Eureka Springs residents will be able to put out more trash on a weekly basis moving forward for the foreseeable future.
At its regular meeting Monday, Oct. 14, the Eureka Springs City Council voted 4-2 to amend the city’s trash ordinance and allow residents to place two 35-gallon containers, or two bags of trash up to 35 gallons each, on the curb each week for trash collection.
The amendment changes a previously approved ordinance that set the limit at one 35-gallon container or one bag up to 35 gallons in size. Additional bags above the limit will require a bag tag, which residents can purchase at public works for $2 each. Anything placed on the curb in excess of the two-bag limit that doesn’t have a bag tag will not be picked up, the new ordinance stipulates.
The fees earned from selling bag tags will go into Carroll County Solid Waste’s recycling education program.
“We tell Carroll County Solid Waste what we want to do and that’s what this is about,” Mayor Butch Berry told council members. “Carroll County Solid Waste is responsible for picking up the garbage, doing the recycling, all that. All we’re doing is telling them, from now on, pick up two bags, or two containers. Otherwise, if there’s more than that, don’t [pick it up] unless there’s a tag on the bag…” Council member Terry McClung said using two 35-gallon containers will allow residents to put as many bags, or as much trash, as they can fit in the containers.
“I put two 33-gallon trash bags [in a 35-gallon container] and they fit fine,” McClung said.
The original ordinance called for one container or one bag as a way to encourage recycling. Council members said at the Oct. 14 meeting that feedback received was that one bag or one container wasn’t enough for some residences, specifically families, leading to the change.
Council member Steve Holifield, however, disagreed and voted against the measure, along with council member Susane Gruning.
“I spoke about this before and I’m going to speak up again,” Holifield said. “I think one 35-gallon is enough. I bought a 35-gallon can from Walmart and I can stuff three large kitchen trash bags in there. They don’t care how many [bags are] in there as long as you get the lid on there. Berryville has been doing this for 12 years, the one 35-gallon, and their additional bag tag is $5, not $2. We have to remember what our motivation is here, it’s to encourage people to recycle. If they have to look at not stuffing cardboard and bottles and stuff into the trash can and put it into recycling to get down to the one 35-gallon bag, then that’s the purpose of it.
“I think if Berryville can do it, we can do it. It’s not a competition, but don’t we want to win? … I’m very proud of the city for being the best recycling city in Arkansas, and I think we still are. I think we should remain that, and I think, again, we should stick to just one bag.”
The ordinance is only for residential customers, council member Harry Meyer pointed out.
“It’s solely households,” he said. The amended ordinance was approved on its first reading and then two additional readings by title only. The council then approved an emergency clause to make the ordinance effective immediately. All votes were 4-2 with Holifield and Gruning dissenting.
PARKS COMMISSION CHANGE
The council also approved the first reading of an ordinance that will allow an additional seat on the parks commission one that can be filled by someone living outside city limits.
Currently two of the seven seats can be filled by individuals living in the western district of the county. Parks director Sam Dudley requested that one more of the seven be an atlarge position, Berry cold council members.
“They have trouble getting a full membership body,” the mayor said. “Right now they have two members that are voted on from outside the city limits and they would like to amend it to have three from outside city limits.”
The move would still allow for proper representation of those who use the city’s parks, Berry said.
“People enjoy our parks from all over the county, not just inside the city,” he said. “So, [parks] felt like this was justifiable to have members from this side of the [Kings] River.”
Council member David Avanzino agreed.
“Let’s be frank: Most of the people complaining about our parks don’t step up to be on the commission,” Avanzino said. “So, let’s open it up and get people who do want to be on the parks commission.”
Council member Autumn Slane, who cast the lone vote against the change, said she was concerned that making another seat an at-large position would open it up for anyone to be eligible to apply from anywhere in the state. That led to an amendment requiring the third position, like the other two, to solely be open to those who live “in the western district of Carroll County.”
Another amendment made to the ordinance before approval is that the chair of the parks commission must be a seat that resides in the city.
The changes will need two additional approvals from the council, and then will go into effect 30 days later.
PEER REVIEW
Berry told council members that he has been in contact with an engineer from Springdale who has agreed, at “minimal cost, if any,” to review the plans that are in motion and developed by McClelland Engineers for the repairs needed at the city’s sewer facility.
“He’s agreed to come take a look,” Berry said of the plans that the city has been told are required to replace and repair many aspects of the failing sewer system.
Holifield, who has been calling for an outside review of McClelland’s plan, said he was happy to hear the news.
“It makes me feel better, I think, to the people in town that we do our due diligence…,” Holifield said in reference to an independent review of the plans.
McClung and Holifield also said they like the idea of a committee being formed “looking at the option of financing” the repairs needed.
“I think maybe at some point a town hall meeting and have everybody come and ask questions and talk about it,” Holifield said. “Really include the community and why we’re doing this and let them ask questions and be informed and stuff.”
Earlier in the meeting, the council got a lengthy presentation from Zane Lewis of McClelland further explaining the needed repairs.
TRANSIT REPORT
In his annual required public hearing, transit director Ken Smith told council members that a shortage of drivers continues to affect the department.
“We are suffering from a driver shortage which has caused cuts in some services, mainly combining routes,” Smith said, adding that drivers’ starting pay is $15 an hour. “It means wait times for riders are a little longer. Also, overtime costs have been extreme this year … “We’re working on plans for driver recruitment to get enough drivers so the system is not so strained as it has been this year. We’re also working on ways to inform the public of reduced service.”
