Little Rock residents will start to see asphalt hitting the road in the next few months after the Little Rock Board of Directors approved on Tuesday the next round of capital-improvement projects to be funded by voter-approved taxes.
After more than an hour of debate, the board voted unanimously to approve a revised list of projects. The proposed lists for Wards 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were not changed, and several projects were added and removed in Wards 1 and 2.
“Hopefully going through this process, we were very transparent,” said City Manager Bruce Moore. “We aren’t going to be able to do every request or even every priority request in this round.But there will be two more rounds of funding.”
City staff members spent months sorting through project requests for this round of funding through the capital-improvement portion of the citywide sales-tax increase that started in 2012, and from the capital-improvements millage extension passed by voters in September.
Staff came back to the board last week with changes to the Ward 1 and Ward 2 priorities after several residents protested that the money earmarked for their wards was being used on projects that require local matching money to secure state and federal grants rather than for resident requests.
The changes to the Ward 1 list were adding reconstruction of 17th Street from Woodrow Street to Brown Street with curb, gutter and sidewalks; improving drainage on Plantation Drive at Pickett Street; removing sidewalk planned along Roosevelt Road; and adding more money for sidewalks in other areas of the ward.
The changes to Ward 2 were improving sidewalks on Dailey Drive from BaseLine Road to the new Pulaski County Health Unit, reconstructing West 10th Street from Abigail Street to Washington Street, reconstructing Maryland Avenue from Elm Street to Lewis Street, reconstructing Elm Street from West Eighth Street to Maryland Avenue, and adding traffic-calming measures on Fair Park Boulevard.
City staff moved a portion of funding plans to reconstruct a viaduct at Wright Avenue from Ward 1 to a fund earmarked for citywide projects. They also moved a portion of required funding to build a railroad overpass at Geyer Springs Road from Ward 2 to the citywide fund.
Several residents from Ward 1 requested changes to the project list for their ward beyond those made by staff, and several residents in Ward 2 spoke in favor of the project list.
Residents from Whitmore Circle in the South End community of Ward 1 said they had requested help with curbs, gutter, ditches and drainage issues for 50 years or more. Ward 1 Director Erma Hendrix asked staff whether it was feasible to remove another project and add Whitmore Circle.
“For whatever reason, this was not submitted, and staff did not have the opportunity to review this,” Moore said. “We said the same thing at every meeting. If there was a project not on the requests lists, we said we’ll write it down and review it, but it’s not fair to all the other projects that have been through the process to add it at this point.”
Other residents protested the removal of the sidewalks on Roosevelt Road. Staff said the road is a state highway and that spending city funds on it wouldn’t be fair. Staff said the city is working with the state to find a way to get the project done.
The city will have two more rounds of sales-tax projects and one more round of bond projects for a total of more than $72 million in sales-tax projects and $105 million in bond projects.
Staff said resurfacing work will be bid out soon, but most of the larger projects in the wards will have to go through the design process first and likely won’t begin until 2014.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 05/22/2013