Sidewalks in Eureka Springs are becoming such an issue that members of the city council feel the ordinance regulating them needs to be revamped.
That was a topic of discussion during the regular city council meeting held Monday, Oct. 13, with council member Susane Gruning saying policies making property owners responsible for maintaining sidewalks aren’t working.
“I know this is the elephant in the room, or the elephant in the city,” Gruning said. “We have a lot of issues with our sidewalks. It’s been brought up in different organizations like the grant meeting that I had with Main Street. It was brought up by somebody else in the vision workshop that we had with planning. So people talk about it, but we don’t do anything.
“I realize this is probably a planning [commission] responsibility. I get that. But, I want to ask my fellow council members here: Do we all agree sidewalks are an issue or no? Yes? No?
Council member Terry McClung replied: “Of course they are. Of course.”
“Of course they’re an issue, especially where I live, because we don’t have any. Not one,” council member Harry Meyer responded. “The largest section of the city has no sidewalks.”
Gruning said that an ordinance was adopted around 2013 that made property owners responsible for sidewalk maintenance, but said that many aren’t doing their duty.
“Some of the property owners here have had their properties longer than that amount of time,” Gruning said. “So when we handed this responsibility back to them, I don’t think that they were handed it back with fixed sidewalks. I’m not saying it’s our fault, their fault. I’m just saying that nobody wants to address it. …” Gruning said the city should look into grants, or the council should at least have a workshop to brainstorm ideas to help with sidewalk issues.
“I think we need to start somewhere to start correcting some of these things,” she said. “Some of these limestone sidewalks, like in front of maybe the New Orleans, can be scored. They don’t necessarily need to be replaced. Some limestones can be flipped. … Some of the sidewalks can be concrete, some can be stamped …” Meyer said the entire sidewalk ordinance, originated by planning commission, needs to be revamped.
“It’s not working,” Meyer said. “This has been in place for several years, and there is several sidewalks in town that you can’t walk on. People have to walk on the street. So, enforcement isn’t happening … “I suggested one time when we met that perhaps when someone sells their house, they have to repair the sidewalk in front of it before the deal closes, or put the money to the side for that sidewalk to be repaired within a certain amount of time. … Enforcement becomes difficult now that the ordinance has been ignored for so long.”
Berry said sidewalks are on a list of priorities for building inspector and code enforcement officer Paul Sutherland, but aren’t as high on the list as other things.
“It is pretty much a priority, but sometimes whenever you go talk to people and ask them about that, they decide not to do their remodel because of the fact we want them to do the sidewalks,” Sutherland said. “So, you kind of like say, ‘OK, let’s put that in the plan in the future,’ so they can keep on moving along with their plans.
“But, it is important to me, the sidewalks. To answer your question … we have a lot of problems with sidewalks.”
Mayor Butch Berry told council members that he would suggest drafting legislation that could address the issue, and further discussion could be planned for future meetings.
REMOVING I&I FEE FAILS McClung’s proposal to have the Infrastructure and Improvement fee removed from water bills failed on a 3-2 vote.
McClung said he felt removing the fee would help residents after the recent approval of water and sewer rate increases. A new state law takes a portion of each amount paid by a customer for those types of needs, he said.
“This is to remove [the I&I fee] because we’re raising the rates,” McClung said, adding it was his understanding that the fee couldn’t remain while also taking a portion of the monthly amount paid for improvements.
Berry and finance director Michael Akins, however, said that the fee could remain and Berry cautioned against removing it at this time.
“Mr. Mayor, its usefulness is over because we have enough in our water bill to cover those infrastructure improvements, and there’s no sense in milking citizens more than we have to,” Meyer said.
Berry told the council that the I&I fee was added when a proposed onecent sales tax for water and sewer failed at the polls, and until a tax is passed, he thinks the fee should remain.
“Even though we do have money raising our water rates, we still need more improvements in what we’ve got,” Berry said. “So I’m not sure about this ordinance.”
Akins agreed. “… With Act 605, we are still going to have to have this,” he said. “We’re just going to have to do it differently.”
Berry said he felt the council should hold off on removing the I&I fee until residents get a chance to vote on a possible new sales tax, something that could be on the ballot in the next general election.
Council members Steve Holifield, David Avanzino and Gruning agreed with the mayor, voting against the proposal. McClung and Meyer voted in favor. Council member Rachael Moyer wasn’t at the meeting.
