Pownall resigns from Planning Commission

EUREKA SPRINGS -- Ken Pownall resigned as of Feb. 11 from the Eureka Springs Planning Commission and Board of Zoning and Adjustment.

Speaking from home last Monday, Pownall said his upset started when he arrived for a meeting on Feb. 4 which had been called off due to bad weather. "I got in there and found out. I had been trying to get on the city's e-mail for two weeks, and come to find out I had been knocked out of it in the process of changing everything. That upset me a little bit, and it kind of went from there."

He also learned that one commissioner had notified the city clerk that he could not be present due to a family commitment, but Pownall had not been notified. "Had I known, I could have called off the meeting," he said.

Add to that, comments that it is probably best that commissioners not talk to citizens anyway. Saying that is part of the reason for his resignation, Pownall said that if commissioners feel there is a need to have no contact with citizens, then "apparently there has been a determination made" that the commission "needs to operate in a way other than what I feel it needs to."

"Everybody who deals with the city is frustrated. I'm nothing special," he said. But, he observed, "there are too many people who don't think (the Planning Commission) is necessary -- just leave things alone and let it happen on its own ... let someone else worry about it."