O’Neal wants to educate public
Helping educate people about city codes is what motivates Tom O’Neal, the city’s new code enforcement officer, who began work for the city Oct. 24.
O’Neal, a native of Texas, has been in Arkansas since 1973.
He said he worked for more than seven years as animal control officer for the city of Rogers and has completed several certifications with the National Animal Control Association.
“Code enforcement will be new to me, but I know the basics of it and am studying it,” he said.
O’Neal is supervised by Police Lt. John Langham. He is not an employee of the Police Department, but said he has been in law enforcement in the past as he served with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office as a part-time deputy from 2003 to 2007.
“This is a good opportunity. I like working with animals,” O’Neal said. “I want to help educate people with animals as well as with code enforcement.”
Lt. Langham said O’Neal can be notified just as the police have been in the past about stray dogs —through Benton County Central Communications (CENCOM) and City Hall. He said O’Neal’s training and certification with a dart gun will help catch aggressive animals that are difficult to catch.
The car he will be using has code enforcement on the side and he carries identification showing his position.
“It’s an important thing to note, he’s not an employee of the Police Department. He’s not sworn police officer and he’s not armed,” Langham said, explaining that he will be enforcing laws of the city. He will have a radio and can call for police assistance if warranted. “He will be able to write city ordinance citations and can take custody of dog. He’s charged with enforcement of all city ordinances.”
Both O’Neal and Langham said building codes will remain under the jurisdiction of the building official, Tony Townsend. O’Neal will deal with junk on property within sight of the public, abandoned vehicles, stray and nuisance animals.
As they’ve worked through the training, Langham said it has been discovered that not all of the city ordinances have been updated on the city’s web site.
“People can’t know how to abide by them if they don’t have the ordinances,” Langham said.
Previously, an employee of the Street Department has been called to transport stray dogs that were picked up as the police do not transport animals in vehicles designed to transport people. O’Neal will be able to transport the dogs. The vehicle assigned to him was one that was retired by the Police Department.
“Visually, for the public, animal complaints are one of the biggest things they’ll see code enforcement do,” Langham said.
“Just because the code enforcement vehicle pulls up in front of your house, doesn’t mean you’re in trouble,” Langham said, explaining that O’Neal is familiarizing himself with the city. “We want people to be able to think help the community to be better.”
O’Neal and his wife, Debbie, have been married for 26 years, and have four between them. They have 10 grandchildren.