Eureka Springs Times-Echo
A handful of residents addressed the Eureka Springs City Council at its regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 9, saying the city didn’t do enough to clear streets in the aftermath of the recent snow and ice.
Residents specifically mentioned areas parallel to Mountain Street, including Owen Street and Elk Street that needed attention after the winter weather, saying during public comments that plows never assisted — or didn’t do enough — in clearing the roadway.
“I’m here today to ask the city council to look at reviewing our hazardous street policy for when we have inclement weather,” said Ann Sallee, who lives on Elk Street and is also a member of the city’s planning commission and Board of Zoning Adjustment. … People couldn’t get in and out. Can’t get an ambulance, can’t get fire trucks. I do know you can get a plow down the street because it did come down. I got all excited to have them go clear the Unitarian Church parking lot. Unfortunately, they had to cancel church because the street wasn’t clear. I know we have sand trucks. We all pay taxes. We’re not a real young community in age, and I think it is a real serious issue.”
Residents of Owen Street agreed, saying they paid $150 for a private company to plow the roadway.
“Everybody on our street is probably 65 and over,” an Owen Street resident told council members. “It’s really important that we make sure that these streets are plowed. I know Mountain was plowed, and if Mountain could be plowed, and our street could be plowed because we paid for it, I think the rest of the streets could be plowed.”
Another Owen Street resident said she was stuck in her residence while other parts of the city were assisted.
“It gets so bad and stays that way, where the rest of the town is moving and grooving, and we’re still stuck because it takes so long to melt off there,” she said. “Please help us.”
An abundance of trees in the area doesn’t help, the residents said, as the streets remain shaded, making it difficult for sun to melt the snow and ice.
“We get the excuse that ‘we don’t plow it because of the speed bumps.’ But, I don’t know why you can’t raise the plow,” a Mountain Street resident said. “The speed bump right out of the ground, they know it’s there. They drive up Mountain Street at least 20 times a day. I just don’t understand why they can’t do that.” Another Owen Street resident sent in written comments to the council, saying: “I know the employees of public works are very dedicated and work very hard, often under difficult circumstances. All of us appreciate them very much. However, we must come up with a better plan for snow removal on some of our streets. The Monday following the storm, I contacted public works and asked if our street could get plowed. I was told that Owen Street is not on the list of streets to be plowed, I was unaware that there is such a list, so I contacted a private party that could plow Owen Street on the Tuesday following the storm.”
That was one of three residents who mentioned that the city had a list of streets that were and weren’t plowed.
“My husband and I own and manage a B&B in our backyard, and if our street is left unplowed after a bad storm like this one, then our business could likely suffer,” a resident wrote. “In fact, we did lose a booking recently during this awful storm as the guests were uncomfortable driving on our street, which I don’t blame them as it was very icy. In addition, my husband and I are reluctant to drive on roads that are ice and snow packed due to the risk involved, which I’m sure you can understand. Since we try to be responsible citizens and pay all of our dues and taxes, we think that the city should plow and or treat our streets for our own protection. If nothing else.”
ISSUES GREET INTERIM DIRECTOR
Street issues because of winter weather, along with a major water leak, welcomed new interim public works director Sean Mellon during his initial days in charge of the department.
Mellon takes over for Simon Wiley, who retired according to comments made by mayor pro tem Steve Holifield at the Feb. 9 meeting.
There had been no indication of Wiley’s planned departure in recent meetings, or on any city website or social media account.
Mellon apologized to residents if his department didn’t handle the winter weather on streets in a timely fashion.
“As far as the snow removal, I apologize if we didn’t get to Owen in a timely matter,” Mellon said. “We had two trucks running 24 hours a day when the snow hit until Monday morning. There is a list of the streets, what to plow, and I have talked with the mayor about that, and it may need to be revisited on priorities of roads. We’ve also discussed with the mayor about getting a smaller plow that fits on our smaller trucks to get to some the most narrow roads in this town, which the mayor is giving me the go-ahead to get that arranged for next time.
“So, the snow removal process is a work in progress. We can make it better. We will visit the problem.”
Mellon said last week was “an interesting” week with water leaks adding to his staff’s workload.
There was a water leak on Highway 62 near Wanderoo Lodge and Gravel Bar, and then Friday night a construction company, Barrows Excavation, hit an eight-inch water line that basically knocked out service for the entire city, Mellon said.
