01.04.24 ;I:
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WEST MEMPHIS CITY COUNCIL
January 04,2024 • •
A regular meeting of the West Memphis City Council was held on Thursday,January 4,2024,at
1:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall,205 S. Redding,West Memphis,Arkansas. `
Invocation was given by Councilor David Murray followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by {
Senior Deputy City Clerk,Patricia Lane Mayor McClendon called the meeting to order at 1:00
p.m.City Clerk,Patricia Joplin called the roll.Those present were Mayor Marco McClendon,City
Attorney,Michael Stephenson, City Treasurer Charlie Suiter Jr and Council Members: Gheric Bruce,
Tracy Catt, Wayne Croom,Helen Harris,James Holt,Melanie Hutchinson, Willis Mondy, David
Murray. and Charles Wheeless.Absent was Lorraine Mohammed. Also,present was Evening Times
Reporter Donald Wilburn. Quorum,being present Mayor McClendon,proceeded with the
meeting.
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BID OPENING:NONE
MINUTES:APPROVE OR CORRECT MINUTES OF DECEMBER 21,2023
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Councilor Catt made the motion,seconded by Councilor Wheeless,to dispense with the reading
of the minutes of December 21,2023,Council Meeting,and to approve them as submitted.Upon
voice vote,voting was unanimous to approve.
Mayor McClendon recognized City Treasurer,Charlie Suiter Jr. and said God has continued to
bless him and watch over his life and he is truly thankful.Mr. Suiter Jr said that he is thankful .
for all the prayers and wellwishes and he is glad to be back.
Mayor McClendon acknowledged Ms. Stephanie Jones-White who is the new President of the 14
West Memphis,Chamber of Commerce.Ms.White said that it is truly an honor to have the
position and to be able to work and serve alongside the Mayor and the West Memphis City !:.1
Council as they continue to make West Memphis even greater than what it is.Ms. White said• !!
she looks forward to meeting the council members individually and working with them
collectively. -
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Councilor Lorraine Mohammed came into the council meeting at 1:10 p.m. '
Councilor Mohammed came into the council meeting at 1:10 p.m. after minutes were already
approved. Councilor Mohammed made a motion,seconded by Councilor Croom to correct the 1
spelling of the organization name that came before council the correct spelling is Phlex.The
minutes will be corrected to reflect the correct spelling.Upon voice vote,voting was
unanimous. '
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OLD BUSINESS:2nd READING AN ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH FEES FOR PERMITS ;;
AND INSPECTIONS AT RESIDENTIAL RATES AND COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ' !
RATES WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF WEST MEMPHIS,ARKANSAS
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City Attorney Stephenson read the ordinance by title only for the SECOND time. The ordinance ,1
will be placed back on the January18,2024 agenda for its third and final reading.The mayor .i. '
said there will be a public meeting scheduled before the next council meeting,if any of the .i
Council members have any questions before then,they can contact Planning and Development
Director,Chad Bowman,(Agenda 1/18/24) - 1
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NEW BUSINESS:
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Councilor Mohammed made the motion,seconded by Councilor Catt to suspend the rules,and
read 0-1 by title only.Upon voice vote,voting was unanimous.
0-1 AN ORDINANCE GRANTING A SPECIAL USE PERMIT FOR PROPERTY
LOCATED AT KUHN RD/SERVICE RD. PERMITTING A 125 FOOT MONOPOLE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS TOWER IN A 1-1 LIGHT INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT
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11 Mr.Michael Harris came before the council on behalf of J.B. Smiley the Chairperson for the
i j Memphis City Council,and a City Council Member and Smiley and Associates for the benefit of
SBA Corporation.Mr. Harris said the issue today was with the Special Use application filed by
Tillman Infrastructure seeking to build an additional cell tower.Mr.Harris said it is not rightly
sized,and it is not timely in the since that they have not done what needs to be done to meet the
' {{1 qualifications and pass the requirements under Arkansas law before building a tower.
