[{"EventItemId":84522,"EventItemGuid":"8A10C0DC-22AA-49ED-AAE6-1E7AD15746B5","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-22T15:55:15.353","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADV0oQ=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":1,"EventItemMinutesSequence":1,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"1.","EventItemVideo":221368,"EventItemVideoIndex":2,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"Call to Order","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":84523,"EventItemGuid":"20279383-D4F7-4AC6-9EF7-A5D916FCDAB4","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-22T13:12:21.84","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADVvKI=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":4,"EventItemMinutesSequence":4,"EventItemAgendaNumber":null,"EventItemVideo":221371,"EventItemVideoIndex":null,"EventItemVersion":"1","EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":369,"EventItemActionName":"Passed","EventItemActionText":"A motion was made by John Street, seconded by Chris Gibson, that this matter be Passed . The motion PASSED with the following vote.","EventItemPassedFlag":1,"EventItemPassedFlagName":"Pass","EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"MINUTES FOR THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS BOND TASK FORCE MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2025","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":164,"EventItemMover":"John Street","EventItemSeconderId":427,"EventItemSeconder":"Chris Gibson","EventItemMatterId":25662,"EventItemMatterGuid":"EE59C961-A6F4-4474-A00E-4A42CD5AD8FE","EventItemMatterFile":"MIN-25:087","EventItemMatterName":"MINUTES FOR THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS BOND TASK FORCE MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2025","EventItemMatterType":"Minutes","EventItemMatterStatus":"Passed","EventItemMatterAttachments":[{"MatterAttachmentId":43252,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"7B744C90-494A-479C-90C7-17202BF3B122","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-03T20:37:10.757","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVaqs=","MatterAttachmentName":"Capital Improvements Bond Task Force Minutes 09302025.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/b9862c20-e4a2-4c89-8f77-691c20670849.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"b9862c20-e4a2-4c89-8f77-691c20670849.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648}]},{"EventItemId":84524,"EventItemGuid":"D1D66DB7-A6A7-4E56-BB16-83DBDA176728","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-23T21:40:40.183","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADV1ck=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":7,"EventItemMinutesSequence":6,"EventItemAgendaNumber":null,"EventItemVideo":221375,"EventItemVideoIndex":null,"EventItemVersion":"1","EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":"Chairman Brian Emison said, Good afternoon, everybody. I do show 4 o'clock, so we're going to go ahead and call to order the Capital Improvement Bond Task Force meeting of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas. We were going to begin with public comments, but we're going to be moving that to a little bit later, just because we do have some discussion to go through today. And first, I do want to go ahead, and I do want to read a letter that's been prepared on behalf of the Mayor today that he's submitted since he is out of town. So it says, and I quote, first off, on behalf of the city administration, I want to thank each council member on this task for taking time to discuss these options for the Real Time Crime Center, E-911 Center. I appreciate each of your attention to the facts and want the public to respect that your decisions are based on what you feel is in the best interest of our city. During the bond process, it was clear that further discussion on these options were needed, and this task force was created to ensure those discussions were had in total transparency and honesty. I can't think of any more transparent way than to talk about this in a public forum with factual information. From the inception of the task force, I've stated I will support whatever recommendation is made. I instructed city staff to provide information requested by the task force such as development cost estimates, property offer paperwork, and economic impact analysis by the city's selected master growth planning firm and other various items so members could make an informed decision. All of which is available on Legistar or has been discussed in the meetings for the public to review for themselves instead of taking a second or third hand opinion, which may not be accurate or worse intentionally biased. For those in the public who do not know it is the Mayor's duty to receive offers, negotiate offers, and then present offers or contracts to the city council that merit their discussion. After talks with police and 911 leadership, the initial thought process was since the current police station property on Caraway can't be sold due to deed restrictions that locating the 911 Real-Time Crime Center with police administration and CID would allow them more efficient access and eventually phase two would include construction of a patrol building and the additional Caraway property if purchased. Ultimately, this would lead to the selling of the Washington property, offsetting new property costs or possibly turning it into a net positive from a financial standpoint after the property sale. If the Washington property is selected, we will work to create a construction plan that creates the least disruption possible for the current operations. Just be clear on a couple of items that may or may not be relevant to this task force, but have been stated by some residents in one form or another, and the public deserves clarity on. One, bond funding can only be used to purchase property. What was said multiple times during the bonding process was that a bond ordinance does not authorize the purchase of property. A property purchase still requires a separate resolution to approve a land purchase agreement. Paul Phillips, with Crews & Associates, was contacted this afternoon just to triple check on this item. Number two, I've seen statements that a possible children's museum would somehow be a city project that we would spend taxpayer money on. It would not be. Representatives of the museum efforts simply stated that they were interested in the property. Three, some had stated the cost of the Parker property is overpriced. I believe the average is about $13 a square foot, which is in line with the appraisal of the city ordered property. If you figure in half the cost of the road and utilities, it's more like $16 a square foot. Just to provide comparison, recent appraisals on the city owned C-3 portion of the property on Johnson were roughly $4 to $5 a square foot. A recent appraisal on the tower portion of the Citizens Bank property was roughly $70 a square foot. Obviously, both of those are notably different situations and downtown property will bring a premium, but it's probably a fair assumption that the property falls somewhere between those two land values. There have been statements that it should be priced at what the recent mall property auction was. That was a private auction with multiple other factors that make it unique and is not an accurate comparison. Number four, a lot of the initial stipulations requested by the seller were removed. I do think we are down to the bare minimums the seller will accept. So the latest offer that includes a shared road and utilities that has been shared and placed on Legistar is