Eureka Springs Times-Echo
The Eureka Springs City Council has added more specifics to a proposed revision of the city’s tree ordinance.
At its regular meeting held Monday, Sept. 11, the council voted unanimously to approve the second reading of an ordinance that sets out guidelines when it comes to the removal of trees.
Amended from the first reading were specific amounts of fines for those who violate the ordinance.
The original proposed ordinance included a fee of $50 for illegally removing a “small” tree, $150 for removing a “large” tree and $200 for removing a “heritage” tree.
“It really speaks to, if I have money, I can cut down a big tree, pay $200 and that’s all there’s done to it,” council member Steve Holifield said.
Holifield made a motion to take the original amounts and “multiply by 10,” while also including that a tree replacement also be required.
In the end, however, the council amended Holifield’s motion to increase the original amounts by five times to $250 for a small tree, $750 for a large tree and $1,000 for a heritage tree.
The third and final vote on the proposed ordinance likely will happen at the council’s next meeting on Monday, Sept. 25.
OTHER BUSINESS
The council got an update on the ongoing progress by the outside company brought in to help detect water leaks around the city.
Council member Terry Mc-Clung read an update provided by Simon Wiley, the city’s public works director, going over a number of leaks that were detected and repaired.
The detection company is “still working to identify more possible leaks but stated they should be done by the end of the week,” McClung reported. “I’ve seen their trucks and it’s great because I see a lot of repairs being done. Progress is being made.”
The council also got a year-to-date report from Jacob Coburn, the city’s building inspector and code enforcement officer.
Coburn reported that as of Sept. 11, he has issued 262 building permits that have created a revenue for his department of $41,858.62.
“It’s been a busy year,” Coburn said Last year Coburn’s department earned $24,358, he said.
Council members asked Coburn to put together a proposal that would include a possible part-time employee who could be added next fiscal year to assist him in his duties.
“… You have a lot of duties ranging from trees to buildings to commercial to residential and I feel like he needs help,” council member Autumn Slane said. “You know, an assistant, somebody to help you get through some of the paperwork. I just think it’s a huge job …” The council also voted unanimously to approve a renewal Group Tour Franchise for Joe Gunnels Tours and began discussions regarding the city’s ADA compliance.
BUDGET WORKSHOP
The council got a report from city finance director Michael Akins on the city’s mid-year budget review.
“We had originally said that our total revenue of all of our funds is going to be $14,445,000 and our expenditures were going to be $14,042,000 so we were going to be operating at a clear of $403,000,” Akins told council members. “With the adjustments that we have made we have increased our revenue streams and we have increased our expenditures, but we’re still showing a $412,000 increase. So overall, the adjustments we made to the budget … there wasn’t a significant impact on the budget.”
When looking over the budget, council members questioned many expenses by the Eureka Springs Police Department, most notably a $13,000 expenditure for a “sniper rife,” “three flashlights for $580” and “two pairs of shoes for $342.”
“$13,000 for an assault rife in this town, especially after what we’ve dealt with at this table over the last month, is honestly an outrage,” Slane said.
In reference to the expenditure for shoes, council member Harry Meyer said: “These are just sneakers, these … aren’t boots or whatever. I looked them up … it’s just no different than my New Balance, except they might be a certain color or something.”
Approving the midyear budget review was tabled and the council wants to have a workshop before its next meeting to discuss issues with ESPD chief Brian Young.
“I think we need to talk to the police chief,” Meyer said. “I want to find out why he can justify this.”
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Four people offered input during public comments, including Holiday Island resident Ashley Ochoa, who said she has developed numerous health issues after being exposed to severe mold at the business she owned, located at a local inn.
“Six years ago I opened Lush Salon and Spa inside the Eureka Holiday Hotel, which is now the Super 8 hotel,” Ochoa said. “The salon is in the basement of the hotel with no windows. Three months after opening, I started getting symptoms — cold and flu, earaches, dizziness, etc. At six months, I started reacting to food. I was really sick after eating, bloating, vertigo. As years passed by, more and more symptoms occurred. But, my business partner wasn’t having any symptoms, so I thought it was just me. At this point I was having neurological issues, pain in my joints, weight gain, weight loss, numbness in my hands and feet, vertigo, dizziness, ringing in the ears, reoccurring pneumonia, flu, colds, severe stomach issues, fatigue, anxiety, hair loss, rashes on my body, vision issues, heart palpitations, panic attacks, shortness of breath and reactions to all fluid food, including gluten and dairy.
“There is no visible mold inside of our salon, which is why I never considered looking into the salon or the hotel. This past January, we found that I have three types of mold in my body, including black mold. I also have mass cell activation disorder, which is a condition where you experience repeated episodes of anaphylaxis allergic symptoms. I also have chronic inflammatory response syndrome, which is a progressive multi-symptom illness characterized by exposure to bio toxins. It can affect any organ if left untreated. It has affected my mind, and it’s affected my liver, kidneys, pancreas, brain and colonizes in my stomach, meaning the mold now grows in my stomach and releases mycotoxins. We have also found 10 bacterial infections and two fungal infections in my stomach.”
Ochoa said after speaking to an employee of the hotel, she found out that “in fact, mold was everywhere in the hotel.”
“Most importantly, though, there was mold growing on the connecting wall between our hair room wall and the electrical room for the hotel,” said told council members. “There was a continual leak against that wall for years and the owner was aware. We also have had flooding situations in our salon, in the lobby, the storage room, the pedicure room, all coming from above us in the hotel. At the time of the flooding, we were told to just clean up the water.”
Ochoa said Coburn and the Eureka Springs fire marshal recently did an inspection of the Super 8 “where they found that an air quality test was necessary due to water protrusion causing possible mold.”
“The manager of the Super 8 told me our salon was never mentioned in Jacob’s report, but we were in fact mentioned three times,” she said. “The hotel had an air quality test done and the tester never left the lobby and finished the test after five minutes. Their report showed no findings of mold.”
She paid to have her own test done, Ochoa said, “and my tests showed mold throughout our entire space and he said it is not sustainable for a business to be in there.”
Ochoa asked the city council to take action.
“The Super 8 and the previous Eureka Springs building inspector’s negligence has taken six years of my life and I’d like to see what can be done to ensure this never happens again to another person,” she said.
Council member David Avanzino asked Coburn about the Super 8 building.
“During our inspection, it was a commercial inspection, an annual inspection,” Coburn said. “We discovered a large amount of water intrusion in that building. So much that when you walked in the entry of the building, you can smell the moisture content in there. So on inspecting the building, we established that we would require a mold remediation company to come in there to do an inspection.
“The report that was given to the building department was, astoundingly, a large amount of mold. We found rodent intrusion into the ductwork system. We found mold throughout the through the salon area that [Ochoa] actually operates in. The report actually states that there’s more and more content within that area than outside of the building, directly outside the building.”
Coburn was asked if the issue was being addressed by the person or company who owns the property.
“It’s been addressed to the management, but we’re going back and forth and what their responsibilities are in dealing with the mitigation and removal remediation,” Coburn said.
“It is 100 percent their job to remediate it,” Avanzino replied.
“Yes, sir,” Coburn answered. “Getting them to step forward and do something is a different story …” When asked at what point citations would be issued, Coburn said that he wants to sit down with Super 8 and the mold remediation company and talk about ways to fix and resolve the issue.
“It’s not just the Super 8, but many buildings around town,” Coburn said. “It needs to start somewhere.”
Council members said there’s nothing in current ordinances that deals specifically with issues such as mold and the issue would be discussed at the next council meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25, in the basement of The Aud.
