Road department site approved in Decatur

— City council members, at Monday's meeting, gave the county the go-ahead to begin development of a satellite road department in Decatur and voted to purchase the land needed for a right-of-way to the proposed site.

Elizabeth Bowen, a representative of County Judge Bob Clinard, presented drawings for the proposed development to the city’s planning and zoning committee last Tuesday and again to the council on Monday night.

Bowen said the county is in the process of buying 9.4 acres from Peterson Farms along Spavinaw Avenue, just off Arkansas Highway 102 West and across the street from Veterans Park.

The county is planning to relocate a part of the road department to the Decatur site to save on fuel costs and provide better service to the west side of the county, Bowen said. The proposed sitewill bring 30 to 50 of the county’s current employees to Decatur.

Bowen said the county plans to have the satellitedepartment completed by the end of the year.

The only part of the road department that will be visible from the highway will be the parking lot and the front of the main buildings, whichshould be quite attractive, public works director James Boston said on Tuesday. The beauty of the site is that the land drops off towards the back of the property and will provide the county with a storage area for items, such as culverts, that is out of sight, he said.

Bowen asked the planning and zoning committee and council to approve the development of the site and rezone the landfrom agricultural to commercial II.

“It seems like a no-brainer to me,” said planning and zoning committeemember Bill Patton.

“The big advantage to us is the employees that will be working here everyday, will also be buying gas here, eating lunch hereand hopefully some of them will decide they want to live here,” said mayor Charles Linam.

The county will have to come back to the planning and zoning committee to get a building permit for the project, Bowen said.

Real estate agent Ward Jones also appeared at Tuesday’s planning and zoning committee and Monday’s city council meeting to ask for a lot split for Russell Leeman’sland along Arkansas Highway 102 near the proposed county road department site.

Leeman would like to split 1.7 acres from his 20 acre parcel of land to be sold to the city, Jones said. The rest of the land would be sold at a later date, he said.

Linam explained that the city had a sewer line and lift station on the property for more than 25 years. An easement for the line and lift station had been drawn up as part of what Linam called a “handshake agreement,” but was never filed.

The county will also need a large easement for water, sewer and gas lines across the property, so the simplest thing will be to buy the “Y“ shaped piece of property, Linam said.

Linam said he has negotiated a price of $4,000 for the property.

The council approved the lot split on the planning and zoning committee’s recommendation and made a motion to authorize the mayor to negotiate the purchase of the land.

News, Pages 8 on 04/13/2011