likely what would be presented to council. These requests are not secret or hidden. They are listed in the offer, and it is up to council on if those will be considerations that are worthwhile. Now, on to the Washington property. One, any new building foundations can be built up enough to avoid flooding concerns. Cost estimates were based on elevating the building pad several feet to avoid water getting into the building. During high water events that shut down Washington, the Monroe entrance would be passable. Number two, estimates were prepared based off city code, which requires that any new construction not increased flooding. Site plans created meet those requirements. We would not require that a developer correct larger drainage issues in that area. So it would have been unfair to inflate development figures to address those issues. Three, at either location, the current Justice Complex will have to remain intact until the new E-911 Center is ready for occupation to ensure continuity of emergency services. And finally, during all these discussions, it is important to not lose sight of the fact that this is a good problem to have. We are debating about where to physically place an expanded center and add more life saving personnel to our great E-911 Department and create a permanent home for a Real Time Crime Center that has proven its effectiveness over the last couple of years. Jonesboro's growth is why this is necessary. There are countless communities across the country experiencing population exodus that would love to need a critical investment like this. Wherever you choose to locate this center, it will make Jonesboro safer and city administration is proud to quickly move to construction planning once that decision is made. That's all the all the statements from Mayor, and if anybody has any questions about the items contained there in, I believe that Mr. Richardson is prepared to answer any questions that may come up from those statements. \r\n\r\nCouncilmember Chris Moore said, Mr. Chair, I will argue on behalf of the Washington property and Mr. Street or somebody else can argue on behalf of the Caraway Road property, but before we can do that, our rules require a motion and a second before we can have discussions, so I'll make a motion that we select the Washington Street property. Councilmember Chris Gibson said, I'll second that. Councilmember Moore continued, with a motion and a second on the floor, I'll begin the discussions. I would like to start with just a couple of indisputable facts. I'll keep my comments short, I think we've been over most of this. Both of these properties, Mr. Chair, will receive the exact same building, the exact same facilities, Caraway Road and Washington both. Washington Street, phase one, and phase two, will be coordinated construction wise, just like Caraway Road, phase one, and phase two. Washington Street phase one can be completed without any disruption of city employees. We will be building on the corner of Monroe and Madison. Current city employees in the E-911 will be able to occupy their building until construction is finished and then will be able to move over to the new facility, and then demolition can proceed on the Justice Complex and the 314. Another undisputable fact is the city owns the Washington property, clear and outright, and we'll have to purchase the Caraway Road property. Why there were several pros that I saw of selecting the Washington Street property, I’ll keep the list down to just four or five. The most glaring is that the cost savings. Phase one of the Washington Street property will save the taxpayers $654,000. And, by the time we complete phase two, the savings will surpass over a million. It's actually estimated by the city engineer to be $1,034,000. This alone would be enough for me to vote for the Washington Street property. It’s a million plus dollars in savings that can go back into the police department to find officers and equipment. The second reason is the increased presence in the Downtown Entertainment District for festivals, events, the barbecue cookoff, Winter Wonderland, Joy Fest, Christmas Parade, you will literally be able to look out of the window from Washington and see our parking lots for the barbecue festival, Winterfest, Main Street, and a variety of other properties. The third is strictly convenience, convenience for the police department, the city attorney, and the public. They will all have police, E-911, the court system, literally in the same building and directly across the street. It's also worth noting that this facility is less than four blocks. So the public would be able to park in one of the parking lots and should be able to go to the police, city attorney, the court system, the Mayor's office, or any of our facilities on a short walk. Item four, and I just discussed this with Mr. Street, it's not Washington and Caraway is abandoned. The plan would be to construct our new building on Washington while maintaining the motor pool at the current Caraway Road location. I see that as being a great asset. In the event of the natural disaster, we won't have all of our assets or our patrol vehicles in one place. We would think maybe that wouldn't happen, but look at us now. Our building is destroyed. We're spread out around the city. Just recently as two years ago, the Postal Service lost all their vehicles at their main location due to a natural disaster. So having facilities on both sides of the ridge, I think, is just a huge benefit. The next one would be stability of having government buildings in the downtown. So I've been on the council for 26 years. Our goal in the entire 26 years is the redevelopment of the downtown area. When I was first on the council, I had a guy offer me my choice of 11 buildings on Main Street for $6,000 apiece. Edwina Aycock and I got an argument over one of them because she didn't want to pay $6,500. Look at downtown now. One of the things that I credit that to originally we met at 314 Washington, and then we moved across the street to the bank building, and then good fortune and Mark Duckworth, we were able to acquire this building. We remodeled this building. The county judge made a commitment to stay in the courthouse and not turn it into a museum and move off and build a new courthouse. He's now putting an addition on the back. We have the federal building. When I looked this morning, there's over 25 lawyers who are right here within four blocks. This is downtown, one of the stable influences keeping our government buildings down here. Like Bob Hester always says, some of the restaurants on Main Street with liquor come and go, they're in and out, but the government buildings are here for the long run. And I'd like to thank the judge for the decision over here. I notice he's bought the next two lots behind. He's not going anywhere. One of the things we also overlook, there's some discussion about if we build on Caraway Road, we could then sell to our property on Washington and maybe or maybe not recoop part of our money. We need the parking lot on Washington. If you came to the barbecue cookoff a couple of weeks ago, barbecue trailers were all the way down Monroe and around the corner on the parking lot. We have numerous festivals. During Winter Wonderland when we close the parking lot on Monroe, the default parking is over there. By maintaining our buildings and developing that parking lot will continue to have access for the public to have festivals and other events. The city attorney would probably have to address my next item because you alluded to it, but it's my understanding that we cannot take the proceeds of the bond and purchase the Caraway Road property right out. Now, I’ll default, if