Bond Pays For Projects

CITY OFFICIALS HAVE ABOUT $44 MILLION TO SPEND BEFORE 2014

Everett Hice welds railings Thursday near one of the water slides at the Rogers aquatic center.
Everett Hice welds railings Thursday near one of the water slides at the Rogers aquatic center.

— The 1 percent sales tax extension approved by voters in 2011 has put more than $27 million into capital projects this year, city officials said.

Voters approved the sales tax extension to finance $135.4 million in bonds for a variety of parks, street, police and fire capital improvements.

City officials sold $71 million in bonds to fi nance the projects and have about $44 million left to spend before 2014, said Richard McComas, city treasurer and chief financial officer.

“A large portion of the money,approximately $16.5 million, spent this year went to the Parks Department,” McComas said.

Barney Hayes, city parks director, said the department’s two biggest projects - the sports park and the aquatic center - are on or ahead of schedule.

“We pretty much hit the ground running this year,” Hayes said.

The Regional Sports Park is nearly complete. Contractors are finishing up the final details over the next few weeks, Hayes said.

“The sports park will be ready for the annual Snowball softball tournament in January, the first event to be played in the new park,” Hayes said.

Construction at the aquatic center, scheduled to open Memorial Day, is also moving along well.

“Major construction is just about complete, but there is a lot of detail work that still needs to be completed. We also still need to purchase tubes for the lazy river, lawn chairs, chemicals and other startup items next year,” Hayes said.

Other projects covered in the first round of park improvements include the purchase of property near Veterans Park for construction of soccer fi elds.

“We have purchased the property to expand Veterans Park and build new soccer fields, but we don’t have a design yet,” Hayes said.

The design of the Veterans Park soccer complex will likely happen next year, off cials said.

The Parks Department also purchased property near Lake Atalanta for expansion of the trails system.

“We still have about $5 million we can draw for parks in 2014,” Hayes said. “Much of that money will be going to the renovation of Lake Atalanta.”

The police and fire departments spent about $6 million on new fleet vehicles this year through the bond program.

Police purchased 40 sport utility vehicles and regular police cars this year to bolster the fleet.

Neither Capt. James Baker, who oversees the administrative division, nor James Allen, police chief, could be reached for comment.

The Fire Department was allotted $4 million for new trucks and equipment and has spent most of that money, McComas said.

Tom Jenkins, fire chief, said the new equipment makes the Rogers department one of the best equipped in the state.

“Every front-line f ire apparatus is new or virtually new,” Jenkins said. “The oldest fire truck we have now in the front line was built in 2010.”

The department bought three pumper trucks and two ladder trucks to add to the fleet.

The ambulance fleet is in equally good shape, Jenkins said.

“What this did for the city is improve the quality of our reserve fleet. Before if we had a ladder truck out of service and one in for repair, we didn’t have a ladder truck to send out. Now we have two ladder trucks and two reserve ladder trucks,” Jenkins said.

The additional equipment and the reserve fl eet provide better protection and more depth to the department’s firefighting abilities, Jenkins said.

Street improvements are the other major bond financed project underway in the city. The lion’s share of the bond money - $100 million - is slated for street improvements during the next few years.

Property acquisition for the Monte Ne Road realignment and widening project is nearly complete, city officials said. Monte Ne Road will be widened to four lanes from New Hope Road to Arkansas Street. The route will also be changed to remove some of the curves.

“We have purchased 26 houses along the route and still have one property to acquire,” said Lance Jobe, a city engineer. Several smaller pieces of property will also have to be purchased to expand right of way, but major land purchases are complete.

Construction on Monte Road is expected to begin next year.

The First Street widening project, between Olrich and Arkansas streets, is in the design phase and the city is expected to begin acquiring property next year, officials said.

Price Lane between First and Eighth streets was designed and built this year by city employees at a cost of $1 million, which saved the city money, Jobe said.

Another bond project - improvements to 24th Street to provide another entrance into the aquatic center - is under construction, Jobe said.

Other street projects in the design or construction phase include 21st Street, Bellview Road and Garrett Road.

Mayor Greg Hines said he is pleased with the progress the city has made this year.

“The voters showed confidence in city leadership when they overwhelmingly approved the sales tax extension in 2011,” Hines said. “By having projects ready to go we were able to begin making improvements very quickly. It shows our residents we are making progress with the money they approved. That last thing we want to do is let our residents down.”

News, Pages 1 on 12/28/2012

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