'I Specifically,where co-location is a possibility.Mr.Harris said that is the priority and it must be
the priority when there is a cell provider that is looking to expand its coverage.In the
l' application it states that its primary lease tenant would be Verizon Wireless.The problem is that
I. in the application it does not mention that the tower that it references as the closest tower is less
than a mile away southwest of location where they are seeking to build the tower,they did not
. mention that Verizon Wireless is already co-located on that tower. SBA has been serving and
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1 providing cell tower support for Verizon Wireless since March of 2001,and has since then made
modifications over the years and made adjustments as technology has advanced and improved,
with the latest upgrade occurring in January of 2023,which included support for 5G coverage,
which is one of the suggested issues that they have made that the tower layout does not support
5G coverage,but when you look at the layout,Verizon Wireless has not expressed any concern
regarding a deficiency gap in coverage with SBA in terms of the cell tower that is serving the
Hi area.Mr.Harris said that alone establishes that a conversation about upgrades or co-locations
has not been had.He said an example of what could happen is the existing antenna,which is
4,1 currently at 120 feet can be adjusted to the height of 140 feet and there are additional
modifications that could made to further support Verizon's needs through the co-location effort,
which must be the priority to the extent that there is gap in coverage.The next problem with the
I' application is that there is no evidence to support that there is an actual gap in coverage from
Verizon Wireless. There was a report submitted but it was not from Verizon Wireless.Mr.
Harris said they have also not met all the technical standards.They have not provided
verification of a gap in service;no justification of specific information was provided to explain
1: the need to exceed the height requirement.Mr.Harris said they provided no justification for
I} trying to override the ordinance that was put in place to protect the aesthetics of the community
and to provide uniformity and limit the necessity of over saturating the community with cell
1 towers.Mr.Harris distributed a copy of a response from the Zoning Manager for SBA
Communications Corporation regarding the application to the mayor and council for them to
' review.The response provides information about propagation maps,an engineering report that
looks at what the coverage area is and establishes that minor upgrades could adequately service
the area and establishes that there is no clear gap in coverage.
Attorney Butler Bernard came before the council in support of the tower speaking on behalf of
; Tillman Enterprises Infrastructure to be established. The initial petition was put forth by
Tillman Enterprises.Mr.Greg Ferris was available to answer all the technical reasons why the
tower does meet all Federal and State guidelines and will provide additional and more
thorough coverage of the area. The location where they are proposing to put the tower is on
Interstate and I-40 headed west towards Little Rock pass the old visitor center pass the old
weigh station under the overpass.There are two old buildings on the right and farmland on the
left,it will be on the edge of the city limits.Mr.Ferris said the one issue today was can Verizon
Iuse the existing tower and why do they want to get off of it.Mr.Ferris said the information
provided by Mr.Harris is not accurate.He said you cannot just go up and get better coverage
i from a higher tower.Mr.Ferris passed out a diagram to the mayor and council.He said what
you will see is that 5G towers are now shorter than existing towers.He said what they are doing
is getting closer to where the market is.Mr.Ferris disputed the claim that Verizon did not
! provide any information,he said Verizon provided propagation maps that were done by the
Ark Engineer for Verizon.Mr.Ferris said that Verizon evaluated the existing coverage in the
i. region it shows where there is a lack in coverage.That is what they were required to present to
the Planning Commission and the Planning Commission decided that they had met the criteria
i and approved it.Mr. Ferris said the tower they are proposing is less than a mile away and now
they are talking about towers that need to be half a mile apart.He said SBA understands that
because they just negotiated their agreement with AT&T,they just have not done that with
Verizon yet.He said if this tower were half a mile away,they could not protest it,because their
:1 agreement says that they understand that they may need that extra coverage.Mr.Ferris said
people are demanding 5G coverage,which is a high-speed internet that will allow you to use
that coverage on your phone,computer,and other devices.Verizon has evaluated where there
l customers are and where there future customers are,and they did propagation maps and that is
what has been submitted to council.Mr.Ferris said that there is no reason for Verizon to move
other than they need more coverage.There being no further discussion.Mayor McClendon
asked if council had any questions at this time. Councilor Catt said that the ordinance was on its
first reading, and it was a lot of information that they would need time to digest,and the
decision would not be made for another 4 weeks.Mayor McClendon explained to Mr. Ferris
that council would have to read the ordinance 2 more time before they rendered a decision and
between that time if there was any further information regarding this matter that they wanted
to present to help council make an informed decision,he could provide it to them to review.Mr.
Ferris said he would send the mayor the information and more information from Verizon.
Councilor Catt said that information would be beneficial. Councilor Mohammed said she would
like to review the Planning Commission information,since it was not included in the packet.
