06/02/2026
06/01/2026
City of Horatio
Monthly Council Meeting Minutes
Called to order at 6:30 pm
Prayer & Pledge
Council Members:
Sharon Chandler, C absent
Desiree Barringer, C present
Codi Pickett, C present
Adriana Gonzalez, C present
Morgan Smith, C present
Kelly Sims, C absent
Coy Arnold, M present
Morgan E Smith, R/T present
Ruby Smith, WBC present
Old Business:
- Motion to approve May 2026 Council minutes was made by Adriana Gonzales, and seconded by Desiree Barringer.
Roll call vote: All ayes passed the motion.
- Motion to approve the payment of all outstanding bills was made by Desiree Barringer, and seconded by Morgan Smith.
Roll call vote: All ayes passed the motion.
Guests:
-Veronica Ozura
-Rick Pruitt
New Business:
- Morgan E mentioned that the statements of Revenue & Expenditures did not match the current bank statements due to waiting for the bank statements from the bank in the mail. HSB has started issuing statements in the mail & they’re not arriving on time to be balanced before council meetings.
- Morgan E gave notice to council and community that she’s waiting on the ARML to return contact and walk her thru building a budget from scratch for the P&R fund. This will be done during the month of June and will be available at July’s meeting. Rick Pruitt gave some suggestions for budget-writing assistance at their De Queen City Hall & P&R offices that may result to have a quicker response than waiting for the ARML to return a call.
- The topic of the museum and hours of operation was brought before the council. Paula Pool is not an employee of the City of Horatio; she’s paid by AARP, but the City of Horatio is responsible for paying for the utility bills. There has been an issue with the parking spot directly in front of the museum; it isn’t accessible to the public as intended. The City Superintendent has a handicap template for the parking spot, as this was the plan when the sidewalk was reconstructed to include the handicap ramp and railing, and will be completed before the end of the month, weather permitting. The revenue and expenditures for the museum were also a concern. The current hours of operations don’t allow for many community constituents to partake in enjoying the history and features presented in the museum. Veronica Ozura mentioned reaching out to the school to see if they would be interested in bringing Jr/Sr High students on a walk into the business district and generating more exposure for the museum. The museum generates roughly 80$/month ($400 for usage Dec 2025-April 2026, projected 950$/year) in electricity expenses alone, not including water and/or internet services. We are looking into available "100% grants" to help cover expenses and are open to suggestions on accruing revenue for the museum.
- A topic of council pay was posted on the R/T discussion board thru ARML: “Should the City continue to pay for half of the healthcare reimbursement costs for elected officials, or amend the resolution to state that half of the healthcare will be reimbursed if the councilmember attends the month’s meeting?” Ultimately, the Council chose to keep the healthcare reimbursement at the cap of $250 per elected official until a decision could be brought forward from ARML about joining with Lockesburg to offer health insurance thru the ARML. There needs to be a total of 10 full-time employees, not just elected officials, in order for it to be an available option. The City of Horatio has 6 full-time employees that this would affect. Unsure how many Lockesburg has as full-time.
- The topic of 2027 Youth Sports was brought before the Council. The City of Horatio is interested in partnering with area Youth Sports Associations to form a separate Youth Sports League from Nashville. Council agreed it was a good idea and will move forward with reaching out to straighten out details over the next few months. Several volunteer roles are needed to make this happen, and those will be discussed as the year progresses.
- The City of Horatio owes AL Franks Engineering a total of roughly $365,750.00 for the blueprints and plans for the Sewer Project that the City opted out of. Since the work for the blueprints and construction plans were already done, those services must be paid for. Once paid, the City of Horatio will own those blueprints and plans outright and can choose what to do with them on its own time with Council approval. There was a need to discuss adding Mayor Arnold as a signee on the bank loan for the blueprints and plans for the AL Franks Sewer Project, as the bank cannot move forward with issuing the loan without it.
** A motion was made to add Mayor Arnold as a signee on the loan by Desiree Barringer, and seconded by Codi Pickett.
A roll call vote passed the motion with all ayes.
On the same note, Mayor Arnold told the Council that the pump station has issues and has had issues for a while. Mayor Arnold mentioned that he discussed this in a recent meeting with Andy Franks from AL Franks Engineering and was told that the pump station was not part of the original plans for the sewer project. Andy did however offer available grant information to the City to apply for to get a loan to cover the project to include the pump station work this time.
-On the topic of hiring an outside accountant to look into the W&S expense reports for the last 3-4 years, Mayor Arnold supplied the Council and Community with information he received from the ARML: Cindy Frazzel at ARML directed Mayor Arnold to Brad Jarek. Mr. Jarek has a CPA that won’t cost the City anything to have the audit done. They’ll look back the 3-4 years necessary, and possibly 5 years to see where we overspent and used the money that was supposed to be set aside in the W&S rate increases from 2024 and 2025 in the Rate Study for the Sewer Project.
Comments from the Council & Mayor:
-Mayor Arnold stated that he has a tractor he’d be willing to sell to the City for little cost, as it has currently been sitting for 9 months, give or take. He’d really like to see it used and suggested a figure of $5,500.
Morgan E wasn’t sure if we needed an ordinance in order to allow this but will look into it.
-As there were no additional comments, questions, or concerns from the Council or Community, a motion to adjourn was made by Desiree Barringer, and seconded by Codi Pickett.
Meeting adjourned at 7:14 pm.
Thank you, Mayor Arnold
