A recording device used to document meetings continues to cause issues for the Eureka Springs Cemetery Commission.?At a June 27 workshop, the recording device “failed to capture” the meeting, according to Kim Stryker, assistant to Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry.
It’s only the second known time that a Eureka Springs city meeting hasn’t been recorded, either by audio or video, since an Arkansas law went into effect in 2019 requiring all public meetings to be recorded, Stryker said.
“I am sure sorry for this inconvenience,” Stryker said.
The cemetery commission is the only Eureka Springs commission that doesn’t have its regular meetings livestreamed and posted on the city’s YouTube page.
According to notes taken at the workshop by commission secretary Glenna Booth, the session was used to go over expected duties of the cemetery sexton, a position that remains vacant.
Patrick Lujan was hired for the position at a June 1 special meeting, but a device to record the meeting kept recording after commissioners voted to adjourn the meeting. The recording picked up commissioners making disparaging comments about Lujan and former sexton and head groundskeeper David Helms.
After learning of the comments, Lujan opted not to accept the position. At its last regular meeting, commissioners said they would review the other applicants for the position.
At the June 27 workshop, Booth submitted a sexton’s manual that she prepared for review.
“There was a brief discussion on providing compensation to the sexton for research on grave locations,” according to Booth’s notes from the meeting. “This will be added to the next meeting agenda.”
The Cemetery Commission was scheduled to hold a special meeting on Saturday, July 2, to discuss hiring an assistant groundskeeper. Because of early holiday deadlines, coverage of that meeting will be included in next week’s edition of the Citizen.
The next regular cemetery commission meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 13. Meetings are typically held in the lobby of the The Auditorium.
“I am sure sorry for this inconvenience.”
— Kim Stryker, assistant to Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry, on the failed recording
