Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council

good morning how are you can you hear us I can hear good morning e don't know who this is is hey Rob hey just check to see if y'all could hear me yes good morning so morning how uh how many have we got on the call so far like six or seven okay I know we still got a couple minutes yeah we still got a few minutes who just joined uh Brian Hooper thank you Brian hey are you great how are you great thank you de I coming through clear or I echoing you sound good can everybody hear him okay for for for it was 501 683 3314 they may be I know mine was muted automatically so who if you can hear what uh deor said you might look and make sure you're not muted okay it's Nikki heck thank you Nikki do we have a quum yet uh a couple need a couple more people okay I did not I mean we got a minute left but I see if we were there or not and start but if you need to just let me know when we got a quum and I'll open the meeting sure yeah let's um I'm assuming Shay and Marty are they just came out of the meeting so they they may be joining here in a minute morning Jamie morning all morning Jim good morning I know that it's time but I think we need a couple more members to make a quum so we're going to wait a few minutes do we have a call before we open the meeting up the sh El was Marty gonna just stay over there for the meeting I don't know yes he's moving to another office over here taking just a moment to get plugged in okay Shay how was your trip it was great it was really nice it was uh really interesting and beautiful and fun uh but it was really cool just to be totally unplugged for 7 Days on a river with no cell service no no connectivity whatsoever no you didn't see a vehicle you didn't see a power line you didn't see a street light anything totally Off the Grid so wow that is amazing yeah it was just absolutely beautiful though fishing was great the river was beautiful it was just yeah just really cool highly recommended what' you do went to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho it's the largest track of wilderness in the lower 48 and so uh you you're on rafts and you float um and they fly in this location it's so remote they have to fly in on like Bush planes Bush pilots fly in drop you off you float for 7 Days down Downstream so wow yeah okay and Middle Fork of the salmon just it is just just beautiful too okay yeah Mitchell Mitchell has floated it several times himself uh without a guide he's he's done it on his own so I do love that River it is it is it is unbelievable just beautiful judge Ellison I'm down here in Mina right now actually out at Ward Lake well good just met Seth real excited about all that so uh it's looking really good is it see I see you today what's that I said I might see you today then I we're going to lunch at Rick's place after this so okay you stop by we'll be there all right have we got a corn yet Deborah hey hold on alon's trying to join right now okay she's in the waiting room okay there she is did she can y'all hear me Deborah yes yes let's go ahead and get started okay uh we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order and I just want to thank everybody for taking time out to do this hopefully it shouldn't be but 30 minutes if that driving so I'll I'll do the meeting but I'm not I'll just just have to watch some of the slides as they come about Deborah's going to kind of take us through the the uh Point by point where we're at and I know right now miss Lane's going to call do roll call for us okay Robbie beas here Mitchell Allen here Mitchell Brian Hooper thought he was here Brian he said here Tommy land Roy Ragland Jim shamburger here Bobby Shephard Brandon Ellison here Allison Delah hus here hope I said that right Shay Lewis here Marty RI here thank you is that everybody okay uh next I know I think we're going to do the adoption of uh minutes from the last meeting motion to approve got a motion can I get a second second as Jim and Brian all those in favor by saying I I any opposed motion carries uh what's next Mr dber financials yes with Jamie Jamie fiser good morning can y'all see my screen yes okay excellent okay uh so wanted to take us through our financial report this is going to be the thre Monon period ended July 31st so we'll start off with a summary of our collections uh so stepping it through our initial balance at the beginning of this period on May 1st for this fiscal year was 43.9 uh collections for the 3 3 month period perod rather were 9.7 million we've had interest of 270,000 um and then the 23 Grant close out uh returned back to the fund 2.2 million which does include interest um then L the emergency Grant fund and trust funds that set aside uh leaves us with 43 .3 that went to the 25 grants for a final total of 13.2 balance that balance will go towards next year's 26 award amounts uh moving on to the next schedule this is just going to be an overview of our grants so the 23 GL grants have just closed at June 30th um as I mentioned that 2.2 went back into the uh fund for fiscal year 24 um 33.2 million has not yet been transferred and of the 25 monies 43.4 uh was the award with only a million being transferred out uh at the bottom of that schedule just shows you a summary of the actual cash balance at 731 uh which consists of the 13.2 that we discussed on the first slide and then the awards and the interest shown above and then the balance of 89.1 are youall having trouble hearing me uh you were allowed to clear to me problem at all okay um and then the next schedule is going to be a summary of what was returned from the FY 23 grants that closed uh so we had 72,000 that was cash that was actually transferred out to the agencies and unspent at 6:30 that was returned and then two million uh that was awarded but unspent budgetarily so that gives you the total that was returned to the primary fund ultimately roll to next year's Awards any questions on any of those uh the next summary is just going to give you a breakdown of the collections as I mentioned collections this year have been 9.7 million for the three mon period uh that's down just almost a percent over previous year's collections but we did see a rebound in July as