An ordinance regarding parking in the downtown area was brought before the El Dorado City Council during its regular monthly meeting on Thursday.
City Attorney Henry Kinslow explained that after speaking with the parking authority, they decided to “tighten things up a little bit.”
“We are not going to be towing, we are going to be using the boot, which is a lot less trouble and a lot less expensive,” he said.
He explained that previous ordinances contained the city’s authority to tow and also never mentioned reparking.
Alderman Willie McGhee suggested that the council wait and obtain public opinion on the matter, so the aldermen will be continuing the matter next month, and the public is invited to come to the next council meeting to voice their opinions.
The proposed ordinance states that no vehicle will remain parked in the downtown controlled parking area for longer than three hours between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., with the exception of Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, which includes leaving and coming back, which they define as reparking. It goes on to say that for any violator who has four previous unpaid tickets and is being written a fifth, the city has the option to place a boot on the vehicle until the penalties are paid.
Brett Williamson, of El Dorado Works, discussed the one cent sales tax and the work his organization is putting forth in that effort.
“We believe we need this to carry El Dorado further in the future and I wanted to thank the mayor and the public for participating in the public forums that have been held and allowing the people of El Dorado to make their own decision about that tax,” he said.
According to El Dorado Mayor Frank Hash, El Dorado City Clerk Heather McVay has been working with city councils across the state about getting an automated system in place for city documents. She explained that the system is called LaserFiche and will be a great help with bringing the city into modern technology.
“I’ve had a lot of people express interest in being able to find ordinances, resolutions and council minutes online and every city I have spoken to has this already. This is a document management software program and this contract includes all of the licenses, software and equipment,” she said.
As for getting current documents into the system, she said that it would have to be done manually by herself and a helper, and could take up to a year to have all of the documents scanned in. She also said that for the documents that are currently bound and unable to be scanned sheet by sheet, the city would have to send them off to the software moderators for them to scan in, which is about 14 books at minimum. She explained that a benefit of this would be efficiency, time management and a reduction in errors. McGhee suggested that it might be better to find a temporary helper to work on the database, which Hash agreed would be the best option.
McVay also explained that the system would be organized and would be easy for someone to navigate because the documents would be indexed.
“Right now, our documents are a mess, so this is something that is long overdue,” Hash said.
McGhee also brought up a point about having old ordinances thrown out, and Hash said that the best option would be to separate those old ordinances during the time that they would be scanning documents into the new system.
Alderman Dianne Hammond called members of Keep El Dorado Beautiful and Hash to step forward as she presented a presidential award.
“I just want you to know that this group has gone above and beyond what is expected from them. We received an award from Keep America Beautiful and only about 20 percent of the affiliates receive this award, so they have really done an outstanding job here. This is a presidential award and we couldn’t have done it without this staff and the citizens of the community, anyone who was involved in this effort,” she said.
Alexis Alexander announced that beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday, KEB will having a community-wide cleanup. Those who are interested in helping are invited to the Old City Park, where supplies such as trash bags, gloves and safety vests can be collected. Participants can then go out to various areas of the city to help clean up and are invited back at 11:30 a.m. for hot dogs, drinks and giveaways.
Jeri Ratcliff also gave an update on the Earth Day project.
“This is our second year to partner with Northwest Environmental Science Academy and in January, I took cuttings and plants to the greenhouse and worked with Mary Beth Simpson. The students propagated those plants and cuttings and yesterday, we delivered 488 student packets that included plants with planting instructions and left some for the teachers, auxiliary staff and workers. So a total of 565 plants were passed out yesterday. Extra plants were put together with help from the master gardeners and they will be used for Barton Junior High’s sports banquet and these are part of our Paint the Town Purple project,” she said.
In other business:
• Teresa Golliher was nominated and accepted to the Historic District Commission.
• McGhee reminded the public about the Stop the Violence concert that will be held at the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium on May 3.
• McGhee also briefly explained the Southside Community Garden, which is located at the corner of South Jackson and East Pecan. The community is being offered a free 4x30 plot for their own personal use in exchange for working one hour per week on a different plot. This garden helps support the local Liberty Food Pantry.
“This can actually help with their own groceries and help with the community by growing fresh foods,” he explained.
Anyone who wants to volunteer may call Larry Hudson at 918-4602, Fran Smith at 814-1889 or John Wofford at 315-2610.