The Eureka Springs City Council has voted not to re-appoint longtime member Tom Buford to stay on the city’s planning commission and board of zoning adjustment.
In a meeting that lasted more than two and a half hours on Monday, Jan. 12, the council voted 3-2 against reappointing Buford, whose term expired Jan. 1.
Council member Terry Mc-Clung quickly made a motion to reappoint Buford to the role, but council member Steve Holifield chimed in saying, “I’d like to discuss the situation, please.”
For several months Buford has abstained from every vote on a tree cut application, drawing the ire of some council members.
Ironically, Buford played a key role in developing the city’s tree ordinance.
“This is not easy to say,” Holifield said. “I like Mr. Buford, but he has taken a stand against our tree ordinance by refusing to vote on any tree ordinance brought up to planning. He’s been doing this for probably about a year now and I think it’s his position — as a citizen, he has the right to object to anything he wants — but his position as commissioner, he has to follow the rules, and I think that’s blatantly not following the rules of his responsibility as a commissioner, just to not vote on something he doesn’t agree on.”
“Not voting is the same as a no vote,” council member Harry Meyer pointed out.
Holifield replied: “So, he’s voting no on every tree cut application?”
In the end Holifield and council members Rachael Moyer and David Avanzino voted against the reappointment with McClung and Meyer voting to keep him on board. Council member Susane Gruning joined the meeting after the vote on reappointing Buford.
At their regular monthly meeting held Tuesday, Jan. 13, some members of planning/ BOZA talked about the council’s decision.
“I just want to thank Tom Buford for his services,” commission member Susan Harman said. “Tom has been on this planning commission for at least 10 years. To say I’m disappointed Tom wasn’t reappointed, I am. Tom had a lot of knowledge, and was a good guy.
“He was kind of the calm in our group, and I’m going to really miss him being a part of this group.”
Commission chair Ferguson Stewart said he reached out to Buford.
“I conveyed those comments that were just stated, that we will miss him,” Stewart said. “He understands, and appreciates everybody here at the table and the work.
“There wouldn’t be a tree ordinance without Tom. He did a lot of great work. He’s not going to go away. I’m sure he will pick up another commission somewhere.”
ONE NEW, ONE STAYS ON CAPC In another vote involving a commission, the council selected its representatives for two-year terms on the city advertising and planning commission.
Avanzino will remain on the CAPC while Gruning will join the commission for the first time, replacing Holifield.
After Mayor Butch Berry asked who was interested in the first seat, Avanzino and Gruning raised their hands. The council voted 5-0 vote approved Gruning for the role.
After Berry inquired about council members’ interest in the second seat, only Avanzino opted in, giving him the role once again.
Holifield, the outgoing CAPC chair who recently announced his intention to run for mayor, had said he decided he would rejoin the commission for a year, if needed, but didn’t put his name in the hat.
“Mr. Holifield, thank you for your service on the CAPC for the last three years,” Berry said. “Excellent job.”
OTHER JANUARY PROCEDURES
The council voted unanimously to appoint Holifield as the city’s Mayor Pro Tempe for 2026.
Holifield was nominated by Avanzino while Meyer nominated McClung.
The council also voted 5-0 to continue using the Municipal League’s procedural rules in conducting meeting, and also keeping the tradition of meetings to be held on the second and fourth Mondays of each month.
OTHER ITEMS
The council approved the sale of approximately 1.9 acres adjacent to the Queen Anne Mansion on West Van Buren Avenue for $50,000 pending a deed agreement being worked out by the city attorney and Rod and Jill Slane, who represent Landmarks of Eureka Springs, LLC.
The offer includes property owners dedicating another 0.3 acres to the city’s parks department to be used for an all-purpose trail.
The proposed trail would extend from just off West Van Buren and to Black Bass Dam, it was discussed.
“To give us a little more flatter surface on where our property runs out there against the city property, that would let us have a little easier access,” Rod Slane said. “Also, what we built into that was we were giving a bigger easement back to the city that had been given through the purchase of the Planer property, I think a few years ago to the Community Center. The Community Center obviously works with the city.”