you can see there over last year so trended up quite considerably in July by comparison second is that it Miss Jamie I've got one more uh one or yeah one more so this is just a quick summary of the real estate Revenue by year and by month so you can see how it breaks out comparatively with several more years beside it and then also the portion that has gone to Historic preservation there at the bottom these amounts do not include interest at the top but that's the conclusion of the financial reports but I'll take any questions if anyone has any well with the interest rates where they're at if we're only 1% off I take that as a win right now so that's not too bad overall on collections um is there any discussion or questions from anybody else no I'll make a motion to approve the financials okay we got a motion from Jim to approve we get a second okay we had s several seconds so uh all those in favor by saying I I okay any okay yeah any any oppose uh hearing none the motion is approved uh what's next your your update from you now miss Deborah actually uh Jamie is o going to talk she has two more points okay so the next one is just a request of the council for $10,000 for administrative expenses uh we typically bring this to you guys when you do the voting on the annual grants uh but this was not included this year and this is just ensure we have funding available for any reimbursement for travel uh mileage meals any of that to cover administrative expenses okay uh any discussion not motion the $10,000 transfer I guess I'm the only one making motions I'll make a motion to approve I'll I'll second that motion somebody okay all right we got a motion and a second all those in favor by saying I I I hi any I'm gon be all over the minutes next month or next meeting all right motion carries uh Jamie what your next Point okay uh so Deborah had said that we wanted to have a quick discussion on the trust fund and sort of a little bit more information and dialogue around that so I wanted to put up a couple of points um from the bylaws just kind of explaining why that is set aside and then ultimately how the amount was derived that was presented at the last meeting before you all that was approved um so this just kind of outlines you know the 1% of Collections and last fiscal Year's collections were that 33.7 that resulted in uh the 1% of collections being set aside at 337,000 617 I think I was the one that kind of brought up this question um the you know we always have a one% setback basically in the trust fund basically like reserves but as things flow and as you saw we got $2.7 million back this year that didn't get spent you know over the over the time of the grant um there's always going to be funds there and this 1% is derived it's a policy by the council it's determined by the council I think the council can wave that fee and actually um um put those funds out in the grant requests in the spring when we do them um I don't really see a need for this one% collection I I think we need to have funds set aside but I think we also um could have the right to uh defer that if we decided to do so at the meeting every every year and I I did have uh CLA our general counsel join us he and I had a discussion about it according to the bylaws because these are administrative uh procedures it would have to be approved written and go back through the legislative process for um administrative rule change and I'll let legal council speak to that and get out of his Lane he probably can explain it better than I can so uh this is Clay under the grant funding and application procedures where this trust fund language comes from although that's also part of the bylaws those uh Grant funding and application procedures have actually been promulgated as rules so to amend those it's not simply a matter of amending the bylaws there would have to be it would have to be submitted to um the legislative rules committee and Marty will tell you where that is uh for approval to change so first of all it had to be uh a vote to change the rules and then also present that to uh ALC for approval of any rules change and and justification for before the rules change yeah and Clay as I understand it because I'd ask you this question that uh this commission does not have the authority to to wave a rule or take a threeforce vote or anything like that to disregard a rule that's not allowed correct correct um I will tell you in years past we haven't done it correctly then we have done that that is what we came to find out later yeah but the good thing is is it rolls out you know next year when we when we meet that it comes back out of the trust fund back into the de it's it's it basically only stays in for one year and we'll it'll roll forward every year so it it won't be building and building and building like they had let it done in years past before that's true it this we have um we have been setting aside the the trust fund and not doing that practice that was there was a practice in effect some years ago I think it 2017 I believe was the last year that happened and uh General counsil and CFO at that at that time uh we agreed that that was probably probably should not have happened well we want to do it right and now we know so we can continue to do it correctly now thank thank you yeah I appreciate everyone uh discussing that and and so that we we all have a clear understanding thank you Jamie thank you all you ready Deborah yes so I have a couple of slides for I'm sorry I'm sorry uh J one thing I I don't think we want to open the can of worms of going back through all the process when it it's not going to be that big a deal to pull it in and out you know rotate It Forward every year like we have been no let's just do like we supposed to be I think it could get into a whole another mess if we open it up for people to look at was there any more discussion okay I'll I'll just move forward all right the first slide just uh just to remind every ancc is such an honor for me and I know for each of you serving on this Council the the grants that we're awarding each year they have impacted literally every uh County and community in Arkansas through through a number of ways um and was we've been around since 1989 