SPRINGDALE — The approval of Tuesday’s bond election would have a huge effect on the city, said Mayor Doug Sprouse.

Voters will decide in a special election if the city can sell bonds to raise up to $71 million for infrastructure improvement.

“This money can provide great opportunities to make Springdale the most attractive city in the area for quality growth,” Sprouse said. “We have to be careful to get the most for our money.”

Early voting ends Monday at the Washington County Clerk’s Office.

Approval to sell the bonds will not raise taxes. Proceeds from an existing city sales tax will be used to repay the bonds.

Three questions appear on the ballot: up to $45 million for street improvement, up to $17 million for park and recreation facilities and up to $9 million for Fire Department improvement. Each will pass or fail independently. The priority for projects would be set by the council, after public input sessions, Sprouse said.

Jeff Hagen, an owner of the Pontiac Coffee House in Springdale, said he was disappointed more information about the election was not available from the city.

“I do think the money for streets and the Fire Department will be well spent,” Hagen said. “We need the roads and we need safety and security. I’m not so sure about the parks.”

Hagen said he thought spending $7 million on parks would be better than $17 million.

Teresa Powers, a lifelong resident of Springdale, said she supports new fire stations. She also would be in favor of the street improvements in the hope retail business would follow.

“We need more nice restaurants,” Powers said. “We have people in this town that would go out to eat at quality restaurants if we had more.”

Street Improvement

The $25 million interchange at the intersection of Don Tyson Parkway and Interstate 540 is the costliest project. Sprouse said it will be built but could be delayed if the city does not have all the money to pay for it when a construction contract is awarded. The city hopes to open bids late this year, he said.

Other street projects include widening Don Tyson Parkway between 40th Street and Carley Road, extending the parkway from Hylton Road to Habberton Road and improving 64th Street south of Sunset Avenue.

The parkway narrows from five to three lanes between 40th and Carley, said Sam Goade, Public Works director. Extending the parkway would allow traffic from Turnbow Elementary to exit the school without adding traffic to U.S. 412, he said.

“Both are highly needed and highly desirable,” Goade said.

The 64th Street improvements would be needed if NorthWest Arkansas Community College puts a campus near the intersection of 64th and Watkins Avenue.

“We would have to be able to get the traffic from the school in and out,” Goade said.

The plan for a community college campus is an example of why the city needs flexibility for the bond money, Sprouse said.

“We didn’t know this was a possibility a few months ago,” Sprouse said. “This shows the council needs to have the flexibility to spend the money on a different project if something bubbles up that will have a better and quicker impact.

Parks, Recreation Improvement

Residents said in a city survey the biggest recreational need is a park in the southeast section of the city, said Rick McWhorter, city parks director.

“We’d like to have a multiuse park there, with some adult ball fields, soccer fields, trails and a detention pond,” McWhorter said. “It would be a combination of Tyson and Murphy parks. I think that would give us the biggest bang for the buck.”

A splash pad is also a possibility, he said.

“Our aquatic park is running pretty much at capacity,” McWhorter said. “It would be difficult to expand. A splash pad would allow us to meet all income levels without a lot of extra staffing.”

Buying property for a park in the northwest quadrant of the city would plan for growth over the next couple of decades, McWhorter said.

“We will need more parks,” McWhorter said. “If you go on the weekends, every park is filled to capacity.”

Fire Department Improvement

The $9 million proposed for the Fire Department would relocate two stations and add one in the northwest section of the city. Only the new station would require new equipment, an engine and additional firefighters, said Kevin McDonald, assistant fire chief.

“We would plan for the most economical and efficient design for the stations,” McDonald said. “We would probably use the same footprint for all three stations.”

The new stations would need to serve the city’s needs for the next 30 to 50 years, McDonald said. Each station would have three bays, the minimum size the department envisions for its new facilities, he said.

“We are storing some of our backup apparatus in employees’ barns or pulling them overnight into the mechanic’s bay,” McDonald said. “We can take much better care of them if they are stored in the bays that are not needed for frontline equipment.”

The frontline equipment would eventually go into those bays as needed, he said. Eventually, all stations might have an ambulance. Currently, four stations, the only ones with space, host ambulances.

Plans call for Station 2, now on Dyer Street south of Sunset Avenue, to move south to Don Tyson Parkway near Thompson Street. Station 3, on Sanders Avenue behind AQ Chicken, would move north on Thompson, somewhere near the county line.

The exact sites have yet to be determined, McDonald said.

The new station, the seventh for the city, could go near the Wagon Wheel Road and Interstate 540 interchange, or further west, near Shaw Elementary, McDonald said. Shaw is on Grimsley Road, east of Arkansas 112.

“We would have to make a study to see where the need is the greatest and would give us the best coverage,” McDonald said.

If the bonds are approved, the stations would have to be complete or well under way in three years by federal law, McDonald said. If it doesn’t pass, the city will probably not be able to consider building fire stations for about five years, he said.

The Nay Vote

Alderman Brad Bruns is opposed to selling bonds.

“All of the projects the mayor has mentioned are needed,” Bruns said. “The question is do we have to have them now. I think we can wait and pay as we go.”

The city is growing too fast to wait for infrastructure improvements, Sprouse said. New residents of the city burden its infrastructure before the sales taxes they pay accumulate to expand the city facilities, he said.

Bruns, along with aldermen Mike Overton and Jeff Watson, voted against placing the bond issues on the ballot. Eric Ford, Bobby Stout, Rick Evans and Kathy Jaycox voted for holding the election.

The city levies 2 percent in sales tax with 1 percent split between the city’s Capital Improvement Program fund and the general fund. It was approved in 1993 as a permanent tax and would be committed to repaying the bonds.

The other 1 percent repays the street bond program that built three east-west corridors and Arvest Ballpark. This tax was approved in 2003 and will end when the bonds are paid off.

The new proposal calls for the city to pay about $4 million the first year in bond payments. The payment will increase $100,000 annually until it ends in 20 years.

The largest annual payment would be $5.8 million in 2031, according to preliminary estimates from Crews and Associates, which helped draw up the bond sale.