Smith said the department still received funding from the “Cares Act,” which was initiated during COVID-19.
“We’re still being funded 100 percent in our operational expenses,” Smith said. “We were awarded $530,386 for our operations and that’s the remainder of the Cares Act funds.”
Smith said the department didn’t order any new vehicles in 2024 so funds requested were used for other items such as repairs needed at the depot and ordering new equipment.
Ridership has increased by 2.89 percent over 2023, Smith reported.
“Ridership was up a lot in August and September,” he said, adding that things were slower earlier in the year.
A new on-demand service implemented earlier this year for Friday and Saturday nights has been a “hit and miss” experiment, Smith said.
“It was not what I had hoped it would be,” he said. “We mostly see our visitors to the city using the service and very few locals. Before next season we will evaluate this service to see if we will continue it in 2025.”
‘MAD AS HELL’
In his council member comments at the end of the council meeting, Avanzino didn’t hold back when discussing those who gathered signatures for an initiative that will be on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. If approved, the initiative will abolish the city advertising and promotion commission and repeal the city’s tourism tax.
“Since this is our last council meeting before early voting, I believe, and local issue No. 3 is weighing heavy on everybody’s minds, I just want to be clear that Pat Matsukis, along with some of her signature collectors, Linda, Karen, so forth and so on, misled some of the people of this city when they gathered signatures to revoke the CAPC tax,” Avanzino said. “They told some that they had a plan, assuring them that if the tax went away there was a clear path forward. It has become glaringly obvious that this is not true. They presented no plan. There was no plan and there is no plan. These individuals manipulated and misled members of our community. They bullied both locals and business owners using tactics that were nothing short of dishonest. They downplayed the consequences, telling people it wouldn’t be so bad while refusing to acknowledge the pleas from those who saw the potential disaster looming.
“Even after positive changes began taking shape they were so caught up in their own sense of power that they pressed on blind to the damage that they were causing. Now, here we are facing the potential downfall of Eureka Springs as we know it. And let’s be honest, some of the very people who have brought us to this point won’t even be around to see the consequences. They’ll move on, they’ll move away, leaving us with the mess that they’ve created. Is this really the legacy that they want to leave behind for our city? Instead of being part of a solution, they have chosen to be part of a problem. And they are, without question, the problem.
“Their behavior has been reckless, like petulant children throwing tantrums. And now they want us, the residents, business owners and city council, to clean up this mess. They are telling us that it’s up to us to find a solution to a crisis that they themselves have created. Well, I am mad as hell and I refuse to let them off the hook. I’ve always believed that when casting a vote, especially on measures that can drastically change the course of our city, it is crucial to fully understand what a for vote means down to the smallest detail. If I don’t fully understand the consequences of a measure or what life will look like should it pass, I will always vote against it. I believe it’s irresponsible to assume we know what change will bring when we don’t fully understand it. That is why I am urging the public to vote against ballot issue No 3. If you don’t fully understand what dissolving the CAPC will do to our police department, our fire department, emergency medical services, public works, The Auditorium and even our schools, then the safest and most responsible vote is to vote against local issue No. 3.”
Meyer responded during his comments, saying he felt that residents should have researched the issue more before signing if they didn’t understand.
“Everyone has a right to petition the government, take their grievances and petition the government,” Meyer said. “These folks did that. If people didn’t understand what they were signing, they didn’t read it. I mean, I won’t sign anything I don’t read. So, let’s not cut down the people who circulated a petition. Instead, let’s make this town look a lot better and serve the citizens a little bit better.”
McClung followed by briefly supporting the CAPC.
“I also agree with voting against ballot issue No. 3,” McClung said. “The CAPC is very important to Eureka Springs.”
MAYOR’S CONCERNS
During his comments to close the meeting, Berry said he wanted to remind citizens that are critical of the city’s infrastructure woes that a failed vote in 2016 could have been a solution.
“Many people move to Eureka Springs and they forget the past. They don’t have a very long institutional memory,” the mayor said. “In 2016, the city council, from our urging, tried to and did pass a special legislation to try to pass a 1-cent sales tax for infrastructure. Three quarters of a cent was to go to water and sewer. Twenty-five percent of one cent was to go for The Auditorium. It got soundly defeated at the polls, got voted down by the public.
“Now, they’re complaining about not having any money and how much it’s costing. … We told people at that time that the visitors were going to pay for that 1-cent sales tax, not the locals. I mean, [the locals] were to pay some, but a small amount when you look at it overall. Because, as we know from COVID, 95 percent of our business is tourism. Our restaurants couldn’t stand if they had to survive on our local business. They’d go broke. They’d shut down. … It’s real frustrating when I see that the public is saying those things because we had put out a plan, and the CAPC cannot pay for infrastructure. They have a purpose and it’s not for water, sewer, sidewalks or streets.
“However, the tourists that do come, and the visitors that do come, do put into the sales tax and that really does help. … That’s where we live on, our sales tax. We don’t have a big box shop, anything like that, so it’s our tourism that pays for that. … When I see people talking about infrastructure, and ours is failing, and we don’t support it. You had a chance to pay for it and support it and you didn’t do it. Now, we’re suffering the consequences. …”