Board of Directors to meet Wednesday

City offices and buildings were closed on Tuesday, July 4.

Along with other city buildings and offices, the meeting room in Siloam Springs’ City Hall was empty on Tuesday in observance of Independence Day. Since the holiday falls on a Tuesday — the normal meeting date for the city’s Board of Directors — the city’s governing board will instead meet the following day, July 5.

An agenda including a new final plat development permit and a workshop on potential zoning code amendments awaits the city’s seven directors after the holiday break.

First, before the meeting’s regular starting time at 6:30 p.m., board members will participate in a workshop that will address changes to the city’s zoning code. The code overhaul has been mentioned previously during

city meetings, and could cover topics including sign lighting and content, in addition to other issues that have been brought to the city’s attention.

Starting the meeting’s regular agenda will be the approval of a memorandum of understanding between Siloam Springs School District and its police department. The memorandum will be in regards to the services of the city’s School Resource Officers, who patrol and secure the city’s schools.

The memorandum contains a change from last year’s iteration. It will reduce the number of SROs in the school system from five to four, in the wake of Chris Salley’s retirement from the police department in May. The police department would have the option to increase the allotted positions back to five if, and when, a suitably trained officer can be developed.

The memorandum would require the school district to reimburse the city for half of the salary, taxes and retirement for the officers involved in the SRO program, according to the city’s staff report on the memorandum. That compensation, in addition to $3,000 per SRO for equipment and maintenance and 100 percent of overtime wages incurred by SROs, is expected to be around $126,000.

The other new item to the agenda is a final plat development permit for the Stone Ridge subdivision. The permit would cover the second half of the development’s second and third phases.

Phase 2B and 3 will cover just more than 11½ acres, upon which would stand 46 medium singlefamily residential lots, according to the city’s staff report.

The permit received a recommendation for approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission with a unanimous vote last month. Commissioners attached a condition that either all work had to be completed that was authorized in the previously approved phases of development or post a bond for 125 percent of the improvements yet to be constructed.

During the Planning meeting, a representative from the developer said the developer was aware of the condition and expected to complete the work early.

Also on the agenda for Wednesday night is the third reading of an ordinance that will assign zoning and warding to city-owned properties City Lake and the Kayak Park. Both properties would be zoned P-K (parks). City Lake would be assigned to Ward 1, while the Kayak Park would be assigned to Ward 3.

Directors will then end the meeting with the Administrator’s report, which will include an update on the board goals for the second quarter of 2017.