the mayor says we can, but the city attorney at one time said we couldn't. So I' I'll concede that point if there is a point. The other advantage, if we build on Caraway Road, we still have two buildings down here and a drainage issue that'll have to be addressed. The best estimates by the city engineer, it would be over $700,000 to tear down the two buildings, remove the asbestos and address drainage issues down here. That number was included in the project cost for Washington and we were still a million dollars cheaper. The last reason and I'll sum this up. We can debate the figures or whatever somebody wants to do. The last is just public confidence. We have the first phase funded with the bond initiative. It's $10 million to build  the E-911 building. The next phase costs $20 million, and that's the new police department. Now, somewhere, funding has to come up with that. I'm not a big tax and spend guy, but eventually, we're even going to have to have a public safety tax, or we're going to have to have some kind of fundraising to pay for that building. What do you think the odds are that the public's going to back us and support us on that endeavor if they don't feel like we use the first million dollars in their best interests? So the last point that I think is priceless is just purely the reassurance of the public that we're spending their money in the best and most appropriate way. And with that I'll yield the floor. \r\n\r\nChairman Emison said, thank you for your comments Councilman Moore. The item that you had questioned there, Ms. Duncan or Mr. Richardson, would y’all like to speak about the bond funding, being able to be used for the purchase of property. City Attorney Carol Duncan responded, I will say, Mr. Moore I don't remember saying that. I remember saying that the bond ordinance did not authorize the purchase of the property, that that would have to be authorized separately, but I don't remember saying that the funding couldn’t be spent on it. Councilmember Moore said, maybe that was it. If the bond did not authorize to purchase it, then we would have to do something different. I’ll concede that point. Ms. Duncan replied, no, that's not what I said that time either. Chief Administration Officer Brian Richardson said, just for clarity, I talked to Paul Phillips with Crews & Associates earlier today to double and triple make sure that, you know, the bond ordinance creates a revenue stream that you can draw from. At any time that the council approves a contract for, like, a land purchase or anything like that, that's a separate purchasing resolution, not a legally bound ordinance. So I think that's where the concept of that comes from, that you know, the passage of the bond, because there was some concern about that, if you remember during the discussions that passage of a bond ordinance meant that you were locked into buying this property and you're not. Any property acquisition is a resolution to  city council, a separate legislative action altogether. Ms. Duncan replied, but you can purchase property with the bond proceeds. Mr. Richardson said, correct. Councilmember Moore said, and I will concede that point. I mean, it's just an argument of are we paying for it out of this fund or  are we paying for it out of that fund, so it really has no bearing on that. So, I will concede to whatever the city attorney's opinion is. Chairman Emison said, thank you everybody. Do I have anybody that like to make any comments regarding you care about road property? Mr. Street? \r\n\r\nCouncilmember John Street said, well, I mean, I’ll agree with what Chris said, and really, I agree with what the Mayor said, we're blessed either way we go. I think we all want the same thing. We want a dependable and functional public safety department. We want one that will serve the citizens of Jonesboro. We want it as cheap as we can get it, but cheapest isn’t always best, but my major concern on the downtown site was the drainage issue, which back 20 years ago, when we addressed a lot of the drainage problems, it was a little over $3 million to address that one issue right there. Now, if Craig's confident that we can do that for the amount that he had there and we are required to build up, I think, two feet now above base floodplain elevation. So I don't think the building would be, you know, flooded, but access to the building could be flooded if we don't address that in some manner. As we've talked earlier, I would hate to see us, I don't think it would be prudent for us to walk away from our property on Caraway Road because we've got a couple million invested in that as well. That's also taxpayer money. It's true we do own this property down here, and if it's functionally usable, my main concern, too, was having a consolidated department. We've worked very hard, and you know, Chris, since we've been on here, we've put almost all our city departments together, where it's functional. Like this building, where while our departments are here instead of being scattered all over town, but some of the great benefits of that is the centralized location fosters better communication among officers and departments. It reduces delays ensuring information leading to more efficient response times, wherever it's at. Shared resources such as technology and facilities lowers operational costs. Streamlined administrative functions reduce redundancy. You have enhanced collaboration. Officers from different units can collaborate more easily on cases. Interdepartmental teamwork improves problem solving and strategy development. A single location for all of our department enhances community engagement and visibility, which again either side, I think, would work for that. It's easier for the public to access services and report issues. Training and development, a big one, a centralized command structure improves coordination during emergencies as we experienced with the tornado and other issues if we have a major earthquake or something. It provides faster mobilization of resources and personnel in critical situations and facilities, unified training and operational procedures, enhancing overall effectiveness, and eliminates travel time between two locations. Now, if our CID, or E-911, or Real Time Crime Center and all that's down here, that'll eliminate the travel back and forth and it will produce all of these things that I'd like to see in the unified department. If it's possible that we can do that, hey, that would work great. I'd like to see our department in one spot either way, all of it. CID, patrol, the Real Time Crime Center, E-911 because those agencies need to work together to be a functional and dependable public safety unit. So that's my main concern on that, I mean, either way, we're going to make it work no matter what, but if we do decide on the Washington's property, I'd like to see the majority of department function together, the Real Time Crime Center, E-911, CID and patrol, all in one facility. And the only other thing that we wouldn't have quite as much room to expand, of course, that can be factored in, I guess, in the initial construction, but I hate to see us build it out, and then have no room to expand as, you know, future demands would cause the department to grow. Councilmember Moore said, as I stated before, the building construction, Mr. Street, will be exactly the same. The same facility would be built on Caraway, as would be built downtown, and under no circumstances, with the selection of Washington include the elimination of the Caraway property. We would have them both just as we have them both right now. And I'm with you. Consolidation of services in one building, benefits the police, but it also benefits the public being right