Alexander Mayor Crystal Herrmann is shopping for a smaller excavator.
She says there are ditches that don’t need the wide excavator.
“There are some other ditches and areas in our city,” Herrmann
said. “I believe that we can benefit from a smaller excavator.”
She has bids for new excavators, but has seen used equipment more
reasonably priced with low hours of use.
“I've gotten quotes from new ones,” Herrmann continued. “My
thought was that I actually researched some new or used ones. Some of
them only had 300 hours on them. They were well under this price
($60,000).”
Her problem is once she finds a good buy, Herrmann still needs
council approval due to the cost being above the limit that allows
her to purchase items without council approval.
“I was just wondering if council, what your thoughts are and if
this is something we could consider giving me permission to look for
a newer used unit that's under $60,000,” Herrmann said. “It's
hard to shop for a used unit and then have to wait to council
(meeting) and then come back and ask for permission because things
sell quickly.”
“I did see a unit that we missed out on,” she continued. “It
was $55,000 and it had less than 300 hours or less.”
“Well, so the older one, the bucket is so large,” Herrman said.
“We've got a lot of culvert replacements coming up. Some of them
are smaller culverts. They will have to over dig.”
One suggestion was to buy a narrower bucket for the existing
excavator. Herrmann said time is also an issue getting the large
excavator to where it’s needed.
“It's the weight of that unit,” she said. “You have to put it
on the large trailer and you have to pull it with the dump truck. The
smaller unit, we could put it on the smaller trailer and they can
pull it with their city (pickup) truck. It takes, I want to say about
at least 35 minutes to mobilize with that large unit just to get from
one location to the other.”
Council Member Joy Gray explained why the council needs to approve
this purchase.
“Because right now she (the mayor) can only make up to $5,000
expenditure without approval,” Gray said. “Anything over that we
have to say yes to. So we would just set a cap on the dollar amount
and say, in that way, if she were to come across one that was 50
grand that only had, you know, 300 hours on it, she could just make
the purchase because we've already said yes.”
Because equipment from the street department is also used to work on
park property the purchase will be made using funds from both
accounts.
Council Member Chris Prowse made the motion to, “get a used one no
more than 60 thousand.” It was second by Council Member Juanita
Wilson. All voted Aye.
How did the fire department acquire a new truck?
While they were on the subject of buying equipment, Wilson wanted to
know how the fire department purchased a new truck. The truck is
white with black trim, a crew cab and a toolbox bed.
Herrmann asked Fire Chief Ryan McCormick to explain how the truck was
purchased.
“We sold a fire truck last year (2024), $30,000, which also gave us
the money we put down, which I said in the meeting that we were put
down towards a brush truck, with the ability to get money for that,”
McCormick said. “The other part is in your budgeting, we have a
line item. A vehicle acquisition was $40,000. $40,000 plus $30,000
equals $70,000. The pickup truck was $68,000 that we purchased
underneath that line item, which you guys approved for the budget.”
In the fire department’s 2024 budget there is a line item under
expenses labeled “Vehicle payment” with a dollar amount of
$69,346.43. After the meeting McCormick claimed having that line item
allowed the purchase of the truck, bypassing submitting three
advertised bids to the city council and allowing council members to
accept one of the bids.
From the reports portion of the April 21 meeting
Mayor says park is for the birds and bats
Mayor Herrmann wants to make the city park more inviting to birds and
bats. With the help of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission she is
developing a plan to install an area dedicated to pollination plus
bat boxes and wood duck boxes.
“I had a meeting this past week with the Arkansas Game and Fish,”
Herrmann told council members. “[W]e are looking to use about an
acre of the backside of the park to plant pollinators and do a
natural walking (trail). That would also include bat boxes and some
wood duck boxes.”
“I don't know if the citizens realize it but we have about
143 different species of birds in the back of the park along with
some wood ducks,” Herrmann continued. “It would be a nice
addition to the park. It will look rough the first year because you
have to do a burning off and clear the grass that's there but then we
come back in with the seeds. So it takes about three years to be
fully mature when it gets really full. I think once it's all from
there it would be a really nice addition.”
Restoring creek bank an ongoing process
Work on slowing erosion caused by Crooked Creek through the city is
continuing. Herrmann reported an extension is being requested due to
the rainy season.
“On our bank restoration, we are actively still in the middle of
that process,” Herrmann said. “My meeting with Mr. Norden, he
suggested that we ask for an extension to get past the rainy season.”
Herrmann has been working with Aaron Norden, the Region III Stream
Habitat Coordinator with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. In
2024 over 100 trees were planted along the creek banks.
Mayor reports on progress of HDC hospital building
Herrmann provided council members a summary of a letter received from
Arkansas Environmental Quality (AEQ). The letter is a report on the
progress of applying for a Brownfield grant.
“I had a letter from A.E.Q.,” Herrmann began. “We are on
Phase-2 for the Central Arkansas Development District and that means
once they're done with the Phase-2, and that's completed, then they
can pass the property back to the city and then the process has to
start over again.”
Alexander has been trying to qualify for a Brownfield grant from the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The grant is used to fund the
cleanup of hazardous waste sites. Buildings like the former
tuberculosis hospital, located on the grounds of the former Alexander
Human Development Center (HDC) along Highway 111, can qualify for a
grant if it contains hazardous materials such as asbestos.
To accomplish this, on August 22, 2024, the Alexander City Council
temporarily gave up ownership of the hospital building to the Central
Arkansas Development District in order to conduct the required
environmental assessment. An environmental assessment should have
been done by the State of Arkansas Development Disabilities Services
Board prior to deeding the 65.69-acre property to the city. Council
members were told a municipality can't qualify for grants to conduct
an environmental assessment. But, a state agency can.
