ES council torn over confetti scofflaws

A 2024 ordinance that bans all forms of confetti in the city needs to be better enforced, according to a Eureka Springs City Council member.

At the council’s regular meeting on Monday, March 10, council member Harry Meyer said confetti illegally thrown during a recent Mardi Gras parade should have consequences.

“… If everybody looks at photos of the confetti from our last parade, there was a lot of it,” Meyer told council members. “It was blown out of a gun or something and people were throwing it off balconies of the Flatiron Building.

“I would think that the organizers of the parade should have to pay a fine for this. They’re the ones that are responsible. They applied for a permit for a parade and they need to pay a fine.”

Meyer said he recently learned from “parks employees” that there was still confetti paper left in Basin Spring Park from New Year’s Eve.

“Even after rain and snow and everything else, it’s just a wet glob down there,” Meyer said. “It didn’t get cleaned up and it’s almost impossible to clean it up once it gets wet.”

The council did vote an exception to the ordinance that allowed confetti to be used at the New Year’s Eve event with the stipulation that a group including organizers and city employees would clean it up.

“We can do without confetti, I do believe,” Meyer said, “and still have lots of fun and have nice parades. We have in the past. Why can’t we do it now?”

“Do you think there’s any chance that we can find out who threw those cigarette butts down while we’re at it,” asked council member Terry McClung. “I understand your feelings. I don’t like the confetti either, but it’s hard to go back on the parade organizers because people act on their own, whether they know there’s an ordinance or not.

“Was somebody in the parade that shot the confetti, or was it a bystander?”

Meyer said the point is that the ordinance needs to be enforced.

“I don’t know how you’re going to do it,” McClung said. “Yeah, it’s just like cigarette butts. How you gonna? Who are you gonna?”

“The enforcement is when it happens, not after the effect,” Mayor Butch Berry said. “I appreciate you bringing this to the attention of the council and myself. I wasn’t in town that day, so I don’t know which float threw the confetti. I don’t know whether, right now it’s probably impossible to go back and give them a citation.

“But, I will certainly make note from now on that highlights that portion of the parade permit.”

Also at the March 10 meeting, Berry said he will be issuing a Request for Qualifications for any attorneys interested in filling the city attorney position recently vacated by Forrest Jacobi.

“I will be asking for an RFQ … from attorneys to take over the position, of you might say, advisory to the council because we still have the job split and we still have a prosecuting attorney taking care of our prosecuting portion. The new attorney would be taking over helping us write ordinances, giving advice to commissions, clerk, mayor, et cetera.”