down here in the downtown area. \r\n\r\nChairman Emison asked, Mr. Street, was there a question in there for asking Mr. Light about the drainage for the downtown property? Councilmember Street asked, is Craig here? Chairman Emison said, Craig, would you mind to speak to that? Councilmember Street said, what did you say about $300,000 for drainage? Is that realistic Craig? Chairman Emison said, my piece of paper showed $350,000 for drainage improvements. Is that correct? Engineering Director Craig Light said, the money that was included in the estimate is a simply what we would require of any developer to develop that property. It’s not to fix the overall drainage of that drainage basin. The estimated cost from that was almost $3 million. I think Councilman Moore mentioned that we didn’t include that in the estimate because if we sold the property to a developer, they would not be required to fix the drainage in the entire basin. All they would have to do is manage the water on their site. We included some work to ensure that what we did on the property wouldn't make things worse. Councilmember Street said, but we'd still have the, you know, an event, a rain event, we'd still have water build up on Washington in front of where it builds up now. Mr. Light replied, that is quite possible. What we included was a triple run of 42 inch pipe underneath the parking lot to provide some additional storage. We'd also provide more green space in the overall development. So right now, it's currently asphalt and concrete. So you would have more grass, more trees, and hopefully less runoff. That's what we would require of other private developers as well for a redevelopment project. That is what was included in the cost estimate, not the total fix for the drainage basin. Councilmember Moore said, what's interesting to note Mr. Street is where the problem is with the drainage right now, is actually where the end of the fire station was and that will not be where the new building is. So the drainage right there on that spot that Craig's eluding to with the 42 inch arch pipe to help address that, that's not where the building will be. The building will sit back and back off to the east a little bit. We have plenty of room right there for drainage. And I had to think this morning, I think I've lived in my house for 31 years on Madison. I don't think it's ever been where I couldn't pass on Washington and I've seen water out to the center line, and I saw the bay of the fire department one time flooded, but that building would be removed. So that in itself will be a huge benefit. Chairman Emison asked, does anybody have any more questions, Mr. Light? Councilmember Chris Gibson said, I don't have any questions. I just want to make one comment. I'm glad we're finally to this point. When I ran my first time in 2008. This is one of the platforms that I ran on is to get public safety, you know, a new home. E-911 is really operating out of an inadequate facility at this point. They were at that time and I'm glad we'll finally get this across the goal line. Chairman Emison said, thank you. Anybody else from the committee have any statements, any questions for the administration? I would say that's going to bring us to the next item on our agenda, being public comment. At this time, this is an opportunity for anybody from the public to address the committee with any questions or concerns, and just remind everybody that we do have a time limit on today's discussions. We're going to be setting that time limit of five minutes on the clock, and just remind everybody that there's a lot of people here with I'm sure a lot of things to say. So if you do hear one of your points being made beforehand, just if you don't mind, just be respectful of everybody's time, but of course, if you're something new to say, please feel free to come up before the mic and address the Committee. And at this time, we will, accept anybody that wants to come up to talk today. \r\n\r\nAFTER PUBLIC DISCUSSION:\r\nCouncilmember Chris Moore said, Mr. Chair, we have a motion and a second on the floor. I ask you to call the roll. Chairman Brian Emison said, and just to reiterate that motion and second, it is for the Washington Street property. So, voting in favor of this will be voting in favor of the E-911 Real Time Crime Center going on the Washington property. Councilmember Moore replied, that is correct. City Clerk April Leggett called the roll: Councilmember Joe Hafner-Yea; Councilmember John Street-Yea; Councilmember Chris Gibson-Yea; Councilmember Chris Moore-Yea; Chairman Brian Emison recused himself because there was no tie to break. The motion to recommend the Washington Street property for the new E-911 Center and Real Time Crime Center to the full City Council passes. \r\n","EventItemActionId":410,"EventItemActionName":"Filed","EventItemActionText":"Filed","EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"ONGOING DISCUSSIONS FOR THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS BOND TASK FORCE","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":25695,"EventItemMatterGuid":"CF74CEA2-2188-4A9D-B5CE-B91097E1FE0A","EventItemMatterFile":"COM-25:043","EventItemMatterName":"ONGOING DISCUSSIONS FOR THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS BOND TASK FORCE","EventItemMatterType":"Other Communications","EventItemMatterStatus":"Passed","EventItemMatterAttachments":[{"MatterAttachmentId":43339,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"FB048751-ED6A-44AB-9F96-BC7370ACEE49","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-15T17:03:30.32","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVqUA=","MatterAttachmentName":"Caraway Road Site Option.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/60c08a6a-27ef-4896-849b-c1302705ce81.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"60c08a6a-27ef-4896-849b-c1302705ce81.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648},{"MatterAttachmentId":43340,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"5625E109-3BF1-4C32-8C4D-419A2DF4CE0C","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-15T17:03:30.717","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVqUk=","MatterAttachmentName":"DPZ Analysis.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/ec7a04aa-d8e3-425e-9105-e7515caf6288.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"ec7a04aa-d8e3-425e-9105-e7515caf6288.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648},{"MatterAttachmentId":43341,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"E9069180-6EB7-4563-880F-2951E5E7A024","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-15T17:03:31.053","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVqVI=","MatterAttachmentName":"Engineer Cost Estimate for Caraway Site.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/c0f360ef-b245-4979-a87f-91566d651766.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"c0f360ef-b245-4979-a87f-91566d651766.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648},{"MatterAttachmentId":43342,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"EF0DCF4C-AA18-465B-BD70-5A70A7BF9CB3","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-15T17:03:31.497","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVqVs=","MatterAttachmentName":"Engineer Cost Estimate for Washington Site.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/5ff72fdf-f80b-45a4-a934-a67ff49f175a.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"5ff72fdf-f80b-45a4-a934-a67ff49f175a.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648},{"MatterAttachmentId":43343,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"C86BA5DF-BBF7-4270-90C1-0505A1B8AA50","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-15T17:03:31.947","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVqWQ=","MatterAttachmentName":"Most Recent Caraway Road Offer Received.