so next slide El is it forward ing it is online I'm still I'm still on the first slide it just changed thanks Jim D did yours not change it's not CH mine's not changing has anyone else has changed mine hasn't changed either mine has you said your I'm just on the first slide okay well uh can look at the first I'll just I click I clicked the error at the bottom where it says one of 22 if you click that error and it it'll move it on your screen I guess it's not showing up everybody yeah mine did the same mine lets me move it too y all right well we'll just each for thank you thank you Marty so the first item is uh or slide we're on slide two of 22 the a request from the University of Arkansas at monacello Dr Doss reached out and it had a special request uh one of their projects was over they've have excess funds and another project has come in under and if you'll go to the next slide I'll show you those two uh images of those two slides so the Trotter house was awarded uh for Grant 24020 was awarded 35300 , 227 they have requested that we uh transfer 40,000 from their Trotter house project to their uh secondary project The Faculty house project if you go to slide four of 22 you will see a a photo of the uh Trotter house I mean I'm sorry The Faculty house The Faculty house sits right next to the Chancellor's house on the University of Arkansas uh mon campus very beautiful home and they have worked really hard to uh to go to Great Links to match wallpaper and a lot of details uh so that this will be a wonderful historic preservation project so their request and uh asking for the on Slide Five of 22 to request approval to transfer 40,000 from uh Grant 2420 to their Grant 24 19 and I will just say this um when she asked about this there is a precedent for um many projects from the universities in the past the council would either uh award maybe just a a sum for the entire University uh we have also had projects where the universities were had the discretion to move funds between projects so I will um open it up for discussion and hopefully I vote for this is there any discussion on this I just think how often how often does this happen um is this like a common thing like every single year there's there's projects that are under and they want to transfer it to something else or is it pretty rare or it's happened a few times it doesn't happen every year so it's not something that people would apply for more funding to we didn't really look like hard at any budgets for any of these things um any details so I just didn't know if it's something people are applying for more hoping they can just transfer it over to another project or if it's not happening that often I'm guessing that's not the case but no what what we've seen more most often is that um that both projects will come in with less you know that they don't have enough money uh in the original request to cover the projects that's that's what we've seen uh much more of than than than any projects coming in uh with funds left over there's been cases where you have a university or somebody have two or three projects that they come to to the council with and we'll approve the total amount and let them divide them between the projects how they want to um but they usually come back right away with how they want to divide it up because they have other sources of funding sometimes project so this is not unus okay well I think these are both good projects I've personally visited both the troter house and that faculty house and the work they're doing there and uh they're good projects so I mean if uh if it helps them complete them I I think it's a good thing was that a motion in a lot of cases yeah I I'll make a motion we approve it okay well we got a motion can I get a second second I'll second that okay got a motion to second all those in favor of this say I I any opposed all right motion carries well I will add this in most cases like uh Heritage and Parks they get the money and then they Devy it to the sister agencies and then that leaves them the freedom to move it amongst the agencies underneath um so they don't have to actually come back to the council uh in this case so that's why we don't see it a lot either most colleges are doing one project at a time they don't have just of course University Arkansas generally has multiple but most were getting one single request at a time so this doesn't happen just all the time uh Miss Derber next okay uh slide six of 22 just over there's three projects that I wanted to talk about uh Jamie talked about the financials for the uh progress and final reports kind of where we are at financially but I just wanted to highlight a couple of projects that uh have completed and or are in progress so one the uh slide 7 of 22 the Arkansas School for the Blind this is the WPA Hill Cottage Renovations they had a phase one and two and 21 and 23 uh this project has been completed um the top uh image I've shown the exterior of the Hill Cottage in 2020 you can see one of the things um for those of you can see the SL slid Che uh the windows was one of the major things that they replaced and you can see in just this picture this little snapshot that it made a dramatic difference in the overall look of the uh of the school and brought it back to uh historic historic look for the hill Cottage uh they also did uh replaced flooring had hbac upgrades electrical upgrades Plumbing um in the in the application they mentioned the electrical and plumbing they'd actually these were they had original electrical and plumbing in some cases uh for this for the structure so next slide just uh number eight of 22 wanted to just give you a couple of other details about this particular project it was built in 1941 it was a WPA project uh relatively small structure compared to many of the ones that we uh have renovation projects on and I thought this was interesting in 1941 it was originally an $88,000 appropriation for the for the home economics building for the campus so that's just a few little all right the next slide nine of 2022 of 22 uh University of Central Arkansas their recent project was uh the mallister hall restoration phase two and uh they sent some photos in their report uh the sign for an ncrc