A proposed ordinance aimed at having long firearms and munitions stored at the Eureka Springs Police Department instead of in officers’ vehicles failed to gain any traction with the Eureka Springs City Council.
City council member Harry Meyer said at the council’s regular meeting on Monday, Oct. 23, at The Auditorium, that he feels long firearms should be locked up at the police station when an officer is not on duty, but his motion died when it failed to get a second.
“Since they have had trouble in other departments with long weapons disappearing and the fact that somebody who’s on the force that lives on the other side of Holiday Island ain’t going to make it here in 10 minutes anyway, I think the best thing to do is to keep all this stuff at the police department, keep it locked up,” Meyer said. “… We’ve got two cops on duty all the time. There’s some around that can go get a weapon. Now, if he’s in his patrol car, he can carry the gun while he’s patrolling the street. But if he’s at home, he doesn’t need to have those weapons.”
Outgoing police chief Brian Young, however, told council members that each gun is sighted for the officer who uses it and storing the guns at the police station would slow down response time.
“That officer sights it in for him because they have optics on them,” Young said. “Not everyone has the same eyes. … So, those rifles are done for that person and that person only. That officer is responsible for anything that’s wrong with that firearm.”
City council member Autumn Slane asked if there was room at the police station to store the weapons when they weren’t being used.
“We could lock them in a safe, but we’d have to get more safes,” Young said. “But then every time one of them went to get them out, because they all look the same, they’d have to go through and read serial numbers off of every single one trying to find which one is theirs. … The difference is serial numbers. Other than that, they’re all the same.”
The process Meyer was proposing would greatly increase the time it would take for an officer to get to the scene of a crime, Young said.
“If this ordinance was passed and officers had to leave home to respond to a situation, come to the police department, open a safe, make sure that they’re getting the right weapon, just an average, how long is that going to increase response time?” council member David Avanzino asked Young.
“A lot,” Young responded. “Because the officers won’t have access to that safe. An armorer would have to have access for that. … Someone has to be responsible for it. In this scenario, you can see the chain of custody.”
Avanzino then asked: “So by passing this ordinance, we are putting life and limb in jeopardy?”
“Yeah, you’re talking umpteen … I mean, there’s no telling because if an armorer wasn’t there to get them access to it, it could be 45 minutes before someone could get there to open that up for them,” Young answered.
“If they have it with them, if they’re called out, they have it and they immediately go to the scene. That’s the reason why we have it the way we do.”
Council member Melissa Greene said she understood where Meyer’s thoughts were on the issue, but added: “God forbid, anything bad happen, we would need that gun immediately.”
“We haven’t had anything,” Young said. “But we have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.”
Meyer said with the low crime rate in Eureka Springs he was surprised to find out that each officer carries a long gun.
“We have no violent crime here,” Meyer said. “I was shocked when I found out that every officer has a long gun and a shotgun. I figured they had pistols. Why going so far? It’s like we’re militarizing our police force.”
What the department is doing is working, Young replied.
“There’s a reason we haven’t had a lot of violent crime here, and we want to keep it that way,” Young said. “Our officers are prepared for that and the public knows that. Our officers are prepared. We don’t want people to come to town … and feel unsafe.”
During council member comments at the end of the meeting, Meyer explained more his reasoning for bringing up the gun issue.
“Well, I’m sure everyone thinks that I am anti-police, but I’m not,” Meyer said. “It’s just that we’ve got all the guns, lots of weapons, lots of cars. There’s six cars sitting up there at the police department and some of them look like they’ve been through a demolition derby, whole sides caved in, and I’m sure they’ll be sold at auction. But, you know, we’re just spending too much money on our little city police department. You can say that we are busy on weekends, but then during the week, how come they don’t find out that somebody broke into the public restrooms and trashed them? They don’t even check doors. They don’t check a thing. They just drive around town. If they drive around town at all.
“I mean we used to have officers walk Spring Street at night checking people’s doors. That was with the previous police chief. But we don’t have that now. And, you know, I’m not expecting them to catch anybody in the act of tearing up one of our public restrooms. But I guarantee they should be able to tell us between what hours of the night it happened, because they should be checking that stuff. From what I understand about how much money we spend on uniforms and shoes … we got the topnotch police department for a little town of 2,200 people that has damn near zero crime. That’s my take on it.”
HOSPITAL UPDATE
Kent Turner, chair of the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission, gave council members an update on the recent decision to apply for a new designation and how it could benefit the facility.
The hospital is currently classified as a critical access hospital. The commission voted recently to seek a new designation as a rural emergency hospital.