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/09c4317e-25f3-4de0-ad67-5ca37ea17574.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"09c4317e-25f3-4de0-ad67-5ca37ea17574.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648},{"MatterAttachmentId":43344,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"B2B45073-71FB-47CB-B671-50AAC5822F43","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-15T17:03:32.243","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVqYU=","MatterAttachmentName":"Parker Real Estate Letter.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/d1149d5f-570a-4406-90e9-bcf774564851.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"d1149d5f-570a-4406-90e9-bcf774564851.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648},{"MatterAttachmentId":43345,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"994B0896-44ED-405C-8A80-6C0B5115A1DB","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-15T17:03:32.533","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADVqWo=","MatterAttachmentName":"Washington Ave Site Option.pdf","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/28bf4b2d-7b7f-4fb7-8564-7e1aeb1f9237.pdf","MatterAttachmentFileName":"28bf4b2d-7b7f-4fb7-8564-7e1aeb1f9237.pdf","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648}]},{"EventItemId":84525,"EventItemGuid":"1E13A43E-0CC4-4042-978D-155ED04CA845","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-22T13:11:48.713","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADVvJE=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":2,"EventItemMinutesSequence":2,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"2.","EventItemVideo":221369,"EventItemVideoIndex":12,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":1,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"Roll Call by City Clerk","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":84526,"EventItemGuid":"0E25ABDF-B7D7-4B20-9DAC-2989A323C5C9","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-22T13:11:12.177","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADVvEA=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":3,"EventItemMinutesSequence":3,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"3.","EventItemVideo":221370,"EventItemVideoIndex":28,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"Approval of Minutes","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":84528,"EventItemGuid":"BD892AC3-6C3B-4A82-8A01-FCA3EF704CD0","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-23T18:35:33","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADV07Y=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":6,"EventItemMinutesSequence":5,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"4.","EventItemVideo":221374,"EventItemVideoIndex":54,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"Pending Items","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":84531,"EventItemGuid":"911423C2-9149-4A47-B924-77E3746CA819","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-22T13:13:08.17","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADVvNU=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":8,"EventItemMinutesSequence":8,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"6.","EventItemVideo":221383,"EventItemVideoIndex":3618,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":377,"EventItemActionName":"Adjourned","EventItemActionText":"A motion was made by Joe Hafner, seconded by Chris Moore, that this meeting be Adjourned. The motion PASSED with the following vote.","EventItemPassedFlag":1,"EventItemPassedFlagName":"Pass","EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"Adjournment","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":559,"EventItemMover":"Joe Hafner","EventItemSeconderId":161,"EventItemSeconder":"Chris Moore","EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":84533,"EventItemGuid":"A766EF01-CA3D-4FDD-8B0D-EC567585B583","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2025-10-23T21:39:35.757","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADV1bk=","EventItemEventId":3850,"EventItemAgendaSequence":5,"EventItemMinutesSequence":7,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"5.","EventItemVideo":221373,"EventItemVideoIndex":1572,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":"Shellie Marquis, 5300 Prospect Road, said, I have a question for you on the committee. How many of you have actually done research into a Real Time Crime Center? Did you go visit a Real Time Crime Center? Did you talk to people who have developed Real Time Crime Centers and have you asked them what worked and what hasn't worked in their crime centers? Councilmember Moore asked, is that a direct question to us that you want an answer? Ms. Marquis said, yeah, I'd like to know what kind of due diligence you guys put into doing investigation? Because what I hear is I hear a lot of talk about location. I hear a lot of talk about money and it seems like money is overshadowing what's going to go on inside this building, right? We're going to get the same building regardless of where it goes. But have you talked, did you guys do your due diligence and did you reach out and did you go visit real time crime centers? Have you talked to them about what works and what doesn't work? Because I think we're missing that big section of the functionality in the future of this. I mean, you guys are making a decision on a once in a generational lifetime right now. We're not going to get another Real Time Crime Center in this town or another police department when any of us are probably alive. So did you guys do that? Councilmember Moore replied, okay, so the answer to your question is the Mayor formed this task force to address the location? There's an architect and another group that will decide all that information. We're simply tasked with picking between A and B. We have no other. Ms. Marquis asked, so how do you pick between A and B when you don't understand what's going to go on inside? Councilmember Moore replied, that's exactly what we picked between A and B and some other group decides what goes on inside. We simply pick the location another group will design the building and evaluate the needs. Ms. Marquis said, I'm not talking about the design. I'm talking about the work that they're going to do. Councilmember Moore replied, we are not tasked with selecting that. We're tasked with only selecting the location. Ms. Marquis asked, so how do you pick? So I'm going to say again, how do you pick a location that is going to house the Real Time Crime Center? It is going to house the 911 and it's going to house our police department. So how do you pick a location without taking what is needed for that to function properly into consideration? Councilmember Moore replied, this is just like you said, we base that on location and fiscal responsibility. We decide which one would be in the best interest of the people and which one would be the most cost effective. An architect and another group of experts will design the building, evaluate the needs of the E-911. I'm not qualified to tell you how many screens need to be in there, or what kind of connections you have. That's not our job. We're simply selecting between two pieces of land. Ms. Marquis said, and the two pieces of land have a direct impact on how that facility is going to run in the future. While I appreciate those of you who are on city council. I appreciate what you do for the city. I see the same situation occur over and over and over again in that you