Mayor makes council appointments

Mayor makes council appointments

McClendon appoints council members to various municipal commissions and committees

news@theeveningtimes.com

Mayor Marco McClendon set city council appointments for the nine city commissions and committees. Some changes were due to newly elected candidates and some represented a shuffle from the established norm under the previous administration. A new ward four representative will replace McClendon now that he is mayor and Charles Wheeless is a first term councilman from ward three. One city councilman from each ward sits on each commission. City Council contact information and the commission assignment changes were set to be included in the new city website set to go live by the end of March.

“I asked the web designers to turnover the keys to the web site, we need to update everything before we go live,” said City Director of Communications Nick Coulter.

The Public Works Commission elected a new Chairwoman in Lorraine Robinson who has spearheaded Keep West Memphis Beautiful since its inception. Other city council commissioners include James Holt, Willis Mondy, James Pulliaum and Charles Wheeless. Public Works monitors with the city engineer on street and sanitation issues. Project highlights this year include a 200 day long complete redo of MLK Blvd. and a 10 block long drainage project in the northeast part of the city.

“We got a grant for an overlay job on East Barton from North 18th Street to Ingram Blvd.,” said City Engineer Amanda Hicks. “

We also have an ARDOT project with the total reconstruction of Martin Luther King Blvd. for this year.”

The Police Commission works with new Police Chief Eddie West, and Assistant Chief Langston.

The latest academy class finishes its training phase the week after schools return from spring break.

When the police department will assign resource officers to every West Memphis School District campus. The new community relations thrust called #PACT, police and community together, is the new platform for community outreach. Sky Cops proved to be crimes solving tools in burglaries and shootings last year and the department eyed technology to improve the speed of finding pertinent video.

“There is a $25,000 allocation for downloading Sky Cop data to a transmitting card to send video date directly back to the department,” said Councilman Tracy Catt. “That way they won’t have to spend hours sitting under the camera trying to find what they are looking for.”

Willis Mondy chairs the Police Commission and was joined by Wayne Croom, James Holt, Willis Mondy, James Pulliaum, and Lorraine Robinson.

The Budget Commission just finished the big job of setting up city expenditures for 2019. Big ticket purchases like mid-year raises for city employees, spending for vehicles at the sanitation and fire department represent the heavy lifting in front of the group. A new West Memphis District Court building is being researched as part of Mayor McClendon’s infrastructure rebuilding vision.

“We can build a new courthouse on our land next to city hall,” said McClendon to city council.

“It’s a million dollars to repair the one we have or 1,5 million to build a new one. We can’t keep pouring money in there.”

Tracy Catt was elected by commissioners to remain as budget chairman. Wayne Croom, Helen Harris, Melanie Hutchinson and the ward four replacement round out the commission.

The Fire Commission faces a number of hot issues this year. New appointments to the brass appear set. But considerations for a new ambulance, fire administration office space, and site selection for two new fire stations to accommodate city growth into the Hopefield subdivision area in the northeast and the Mega-site on the west.

“What’s good about this is it’s not a right now fix; it’s a 20-30 year down the road fix,” said Chief Dennis Brewer of the new buildings.

Tracy Catt returned to the chair of the group by votes coming from commissioners Helen Harris, Melanie Hutchinson, and Charles Wheeless. The ward four replacement will join this group as well.

Willis Mondy replaced Ramona Taylor on the Advertising and Promotion commission and was seated along side James Pulliaum.

The A& P works with the Convention and Visitors Bureau and uses the dining and hospitality tax to drive tourism in the city Tourist attractions include Southland Park, The Big River Crossing, trail and park.

Tilden Rodgers Park will get more attention with a new splash pad and ball park refurbishing to attract out of town tournament play with overnight hotel stays and dining in the city. Mayor McClendon appointed Wayne Croom city council liaison to the Airport Commission where a new airport improvement plan will come together this year.

McClendon tapped James Pulliaum as the representative to the Utility Commission. Utility General Manager Todd Pedersen identified the main tasks facing the city owned utility company. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has rattled its saber over inflow and infiltration mixing into the effluence.

“We have to fix the sewer system infrastructure; it’s the right thing to do for our citizens,” said Pedersen.

“We have to push utilities to Southland to support the expansion there.”

The mayor picked Charles Wheeless and Lorraine Robinson as liaisons to the Chamber of Commerce.

Contact information for each of the city council members included: Ward 1, Position 1, James Holt. Sr., 904 West Barton. (901) 484-8322, renee72303@aol.com Ward 1, Position 2, Tracy Catt, 1403 Ashwood Dr., (870) 514-0586, tcatt@glre.net Ward 2, Position 1, James Pulliaum, P.O.. Box 581, (901)490-3186, propull2@aol.com Ward 2, Position 2, Melanie Hutchinson, 610 Rainer Rd. #4, (901) 859-7326 Ward 3, Position 1, Charles Wheeless, charles. wheeless@yahoo.com, (870) 514-2323 Ward 3, Position 1, Wayne Croom. (870) 636-1827, waynecroom@yahoo,com Ward 4, Position 1, Lorraine Robinson, 204 Bettis Street, work (870) 7354219, robinson.lorraine@ sbcglobal.net Ward 4, Position 2, open.

Ward 5, Position 1, Helen Harris, 2001 Van Buren, (901) 301-3510 Ward 5, Position 2, Willis Mondy, 530 S. 14th St., (901) 503)-6246.

By John Rech