BENTONVILLE — The North Walton Boulevard redevelopment plan is back on the agenda for today’s City Council meeting at 6 p.m. at the Community Development Building.
The plan was sent back to the Planning Commission last month after concerns from residents about the proposed extension of Northwest Fifth Street. The extension recommendation was removed from the plan, and the Planning Commission approved it last week.
“City staff recommends moving forward with the North Walton Boulevard Plan excluding the recommendation to extend Northwest Fifth Street to Walton,” said Shelli Kerr, planning services manager.
Staff still requests the location where Fifth Street would have gone through to Walton Boulevard remain a center for commercial activity, even without the street extension. The area has a high traffic volume because of the location of Walmart transportation and logistics offices nearby, along with potential redevelopment of the Decision Point property, according to agenda documents.
At A Glance
On The Agenda
Items on the Bentonville City Council agenda include:
• A final change order of $175,072 to the contract with APAC Contractors for East Central Avenue improvements
• The declaration of a backhoe and sealant machine as surplus equipment to be used as a trade-in for replacement equipment
• A five-year contract with ACS Firehouse Software to provide Web-based access to manage fire department records
• A contract with Ecotech Enterprises to purchase liquid aluminum sulfate for chemical phosphorus removal at the wastewater treatment plant.
Source: Staff Report
The revised plan also adds a comment about an upcoming citywide traffic study that could affect future considerations about the Fifth Street extension.
Also on the agenda are annual presentations from the Bentonville Public Library and Downtown Bentonville Inc. The library’s annual report reflects it had more than 300,000 patron visits in 2012 and checked out 545,979 items. The number of checkouts is an increase of more than 46,000 over the 2011, according to the report.
The library also launched a new website and mobile application. The application allows patrons to access their accounts and the library catalog or ask a question of a librarian.
“Many people use smartphones for almost everything, so it’s important for the Bentonville Public Library to be easily accessible whenever and wherever they need access to our library,” said Hadi Dudley, library director.
The application replaces LS2 Mobile, an application used by library users last year. The old application, although free, was not meeting expectations, Dudley said.
Council members are set to consider a contract with FTN Associates for a study on floodplain mapping and channel improvements to a tributary to Little Osage Creek. The study encompasses an area from Southwest I Street to Featherston Road.
The contract would include a hydrologic and hydraulic study of current conditions and the design of channel improvements, according to Ben Peters, city engineer. The proposed contract amount is $170,460.