choose to take this position and you choose to not do your due diligence on things. You vote blindly on things or you vote on things simply based on a dollar amount. You've got to do better for our city. You've got to be making informed decisions. What is going to happen inside this building you think has no difference, whether it sits on Caraway or sits on Washington? And that tells me this committee shouldn't be making that decision. Councilmember Joe Hafner said, if I may say something, I think it's been said several times during this task force committee that the same building is going to be built in either location. Ms. Marquis replied, it's not the actual building I'm talking about. I'm talking about what's going to be going on inside of that building. Councilmember Hafner replied, that's not part of what we were tasked with doing. Ms. Marquis said, but what decision you make impacts whether that's successful or not? And I've heard over and over again, people dismiss the things that Chief Elliot and members of his team have said, and it strictly is coming down to the money, and you guys have to realize that, yes, is the money important as a citizen who pays a lot of taxes to this city? Do I care about how you spend my money? Yes, but I also think that if you're going to be responsible to select a piece of property that has this specific intention, right? There's only one intention for this property, right? Wherever the building goes, it's going to house the 911 Center, the Real Time Crime Center, and all of the things law enforcement. I think you need to do your due diligence before you make that decision, and I don't think this committee has done that. Councilmember Chris Gibson replied, so these two pieces of property are less than half a mile apart. Ms. Marquis said, okay. Councilmember Gibson said, tell me what's your point is here, because the same thing is going to be housed within both facilities. Ms. Marquis said, correct. Councilmember Gibson replied, response time is going to be very similar. Ms. Marquis said, no, it won't be. Have you been down here at 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon? Councilmember Gibson said, every afternoon. Ms. Marquis said, we have one way streets. We have narrow streets. We don't have direct on ramp off ramp access. I mean, it's congested down here. Councilmember Gibson replied, ingress/egress  to the other intersection is congested as well. Ms. Marquis replied, not like it is down here. It's not. I mean, I can get from Hilltop to…Chairman Emison interrupted to say, okay, I’m sorry ma’am, time’s up. Thank you. Ms. Marquis said, yeah, my time's up, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Chairman Emison said, yes, ma'am. Thank you. \r\n\r\nMelissa Baldwin, 927 W. Matthews said, I’m going to take this down a notch. This is out of my wheelhouse. I don't like to speak up here. I like to work behind the scenes, but when I feel passionate about something, I'll get up here. I'll do it. Okay, this weekend, I was fortunate enough to have my very best friend from Tulsa come and visit, and Tulsa does everything first class. They really do. And she and her husband came, and when we went downtown for dinner, and as we were going downtown from my house on Matthews, up Washington to get downtown, she said, \"This is just a charming little town.\" She said, \"I would not mind living here.\" We got down here and she said, \"This is adorable.\" She said, \"I just love it here.\" And I said, \"Well, it is nice.\" And I started thinking about the last time she was here, which was in 1970, how far we have come.\" And I thought, \"It is charming, it is nice.\" And then I started thinking after she left, and I started thinking about some of the things, and this has been on my mind before that. But I thought, we hired a team of individuals to come in and look at our city for city growth. We paid them. I don't know if we paid them. I don't know what the funding was, $855,000. DEZ. And they came up with some fantastic ideas for our city growth. And we're doing a lot of them. We're doing a lot of them, our walkability, bike ability, green space. They had great ideas, and if you’ve ever seen any of their work, it's wonderful. The compounded Hendrix are gorgeous. They are doing work in Northwest Arkansas right now. But the last thing I remember them saying was invest in your downtown. It will pay you back in dividends. And if we, as a city cannot invest in our downtown, how can we expect other people to invest in our downtown? That's all I've got to say. Thank you, all. Chairman Emison said, thank you ma'am. \r\n\r\nLaura Sustich, 905 Heritage Cove, said, my question is, we've talked about fixing the drainage maybe being $3 million downtown. And I look at how much money went into the Justice Center, that's now continually needing upgrades and things. Why do we not invest in the Caraway property and do it right and not worry about the flood plain and all of these other issues. That’s all I had to say. Chairman Emison said, thank you ma’am. \r\n\r\nPatti Lack, 4108 Forest Hill Road, and first, I am going to speak for Iris Stevens. She, unfortunately, couldn’t be here today, but she sent me what she wanted me to speak to you about. And she said, after reading everything written about the issues, watching the meetings, and talking to other people, it looks like the most rational, most logical, and best choice for everyone concerned is the downtown area, and choosing the Washington Avenue location. It seems definitely to be the most financially conservative choice and the most responsible one for the taxpayers. All of the above are the duties responsibilities that all of you have as council people to consider when making a decision for the citizens that elected all of you. And that was from Iris Stevens. My spot is that I'm surprised that the Mayor isn't here today. It's kind of interesting. But I'm going to reiterate what I wrote to a lot of you yesterday and saying that I hope you take your business knowledge and all your years of experience up here on the council seat representing the citizens of Jonesboro to select the best choice for the E-911 Center. With choosing the Washington Center, we get the E-911 Center, as we would on Caraway, and that is your only decision what location. It's the same building. The city, would it be investing in the downtown area, just like Missy just said, and we'll have two police locations just in case there's a natural disaster, just like Mr. Moore said. That's important, because we never know when that's going to happen. We can use a $1.5 million dollars whether it's from the capital improvement fund that we have or from the bond task force. If we use the money from the bond task force, that means we only have $4 million to build the building. If we use it to purchase the land from Matt Parker. If we use the $1.5 million that we would have extra, then we can apply those funds to complete and finish the Washington Avenue location because of that $5.5 million that was given to us on July 22nd is that we will only have $4 million to work on the Caraway building. The other day in the newspaper, it says, \"Parker defends the Caraway Road Offer. When I read that, I thought, \"Why does Mr. Parker trying to defend us, the city from purchasing his land? Why wasn't it Chief Elliot or the Mayor defends that? One thing I'm upset about is how come we don't have a headline here on the top page saying that citizens defend the Washington location because the citizen own that property. Why weren’t we given the same opportunity? I shared with you in the paper or in an email yesterday that the letter from Matt Parker to me and to many others show a sign of desperation and