BENTONVILLE — The city will become increasingly more walkable as about 3,500 linear feet of sidewalk will be constructed or receive maintenance as part of the Sidewalk Improvements 2016 Project.
Sidewalk Improvement Project
The locations included in this year’s sidewalk improvement project include:
• About 165 linear feet along Southeast 18th Street from Parkview Place then west.
• About 215 linear feet along Southeast 18th Street from Signature Drive then west.
• About 200 linear feet the intersection of Northwest D and Southwest 18th Street.
• About 165 linear feet along Southwest 18th Street from South Walton Boulevard then west.
• About 245 linear feet along Been Road from Southwest 17th Street and Southwest 14th Street.
• About 600 linear feet along Southwest Elm Tree Road between Southwest Victoria Place and Southwest 14th Street.
• About 40 linear feet along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at the intersection with Northeast Wildcat Way.
• About 535 linear feet along South Main Street between Southeast Sixth and Southeast Fourth streets.
• About 375 linear feet along Northwest 6th Street between Northwest C and Northwest D streets.
• About 520 linear feet along Northwest D Street from Northwest Sixth to Northwest Ninth streets.
• About 280 linear feet of a 10-foot-wide trail west of Southwest F Street and north of Lake Bentonville.
• About 245 linear feet of a 10-foot-wide trail along Southwest 28th Street between Regency Parkway and South Walton Boulevard.
Source: Staff repo
Council action
The Bentonville City Council met Tuesday and approved the following:
• Annexing about 4 acres at 8117 S. Morning Star Road into the city.
• Annexing about 288 acres between Northwest Third Street, Peach Orchard Road and Pumpkin Hollow Road into the city on the request of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Trailblazers Association.
• Annexing land east of Northeast J Street into the city.
• Increasing the vehicle count for the Fire Department.
• A resolution certifying the rate of taxation levied on real and personal property in the city as required by the Quorum Court.
• To accept $299,288 from the Environmental Protection Agency and $260,178 from the Walton Family Foundation for stream and wetland restoration at Little Sugar Creek.
• A $7,629 budget adjustment to repair a 2014 Chevy Tahoe in the Police Department’s vehicle fleet.
Source: Staff report
The city council approved 6-0 to accept Tri Star Construction’s bid of $210,782 for the project at its meeting Tuesday. Aldermen James Smith and Bill Burckart were absent.
The city received five bids for the project ranging from the highest at $244,670 to Tri Star’s bid of $210,782, according to agenda documents.
The project includes constructing about 3,500 linear feet of sidewalk over 11 locations around the city as well as 280 linear feet of concrete trail at the end of Southwest F Street.
The trail will be 10 feet wide and start at the dead end just north of 1700 SW F St. It will continue west and connect to the gravel area just north of Lake Bentonville, according to Bryan Wick, city engineer project manager.
The trail will not directly connect to another tail, but it will be close to the Heritage Trail, which runs along Southwest I Street, he said in an email.
“This will allow pedestrians and bicycles to have another path of travel from Southwest I Street to South Walton Boulevard,” Wick said.
The 11 sidewalk sub-projects range from 40 feet at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northeast Wildcat Way to 600 feet on Southwest Elm Tree Road between Southwest Victoria Place and Southwest 14th Street.
Other streets to be included in this year’s sidewalk improvement project include 18th Street, Southwest 28th Street, Been Road, South Main Street, Northwest Sixth Street and Northwest D Street.
Most sidewalks will be between 150 and 300 linear feet. The ones along South Main Street from Southeast Sixth to Southeast Fourth streets and Northwest D Street from Northwest Sixth to Northwest Ninth streets will be more than 500 feet long, according to details provided by Wick.
The city will do sidewalk improvements, whether it’s new construction or maintenance of existing sidewalks, when money is available, Wick said.
“Staff uses a combination of citizens’ requests and staff recommendations to generate a list of sidewalks,” he wrote in an email. “These lists will then be evaluated, ranks and a simplified cost estimate generated. This allows the City of Bentonville to better evaluate the location and quantity of the sidewalk to be built.”
The money will come from the Street Department and Engineering Department sidewalk accounts, according to meeting documents. There is $285,074 budgeted for the sidewalk improvement project this year.
There was no discussion among council members prior to them approving the bid.
Council also agreed to a $5,000 budget adjustment to add to the scope of the Downtown Stormwater Drainage Network Analysis project.
FTN Associates LTD are conducting the analysis. The area of study for the original contract was the southwest quadrant in downtown, specifically between Southwest A Street on the east, West Central Avenue on the north, Southwest Eighth Street on the south and Southwest F Street on the west.
“The additional services will add the 8th street drainage improvements into the hydrologic/hydraulic model generated by the original contract, and updates will be included in the final report,” Ben Peters, city engineer, wrote in his memo to council.
The $5,000 budget adjustment brings the adjusted contract amount to $63,500.
The city hired FTN Associates in November to conduct the drainage study.
Troy Galloway, community and economic development director, described earlier this year that the southern half of downtown as a bowl water does not move out of easily.
The study’s objective is to “provide modeling of the existing storm water drainage network and analyze the impacts based on possible future conditions to provide a basis for identifying the potential need for system improvements and updates to regulations regarding redevelopment of the downtown area,” according to documents from FTN.
NW News on 09/28/2016