Alexander will pay to repair Saline County Tornado Siren

(Edited: The first paragraph has been amended to reflect new information.)
Anyone who has lived here long enough knows South Alexander has a tornado siren at the Central Firehouse. The current siren has been at the firehouse on South Alexander Road for several years.

The siren hasn’t worked for many years and, according to Fire Chief Ryan McCormick, Saline County has no intention of having it repaired. Instead, the county wants everyone to install the emergency warning app Code Red on their smart phones.

McCormick said, “So sirens, the tornado sirens, ... it's becoming too expensive to continue to keep those sirens repaired or fix. ... (A)nd so they're going to (start using) ... Code Red, goes on your phone.”

McCormick also said residents can register their home phone numbers (landline) with the county. He said the Code Red system will be triggered to provide natural emergency alerts based on the portions of the county under threat.

Mayor Crystal Herrmann said one app won’t provide a warning for everyone. “We do have a lot of vulnerable citizens that don't know about the Code (Red) that, that live in this community. They're not connected socially and some of them don't even have a smartphone.”

One excuse used by Saline County for not needing the siren repaired is the fact that South Alexander is between two other sirens; one at Shannon Hills and the other at the Alcoa 40 Ball Park along Shobe Road. Unfortunately, those two sirens are more easily heard by residents who live higher up and not in the valley.

Council members approved spending up to $8,000.00 to repair the firehouse siren. The funding will come from the general fund.

Other news from the November 17 meeting:

Planning and Zoning

Ample Storage to annex one more lot

For the past several years, Ample Storage owners have been preparing for the widening of Arkansas Hwy. 5. They have been buying vacant lots, adjacent to the existing property, and having them annexed into Alexander. Those lots have already seen construction of new storage units to make up for the ones that will be lost to the widening project.

Mayor Crystal Herrmann announced plans, by Ample Storage, to expand its footprint one more time. The Mayor advised council members they will be asked to approve annexing the new addition, sometime in the next few months. With the elimination of the planning commission, the city council will be performing all of those duties.

Parks Department

Crooked Creek project complete; Culverts; Christmas lights

Mayor Herrmann announced the completion of the project to protect Crooked Creek from the ongoing erosion it has been known for. The creek runs along the northern edge of City Park and was eating its way towards the Gazebo.

“They're wrapping up, they have wrapped up the bank erosion project and they have also installed a new culvert that cuts across the parking lot that empties out into Crooked Creek,” she said. “We came well under our budget with the hazardous mitigation grant.”

“I'm working with Mark Brown and Ms. Lee Poole,” Herrmann said. “We're seeing if we can get our request approved to extend that grant funding to utilize the difference towards some more culverts that we need around the city. So fingers crossed, hopefully they'll let us use that the difference on the funding to replace some of the culverts around the city, including the firehouse culverts.”

Herrmann said the park’s Christmas decorations will be going up once the rain stops.

Police Department

Monthly report; Critical response

Police Chief Timothy Preator gave council members a review of the department’s actions for October.

“The PD responded to 165 calls for service,” Chief Preator began. “It took 44 reports out of those 165 calls.”

Preator continued, “Four Hundred Ninety-Four traffic stops in the city last month. Two Hundred Twenty-six of those were written citations and 268,” … were warnings.

There were nine drug arrests and 14 misdemeanor arrests.

Council Member Juanita Wilson attempted to get a question answered. She attempted to ask this question at the October meeting but Chief Preator was on vacation. Mayor Herrmann told her to call Preator after he returns but that obviously didn’t work out.

Wilson said, “I have some questions.”

“I know you would,” Preator responded.

“I have a problem with the way police are driving in our city,” Wilson said.

Wilson began to explain, “I've seen personally, (police cars) hit that railroad track (on Hwy.111 in front of city hall) out there and you can hear metal hit metal.”

While speaking Wilson was pointing towards the railroad tracks but Preator took it personally.

“Excuse me. Excuse me,” Preator said. “Don't point your finger at me.”

“Ms. Wilson,” Preator continued. “I'll explain something. Here, (in) just a few minutes, you're going to open up that packet. I mean, you're going to see that you have far greater issues that you need to worry about other than how my guys respond to emergency calls (Apparently referring to the 2023 Legislative Audit report found here). I have seen every person in the city council and (at) every community event support this community. The only thing I've ever seen you do is bitch and complain. And I've had enough of it.”

“Well, that's too bad,” Wilson said.

Preator responded, “Have a good day.”

Fire Department

Dirt moved to beef-up creek bank; Leveling firehouse next step

During the November meeting, Fire Chief Ryan McCormick reported Josh Penn Excavating of Benton had completed moving dirt from the two lots north of the firehouse to rebuild the creek bank that supports the firehouse. McCormick was given permission, at the October council meeting, to accept the low bid of $19,975.00 submitted by Josh Penn Excavating.

“I've had three construction workers, construction departments, come to check about the foundation,” McCormick said. “One has come already and said we've dropped over an inch and one part of the building and it's sloped down still. We're going to check if we can get three different bids and three different construction companies out there between now and the end of December, middle and middle part of December.”

McCormick also reported, “We did about 350 hours of training this past month and we'd have a couple folks involved with the specialized training with the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) and also their officer development program.”

Code Enforcement/Animal Control

“Nuisance Properties;” Burn permits

Code Enforcement/Animal Control Officer Joshua Dodson says he has developed a list of 12 “Nuisance Properties.” This was also a heads-up to council members due to the requirement, under city ordinance, that the final ruling as to whether a property can be labeled a “Nuisance Properties” requires a vote of the council.

“I've got my list of nuisance properties finished up,” Dodson began. “I say there's 12 of them.”

Dodson said he won’t be notifying all of them at the same time to avoid a rush. The worst of thee worst come first.

“It's a lot to handle at once,” Dodson continued. “So (I’ll) prioritize the worst ones. Go from there.

Dodson described the properties as mostly abandoned and the homes damaged.

“A lot of them are abandoned. They (have) neglected holes in the roofs, opened windows, there's two doors. There's one I believe on Charles that half the house are (sic) gone. So … (they are) obviously public safety issues.”

Dodson also noted it’s leaf burning season. He is reminding everyone burning leaves requires a Burn Permit. Residential permits are $5.00. Commercial permits are higher depending on the type of burning.

Financial update

Monthly fund balances report

Treasurer Jennifer Hill provided council members with a report on the fund balances for the month of October.

“Your general fund. You're reconciled at $1,948,141.26,” she began. “Your police fund reconciled between $4,892.76. Your fire has reconciled at $319,262.69. Your park has reconciled at $262,200.69. Your streets reconciled at $286,650.50. Payroll was $60,482.75, and with the addition from fall fest, the event (fund) is up to $89.66. Your SUTs (city Sales Use Taxes) for the month, one and two were both $72,114.20 with the SUT three being $72,114.21. For a total for the month of September for $216,342.60 dollars.”

Mayor’s report

Christmas in the Park

Mayor Crystal Herrmann announced the upcoming event, Christmas in the Park.

“We have Christmas in the Park coming up,” Herrmann said. “It's the first Saturday in December. We'll have cookies and cocoa and the horse and buggy will be out. We'll have the train out for the kids and I'm hoping that everybody can come out and enjoy a decent time. Cross our fingers (for the) weather.”

Christmas in the Park will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 PM.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, December 15, at 6:00 pm in the courtroom of the Alexander Municipal Complex (City Hall). Meetings are open to the public.