Clean & Beautiful budget increase denied

Asking for a substantial increase to the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Clean & Beautiful 2024 budget, director Kelli Kennedy’s request was denied during the 2024 city of Pine Bluff Public Works budget hearing chaired by Council Member Steve Shaner on Wednesday morning.

The agency was asking for a total of $103,849 with $85,989 coming from the city of Pine Bluff, but

Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington recommended the budget amount stay the same from the city, approximately $23,000, after it was discovered there may have been duplication of services or even triple from the city, Parks & Recreation and Clean & Beautiful.

Kennedy said in order to get Clean & Beautiful sites up to a higher level, she would need to upgrade to commercial services. The budget increase includes $64,000 of commercial lawn care and an increase in payroll expenses of $30,000.

“The budget expense includes the purchase of commercial-grade chemicals, commercial-grade fertilizer, irrigation tools and appropriate lawn seed as required,” she said.

Kennedy manages approximately 27 sites across Pine Bluff, but Washington said some of those sites were taken over by Pine Bluff Parks & Recreation.

“As far as I know, they did help with some of the beds … I do not believe they are mowing,” said Kennedy, referring to the Cherry Street and Martha Mitchell locations. “We’re doing the mowing on them.”

Washington said the city has a contract with a company with that has been doing the mowing for the past year.

“They mowed the whole Martha Mitchell,” said Washington. “They do all the beds out there.”

Washington said in the high growing season they mow about every two weeks and they have done a good job in keeping Martha Mitchell up in contrast to what Clean & Beautiful has done.

Washington said the flower beds are being maintained by Parks & Recreation.

Kennedy said she was never informed that those areas were under a separate contract and those were originally Clean &

Beautiful’s responsibility.

“We had that conversation when Mr. (Sam) Glover was here,” said Washington.

Kennedy said Glover, former Parks & Recreation director, was doing the beds twice and she would take care of the mowing.

The Pine Bluff Commercial reported in September of 2021 that Glover said Parks & Recreation was not only renovating Clean & Beautiful’s Martha Mitchell sites but maintaining them as well.

“Where Mrs. Kennedy kind of left out, we are maintaining those beds,” he said. “Every two weeks we are maintaining those beds with mowing and weed eating.”

Glover said then, they had budgeted $6,000 per Martha Mitchell site, a total of $42,000 to renovate the area and says it was costing about $1,500 every two weeks.

During that time, some council members did not think Clean & Beautiful’s existence was relevant with the city having to assist with overgrown medians. They also said Kennedy’s salary of approximately $24,000 could be used in a city department in a part-time position to do the labor.

The Pine Bluff Street Department contributes approximately $17,860, and before the Jefferson County cut Clean & Beautiful’s budget in 2021, the county was contributing about $8,930.

Kennedy said she plans to go to the Quorum Court to request $20,000 and said if that amount is approved the city would only have to contribute $65,000.

“It’s almost like playing catch up in the fact that we have not had a budget increase going on six years now,” she said. “The prices of everything have just gone higher and higher.”

Kennedy said for basic care, she was paying $5,800 a month.

“When I originally started, my goal was to keep it under $2,000 a month,” she said.

“The problem I’ve had and I’ve shared this with Mrs. Kennedy prior to this meeting is we just haven’t gotten good cleaning services for most of those beds throughout the course of the year,” said Washington. “Most times they look totally unkempt or not adequately clean.”

Washington said she has been monitoring the Clean & Beautiful sites and they are in bad shape. Washington suggested the matter be tabled so they could look at the site list.

The meeting reconvened that afternoon where Kennedy informed the committee that grant money and donations from the private side covered the majority of their expenses for 2023.

Between Parks & Recreation, the City of Pine Bluff and Clean & Beautiful, committee members wanted to make sure that sites were not being serviced on more than one occasion.

Washington said bids were taken for Martha Mitchell from Market Street all the way to Bryant Street.

“If you have driven through it this summer and looked at it, it’s looking better. It looks very good,” she said.

Washington said the bid winner does the weed eating on the edges and the fence line.

Trudy Redus, with Parks and Recreation, said they did the bid from Cherry Street to Blake just for the flower beds only.

Kennedy said she was never asked or notified about any of the bids for her sites.

“Right now what we have been doing up until this point has been basic lawn care because that’s all we can afford to do,” said Kennedy. “To bring it at the level of care that y’all are requesting will require commercial-level lawn care. It does require different kinds of mowers, edgers and string trimmers and different kinds of knowledge. That’s what changes the prices from $100 a cut to $500 to $1,000 to $2,000.”

Washington said Martha Mitchell will go back to bid for the 2024 season and Parks & Recreation will continue to maintain their key spots.

Redus said from June to December, that is $24,000, which she doesn’t have in her budget.

“What I recommend for right now is until we get everything sorted out and finalized what we are going to do as far as maintaining Streetscape, Martha Mitchell and all of the beds, all parties need to come to the table so we have a clear understanding of who’s doing what,” said Washington. “Until that time, my recommendation to this committee is that we let this budget for 2024 be the same as it was for 2023.”

“We can’t maintain with that budget,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy also said Clean & Beautiful did not surrender their Martha Mitchell sites and that is a board decision.

According to the mayor, the only reason the city took those sites over is because it “looks like no one touched them.”

The committee voted to keep Clean & Beautiful’s budget the same.