Members appointed to city committees
The Little Rock Board of Directors and Mayor Mark Stodola appointed several new members to the city’s various boards and commissions last week.
They reappointed Grace Blagdon, Andrew Francis and Willis Smith to the Land Bank Commission.
Jennifer Martinez Belt and Bill May were named to the Little Rock Planning Commission.
Don Castleberry, C.C. “Chip” Culpepper II, James Hobson Jr., Patricia Jo Keegan and James von Tungeln were reappointed to the MacArthur Military History Museum Commission. Bharath Mohan and Jerome Tidmore were new appointees to that commission.
Diane Curry was appointed as the Little Rock School District representative to the Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission.
Line replacements doubled for utility
Sewer service-line replacements have more than doubled since Little Rock Wastewater Utility began a program charging ratepayers $1 per month and offering eligible applicants up to $2,500 in reimbursement on the replacements.
The utility’s Director of Environmental Assessment Stan Suel said at a meeting last week that replacements were up from 220 in 2012 before the new program went into effect to 419 last year when applications began being accepted.
“With the number of applications, we’re outpacing our funding,” Suel said, adding that with the current funding the utility is able to do about 25 line replacements per month.
The $1 charge began in 2012 after the Little Rock Board of Directors approved the fee that June. The program is supposed to help replace older, damaged and leaking sewer service lines in order to keep in compliance with a 2001 Sierra Club lawsuit settlement.
According to the utility’s former chief executive officer, leaking and broken sewer lines account for about 40 percent of the sewer overflows in Little Rock.
The fees raised $736,604 in 2013 and $317,187 the previous year. Suel said 89.1 percent of that revenue has been reimbursed so far.
Group seeks input on plan for district
The Metropolitan Housing Alliance is seeking feedback on its 100-page report detailing plans to revitalize a poverty-stricken area of Little Rock.
The Transformation Plan summarizes what the alliance hopes to implement in a 2-square-mile area southeast of downtown that includes “two severely distressed properties” - Sunset Terrace Public Housing and the Elm Street Apartments. A $300,000 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant enabled the work.
Housing Alliance Executive Director Rodney Forte said the next step is to obtain HUD’s nearly $30 million implementation grant. The alliance is preparing to apply, but HUD has yet to announce when or if it will take applications.
The planning report - available for view and comment at mhapha.org - said that a third of the households in the chosen area fall below the poverty line, which is an annual income of $22,000 for a family of four. There are 11,060 people living in the area - a decline of 19 percent since 2000. Ninety percent of the residents are black, 7 percent are white and 3 percent are classified as “other.” A quarter are under the age of 18.
Just 23 percent of the households are led by married couples, compared with about 43 percent in the surrounding Pulaski County. The median household income is $26,625 per year, compared with $47,000 in the county. The majority of households - 10,811 - fall in the low density category of 5.3 households per acre.
The plan proposes goals in three areas: people, housing and neighborhood. Most of the residents said they needed computer skills and wanted a grocery store near them. Only one grocery store, the City Market, is located within the boundaries of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is bordered by Interstate 630 to the north, Asher Avenue and West Roosevelt to the south, Battery Street to the east and Harrison Street to the west. It’s adjacent to the State Fairgrounds and includes Central High School.
The alliance hopes to address the area’s issues by improving school readiness for children under 5; introducing healthy lifestyle practices; building leadership and job skills; expanding community engagement; redeveloping the Elm Street Apartments and building on the vacant half of the block; creating a balance of housing options from affordable to market rate; improving public transportation, sidewalks and lighting; and enhancing existing parks.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 02/23/2014