entitlement that the City of Jonesboro and the citizens, owe us to buy his property. That property has been for sale for decades and has been seven years that Mr. Parker has been trying to get the city to purchase that land. And let me remind you that Citizen Copenhaver opposed that from being developed in 2019. So it's been a long time. So you ask yourself, why has this prime property not been sold? Or bought by someone else? Well, yeah, you can look at the estimates, and maybe like the blue wave car wash down the street. Well, guess what? That's a better location than a dead end street here on Caraway right now. So we have not seen the final contract on this. We only see the contract on Legistar with a little post-it notes. Well, what's the final contract? We don't know. We’ve heard about it, but what is the final contract? So how can we say yes or no to that deal right now? If it's taken this long to sell this property, it's not a good investment. It wasn't a good investment back in Mayor Perrin’s day, and it's not a good investment today for all of you. So I encourage all of you to look at the bottom line. We get the same building at either location, and we have a million and a half dollars more, either to spend down here or to the police department that we can give them more funding of what they really need. So I encourage you today to vote for the Washington Avenue location, and then when it comes to full council, I hope the whole council votes for that. So I appreciate your time, thank you. Chairman Emison said, thank you. Ms. Lack said, oh, I'm sorry. One last thing. There's a bunch of people here in the room that are supportive of the Washington location, and I just would like them to stand up if they support the Washington location right now. These are the people that you represent right here behind you. I hope you make a good decision. Thank you. \r\n\r\nJames Elywn Hinds, 508 Ridgecrest, said, you may have noticed that I stood when she asked me to and the reason is I do think the accessibility and traffic is better on Washington Avenue even though buildings and functions will be the same. I do have an additional concern about Caraway, and part of that is from reading the newspaper ad she referred to, and that seems that there's so much cash and that there's commitments that we might to do, in addition. And that concerns me because a lot of times when you take on commitments like that, you run into things and it can be, you know, costing you a whole lot more than it was supposed to. If we're going to do that, I think we need to have a clean amount that we're going to pay, and if whoever it is wants to, you know, do any improvements like that, that ought to be done by somebody else, but we need to be careful that that doesn’t cost us an arm and a leg that we hadn’t planned on. Chairman Emison said, thank you, sir. \r\n\r\nTommy Lackey, 1003 W. Matthews, said, I'm a guy. And I got a perspective, probably looking more at facts than I do other things. I've listened to what the Mayor has said. I listened to what Mr. Street said and I listened to what Mr. Moore said. And you know, I take in. I'm a guy. And the things that the Mayor and Mr. Street have said, they're stating, soft, fuzzy things, and I don't go with soft fuzzy. Mr. Moore has stated facts and I go more with facts, and he has presented a logical process. It's not soft and fuzzy. And I'm not a soft and fuzzy guy?  I mean, that's it. Y’all address the issues like you want to. What I didn't hear anybody say is that wherever it's combined with, whether it's here, or there, being combined, we ought to be getting rid of resources like, and I know this is not it, but we ought to be getting rid of people in management to give more people, but that's a different issue. But that's my thoughts. Let's just. I'm not used to speaking. So anyway, I'll say what I said. Chairman Emison said, thanks, sir. \r\n\r\nTom Elwood, 1520 Pratt Circle, said, it’s great that everybody’s participation of the public in the interest in Jonesboro is outstanding. When they built this building, they thought it really wasn’t big enough for input for people to have input. Because we are growing and things are changing and things will change again, but the one thing that won't change is that it is going to rain and it's going to flood on Washington. That's just a fact. And Washington is the emergency route into the St. Bernard’s Hospital in case there is a national emergency or something from the bypass that’s a direct emergency route, it goes right by there. And every time it rains, it's serious, every rain, not just a widespread event, but any time it rains, it's a problem getting through there. And that is not going to change. And a bigger pipe, storing water under the driveway or parking lot, that won’t work, because it freezes. It rains in the wintertime and in the summertime. The freeze and heat cycle will destroy the parking lot, so you're going to constantly go. In other words, it was a mistake to be build it there in 1960 and it's a bigger mistake to build in that area in 2026. That's all I got to say. But thank you. Chairman Emison said, thank you sir. \r\n\r\nLt. McDaniel, Jonesboro Police Department, said, I'm currently the administrator over the Real Time Crime Center. You know, I said a lot the last time at the last meeting and I understand where your level of commitment to stay in downtown area is coming from. But ultimately, I would just like to remind this task force that if this is about public safety, it's more than just the building, it's more than just the technology in the building. There's a human element that goes with it. There's a relationship with that building and the current investigative division, the public information office, the records division, the civilian employees in there with the FOIA requests, discovery motions from attorneys. There's a constant flow of humans in and out of this building. And if you take that and divide it geographically by about two miles, not a half mile, two miles, and limit the parking and put construction all around it, making it more difficult for people that I need to work with to come in and out of that building, you're going to fundamentally damage the efficiency of public safety in regards to that. I just wanted to remind that that was kind of the crux, to steal a term from an old friend, of the situation here, that it's about public safety and it's about what the best for that to work effectively. And I understand we're talking about layering a Police Department on top of this years down the road. So whatever we decide in this room is going to affect the police department for years. It's going to be a long time before it gets back to be effective and efficient the way it was before we were separated geographically. You know, I've been with the city going on about 30 years, and I've seen the band-aids put on the police department over and over and over. And I know we're talking about a lot of money, and I don't take that lightly. I really don't. But it might take that investment to set us up for success now so we can continue that success down the road when we lay phase two on top of this. I understand it's a lot of money. I get it. Unfortunately, I think that we have been put off and put in damaged buildings, old buildings, buildings with us asbestos, and may do what’s being spread around for so long, we've kind of forgot to change the oil on the car, which could have been not quite as expensive as now we're looking at replacing the car because we forgot maintenance along the way. Again, for the third time, simply, l would like to remind this task force that the public safety is the point of the location of this building. Unfortunately, I