The city board appointed nine individuals to a steering committee tasked with developing a conceptual design for the aesthetics of an area of the city referred to as the East Main Street Corridor.
This area is the section of Main Street located between Maxwell Street and Lincoln Street, and the idea to create a steering committee comprised of individuals from diverse backgrounds was conceived by city staff, according to a city staff report. Mayor John Mark Turner assisted city staff members with selecting the committee members, who will include:
• Ricardo Mortez, owner of La Pasadita, 803 E. Main St.
• Kameron Slater, vice president of strategy for Simmons Foods, 530 E. Main. St.
• Aldo Rossi, vice president of research and development for Cobb Vantress, 305 E. Main St.
• Phyllis Shoenberger, owner of Siloam Glass, 721 E. Main St.
• Tyler Carroll, owner of TC Screen Printing, 506 E. Main St.
• Sandra Rosales, owner of Latino Blankets, 200 S. Britt St.
• Carol Smiley, city board director, city of Siloam Springs.
• Kelsey Howard, executive director of Main Street Siloam Springs, 103 E. Alpine St.
• Don Clark, community development director, city of Siloam Springs.
Ward 4 Director Lesa Rissler suggested that Don Clark's place on the committee be filled instead by David Allen, who is a former Siloam Springs Mayor and board director, citing that his age and extensive experience living in, working for and being a part of the community might make him more qualified. Aside from this, there were few objections and the appointments were unanimously approved as listed.
Committee members will work alongside city staff throughout what will likely be a lengthy process to exchange and receive ideas and feedback relating to a range of possibilities for the street, such as new infrastructure projects or traffic signage. In an effort to get the public's input there will also be four days of public workshops and a public open house.
The dates for these events have not yet been announced, City Administrator Phillip Patterson said. Once a conceptual design is established using combined input from the committee and the public, it will be presented to the board for their consideration, according to a city staff report.
Another item on the night's agenda was the consideration of an ordinance that would rezone a 10.02 acre property located at 801 E. Lake Francis Drive from R-2 (residential, single-family) to R-4 (residential, multi-family). This item received unanimous approval from the planning and zoning commission during their Jan. 8 meeting, despite considerable opposition expressed from residents living nearby.
Many public comments in opposition of the project during Tuesday's meeting were similar in nature to the comments made during the planning commission meeting, ranging from concerns of increased traffic with roads that are unable to sustain that increase to potential noise problems.
Ward 3 Director, Marla Sappington, said that she often sees kids walking in spaces such as ditches due to a lack of sidewalks in this area, to get to the park or elsewhere. For that reason, she said that the prospect of bringing in this many housing units is concerning for safety reasons because it will only increase the number of kids traveling in these same areas. She also questioned whether the width of the proposed development would allow for the street to be widened.
Despite this, the board unanimously approved the item and placed the ordinance on its first reading, suspending the rules and reading by title only. It will be read for the second time during the board's next meeting.
In other business, the board took the following actions.
• Unanimously approved the renewal of a two-year lease agreement with Siloam Springs Youth Baseball, which operates on city-owned property.
• Unanimously approved one-year contracts with four different companies authorizing them as the chemical suppliers for the water and wastewater division of the public works department.
• Unanimously approved the adoption of an ordinance that will vacate two right-of-ways located on a property on the 100 Block of North Country Club Road.
• Unanimously approved an ordinance that will allow Ward 4 Director Lesa Rissler to conduct business with the city, as the company she works for, Crafton, Tull & Associates Inc., recently got a $128,570 contract approved with the city for street design improvements for the section of East Main Street between Maxwell Street and Lincoln Street. This was needed to avoid a potential conflict of interest and Rissler will be limited a number of ways in terms of her ability to participate in certain matters related to the proposal.
The next city board meeting will be held at City Hall at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 5. For those who cannot attend, a video recording of the meeting will be uploaded to siloamsprings.com.
General News on 01/20/2019