Poor telephone and internet service, drainage problems and cotton dust from Taylor Gin dominated much of the discussion at Tuesday's Gould City Council meeting as Mayor Matthew Smith presented updates on grants for broadband expansion and for a planned drainage project to improve water runoff in the city. Smith also updated the council on $33,000 in covid relief funds the city has applied for with the state.
"I don't know if it needs to go in with our own bank account, in with our disaster funds, or just go in the general fund," Smith said. "We need to know exactly what we can do with it."
Council Member Ermer Preston advised Smith to establish a separate account.
"We've got to be able to give an accounting of what we do with their money," she said. "We don't want to co-mingle those funds."
As Smith began reporting on progress with a broadband project that could result in upgraded broadband service to Gould, Preston asked if something could be done about telephone service in the town.
"We need to try to get another phone company," she said. "I'll be honest with you, CenturyTel, I've been out of service on my home phone ever since March and I've been calling them, calling them, and they keep saying they're going to send somebody."
Preston said finally, after writing two letters and being assured that her problem would be taken care of, only to have no action taken, she said she called the company.
"I got ahold of, I don't know who it was but when I got through with her, the next day they sent that man down here to fix my phone," she said. "I think we need to be looking around to find another company because when you don't have any competition you've got to settle for that one."
"We've got AT&T," Smith pointed out.
"Well, maybe we need to switch to them," Preston responded.
Smith said he would contact AT&T and talk to them about presenting a proposal to the council.
Talking to the council via speaker-phone, Gene Higginbotham -- a representative with Sen. John Boozman's office -- gave the council an update on funds the city is seeking for drainage upgrades.
"We know the city is prone to flooding," Higginbotham said. "We've been down there a couple of times and met with the mayor and council members to discuss it."
Higginbotham said he had been in contact with The Nature Conservancy office in Little Rock about developing a plan for the city to rework the ditches to drain more efficiently and alleviate flooding downtown. To possibly help pay for the project, Higginbotham said that the Federal Emergency Management Administration has two grants currently available, one through FEMA and one through the state, and he said The Nature Conservancy had said it may write the grant for the city.
"There are still a few things that need to be worked out," he said. "I should be able to give you more of an update next month."
Preston requested that an ordinance be drawn up to compel Taylor Gin to repair the streets that are damaged by cotton trucks rolling in and out and to clean up the cotton dust and debris that settles on the neighborhood.
"We live over there and that dust is in our house, we turn on the air conditioner or the heat," she said. "And don't mention your patio or your screen, you'd think you have to get a broom and roll that lint down. We have to inhale that stuff."
Preston said her intent was not to impose restrictions on the cotton gin or to restrict its business but only to try and make conditions in the neighborhood surrounding the cotton gin more tolerable.
"We live here," she said. "They don't. So we need to understand that we aren't trying to shut nobody out but our lives are important to us. We want to live like they do."
Smith said he would look into the matter.