(Agenda 1/18/24)
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PERMISSION REQUEST:PERMISSION TO ADD THE DISTRIBUTION OF CHARITY
DAY MONEY TO THE AGENDA
Councilor Mohammed made the motion,seconded by Councilor Catt to add the distribution of
Charity Day Funds to the agenda.Upon voice vote,voting was unanimous. Councilor
Mohammed would like to donate$1,000 dollars to Street Since organization. Councilor
Mohammed made the motion,seconded by Councilor Catt to approve. Upon voice vote,voting
was unanimous to approve.
COMMITTEE REPORTS: •
Mayor McClendon distributed the 2024 Committee appointments to the council. Councilor V
Mondy made the motion seconded by Councilor Murry to approve the appointments as
presented. Councilor Mohammed objected. Councilor Mohammed was appointed to the Utility
Commission but said because of the time that Utility Commission meets She would not be able
to attend due to a conflict with her job.Mayor McClendon asked for a roll call vote. City Clerk,
Patricia Joplin called the roll. The roll call vote was as follows: •
YES: Bruce,Catt,Croom,Harris,Holt,Hutchinson,Mondy,Murray,Wheeless
NO:Mohammed
ABSTAINED:None
ABSENT:None
With 9 Yes votes,1 No Vote,0 Abstention votes,0 Absent votes the motion passed.
Mayor McClendon asked if someone would be willing to change with Councilor Mohammed,
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Councilor Bruce was appointed to the Utility Commission and Councilor Mohammed will be
on the Parks Committee. V
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Councilor Croom made the motion,seconded by Councilor Catt to approve Councilor Bruce
being assigned to Utility Commission and Councilor Mohammed being assigned to the Parks
Committee.Upon voice vote,voting was unanimous. 1 V
APPOINTMENTS: NONE
ANNOUNCEMENTS: NONE
Mayor McClendon announced that the Rich Road Bridge is at 100%complete.He is waiting for
permission from the State to obtain the construction easement where they will not be taking
anyone's land,it will be given back once the bridge is completed. They have a meeting
scheduled for Monday January 8,2024,to discuss how to move forward and then they will bid
it out.
Mayor McClendon said he has signed the contract for the Animal Shelter and Adoption center.
They are working on the date for the groundbreaking,and they will let everyone know.
Southland will build the shelter and provide 2 buildings for office space.Animal Shelter
Director,Kerry Snead,has been working on the plans with Ladd and Associates and he has the ,
renderings available in his office if any council member would like to look at them. V
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Mayor McClendon announced that MATA is back in the works.They will meet with them to
arrange for the transportation vans to operate. The citizens will be able to call them and
schedule a pickup for transportation to doctor appointments and other transportation needs.
' •`'I that the cost to ride will be$2.00 and there will be 6 vans. City Attorney Stephenson said he has
the agreement to look at and they must look at the funding through A&P but that they will be
'1! moving forward.
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Mayor McClendon said the Martin Luther King Jr Revisiting the Dream community march will
be Monday January 15,2024.The march will start at Kroger Store parking lot and end at the
} MLK service Park located at 300 S Service Road.It will start at 10:00 a.m.
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, • II Mayor McClendon announced that the fees for certain businesses were increased,and they took
effect on January 2,2024.The fee changes were passed by ordinance and a public notice was
posted in the newspaper to inform the businesses of the fee increase.
Mayor McClendon announced that the new Sanitation pick up schedule will begin on Monday
January 8,2024.Ward 1 garbage and curbside trash will be picked up on Monday's,Ward 2 will
be picked up Tuesday,Ward 3 will be picked up on Wednesday,Ward 4 will be picked up
Thursday and Ward 5 will be picked up on Friday.He is asking that you have 4 feet distance
t, from the garbage cans and curbside to allow the grapple truck room to pick up the curbside
i.1 trash.Please put your garbage and trash out the evening before or before 6:00 a.m. and remove
the blue garbage cans from the front of your house and put them in the rear of your home by
7:00 p.m. If by chance you miss the trucks call the sanitation office and they will come back and
get it.He is asking for everyone's cooperation in helping to keep our neighborhoods clean and
looking better.
CITIZENS REQUEST:NONE.
Having no further business to come before the City Council,Councilor Croom made the
motion,seconded Councilor Mondy,to adjourn.Upon voice vote,the voting was unanimous.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:40 p.m.
PASSED and APPROVED this 18th day of January 2024.
MARCO IVICCLE NDON,MAYOR
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ATTEST: •
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PATRICIA JOPLIN,CITY CLERK
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Minutes prepared by,Patricia Lane,Sr.Deputy City Clerk
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