Lincoln calls special election

Voters to consider 1% sales tax

LINCOLN — In a unanimous vote, the City Council voted to call a special election Nov. 3 to ask voters to approve a 1% sales tax to help fund the Police and Fire departments.

In the same July 21 meeting, the council approved a new 1% sales tax, if approved by voters, and Mayor Doug Hutchens said a special election would be held Nov. 3 on the question.

“This is a 1% sales tax on taxable sales in the city of Lincoln that will go solely to support our Lincoln police and fire efforts,” Hutchens said during the meeting, held both in-person and through the Zoom platform.

Lincoln is understaffed in the Police Department with only six officers, and it’s hard to be competitive with other departments, Hutchens said.

“It’s not a sustainable model to be competitive,” he added.

For the Fire Department, Lincoln is going to have to replace fire administrator Jay Norton, who is retiring at the end of the year. Lincoln needs a full-time administrator/fire chief position for the Fire Department, Hutchens said.

“We currently don’t have the means to properly fund that to be competitive,” he said.

Hutchens said he’s talked to a few people about applying for the position but either they don’t want to move to Lincoln or the pay is too low. The next step will be complete a job description and advertise for applications.

The city’s funding stream of turnback money is based on population and turnback money hasn’t kept pace with increased costs, Hutchens said.

“We have increases in insurance costs, increases in labor costs, operations cost. Therefore, we deem it necessary to ask for a 1% sales tax from the public to help support these functions. I think everyone knows the importance of it and I hope I have everybody’s support on it, too.”

The benefit of a sales tax increase, instead of increasing property taxes, Hutchens said, is people coming through Lincoln and purchasing taxable items will also be paying the tax.

“I call it outside money. You’re pulling outside money in to support our community,” he said, adding, “It’s not just our community trying to shoulder the burden of the police and fire.”

Hutchens said the Police and Fire departments have the burden of all people coming and going in Lincoln and people coming through Lincoln and making purchases would pay for these services.

“This is the only fair and equitable way to do that,” Hutchens said.

Council member Gary Eoff wondered about local sales tax revenue being used to help out in the county for first-responder calls.

City attorney Steve Zega said city fire departments and rural fire associations have mutual agreements to help each other. However, he said equipment belonging to Lincoln, such as masks, hoses, ladders, will be on the Lincoln books and should be accounted for. Equipment belonging to the rural fire association will be inventoried that way.

Zega didn’t see a problem as long as equipment is accounted for on the books and can be “eyeballed” by the city.

“I can’t answer for political fights you are alluding to…but I’m confident we’re OK on that. We can protect ourselves legally,” Zega said.

Zega said his next step for the special election is to submit the ordinances for approval at the state level. The state has 14 days to respond and then the ordinances will be forwarded to the Washington County Clerk for the election ballot.

The question on the 1% sales tax will coincide with the Nov. 3 General Election.

In other news, the City Council:

$11,313 grant from the Arkansas Rural Development Commission to buy library shelving and waived competitive bidding to buy from the company Paper Clip for $22,626. This company is the only one vendor making shelves matching what is already in the library. If the grant is approved, the city will pay 50% of the costs.

for the school resource officer with the School District. The school will pay $56,000 per year toward the officer’s salary and also to help with costs of a rotating school resource officer.

former Harps building, 723 W. Pridemore, from B-2 to M-1, light industrial. A company has a contract on purchasing the building, contingent on the rezoning. The Planning Commission supported the request.

Tom Pennel as building inspector at a cost of $50 per inspection. If multiple inspections are done on the same trip to Lincoln, Pennel will receive $30 for each of those. Pennel is a qualified and certified home inspector in the state of Arkansas. Doyle Dixon voted for this but had a few questions about inspections where someone walked in, signed a paper and walked out. The mayor said he would look into it.

Other discussions by council members included property considered a nuisance and how to deal with it, making sure people know how to contact City Council members with questions, the possibility of partnering with the School District for solar energy and looking at safety measures on certain streets where officials have received complaints about people driving too fast.