The long-debated Spring Street Residential Parking District ordinance is no more.
After much discussion for the second consecutive meeting, the Eureka Springs City Council voted unanimously at its July 8 meeting to revoke the ordinance, which went into effect last year, and start over in an attempt to alleviate parking issues in the area around the Bridgeford House Bed and Breakfast, a key point of the discussions.
“Due to conflicts with the ordinance it needs to be revoked and rewritten,” city attorney Forrest Jacob said, adding that the ordinance isn’t enforceable.
Bridgeford House was a main part of the discussions with council members saying the location should be using the parking behind its building for guests, which would open up needed street parking. The topic of whether the Bridgeford House was required to use the parking behind its facility was brought up during discussions about the parking ordinance and a later discussion on non-conforming parking requirements.
“If we had a resolution at the Bridgeford House and they used their parking as they’re supposed to, the parking problems on Spring Street would probably be alleviated,” council member Terry McClung said.
The council voted three times to revoke the parking ordinance, meaning it will be revoked in 30 days.
“The Spring Street parking ordinance did not solve the problem because of the way it was constructed,” Jacobi told council members. “I do believe we can come up with a Spring Street parking ordinance that will address the issues.”
After discussion of two topics related to the same issues, including input from Susan Harman, chair of the planning commission, the council voted to schedule a workshop with the planning commission to again try to resolve the ongoing issue.
OTHER ITEMS
Nearly 15 minutes of the July 8 meeting was spent in executive session as Berry shared with council members the undisclosed reasons for the recent termination of Jacob Coburn, who was the city’s building inspector and code enforcement official.
“As you well know, last week I had to terminate the building inspector,” Berry said. “So, according to code, I need your confirmation on me being able to terminate him.”
McClung asked if they needed to go into executive session to discuss the matter, and Berry said it wasn’t a necessity, but they could if that’s what the council wanted to do.
The council voted to go into executive session and when they returned Mc-Clung made a motion to “support the mayor’s decision on the termination of the building inspector.”
The motion passed 6-0, immediately drawing the ire of resident and former council member Karen Lindblad, who yelled from the back of the room.
“Good work, council,” Lindblad said sarcastically, leading to 40 seconds of yelling regarding Coburn’s termination.
“Ms. Lindblad, we’re trying to hold a meeting here,” Berry said.
Lindblad also spoke during public comments in support of Coburn, who had a controversial tenure with the city.
“I am here to defend and to thank Jacob, who the mayor has just terminated as building inspector,” Lindblad said. “He has been doing a great job. I know he has pissed off some people because he decided to wade off into the wild West of Eureka Springs, where we haven’t had really any code enforcement in years.”
The council also got an update on water financial audits from city finance director Michael Akins.
“When I came on we were severely behind on water audits,” Akins said. “As of this past week, the 2019, 2020 and 2021 audits are complete so we are out of hot water with the Legislative Audit.”
Akins said the 2022 audit should be completed in approximately 60 days.
“And then we’ll start the normal timeframe with the 2023 audit,” he said.
The council also voted down 4-2 a proposed ordinance from council member Harry Meyer to have all department heads report monthly to the council.
Most of the council said they felt doing that would be unnecessary micromanaging and that the department heads already meet regularly with Berry, who can report anything necessary to the council.
“I think it’s an extreme form of mismanagement and micromanagement,” council member David Avanzino said. “They already report weekly to the mayor, and if there are issues, the mayor brings it up to us. I think it would be a huge waste of time.”
The council approved the third and final reading of an ordinance to open up the lower portion of Norris Street near the hospital.
Two other approvals were the OK to vacate Peerless Street between Block 45, Lot 1 and Block 38, Lot 4 of the Freeman Addition and to to vacate an alley between Lots 1-4 and Lots 5-7 in Block 70 of the Clayton Survey.
The council voted to suspended the rules and approved both for a second and third and final reading.
Also getting approval from the council was the appointment of Shira Fouste to fill one of three vacant seats on the city advertising and promotion commission.