“I’m disappointed that the city council chose not to throw the citizens a bone in regards to their water bills and the I&I fund,” Mc-Clung said during council member comments at the end of the meeting. “… The purpose of the removing that was not to shortchange the city. It’s as I said earlier, as it was explained to us in my understanding, and we talked about it many times, that it was that you had to discontinue it, … And that’s the only reason I asked for it in the first place, to try and give the citizenry something back, because we’re going to continue to increase the water bill. …”
ANNUAL TRANSIT REPORT
Transit system director Ken Smith told council members during his required annual report that it’s been a “challenging” year for his department, in part because of a continued shortage of drivers.
“We’re still in need of drivers,” Smith said. “We started the year with several new drivers, but through the year we lost several drivers — two experienced drivers and one new driver who by his own determination said that this was not for him.
“Driving a trolley in our town is not for everyone. We are still paying more overtime than I would like, but we must do that to keep the service at the level we want to provide.”
Drivers make an average of $17.92 per hour, Smith said.
Smith said current economic conditions, including tariffs, have led to increased prices for his department.
“Many components, especially electronics, are not made in the United States,” he said. “We have not had a problem getting parts, but we are paying more for them.”
The transit department purchased a new electric tram vehicle for tours during the past year, council members were told.
“It’s been a fantastic addition to our fleet,” Smith said, adding that because of tariffs the vehicle cost $15,000 more than originally quoted.
“That’s just an example of the rise in prices we are experiencing,” he said. “The total cost of the tram with trailer was $113,135.”
His department was awarded one new trolley with federal funding and used its budget to order a second one, both of which should be ready in 2026, Smith said.
“The cost per trolley is $272,760,” he said. “The funding from the [Federal Transit Association] will be an 80-20 match, with $54,552 being our part of the federally funded tram.”
Smith said transit’s on-demand service continues to grow.
“It seems with this service, this service will go in waves, up and down,” he said. “It just depends on the clientele. We are seeing ridership increase in this service, mainly due to the service being used by an assisted living center in the county.”
The on-demand service runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and requires reservations to be made a day in advance, Smith said, adding that rides have gone as far as Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas National Airport.
Transit also continued its nightly on-demand service for Friday and Saturday nights and will continue it in 2026, Smith said.
“Ridership has been OK, about even with last year,” he said. “We see mostly our visitors to our city using the service and very few locals.”
ROUNDABOUT UPDATE
Public works director Simon Wiley told council members that he believes work on the planned roundabout at the intersection of U.S. Highway 62 and Arkansas Highway 23 is scheduled to begin at the end of 2026.
“They did a shift on the right of way … where the roundabout is going to go,” Wiley said. “They shifted a little bit, so they changed up a few things.
“… Right now we’re working on coming up with a plan to relocate our water and sewer lines, so that’s kind of the area that we’re hitting as far as public works.”
OTHER BUSINESS
The council passed the third and final reading of an ordinance that raises the ambulance service rate.
The increase, which is being enacted by most cities in the state after new legislation was put in place, is aimed at allowing the collection of more money from private insurance companies for services.
Only individuals without any type of insurance will be impacted by the increase, council members have been told.
The council’s unanimous vote increases the rate to 325 percent of the rural Medicare rate, and will go into effect in 30 days.
The council also approved the second reading of ordinances vacating sections of Alpena Avenue, Lone Street and an unnamed alley, and unanimously OK’d the reappointments of Dee Bright and Frank Green to the historic district commission.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Resident Ruth Virginia Seymour called out Berry during public comments asking him to help her obtain certain insurance information from Meyer after accusations that Meyer hit her with a vehicle during a July incident.
“It has been three months to this day, on July 13th, 2025, when Councilman Harry Meyer … feloniously, with intent, backed over me with a … steel bed truck,” Seymour said. “… The prosecuting attorney is still reviewing this case, to my knowledge. Still, it’s so unbelievable that councilman Meyer has not been arrested, bonded, charged, or jailed.”
Seymour said injuries sustained during the incident are leading to neck surgery in November.
“According to the surgeon it could have been much worse. I could have been paralyzed,” she said. “The prosecuting attorney’s office has been notified of the surgical information, and hopefully he will use it in his review and take into consideration.
“Mayor Berry, I would like you to, if you could, make available Harry Meyer’s vehicle, medical and home insurance applicable by law — information that needed to be exchanged when involved in an accident of this nature. He did not exchange it on that day with me or the police, and I need that information. If you need to contact chief [Billy] Floyd, and then I can obtain it from him, I would appreciate your assistance in this matter. I will have no further contact with this man.”
Seymour called for Meyer to give up his council seat.
“Councilman Harry Meyer, you need to step down, resign,” she said. “You’re toxic to this community, and I just don’t even know what to say beyond that, other than I will thank David Avanzino and the council people that helped out with my support in this matter.
“Take responsibility for your actions, my friend. You asked for, you know, apologies, but yet you’d offer none. So, I just want you to take responsibility. Thank you.”
