EL DORADO – The El Dorado Mayor and City Council met in regular session Thursday, April 10th inside a well attended Council Chamber. After the opening ceremonies of prayer, pledge and roll call, Ward 2 Alderman Judy Ward announced the city would participate in the National Day of Prayer.

• NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

Ward said, “The national day of prayer was started when President Truman signed it into law in 1952, it was originally observed on July 4th.” President Ronald Reagan moved the day to the first Thursday in May, and it has been observed on that day since. Ward said, “Thursday May 1st we will meet here at City Hall, there will be a short message and we will pray.” Mayor Paul Choate followed with, “Let’s pack the building.”

• DRUG TAKE BACK

Ward 1 Alderman, Jill Weinischke followed with, “April 26th, from 10 A.M. until 2 P.M., there will be a drive through drug take back in the Walmart parking lot. Authorities will be on hand to receive those prescriptions, whether it is a whole bag full or just one prescription.” The nationwide program began in 2010 amidst the growing concern that flushing or even just tossing prescription drugs was having an impact on groundwater. It was noted, back then, that many municipality wastewater treatment plants were not equipped to remove pharmaceuticals from the water supply. The program allows people to anonymously, if they so choose, discard unused or expired medications and over-the-counter medicines.

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• “SOMEONE ELSE’S MONEY”

Mayor Choate updated the Council and Chamber on a recent project. “I am happy to say that we spent $300,000 from Arkansas State Street Aid and we put about $200,000 with it to make a half million dollars worth of improvements to the City Streets in the last ten days. I like spending someone else’s money other than yours, I guess is what I’m trying to say.”

• FIXING AN OLD PROBLEM

The Mayor then informed the Council of a potential solution to a problem, one which had been plaguing the City’s Ward 4. “We have a real watershed issue. There is a drainage ditch just North of Northwest Elementary School, North and South Magnolia streets and even back over to Brookwood (inside the Racquet Club Subdivision). That area is eroding and we have identified an approximately $2,000,000 grant available from the Delta Regional Authority that could be used to stop that erosion. If we get the grant, we would go in and lay a concrete pan and concrete walls to stop the erosion. So, we are going to go after that money, because it has become a serious issue.” The Mayor then asked the Council to approve a series of resolutions to empower him to apply for that grant, via Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District and empower the District to administer the grant. “We pay dues each year to belong to the District, they have the grant writers and the expertise to apply for the grant.” The Mayor said. The Council approved both resolutions unanimously. The grant is a 100% grant, meaning the City is not required to match any funds received to begin work. After the approval, Ward 3 Alderman Willie McGhee sought permission to add comments and said, “The water issue is one of the issues we been trying to work on, even with the Black Mayors Association. But I think we ought to ask, whenever this tax go on board, we ought to get some of that, because that is our taxpayer money, that one-cent sales tax. And since we know we got several issues in this community we need to focus on, I think we going to look for money but we already got money to start making plans on some of these issues before we wait around. I think, I mean I been around here a long time and we do this over and over, where we spend money all around but the issues that give our city quality of life, we kind of wait for grants and stuff. I think we ought to be more aggressive and, and, I believe this one-cent sales tax will pass but I also believe we need to focus some of it towards some of the issues that we already have like the flooding, the trash, the growed up lots. That’s quality of life, I believe that, and I appreciate you going after that, and there’s a lot more. I hope we still continue to work with the Black Mayors Association also, because this city has a lot of water issues. And I just think, you know, because every time it rains I get a flood of calls and I send y’all a flood of text messages and emails. We got people that there is water actually going in their house every time it rains. We ain’t talking about once a year or every now and then, we are talking about every time it rains in this city, somebody house is getting flooded with water. I just think we need to be more aggressive.”

Mayor Choate followed up with, “I agree with you 100%, we have plenty of issues, we just have to have the money.” Then referring to City Public Works Director Robert Edmonds, the Mayor said, “But do remember, Mr. Edmond’s group, over the last two years, has spent about seven point two, seven point three million dollars on streets and drainage around town and we have alleviated some flooding issues.”

• WILLING TO USE FEDERAL MONEY

The Council then considered a resolution which designated the City’s willingness to utilize money from the Federal Aid Transportation Alternatives Program for Recreation Trails Program, in which the Federal Government participates at an 80% level, reimbursing the City for dollars spent in accordance with the grant program. The grant would be to improve downtown streetscaping and would be under the direction of the Arkansas Department of Transportation. According to the Mayor, the project is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $300,000 with just shy of a quarter-million of that to be reimbursed to the City via this grant. 

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• UPDATE: EL DORADO WINS

Recently retired President and CEO of First Financial Bank, Chris Hegi then updated the Council on the proposed one-cent sales tax, commonly called El Dorado Wins. Mr. Hegi thanked the Council for their unanimous support for the tax, which if passed by the voters, would replace the expiring one-cent sales tax previously known as El Dorado Works. “Over the past few months we have had a number of townhall meetings, across our community. We have done some public speaking, where we can. We have had a lot of individual meetings, and we have a really good committee put together. Overall, it has been very positive. We have had opportunities to hear about areas to improve on.” Mr. Hegi said in the coming weeks, people would begin to hear and see advertisements about the tax election. Early voting for the proposed tax begins May 6th with the election to be held on May 13th. Mr. Hegi said he is personally urging people to vote early and asked the Council to do the same. Ward 4 Alderman, Buddy McAdams followed up Mr. Hegi’s update with, “I just want to say how much we appreciate you and your team for the work you are doing,”

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