BENTONVILLE -- Flood damage from recent heavy rain has Benton County officials looking at more than $2 million in repair work on roads and bridges.
"That's the most recent number I've gotten," Jeff Clark, county public services administrator and head of the Road Department, said last Wednesday afternoon. "We're not through yet so, realistically, it can be higher."
The county had six roads that remained closed Wednesday afternoon, after having as many as 50 roads closed Monday and Tuesday, Clark said.
"We've got those six that have extensive damage," Clark said. "On Georgia Flat Road, both ends of the bridge have washed out. We could haul in six or seven truckloads of material to fill that in, but the water is still so high we can't see if there's any structural damage to the bridge itself. We have two of those situations, with Suavely Road Bridge being the other. Until the water goes down, we can't reopen those bridges."
County Judge Bob Clinard said the county asked area contractors to indicate their interest in doing repair work for the county. The county asked the companies to submit an hourly rate and information for their availability to do repair work, he said. Road Department crews can do the work, but the extent of the damage and repair work needed might cut into other work the department has planned, he said.
Terry Lewis, county property manager, said five companies responded and supplied the county with the information requested by the noon Wednesday deadline.
"We're asking for information from these subcontractors so we can balance that with what we think our Road Department can do," Clinard said. "It's highly likely we're going to get a presidential disaster declaration for this. If we do, we can be reimbursed for up to 87.5 percent of our costs. If that happens, the money is better spent hiring subcontractors so our people can get on with the road work."
Mike Dixon, head of the county's Emergency Management Agency, said the county and state must reach certain thresholds of damage for state and federal disaster aid. At the state level, he said, the county's cost to repair damage from the flooding has to exceed a threshold of about $800,000. For federal assistance, the cost of repairing damage in the state has to exceed a threshold of about $4.2 million.
The county will look at individual sites not only to determine what repair work is needed, but also to ascertain why and how the damage occurred and if the county can take steps to prevent the damage from recurring, Clinard said. That could further increase the county's costs, he said.
"As soon as it's dry enough we can assess the extent of the damage and the work needed, including mitigation costs," Clinard said. "That could be a variety of things. It could be putting in head walls, installing larger culverts or adding more culverts. Whether we get assistance or not, I insist we do that anyway. I want to know why it happened and what can we do to keep this from happening in the future."
Kurt Moore, justice of the peace, said he's been contacted by constituents about the damage.
"Have you seen Butler Road?" he asked. "Someone showed me a picture. There's a trench in the middle of the road. A guy about my size is standing in it, and you can only see him from the chest up."
The cost of repairing the flood damage probably won't hit the county's 2016 budget immediately, Moore said.
"In my opinion, and there may be some with other ideas, it shouldn't come out of the budget at this point, especially if we're going to be reimbursed," he said. "We can spend money out of the reserves and then pay it back once we are reimbursed."
Moore thinks the county should do as much of the repair work in-house as possible as long as it doesn't interfere with other scheduled work.
"I would say they need to go ahead and do it with county labor until we get into paving season," he said. "Then they can go with contractors."
Pat Adams, justice of the peace and chairman of the county's Transportation Committee, also wants to use contractors for storm repair work so the county can stick with its 2016 road plan. Adams also said the county has money available in reserve and should use it for situations like this.
"We either have to sacrifice mileage in our road plan or hire contractors and take the money out of reserves," Adams said. "That's what the reserves are there for. I don't want to short change any department because of a natural disaster."
Adams has driven to War Eagle Bridge to see how the historic bridge was holding up to the flooding.
"I was out there when the water was about as high as it got," he said. "For a 110-year-old bridge it surprised me how well it's holding up. I'm not too concerned about War Eagle at this point. It's been through a lot of floods, and I think it'll withstand this one."
General News on 01/06/2016