think that requires to be at the Caraway Road location to keep that human element, that active team, the ability for detectives to come in and out of there. The ability for me to just walk down the hallway and confer with the investigators and making sure we're on the right path and finding new intel. I could tell you stories on and on and on, if you wanted to come visit and see how it actually works. It's all day long in there. And, if you break that relationship, it will be detrimental to the efficiency of that division, thank you. Chairman Emison said, thank you sir. \r\n\r\nCarol White, 5001 Nicole Cove, said, I have a question. Okay, so if we, I have not really followed this to the nth degree, so forgive me if I'm confused on this, but the property downtown, will we lose that completely if we go with the Caraway Road, will that be sold and there will not be a police presence downtown and everything will go to Caraway? And if we do keep this downtown location and build here, will we have two locations, we'll have the police department on Caraway, and we'll have the other offices and a good police presence downtown? And one more thing, I'm talking about the alcohol, the problems that we have had, I'm sure that you know, recently we had a pretty big issue. I can't imagine us not having the police department and the facilities down here to patrol what is going on with these restaurants and the people that are frequenting them and maybe, you know, doing things that they shouldn't be doing. But anyway, I just had that question. I'll sit down and maybe y'all can answer. Councilmember Moore said, the answer your question, we would keep both properties. Chairman Emison said, thank you ma’am. \r\n\r\nPolice Chief Rick Elliot said, Chief of Police. So, who? (A member of the audience did not come to the podium, but got up and spoke…I thought this discussion right now is for us out here, not, not for the police department. If I'm out of order, I'll sit down, but it sounds like we are the ones that should be up there talking, not the people who have a vested interest. Chairman Emison said, sir, thank you for your point.) Chief Elliot continued, you're absolutely right, sir. I do have a vested interest in what we are doing for my police department and my people. We do this job day in and day out. So, I do have a vested interest in what we are doing here today. So at the end of the day, where this beautiful building lands, that's fine. It makes no difference. We're talking the future, the future growth of the city and the police department. Phase two, we keep talking phase two. What's phase two going to look like? A spatial analysis done by Kyle Cook. We need 45,000 square feet for phase two. That's today we built down on Caraway. If have to dislocate the evidence room, and other parts of that building to combine everything here on Washington, now we have driven that cost up. So we're at $20 million, $20+ million dollars we're looking at to build phase two down here. We're now going to raise that cost down here to $25 to $30 million, because I'm going to do some of this stuff down here, because I'm going to combine everything, one place or another, except the motor pool. So I can't just leave the evidence room down here and have my detectives, going back and forth to get a piece of evidence out to examine it and do analysis on it and then run it back and forth down the street. It's not efficient. We’re not efficient today. It's about efficiency. And understand that, you know everybody's at talking about dollars, well, okay, I'm talking about dollars on the back end now. The back end dollars of phase two, which we don't know, as you said, we don't know what phase two is going to look like. I say, it’s going to be 10+ years. So we're going to be fragmented in multiple buildings for the next 10 years, because I don't see anybody stepping up and coming up with $20 to $30 million dollars. By the time we do do that, we're going to drive the cost up, and the cost to build 10, 20 years from now, it's going to be way more than it is today. So it's about efficiency of police operations. And understand that is my goal at the end of the day. We want to pack everything up and build down here, then the cost of what's projected right now we’re going to drive it on up, and we'll move. We’ll pack up and move down there. But, that big parking lot, it’s going to be fenced all the way around for security. And the concept of thinking that police presence downtown because of the bars or whatever, that E-911 Center, there’s not officers in there. There's nobody in that building is going to run out to the bar or anything else for anybody on the West End. That's not their job. So the Police Department exists today downtown, didn't have anything to do with the fight on Main Street the other night or any other time downtown. The facility is already there and it means nothing to those people. It’s about efficiency of a police department. Thank you. Chairman Emison said, thank you. \r\n\r\nBrandon Reed, 1511 Honeysuckle Lane, said, I just want to advocate for the Caraway site because it's like Lieutenant, like chief has said, efficiency of the police department. As a proud taxpayer and citizen here in Jonesboro, I want my taxpaid dollars to go to things that are most important to me. If anyone out here disagrees that public safety should be the number one priority for any taxpayer, then we have to have a serious conversation. Jonesboro is a great town to live in, and I think we have a great opportunity now to future proof our police department and public safety. There's only one right answer for that is Caraway. Thanks. Chairman Emison said, thank you, sir.\r\n\r\nCheri Ray, 810 E. Craighead Forest Road, said, I work hard for my money and I pay taxes. I pay taxes, income taxes, property taxes, all the taxes. I am about public safety. I believe our choice should be Washington, so the money is not spent crazily, because at my house, I do not run up credit card debt, have brand new cars. I live within my means and I would hope that you guys use their tax money and y'all tax money and my tax money in a way, public safety without spending tons for Caraway. So I believe the choice would be Washington. That's my only statement. Thank you. Chairman Emison said, thank you. \r\n\r\nPatti Lack, 4108 Forest Hill Road, said, you know, what I'm hearing is that the efficiency, we have an efficient police department. There is no doubt about it right now. Your task today is to look at the location. The location of the E-911 Center is already down here on Washington. So all we're going to do is that we're going to take the money and build them a nicer place right there. We're not talking right now about moving the facility on Caraway down here. That was, you know, that is so far down the line right here. So your main goal right now is where is the best location? They're already down there. As far as communication, I believe it, computers, texting, everything electronics these days. It's amazing what they can do. They can communicate. They're doing it right now today for the last six months or four and a half months that they've been moved from there. So that's not what the goal is today. Today is the goal is, which place is the best efficient place and most cost effective that the citizens of Jonesboro since we’re paying for this that you guys can decide, we're efficient already. That's not the question. It's where this building goes and it really needs to be on Washington. Thank you. Chairman Emison said, thank you ma’am. \r\n\r\n","EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":null,"EventItemTitle":"Public Comments","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]}]