LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Board of Directors approved three measures Monday to push forward three different street and building projects.
All three resolutions passed with no discussion and unanimous votes at the board’s meeting Monday night, including sales-tax funding for work at Barton Coliseum, approval of a design engineer for storm water improvements on Main Street and approval of the use of eminent domain for rights of-way along Scott Hamilton Road.
The first measure awarded $98,700 in revenue from the city’s sales-tax increase started in January to the Arkansas Livestock Association to help pay for renovations to Barton Coliseum.
The coliseum, located on the State Fairgrounds off Roosevelt Road, will be the site of this year’s AAA Boys and Girls Basketball State Finals as well as the Gulf Coast Conference’s basketball finals. But fairground staff said those events hinged on the improvements to the coliseum.
Some of the work, mostly remodeling and fixing the bathrooms, has already taken place, but most of the fixes will happen after the Arkansas State Fair and Livestock Show later this month. The other scheduled fixes include lighting repairs, repainting and finishing the basketball floors, repairing and painting the seats, newer controls for the scoreboards and refinishing the hallways among other minor repairs.
The money is the first installment of $3 million in promised sales tax revenue used to keep the fairgrounds in Little Rock. The Livestock Association considered moving the fairgrounds to another location after years of dealing with neighborhood crime, lack of space to expand and aging buildings.
The Little Rock board also approved the use of eminent domain to finish the Scott Hamilton Drive improvement project, which includes repaving, some widening and adding sidewalks along the roadway. Eminent domain is the power of governmental entities to take private land for public use and give fair compensation in exchange.
Public Works staff told the city directors last week that the use of eminent domain might be necessary because clear title and ownership couldn’t be established for several of the parcels in question. Staff said two properties required eminent domain usage to move forward as of now, and seven other properties might require eminent domain in the future.
Most of the tracts only require a few hundred feet of property be condemned and taken for sidewalks or easements. None of the eminent domain usage would displace a resident or take a house, staff said.
The last resolution awarded a bid for design work along Main Street to Crafton Tull and Associates. The project, which is funded by an federal Environmental Protection Agency grant through the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, will put low-impact water quality initiatives along four blocks of Main Street including one side of the 100 block and 200 block and both sides of the 300 and 500 blocks.
The project is still in the planning stages and the city is taking public input on some of the features residents would like to see. The grant will fund features like rain gardens, pervious sidewalks and tree wells to help better filter water runoff and storm water.
Arkansas, Pages 8 on 10/02/2012