North Little Rock is proposing to pick up the $80,000 tab for Sprint Corp. to relocate buried cables and conduit in a part of downtown, even though the city doesn't own all of the property the lines run through.
The city owns two parcels where the cables are buried. The remaining parcel is owned by The Mill LLC, headed by Harold Tenenbaum. The cable lines are between Fourth and Seventh streets and Poplar and Magnolia streets, an area where the former Prime Quality Feeds mill operated for decades.
The resolution the City Council is to consider at its 6 p.m. meeting today reads that the relocation to be handled by the telecommunications company is "in order for development plans to move forward in the downtown area."
Danny Bradley, chief of staff for Mayor Joe Smith, said the city is taking the responsibility for the cost of relocating the lines because the fiber optics will be moved into public right of way. Also, the city paid for the relocation of the lines to the current properties in 2005 to remove the fiber-optics cables from near Verizon Arena in connection with the removal of a railroad berm.
The 2005 relocation cost the city $158,779 and also accommodated a Pulaski County project that converted the Junction Bridge into a walkway and bike path across the Arkansas River.
"Those were brought to Fourth Street when they put the new fiber optics in there," Bradley said of the two lines to be moved. "What [Sprint] is going to do this time is move them to a new fiber junction and take it down Magnolia Street, because the fiber that runs through this property is about 20 years old. The junction point for it to connect is there at Fourth Street and comes up through the right of way."
Bradley added that the property owners are "getting some benefit out of it, but to relocate it off of our property [Sprint] had to tie into their new fiber there at Fourth Street and bring it down to there. We thought [the price] was a pretty good deal."
City aldermen who were asked about the proposal indicated they weren't clear on why the city would pay for the full cost of the relocation when part of the property doesn't belong to the city.
"I've had it drilled into my head that we don't spend money on private property," Alderman Debi Ross said Thursday. "I'm waiting on some answers here on how we could spend public funds on private property."
Alderman Maurice Taylor expressed surprise when asked about the proposal Thursday. Taylor said he hadn't seen the legislation and wanted to get more information.
"We're paying for it to be relocated?" Taylor replied when asked about the proposed payment. "That's interesting."
When asked whether city officials had discussed dividing the cost with Tenenbaum, City Attorney Jason Carter said he wasn't aware "if they've ever broached that subject."
The fiber-optics lines are within the same area as a Union Pacific rail spur that the City Council approved in January paying $425,000 to buy, which is adjacent to property partly owned by the city and partly owned by Tenenbaum's The Mill LLC.
The city plans to sell the part of the spur that crosses Tenenbaum's property to The Mill group, Smith said in January. The city's purchase of the rail-spur property is to close next month, Bradley said.
The removal of the rail spur and fiber optics are to help develop that portion of the downtown area, Smith has said.
Private development plans for apartments, town homes and mixed-use buildings to contain offices, retail stores and restaurants, Smith has said, would help complement a public plaza at Sixth and Main streets that the city wants to create to draw more people downtown.
Metro on 08/22/2016