Caraway Mayor Bo James gave the floor to Jonathan Foutch who addressed the council at the March 14 meeting. Foutch presented a plan to place a mobile home behind his house that he presently lives in. He would like to tear the house down. As the discussion on the city ordinance outlining guidelines for mobile homes were being discussed, Foutch left the council meeting.
All city council members, Jeff Rea, Pete Hicks, Mitchell Tipton, Spencer foley, Jerry Martin and Chris Kelems were present.
Fire Chief Krey Jeffers and Assistant Chief Lane Sanders requested the purchase of needed equipment for the department.
The council voted unanimously to purchase a Lifepak 1000 AED Defibrillator unit at a cost of $2,547.35 with a new battery at a cost of $404.54. The total cost will be $2,951.89. The equipment will be paid for out of the Fire Department’s ACT 833 funds.
Councilman Kelems made a motion to purchase seven items to be used on the rescue boat to help improve with search and rescue operations. The items have a total cost of $3,71.05. The purchase will be paid out of the ACT 833 fire department funds. The motion was approved unanimously.
Mayor James and the council discussed a possible city ordinance governing the operation of ATV’s, UTV’s and golf carts on city streets. Councilman Hicks and Kelems agreed to meet with Police Chief Shannon Kelems to look into the possibility of finding guidelines that the council might consider for a city ordinance.
The council voted unanimously to help with half the cost to repair the roof at the old dress factory building now being leased by Emery Ag. The city’s help will be capped at $9,000. The funds will come from the Factory Maintenance building account-$272.28; the Industrial Development account-$1,474.08 with the balance coming from the city one cent sales tax account.
The Council approved the Arkansas Legislative audit from 2022.
The council voted 6-0 to transfer $10,000 from the city one cent sales tax account to the city water and sewer department account.
The council discussed continuing efforts to talk to the owners of the old nursing home building about its condition. It was also decided to lock the gates to the city burn pile area and have people come to city hall for admission for dumping items to burn.
Mayor James announced the annual city Easter Egg hunt will be held on Sat. March 30, at 1 p.m. and the city clean sweep on April 13-21.
The Caraway Council meets the second Thursday night of each month at 6 p.m.