City of Alexander monthly council meeting Monday

SEE CORRECTION BELOW

The regular monthly meeting of the Alexander City Council will be held this Monday, September 21. The meeting will be at 6 PM in the courtroom in city hall. The public is invited to attend.

The council will have the third reading of an ordinance entitled “City of Alexander Solid Waste Assurances Ordinance.” The ordinance protects the city from contractors who do not dispose of construction waste properly. After the third reading, council members are expected to vote on the approval of the ordinance.

The first item under “New Business” on the agenda is the appointing of a city attorney. Alexander’s prosecuting attorney, Pat Marshall, is expected to be appointed city attorney. If appointed she will continue as prosecuting attorney. Former City Attorney Kevin Lemley has been hired by the Arkansas Attorney General’s office and can no-longer serve as city attorney. This item has already been tabled twice at two council meetings.

Two other items under “New Business” include an “Amended Ordinance for Street Repair, Resurfacing” and a “Resolution for State Aid City Street Program Project.” The “Resolution for State Aid” is expected to be an amended version of a resolution passed at a special meeting August 21. It’s unknown if the “Ordinance for Street Repair” has any connection to the resolution.

The resolution accepts a plan to use up to $250,000 of state funding to repair six city streets. Two of those streets are in St. Joseph’s Glen subdivision and are not maintained by the city. The $250,000 is a bonus Arkansas cities are being given as their share of the temporary fuel tax passed by voters a few years ago.

The resolution was provided by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) and states, “The City agrees upon completion of the project to assume the maintenance of the right-of-way by City Forces and/or others including utilities and individuals in accordance with the prevailing Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department regulations.” The amended version is expected to deal with the city maintaining two streets, which are connected to other streets not maintained by the city.

Bidding for the project was put on hold when Alderwoman Andrea Bearden sent an E-mail to AHTD questioning how the city can be forced to maintain streets it doesn’t own. She also asked how a resolution can supersede an ordinance which stipulates the developers will maintain the streets.

CORRECTION: The new last paragraph of this article corrects the previous version which stated Alderwoman Andrea Bearden had threatened to sue AHTD for being required to maintain the two streets in St. Joseph’s Glen after they are repaired. While Bearden had E-mailed AHTD officials the threat of a lawsuit was apparently only rumor. We apologize for the error.