In less than a month, those needing help with their water and sewer bills will have an option for assistance.

At its regular meeting held Monday, Dec. 8, the Eureka Springs City Council approved the third and final reading of an ordinance that establishes a low-income water assistance program.

The ordinance will become law 30 days from the date of the vote.

“That’s going to be a good program, I think,” mayor Butch Berry said after the third and final vote.

At the council’s Nov. 24 meeting, city finance director Michael Akins presented the idea of the program to council members, saying the goal was to help eligible residents pay their bill a maximum of three times a year and up to a $500 total maximum.

The benefit amount will be a minimum of $25 and will be based on household income.

Akins previously told council members that funds the city may earn if it sells a piece of property near Queen Anne could be used for the program. If that property isn’t sold, Akins requested that the council approve taking “at least” $50,000 a year from the city’s Franchise Fee fund to go toward the program.

“Franchise Fee is income, it’s not taxes, it’s income that the city receives for having other utilities in town, for having Cox Communications, for having SWEPCO,” Akins said, adding the city gets approximately $350,000 a year from the fees which are primarily used as a rainy day type fund.

SIDEWALKS

The majority of the Dec. 8 meeting was spent discussing sidewalks, with council members Susane Gruning and Harry Meyer addressing separate issues related to sidewalks.

Gruning discussed ideas to possibly help property owners pay for repairs to sidewalks in front of their properties since a city ordinance requires owners to maintain the upkeep of the paths in front of their buildings.

“There are grants that maybe we can get out there, especially in the historic district, that I would like us to look at,” Gruning said. “… I’m just looking at ways that we can help our homeowners pay for this. Some homeowners bought their homes with sidewalks already in disrepair. Some say that utility companies have ruined them but have not come back to to pay them. Some say that our water and sewer guys have dug up sidewalks, gas companies and other utilities outside of the city have ruined their sidewalks and have not come back and repaired them. The one common denominator, though, is that we do have bad sidewalks.”

Berry said city building inspector and code enforcement officer Paul Sutherland and planning director Cassie Dishman recently conducted a survey of all the sidewalks in the city and rated the need for repairs or replacement of the sidewalks. That information will be relayed to the council in coming weeks.

“I just got that report today,” Berry said. “I haven’t been able to go through the report, but as soon as I get it and go through it and meet with Paul and Cassie I’ll be forwarding that on to the city council.”

“… Hopefully it will be a review showing you which sidewalks need to be repaired, which sidewalks are in bad condition, which sidewalks are not, and the process the building inspector is taking to make sure the sidewalks get repaired.”

Assessments and loans for property owners to help with costs of repairing or replacing sidewalks were debated, but council members agreed that they need to see the city’s sidewalk condition report before moving forward.

“I’m just looking at getting our town safe, better looking, looking at the future of the town,” Gruning said. “We have to start somewhere. We keep putting it off and putting it off and … we have to come up with a game plan to begin this mammoth project.”

Meyer, meanwhile, focused on the parts of the city that do not have sidewalks.

“My issue is different because I’m talking about where sidewalks don’t exist, and it’s in the historic district,” Meyer said.

Meyer argued that the current policy doesn’t require homeowners replacing or repairing sidewalks to maintain uniformity, which creates hodgepodge results.

“I build a sidewalk this wide, but my neighbor doesn’t want to build a sidewalk that wide, or he doesn’t want to build it over here,” Meyer said of those who want to add sidewalks to their property. “It needs to be done by the city, and then the the property owners need to maintain it, just like the rest of town.”

VISION PLAN TALK CONTINUES

Council member Rachael Moyer continued to stress the need for a vision plan for the city with Berry keeping his stance of deferring the issue to the city planning commission.

“It’s not actually on our agenda, it’s on the planning commission’s agenda,” Berry said.

The planning commission recently requested $50,000 from the city council to assist with developing a vision plan, but council members said that they wanted to get proposals from possible companies about what services they could provide before handing over any funds.

“…The commission is requesting $50,000 to do a study. I think that’s backwards,” council member Steve Holifield said. “I think we just don’t give them a chunk of money and say: ‘Go find somebody.’ They need to bring someone to us that says they can do a plan for this amount of money, and then tell us what that plan is going to produce and what’s the outcome going to be that we know it’s worth paying for, and then tell us how much it costs. So, I put that back to planning to say find somebody that can do a plan and have some kind of expectations of what those results would be in a positive way to our community that’s better than what we have already, and then tell us how much it costs.

“You just don’t come and say, give me $100,000 and I’ll find somebody to do it. You find someone to do it … and they tell us how much they’ll charge for it.”

OTHER APPROVALS

The council approved the annual tradition of allowing free parking in all city downtown metered spaces during the month of December.

Also approved was the cancellation of the second council meeting in December, originally scheduled for Monday, Dec. 22.

The council’s next meeting is now set for Monday, Jan. 12.

The council also approved the appointment of Cory O’Hara as a member of the Historic District Commission.

Berry reminded council members that a new state law approved in the latest legislative session now bans council members from participating in meetings via Zoom or any online platform.

The new law doesn’t impact city commission meetings, Berry said.

DECORATIONS APPLAUDED

Council members closed out the final meeting of the year giving kudos to the holiday decorations around the city.

Berry agreed. “I want to give a shout out to [Akins], the public works, the parks, CAPC, and to the city council for putting in the budget for some money to be spent on decorations,” Berry said to close the meeting. “Last year was the first year we’ve had money to spend, and this year we spent a little bit more, and it certainly looks good.

“The town looks great. It looks the best I’ve ever seen it. …”