HIGHFILL -- The city council in Highfill, at its Jan. 8 meeting, appointed a new council member, amended its 2018 budget to reflect actual expenditures, adopted a new budget for 2019 and voted to move forward with extending water lines along Hutchens Road and later explore extending lines along the eastern side of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
Ryan Evans was appointed to the council to fill the Ward 3, Position 2, seat vacated by the resignation of Mark White at the end of 2018. The only dissenting vote was that of Wesley Evans, who voiced concern that this would be the third volunteer fireman on the council. Ryan Evans was sworn in by Mayor Michelle Rieff following his appointment and took his seat on the council.
Tim Mays, of Engineering Services Inc., of Springdale, presented the council with alternative plans for both water and sewer system improvements. As asked by the council, Mays presented plans to extend the city's water system to the east side of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport to protect the city's water service area from encroachment by other city water systems, to have water service available for anticipated future development on the east side of the airport and to loop lines to reduce the need for line flushing and possibly provide an additional supply line to the city's system.
Projected costs to do the full loop were approximately $1.1 million and $1.5 million with the Hutchens Road extension included, accord to maps provided by Mays.
Jay Williams, the city's attorney, asked whether it was worth it to spend more than $600,000 to run a line all the way along the east side of the airport just to protect the water service area. He said that, for now, the extension would be a line to nowhere since there are not potential water users in the area which the line would service.
Alderman Chris Holland suggested using bond money the city has available and must use or lose to fund the Hutchens Road extension where there are more potential water customers waiting for water service. Williams, too, said he thought it wiser to use money the city has available for a loop to complete the Hutchens Road extension and do more study on possible future extensions to the airport.
Toby Lester suggested building the Hutchens Road extension and going as far as the city can afford to go toward the east side of the airport to make the city's presence known.
After much discussion, the council voted to proceed with the Hutchens Road project and "regroup" on the rest.
Mays presented four options for additional sewer service, with the Option 1 preferred plan to extend the sewer line south along the creek which runs along Rocky Comfort Road and then using a pump station to pump sewage over the hill to the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority wastewater treatment plant. The estimated cost for the preferred plan was $3.84 million.
Other plans -- Mays said he was required to submit at least three for the city to obtain federal and state grants and loans -- included pumping sewage to Cave Springs and connecting to its forced main to NACA, extending a line to Gentry's wastewater treatment plant, or building the second phase of Highfill's wastewater treatment plant. Costs for all the other alternatives were considerably more expensive than extending a gravity-flow sewer line along Rocky Comfort Road and then pumping sewage over the hill to NACA. Building the second phase of the city's drip-field wastewater treatment plant would not meet long-term growth needs of the city because of the limits placed on the number of connections by the state health department.
Mays said the costs did not include the cost of a contract with NACA for services but that regional wastewater treatment is the preferred plan to obtain grant and loan funding through the USDA and Arkansas Department of Natural Resources.
Mays said the minimum cost to the city would be $1 million with grant funding.
The matter was referred to the city's water and wastewater advisory committee for more study, with the council favoring Option 1. Approval from the WWAC is required for state grant applications. Mays said it would take a minimum of two years to complete the project in the best case scenario.
The council passed an ordinance to increase sewer connection fees from $650 to $2,000 with an emergency clause attached. Holland and Ryan Evans voted no to the increase, with Holland stating the charge needed to be more to cover the city's costs.
Two public hearings were held, one closing out the city's Arkansas Community and Economic and Development Program grant for the Highfill Community Building and the other to identify and to prioritize city needs to apply for a new ACEDP grant in the next grant cycle. The council approved applying for ACEDP grant funds to be used for extending a sewer line to NACA.
The council passed an ordinance establishing franchise fees for cable service providers. Currently, Cox Communications is the only cable service provider in the city.
Resolutions were passed increasing council pay from $49 per meeting to $50 and including council workshops as paid meetings, authorizing the mayor to hire part-time seasonal help from time to time, authorizing the mayor to sign a lease agreement for a copier for $130.31 per month, raising trash fees to reflect an increase submitted by the city's trash service provider -- residential fees will be $11.81 per month ($10.68 for seniors), a 3.39 percent increase -- and appointing Will Hanna to the NACA board of directors.
General News on 01/16/2019