Road to new high school too narrow

Eureka Springs bus drivers must stagger trips in, out

— A new $10.7 million Eureka Springs High School will open Jan. 3, but the road leading to the school isn’t wide enough to accommodate two buses passing in opposite directions.

Superintendent Curtis Turner said Lake Lucerne Road is about 17 feet wide, and each school bus is about 10 feet wide, including the mirrors that jut out from both sides.

“You need plenty of room to maneuver those things,” said Turner, adding that he has done his fair share of substitute bus driving during his 32 years as an Arkansas teacher and superintendent. “My biggest concern is not so much convenienceas safety.”

Turner said about 820 feet of Lake Lucerne Road needs to be widened and resurfaced to accommodate buses, and that’ll cost about $30,000.

He wants the city to pay for the work. The school district can’t, he said, citing a 2004 attorney general’s opinion.

In opinion 2004-118, then-Attorney General Mike Beebe wrote to Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, saying Article 14, Section 2, of the Arkansas Constitution forbids the use of local school tax money for anything other than the purpose for which it was levied. And under Amendment 74 to the Constitution, Beebe wrote, local school tax revenue is for maintenance andoperation of schools.

But Mayor Morris Pate said the city doesn’t have an extra $30,000 to spend on Lake Lucerne Road. Pate said school officials sent him a letter last spring saying the district would do the road work, and the city could reimburse the school district afterward, but Pate said no.

“They’re pushing it because they want it done before January when the school opens,” he said. “They can use the road. They’d just have to stagger the buses.”

Former Mayor Dani Joy said the issue first came up in 2009 when plans were being made for the new high school.

“We told them that we don’t have the money to do this,” she said. “We made it clear from the get-go that thecity was not going to pay for widening that road because we had more pressing matters than this.”

The city was under a mandate from the state to repair water and sewer lines, so much of the budget was being used for that, Joy said.

“The citizens paid for thetax to build the school,” Joy said. “Now they’re coming back and saying the citizens need to pay again to widen the road, and that’s a problem.”

Pate was elected mayor in 2010 after Joy decided not to run for re-election.

Since those discussions with Joy in 2009, Superintendent Wayne Carr retired and three new members were elected to the Eureka Springs School Board.

Carr remembers the 2009 meeting with Joy.

“That’s something we talked about when we first started talking about the design of the building, that that city street would have to be improved,” he said. “We called the state, and they said you can’t spend your money on a city street.”

Turner began working for the Eureka Springs School District as interim superintendent in January and was hired as superintendent last summer. He was previously superintendentin Murfreesboro.

Construction began on the new 90,113-square-foot high school in June 2011. Voters approved a 1.98 mill property tax increase in 2010 to pay for the construction, raising the total school millage rate to 36.13 mills. A mill is one-tenth of a cent, generating $1 of property taxes for every $1,000 of assessed value. A county assesses property at 20 percent of its appraised value, and the assessment is multiplied by the millage rate to determine the tax bill.

Turner said it may be too late in the year to lay asphalt for the road surface because asphalt work can’t be done when the air is cold. A temporary fix may be to widen Lake Lucerne Road with gravel, then pave it in the spring, he said.

Turner was scheduled to speak to the City Council about the situation Monday night.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/13/2012

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