Glenwood city councilman Chris Fuller submitted his resignation Tuesday (April 28) due to moving out of the city limits. Chase Pope was the only person who submitted his candidacy for the Position South 1 seat and board members approved him as the replacement.

Pope, an operations leader with WinChoice, was sworn in and will serve the duration of Fuller’s term. Fuller was reflective about leaving his public service post.

“I appreciate the opportunity. The last three and a half years have been a wild time,” said Fuller of his council experience. “Good luck and the best to all of you.”

Glenwood Mayor Billy Plyler reported the town has received a nearly half million dollar grant for use at the city’s wastewater plant. The $499,828 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds will be used for a UV light system at the city’s sewer plant, which will eliminate the need for high-cost chlorine and environmentally complicated cleansing.

A UV light system in a sewer plant works by exposing treated wastewater to high-intensity ultraviolet (UV-C) radiation as a final disinfection step. The UV light penetrates the cells of bacteria, viruses, and pathogens, damaging their genetic material and preventing them from reproducing or causing infection, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Plyler pointed out the UV light system will get the city in compliance with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and, because it is a fully-funded grant, it should not impact citizens’ water-sewer bills.

“This will not affect anybody’s bill. This is a 100% grant because Glenwood is an LMI [low-to-moderate income] city, and we finally got that project approved,” he said. “That is good news tonight. That will take care of all the issues that we’ve been working on for the three years I’ve been mayor.”

Council members debated three issues for a lengthy part of the 90-minute meeting. Volunteer firefighters are struggling to respond to the daily calls for lift-assist requests. The non-emergency calls to help lift a medically challenged person who has fallen either require an ambulance to respond or volunteer firefighters who may be at work to leave their jobs in order to assist. Due to the frequency of calls, especially from one unnamed home, emergency personnel have had difficulty responding.

While a solution was not proposed, the council agreed to develop a better complaint process and pushed for the mayor to discuss the situation with the local ambulance service, Pafford EMS.

There was considerable discussion about developing regulations for side-by-side vehicles on city streets. A working group of councilmen Alan Moore, Jimmy Clark, and Johnny Cox agreed to develop guidelines for consideration.

The Glenwood City Council also discussed the status of its ordinances regarding trash and cluttered yards. No action was taken, but members will consider changes in the future after visiting with constituents.

The city of Glenwood received its annual financial audit. The Finance and Compliance Report found no issues with the city’s general and court accounting, budgeting, purchasing, and investing and depositing of public funds.

“During our evaluation, nothing came to our attention that would warrant disclosure in this report,” the letter from the Arkansas Legislative Audit division said.