At its meeting tonight, the Texarkana, Ark., Board of Directors will consider regulations to control the placement of donation collection drop-off bins.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom of City Hall on 216 Walnut St. and is open to the public.
The ordinance regulating donation bins began in 2013 when citizens and nonprofit agencies voiced concerns about the bins, such as how they looked and whether the donated items would be helping locally or sent elsewhere.
"Visual clutter and illegal bin placement necessitate regulations," according to a Jan. 19, 2016, memo.
The proposed city's ordinance will allow one bin per address, and each will have to be locked so that only the person picking up the donations can retrieve its contents.
The bins may not exceed 6 feet 6 inches in height or width. Identification of the bin's owner and contact number must be located on at least two sides of the bins.
The Planning Commission recommends this item for approval. No opposition was received after workshops, public discussions and a notice of public hearing was published in the Dec. 27 Gazette.
The ordinance also identifies obsolete regulations that do not allow clothing to be brought into the city for resale. This part of the regulation will be taken out.
In other business, the board will consider renewing certain Microsoft Licenses utilized by the city through the information technology division of Texarkana Water Utilities.
The contract will be through SHI Government Solutions in Austin, the sole provider for the product. The three-year license agreement will cost $102,400, with the Texarkana, Ark., share not exceeding $37,939 to be paid out in three annual installments of $12,646. TWU and the city are recommending that competitive bidding practices otherwise required by applicable statute and ordinance be waived, according to agenda materials.
On tonight's consent agenda is an item about making a permanent parade route for Texarkana, Ark. The proposed route begins with parade staging on Broad Street to the west of Broad and Front streets. . The parade will then continue along Front Street, turning onto Olive Street and continuing on the Texas-side before returning to the Arkansas-side at East Third Street and North State Line Avenue. The parade route will end on North State Line Avenue in front of the U.S. post office.