“We ended up replacing about seven feet of water line on that one,” Mellon said. “Fortunately, … we weren’t off long enough to constitute having a water boil order.”
Council member David Avanzino asked Mellon about speed bump issues that may prevent certain streets from being plowed, then focused on the big water leak, asking if the company responsible did its part in the repairs.
“Barrows Excavation,” Avanzino said. “It seems that every time we turn around, they’re breaking something. Are we holding them accountable? Are we charging them?”
Mellon said Barrows was “instrumental” in the repairs.
“They dug it and repaired it,” he said. “We just were there as guidance and supplied the material for them.”
Old city maps don’t always indicate where certain utility lines are located, Mellon reminded council members.
“Barrows, I assure you, is a very responsible company, and they’re going to take care of anything that they do wrong. They’ll fix it. They’ll take care of it,” council member Terry McClung said. “Like he’s saying, things get missed because of the water lines. There’s water lines here that they still don’t know that they’re there. That’s the kind of problems you have in this town. Barrows was not the problem. It was unfortunate there was a line that was there that wasn’t marked. It’s just going to happen.”
OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS The council approved three readings of an ordinance that will change the way district court fees are collected.
Since 2016, to assist the district court clerk, the police department was collecting district court fees, according to police chief Billy Floyd.
“Basically, a help to the district court clerk, who at that time was just a single person, and she was doing the docket and helping schedule court, all those kind of things,” Floyd said. “I believe the police department at the time offered to assist in collecting fines and fees.
“Since that time, we’ve implemented online payments, and we’ve also ran into a lot of problems with cross communication with how much somebody owes on their time … those type of things.
“… Now, we cannot even take the fine payment unless district court is open anyway so there’s no benefit, and crossing of money has just become a problem.”
With the passage of the new ordinance, all district court fees will have to be paid at the courthouse. The police department will continue to take fees for parking citations, Floyd said.
The council deferred a resolution that would approve the sale of Lots 12 through 16 of Block 46 of Raleigh and Armstrong.
It also deferred the topic of what the city can do regarding businesses that are significantly delinquent in submitting their city advertising and promotion tax.
Avanzino asked if the city could revoke a business license for those accounts, but city attorney Heather Owens said she wanted to research the issue further before offering her opinion.
“I just want to make it clear,” Avanzino said. “I hate to see any business in town shut down, but the blatant disregard of paying a tax is something that we do need to address.”
HOSPITAL FINANCE ‘GAPS’ Hospital CEO Tiffany Means briefly spoke to council members during public comments, giving an update on recent findings, specifically financial revelations after the recent termination of former chief financial officer Cybnthia Asbury.
“I want to fill in some gaps so I can give you a little bit more clarity about what’s going on,” Means said. “I wanted to share some high-level stuff, what has been discovered in this transition that we’ve been going through, how we are addressing these and the issues that we’re being responsible for and how we’re moving forward together as a community. I want to focus on the systems and the processes, not individuals, and on progress and not blame, OK?
“So we’ve identified gaps in financial systems and reporting that appear to go back several years. These gaps, limited visibility into cash flow, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and bad debt, making it difficult to rely on timely, accurate financial information, especially when it comes to decision-making. We discovered longterm technology and vendor commitments, including a 10-year electronic health record contract. It was not fully aligned with the hospital’s Rural Emergency Hospital transition size or financial capacity.
“In addition, legal requirements required us to maintain access to our prior medical records system, resulting in overlapping costs that are now being actively addressed. We’ve identified that our hospital’s charge master and billing structure have been outdated for at least three years. When I did a side-byside comparison in our charge master, we actually have been under- billing since 2023 comparative to other REH hospitals in the state of Arkansas and our neighbors. We found that accounts receivable processes were fragmented, and we have looked at those fragments, especially during our transition of systems, and as part of the review, approximately $1.3 million in delayed or lost revenue was identified earlier this year and is now being actively addressed.”
Gaps in vendor invoice verification and payment processes have also been identified, Means said.
“These discoveries do not reflect the quality of care provided at Eureka Springs,” she said. “Our clinical practices are compliant, up-to-date, and sound. We have an exceptional provider group and a dedicated team of nurses and staff who care deeply about this community.”