“I want the council to understand the reasons why we did that,” Turner said. “…. First and foremost is once we make our application and that application is initially reviewed and approved, we will get $2.5 million. And that goes in the general fund of the hospital. Once the application is approved, we will get another $2.5 million. In addition to that, once everything is approved, we will get $272,000 per month to stay a rural emergency hospital. In addition, we will get a 5 percent increase in our Medicare rates. Medicaid rates will all stay the same.
“In short, it will literally get us out of a hole that we’re in. We have seen a dramatic drop in in-patient in our hospital. Our evaluation over the course of this year has shown that is for some reason, a phenomenon that’s going on across the country. Everybody’s inpatient levels have dropped.”
Turner told the council that the hospital is losing about $200,000 a month.
“Our reserves can’t stand there,” he said. “If you notice, there’s a correlation between losing $200,000 a month and getting $272,000 a month.”
If the new designation is approved, the hospital will go from 15 beds to six beds and plans to renovate the facility will be revamped to include more specialist space, Turner said.
“We’d like to bring in a cardiac,” Turner said. “We’d like to bring in a prenatal. We’d like to bring in urology.”
Turner was asked the current condition of the hospital.
“The hospital is not good,” he said. “The condition of the hospital is bad. If we don’t get something done, the hospital would probably close. Not because of finances, but because we literally can’t keep the facility going. We lost our generator. We have in fact, had to do all kinds of things and had to spend all kinds of money to get the generator back up and running, because you have to have a generator. If you go down and look at the bowels of the hospital, you would understand what I mean. …The hospital is safe, don’t get me wrong. Structurally, there’s nothing wrong. The problem is, it’s just all of the old equipment.”
Turner said the commission should know by the beginning of 2024 if the application is approved.
“We’re given no reason to believe they are going to turn us down,” Turner said.
Council member Terry McClung said during council member comments that he was concerned to hear about the state of the hospital.
“I’m saddened but yet hopeful by the news that we got tonight on the hospital and it concerns me,” he said. “I hope they can get this thing worked out and we can continue to have a facility here for the locals. I guess it would be more of an emergency arrangement than anything, but that’s still what we need more than anything … we can keep our citizens healthy until they can get to a … more full-service hospital.”
COUNCIL SIDES WITH PLANNING
An proposed ordinance that would have changed the zoning of a home near downtown from residential to commercial died when it didn’t receive a second.
The planning commission’s board of zoning adjustment recently voted 5-1 to deny a request from Stephen and Tarra Seely to rezone 104 S. Main St. from residential to commercial so they could turn the one-bedroom home into shortterm tourist lodging.
Most of the city council agreed with that decision, some echoing comments that the city needs long-term rentals for local residents instead of more short-term rentals.
“That’s a perfect spot for someone who’s renting … somebody who’s renting to, say, bartend at the Cathouse,” Meyer said of the property, located 0.2 miles down Main Street from city hall. “It’s a place that you can live and you can walk to work. That’s the kind of lodging we need for people that work and live here. I just don’t think it needs to be changed because of that.”
McClung, however, made the motion to approve the change, pointing out that surrounding properties are designated commercial.
“It’s adjacent to commercial properties,” Mc-Clung said. “… A commercial designation is appropriate.
“Everything on up the street is commercial. I understand the idea of not wanting to lose a potential long-term rental or something that could be strictly residential. I understand that. But location is location. To me, that’s what it takes.”
McClung’s motion to assign the ordinance a number and put it up for its first reading failed to get a second.
OTHER ITEMS
The council heard a sewer testing update from Simon Wiley, the city’s public works director, and approved spending $113,950 of Infrastructure and Improvement funds for upgraded equipment.
The council also heard an update from city finance director Michael Akins, who shared what the city offers full-time employees for a benefits package.
The cost of medical, dental, vision and a base life insurance policy are paid for by either the Arkansas Municipal League or the city. New for 2024 is the option to utilize a flexible spending account for medical costs, Akins said.
The council also had a discussion regarding recent conversations by the planning commission on conditions of some sidewalks in the city.
Property owners are responsible for maintaining the sidewalk in front of their home or business, but some aren’t repairing damaged areas.
“This is something that’s more of an enforcement issue,” Mayor Butch Berry said. “… [Code enforcement officer] Jacob [Coburn] and I are going to get together and start a priority list again.”
After some back and forth, Berry agreed to set up a workshop between the council and planning commission to discuss the issue.
In council comments, Slane had good things to say about Berry’s leadership over recent months.
“I would like to thank the mayor,” Slane said. “I know that I’ve not always been in agreeance with you, but this last year I have seen a change in how you have handled these meetings and how you have handled your job. And I appreciate that. So thank you.”
Berry replied: “Thank you.”
