Centerton Special City Council Meeting Recap | October 22, 2026

Centerton City Council held a special meeting Thursday, October 22, with a very limited agenda focused on two utility easement matters.

Mayor Bill Edwards called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. Council members Cody Miles, Joshua Hagan, Josie Reed, Wendy Henson and Justin Cowgur were present. Cliff Thompson was absent. City Attorney Brian Rabal participated by Zoom.

Both items on the agenda were approved, with one correcting a previously adopted easement ordinance involving Bradshaw Properties and the other allowing a water-line relocation project to move forward across U.S. Postal Service property.

Bradshaw Properties Easement Ordinance Corrected

Council first considered Ordinance 2026-37, which repealed and replaced Ordinance 2025-13 involving public utility easements from Bradshaw Properties LLC.

Planning Director Lorene Burns explained that Council had previously approved the easements in 2025, but the associated tract split was held up while the city worked through sewer-capacity limitations.

Now that those issues have been worked through, two projects are moving forward on the property. One of the existing tracts will connect to the city sewer system and remove its septic field, and the property can proceed with the subdivision process.

During that review, an additional 30-foot utility easement was identified as necessary for electric service to the property. Rather than trying to modify the earlier ordinance piecemeal, the city repealed Ordinance 2025-13 and replaced it with a new ordinance accepting the complete set of easements.

A Council member asked whether the 30-foot easement had accidentally been omitted from the original ordinance. Staff clarified that it was not simply a paperwork mistake. The easement was not needed in the same way when the earlier action was taken, but it is needed now as the property moves forward.

Council voted to read Ordinance 2026-37 by title only, suspended the rule requiring three separate readings, and then adopted the ordinance. All five Council members present voted in favor.

USPS Easement Will Allow Highway 102 Water-Line Work to Continue

The second item was Resolution 2026-38, approving a utility easement on U.S. Postal Service property and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute the corrected agreement.

Mayor Edwards explained that the easement is needed as part of the ongoing water-line relocation associated with the Highway 102 project.

Normally, utility easements can be handled through the city’s regular acceptance process. Because this particular easement involves federal USPS property, the Postal Service required a formal resolution specifically authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute the agreement.

The easement is needed for the water-line relocation work currently underway along Highway 102, and Edwards said completing the agreement is necessary to keep that project moving.

Council adopted Resolution 2026-38 with all five members present voting in favor.

Other Topics Were Deferred to Future Meetings

Before adjournment, Council member Joshua Hagan asked about raising two additional topics.

Because this was a specially called meeting with only the two utility-easement items listed on the agenda, Mayor Edwards first asked City Attorney Brian Rabal whether additional discussion would be appropriate. Rabal cautioned that the meeting had been called with limited notice and said he would need to know the subject before advising whether it could be discussed.

The first issue Hagan wanted to raise involved Title 10 of the Centerton Municipal Code and provisions dealing with the Water and Sewer Commission. Rather than addressing the question during the special meeting, the discussion was deferred. Hagan was encouraged to speak with Rabal separately, with the issue potentially coming back under other business at the November 10 regular Council meeting.

Hagan also discussed inviting the executive director of several area senior centers to address Council about services for seniors and potential grant opportunities. Because he wanted the guest to have more than the standard public-comment period to make a presentation, Council agreed that the topic should instead be placed on a future meeting agenda. December was discussed as the likely timeframe.

No action was taken on either topic Thursday night.

My Takeaway

There wasn’t a long list of decisions at this special meeting, but both items are good examples of the smaller procedural steps that still have to happen behind larger projects.

The Bradshaw Properties ordinance was essentially cleanup from an approval that dates back to 2025. Sewer capacity delayed the underlying property work, and once the project was able to move forward again, an additional utility easement was needed. Repealing and replacing the original ordinance allowed all of those easements to be accepted together rather than leaving the record incomplete.

The USPS easement is another small piece of a much bigger infrastructure project. Relocating utilities along Highway 102 requires cooperation with multiple property owners and agencies, and in this case federal ownership added another layer of paperwork before the city could move forward.

I also thought the conversation at the end was worth noting. Special meetings are called for specific business, and rather than trying to squeeze unrelated issues into Thursday night’s meeting, those topics were pushed to regular agendas where the public can see what is coming up and Council can have the appropriate discussion.

Sometimes following city government means covering a two-hour meeting filled with major policy decisions. Sometimes it means two easements and a meeting that wraps up quickly. Both are part of how the work gets done, and I’ll keep following both.