The agreement with the city will stipulate that users of the trail could park at the property, if needed, during regular working hours, council members were told.
SIDEWALKS STUDY
Planning and historic district director Cassie Dishman and building inspector and code enforcement officer Paul Sutherland recently traveled to every sidewalk in the city and graded them on their condition.
City ordinance calls for anyone with a sidewalk to be required to make repairs, if needed, and the city now has a better grasp of what property needs what, the council was told.
An idea that the council liked was to send letters to those property owners who need sidewalk work and give them one year to complete it, and another 90 days before any city action would be taken, Sutherland and Dishman explained.
“ I just would like to add that part of the issue is within our code, as it stands, property owners are responsible for the sidewalk abutting their property,” Dishman said. “So what the city can and cannot repair is somewhat at issue when it comes to that legal area. …As it involves, you know, a certain amount of code enforcement and placing a lien on the property which could result in money the city doesn’t get back, Paul and I are trying to figure out ways that we could encourage property owners to fix their sidewalks without having to go that route, but still being within code.
“We can’t really do anything that’s not allowed for outside of code. That would be a discussion I assume for this body to to discuss. And one other thing that I think is important to know is that our current code, it doesn’t, for new developing properties, there is nothing that states that they have to put in sidewalks for subdivisions. That is at the discretion of the planning commission, but it’s not a requirement.
“There’s also nothing requiring or stating anything to the effect of properties that don’t currently have a sidewalk. I don’t know if that’s something anyone wants to try and tackle or think about. I certainly don’t have a solution to something as thorny as: ‘You’ve owned this property for 20 years, it has no sidewalk and now we’re gonna tell you to put one in.’ But, that’s just something that’s not addressed in our code.”
That led to much discussion from council members who felt the current ordinance needed revamping, so they agreed to ask the planning commission to have a workshop to work on ordinance changes. From there, they would present those recommendations to the council.
Sutherland also told council members that 25 letters will be sent out soon to owners whose sidewalks are in the worst condition.
The law applies to commercial buildings as well.
DOWNTOWN ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT DELAYED Any decision on a possible permanent entertainment district downtown was put on hold by the council.
After a lengthy presentation from Kolin Paulk, owner of Spring Street Grill, about his organization of support for a yearround downtown district, council members did give quite a bit of pushback on the idea before it was deferred.
“We’ve had a downtown entertainment district on the ballot at the council that was passed some years ago,” Meyer said. “The ordinance, the state law has been changed since then because at that time only one entertainment district could be allowed in a city at one time. The voters petitioned, got it on the ballot, and defeated it, just killed it.
“So now we’re going to defy the voters again and pass another entertainment district for downtown. I don’t think that’s fair.”
Gruning was in favor of the idea, Moyer questioned its economic benefit to the city, and Avanzino said he feels it will only benefit businesses downtown and place those on West Van Buren Avenue at a disadvantage.
“I’ve gotten numerous phone calls from residents that live downtown that do not want this,” Avanzino said. “I have also spoken with a lot of business owners, bars and restaurants outside of the downtown district that were never included in this process. So it kind of feels like we’re being excluded from our entertainment district. Because I mean, let’s face it, entertainment district is appeasing to the businesses and tourists downtown. All for the tourists, yee-haw, let’s go. However, we’ve excluded other businesses on 62. And there are several of us that were never included…” Paulk acknowledged that a permanent downtown entertainment district would benefit his business, but he also said he did some studies of other cities across the state that have permanent entertainment districts, and they are very popular.
“Why should we have a downtown entertainment district?” he asked. “Like Ms. Gruning said, sometimes it’s nice to sit in a park and drink a beer and listen to music, or just the other night, we had Bash with a Splash and there was quite a lot of people there and we had zero incidents with alcoholism. …” The council’s next regular meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 26, in the basement of The Auditorium.
