it's after that first page. Yeah.
1:25:24
Unidentified Okay. Okay. Right. Madam clerk, what what this number is this?
1:25:32
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey 16.
1:25:33
Unidentified And this is a freight line side loader.
1:25:37
Unidentified 16 16
1:25:38
valley-andre° 16 ordinance number 16 20226. Uh the purchase amount is 130,000. It's for side on from River City Hydraulics. There hasn't been any motion. I'm just aing the ordinance based on what you
1:26:00
Unidentified There was a motion to approve it, but I guess it'll need to be amended.
1:26:03
Unidentified Okay. Will you amend your motion to suspend the rules? Place order number 16, 2026 on this third and final reading. Reading how long?
1:26:10
Unidentified So move.
1:26:11
Unidentified Who second it?
1:26:12
Unidentified Will you amend your second to to do so?
1:26:15
Unidentified Okay. So, it's been properly amended and seconded that ordinance number 16, 20226 be rules be suspended that be placed on it third and final reading the time. Clerk, will you call the role?
1:26:28
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey M. Davis,
1:26:30
Unidentified we're not we're not back and forth.
1:26:34
Unidentified Just reading the reading the title of the ordinance. We're doing a
1:26:37
Unidentified side load
1:26:39
Unidentified one side load one side loader for 130,000.
1:26:42
Unidentified All right. And then the rear load
1:26:46
Unidentified we we not we're not purchasing
1:26:48
Unidentified right now. The motion on the floor is to approve one side loader
1:26:52
Unidentified for 130,000 130
1:26:54
Unidentified and this ordinance is to suspend the rules and place on the third and final reading. That's what the motion on the floor is
1:27:01
Roll call Roll-call vote — Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
1:27:25
City Attorney Andre Valley Okay. So, ordinance number 16, 2022, an ordinance waving competitive bidding in accordance with Arkansas code annotated section 1453 authorizing the mayor to enter the contract to purchase certain property for the city home for other related purposes. There need to be a motion to adopt.
1:27:39
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
1:27:59
Unidentified We have an emergency. Um,
1:28:00
Unidentified yes. Emergency clop the emergency clause.
1:28:04
whitfield-joseph° Is there a second?
1:28:06
Unidentified Second.
1:28:07
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: abstain; Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
1:28:21
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you.
1:28:23
Unidentified Thank you, Austin.
1:28:24
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. Um I do I I just so it's not a secret. I um the chief staff will and I will continue discussions and I'll invite him back at the next meeting or before to talk about what we found. So I'm hoping to continue this discussion to make sure the city can keep uh proper services.
1:28:41
Unidentified Yes sir.
1:28:42
Unidentified Um if there is anything else or if there's not anything else
1:28:47
Council Member Adrian Messina I agree with on what he statement that he made about the railovers and the and the uh and the other type trucks. He was right. And I don't know why we're voting against what he thought was right that he got the information from New Orleans. I don't know. I don't know why we did that.
1:29:09
Unidentified Do you mind sharing the name of this group? I was looking for it because
1:29:14
Council Member Don Etherly Metro um maybe Metro Sanitation.
1:29:19
Unidentified Now they had a a lawsuit and I was trying to Do you do you know what it was for? I I'm not asking trying to trap you. I don't
1:29:27
etherly-don° No, I mean I don't Everybody get sued. I sue people every day. That's not my my questions were were about operational garbage.
1:29:35
Unidentified I understand. I wasn't trying to trap you. Um I think I did a little research and saw that there might be
1:29:42
Council Member Dr. Kyle Miller I want I want to say for the record though I can only speak for myself. I I completely agree with uh Mr. Etherly as well. I think I do too. I thought was that we're getting this side loaded because we know we need something immediately and then on top of our agenda is to look for a rear loader. So I just wanted to say that for the record.
1:30:04
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Duly noted. It's it's my it's my hope that everybody reconsiders, but it's duly noted. Um with that, I'll take a motion to adjurnn.
1:30:13
Unidentified Okay. Thank you. So move adjourn
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