is prominently displayed in front of Mall Hall uh at my University and this this photo was taken in um in July of 2024 and the next slide a couple of other uh interior images the women's restroom was completely remodeled um you can see a before and after they changed out tile and fixtures Etc was intent uh slide 11 this was U one of the larger aspects of the project they U made the building accessible so the they added um a ramp kind of an extensive ramp you can see in the in the bottom two pictures so that you could enter the so that people could enter the building um and that was obviously that's always a good asset so another image on slide 12 uh shows they renovated a BAS basically it was a storage room and they created a familyfriendly restroom they did a lot of uh discussions with the uh those who are using the the building and this was important they have a lot of uh family groups and meeting groups and this gave them an opportunity to uh to be able to accommodate uh people who are using the building on a regular basis and okay next another project Arkansas State un University at Henderson State University uh the C Center this project the C Center there have been a total of seven phases and the exterior and showed an image of uh one of the renovated offices on the first floor those those phases were completed in uh one through six and that's slide so we go on to slide 14 uh they had an actual a ribbon cutting um for the gallery portion as you walk into the C Center you see this lovely gallery of Native American pieces It's a Wonderful collection I encourage everyone if you have not not seen this collection it is really amazing that it's quite a treasure and it also in addition to being the uh this wonderful collection this is now a OneStop for the students that attend Hender so they have many uh many resources that are all encased in the first floor and then they are also renovating the second floor uh the lower level so if you go on to some of the other projects so they also had a phase seven in 204 for the fiscal year 24 and a couple of the projects that are involved with that were adding uh adding a another exit uh you can see in the the slides and the images they sent uh just giving another access point to the structure and then they are also continuing on uh to finish out the advising and tutoring and uh to make those usable spaces there much of this structure was not in use for a number of years it was formerly the cafeteria and uh it's really exciting to see it just uh I know when Marty and I were there for the ribbon cutting uh people who who remember being in the cafeteria students and now to see it serving the whole campus again is is really remarkable so another wonderful ancc project so another project go to well and this was another project at the Henderson campus is their Barkman house and I just wanted to share a slide this was on their uh Facebook page recently that they were they both acknowledged Arkansas natural cultural resources as providing the ribbon uh providing the funding and they will be scheduling a ribbon cutting in the near future so appreciate apped their uh their great appreciation for all of the funds the council has provided for their projects right and slide uh 18 uh just to remind everyone of the upcoming meetings uh December December 3rd we will be meeting at Garvin Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs uh the March meeting will be held virtually and uh the annual funding meeting will be on the 21st of May a little bit more about the December 3rd meeting we are going to uh be again at Garin Woodland Gardens and uh this time of year many of you may know this is one of a very um very popular tourism destination for for the State uh they have visitors come from far and wide like the last few years uh they're they've just had record-breaking crowds and so on the next slide a couple of the U so we're at slide 20 of 22 some of the activities will have a daylight tour to see the a ncrc projects we'll Tour by golf cart we'll have a meeting and dinner and then uh you'll have the opportunity to also see the the garden lights in the evening so other tours will be available in the evening so I will send out more information I'm I've been visiting with uh Rebecca at at the gardens and uh we'll send more details but we're we planning on starting in the in the afternoon and have uh like I said the tour and information about the gardens and other projects dinner and a meeting and then um then the option of the evening tour so I will like I said I will be sending more information about all of those and uh 21 of 22 just quick update and Shay and Marty may have additional information about this I know they both went to the uh Daisy gats and Bates unveiling but the next unveiling is I've I've shared with everyone uh all of the council members the Johnny Cash unveiling will be uh in on September 23rd and uh it's very exciting there's a lot of publicity about this project and ancc was a was one of the major contributors to this and uh as well as the foundation but um that concludes my my comments anyone have any questions I I would say the Johnny unveiling is uh Johnny Cash unveiling is actually a 24th yeah anybody had been to Garver oh okay go ahead sorry now go ahead I was gonna say if anybody hadn't been to Gar Garvin Woodland garlands I went last year um it is beautiful but uh the the general is you walk it you don't get get to golf cart it so if you want to see it and not have to walk a lot I would highly recommend getting the um the rideal tour instead of the walkal tour because it is quite a bit of walking if you see all of it if there's anybody else that has anything to say is there any public comment is there anything else Miss Deborah that's all I have thank you well if there's no public comment and nothing else from the council I will entertain a motion to adjourn so we can get along with our day with anything else we have so moved got a motion get a second second second got a second all those in favor by saying I I motion carries thank each and every one of you for your time today and hopefully y'all have a great rest of the week and a great weekend so thank you and have a good day thank you thank you