The goal is to have the building demolished to prepare the site for
commercial development. But that can’t happen if there are
hazardous materials that shouldn’t be allowed to become airborne.
“So then the city will go through Phase-1 and Phase-2 and then I
believe at that point we will be able to move forward to a
redevelopment plan, which will qualify us for the cleanup grant,”
Herrmann said. “They believe that we will make it through the whole
process by the time of the November deadline for the (Brownfield)
grant.”
Sewage and storm water
Mayor Herrmann reported there are two engineering studies underway.
One is a “sewer limitation study” while the other is a storm
water study. The storm water study began before the massive multi-day
storm that moved through Arkansas in April.
The Hess mess
Since early 2023 the Hess Gas Station, on E. 1st Street,
has been closed. The process of transforming it into a SQRL station
began, but suddenly stopped when SQRL started having financial
problems throughout its chain of stations.
The property is owned by CRH II LLC out of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Apparently the owner is looking for a new use for the property.
“I did have a gentleman actually reach out to me today that wants
to come in the next couple of weeks and visit about ideas for the use
of the property and see what the city thinks,” Herrmann said. “I
think he was basically considering like a food truck vendor lot ...
where you could set up multiple food trucks.”
Clean-up continued long after storms left area
The effects of the Biblical size storms, that moved through Arkansas
in April, were being dealt with long after they left the state. Mayor
Herrmann thanked street and park staff along with police, fire and
Saline County for providing aid where it was needed.
“The guys have been working diligently,” Herrmann said. “The
fountain (in the park) will randomly be turned on and off with the
winds. They did get it cleaned out. We still have probably another
day or two working with the trees and the branches.”
“We'd
like to extend the thanks to (Saline County) Judge (Matt) Brumley for
opening up a countywide burn site for us to take all of the debris
because it kept us from having to do days and months of burning in
the city's limits. So I appreciate that.”
“I
appreciate all the hard work,” she said. “I'm sure the people, I
mean, just all of the first-responders, the PD, everybody just
performed wonderful together.”
Substitute provides March police report
In place of absent Police Chief Timothy Preator, Sergeant Alan
Tyhurst gave the March police report.
“So our March numbers are, we have the 27 calls for service,”
Sergeant Tyhurst began. “We've done 34 reports. We've got 109
checks, 103 citations, 105 warnings, warrants served is 21. We've had
5 DW(I) arrests, 2 felony drug arrests, 3 felony arrests, and 5
misdemeanor arrests.”
Heroes become victims
Unless you live in those areas of Alexander that overlook the valley,
many portions of the city had some experience with flooding during
the four days of torrential April storms. Even areas that normally
don’t experience significant, if any, flooding had problems.
“We responded to 98 emergency response calls,” Fire Chief Ryan
McCormick began his monthly report to the city council. “Our
historic flooding, obviously, there was over 20 homes in our city
that were either destroyed or damaged by trees or by water. We made
20 water rescues between 5 o'clock in the morning, the day it was
flooding, into 9 o'clock in the morning.”
“And then, Conway Fire Department assisted us and made an
additional 10 rescues,” he continued. “Then we went out that
evening and assisted the county (Saline County) on another water
rescue on South Sardis Road.”
The Central Firehouse, along South Alexander Road, has had problems
for years with flowing water washing away dirt under the foundation
along the north wall. And, the April rains didn’t disappoint to
make the situation worse. Besides increasing the erosion on the
outside, flood waters also entered the building.
“We did have damage in our fire station because of the flooding,”
McCormick said. “It was a river that came during the middle of the
night. Washed out quite a bit of the bank, continuing to the back.
And also, the foundation in the backside of the building is a huge
and sort of run right now from a washout to a collapsed out of it.
We're still looking to be a way to facilitate that. But there is a
huge problem. And we need to be concerned about the safety of the
firemen that stay there and occupy the building.”
“It
flooded the kitchen, it flooded the offices downstairs, you can't get
into the back,” McCormick explained. “We weren't able to do
anything. We tried to prevent that during the day before it was with
sandbags, but we were out doing rescues. And we couldn't do anything
about that. And we came back to the water at the station.”
After Mayor Herrmann mentioned there was “15 to 20 inches in the
yard,” McCormick cited the Weather Channel saying, “[T]hey had
19.6 inches in Alexander what the Weather Channel had.”
Herrmann also noted she had flooding inside her house, which is next
to the fire house.
Lost another one
In 12 months the City of Alexander has hired and lost two code
enforcement/animal control officers. Mayor Herrmann announced the
vacancy during the April 21 council meeting and said she is accepting
resumes for the position.
The first code enforcement/animal control officer was Dan Wyatt. He
began around April 29, 2024. He resigned sometime between the August
and September, 2024 council meetings.
Jamie Jordan was hired January, 2025. She resigned sometime after the
March council meeting.
Anyone interested can contact the mayor at mayor@cityofalexander.org
or call (501) 455-2585. Address for the Alexander Municipal Complex
is 15605 Alexander Road. The mailing address is P.O. Box 610,
Alexander, AR 72002.
Financial report
City Treasurer Jennifer Hill gave the end-of-the-month fund balances
report.
“So, for March, your general fund is at $1,627,401.07,” Hill
began. “Your police department is at $143,644.73. Fires at
$339,547.23. Parks is at $226,764.77. Streets is at $271,182.76.
Payroll is $43,937.31. And the events/donations is $637.60.”
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, May 19, at
6:00 pm in the courtroom of the Alexander Municipal Complex (City
Hall). Meetings are open to the public.
City
of Alexander Master Development Plan Submitted to Little Rock for
approval April, 2023
Time
Elapsed
2
years, 2 weeks, 4 days