Stacy Holbert - Booneville City Council

The city council meetings are now being live streamed on The City Of Booneville, Arkansas page. Please join us there.

Just got the (literal) big grant check for our park improvements! So excited for what this will provide for our citizens. ❤

Exciting stuff going on in Booneville! The city has started working on the park improvement project, including the Splash Pad and the restrooms! Mayor Baker has met with splash pad contractors and we have selected the company we'll use; RJR out of Little Rock. They have presented preliminary plans (see pics). They anticipate project completion in Sept/Oct. We hope we get to have an opening event before winter so the kids can get at least one splash in before we have to winterize!

Hey, exciting news Booneville! The city was approved for a $430,000 Parks improvement grant from the Arkansas Parks and Recreation dept!
This is a 50/50 grant which means the city must match the funds provided by the state. So, we will be receiving $215,000 from the state, the city of Booneville will provide $200,000 and the Splash Pad committee will provide $15,000+ (money they have collected from fund raising projects over the past couple of years.) The city money will come from the One-Cent Sales Tax Parks and City Improvement funds.
The plan includes the splash pad, a rest room facility, upgrading the playground to include toddler equipment, replacing the pea gravel to make the playground more accessible for special needs and ADA compliant sidewalks to connect it all.
The Splash Pad Committee deserves a special thanks for getting this project started. They have done so much work to spear head this concept and to raise funds.
The Parks Planning Committee and our new Mayor will begin working on this exciting project in the New Year. Stayed tuned for updates!

My phone won't go live for the city council meeting, for some reason. I'll post the video after the meeting if the recording works. Sorry! Can't depend on FB!

July city council meeting.

Clean up of dumpy properties is a high priority of Booneville city officials. Besides drugs, it’s the number one complaint the city hears from our citizens.

Chief Villareal has directed our police officers to each work on at least 5 properties per month. They are working hard at it but typically it’s a long slow process. First the officer will give the property owner an Ordinance Notice and explain that the property owner is in violation of the ordinance and that they have 20 days to clean up. The officer will check back in 20 days and if they see some improvement, but more is needed, they will keep working with the owner. If they see no improvement, they will give a citation of violation. If they plead not guilty, that sends the matter to court. It takes 3 – 4 weeks to get a court date, then depending upon what happens at that hearing, the owner could get another 30 days to comply. And a lot of times they still don’t do anything and they receive fines that they may or may not pay.

It takes months of notices, citations, hearings and fines to get to a position where the city can condemn and clean up a property. And for the city to clean it up costs a lot of money for which we will most likely not be reimbursed. The goal is not to fine, but to get the owner to clean up the property.

So please know that our police officers are out there talking to the owners of these properties and working hard to get compliance. There has been improvement, it’s just a long slow process.

If you have a question about a particular property you can call city hall (479-675-3811) and report the address. If It’s not already being dealt with, they can get an officer to go check it out.

Please note: there is a public hearing this afternoon, 4/26, at 4:30pm at City Hall regarding the rezoning of several lots at 320 North McCandless (the old Motel next to Lin Buffet) from commercial to residential for the purpose of converting them to apartments. Please come if you have opinions on this issue. Directly after that is the City Council meeting.