Council to Carry Over $48 Million

Action Would Prevent Lapse in City Projects

— Plans for a range of city projects can continue if aldermen agree Tuesday to add $48.1 million to the city’s $134.9 million budget for 2013.

By the Numbers

Fayetteville Council

Council members have approved carryover amounts from prior budget years. Voters in 2006 committed $110 million in sales tax to a number of street and sewer projects. The debt has been steadily repaid since then.

-2013: $48.1 million*

-2012: $57.6 million

-2011: $58.8 million

-2010: $76 million

-2009: $74.3 million

-2008: $108 million

-2007: $163.7 million

-2006: $51.3 million

*To be decided Tuesday

Source: City Of Fayetteville

The City Council routinely adjusts its budget at the beginning of the year to account for projects that span multiple budget cycles.

“The state of Arkansas does not allow for continuing the budget past the fiscal year,” said Paul Becker, city finance director. “Your budget ends. So to continue programs, you need to budget them again in a new year’s budget.”

The 2013 carryover amount is about $9.6 million — or 16.6 percent — less than what aldermen rebudgeted last year. Becker said that’s mainly because the city paid down debt associated with its Transportation Improvement Bond Program and Wastewater System Improvement Project. City officials also paid for a large portion of a roughly $5.8 million communication system upgrade in 2012, Becker said.

The $65.9 million, voter-approved transportation bond program has paid or is paying for a range of street projects, including a new intersection at Gregg Avenue and North Street, widening Crossover Road and extending Rupple Road between Persimmon Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Becker has said he expects a third round of transportation bonds to be issued in 2014.

All work associated with the roughly $185 million sewer project ended in September, according to David Jurgens, city utilities director. Voters committed $125 million in sales tax to the project in 2001 and another $42 million in 2006. Becker said in December about $59 million in sewer debt remained. He said he expected sewer debt to be retired by 2021.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan’s administration has recommended carrying money for a North Street recycling drop-off, Solid Waste and Recycling Division vehicles and a regional park in southwest Fayetteville into the 2013 budget. Dozens of other projects will be up for reauthorization Tuesday.

Also at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, aldermen will consider terminating a contract with the Fayetteville Executive Airport’s private fixed-base operator and selling a portion of the former Tyson Mexican Original property at Huntsville and Happy Hollow roads to one of two gasoline station chains.

Jordan and airport administrators have recommended the city take on all Drake Field operations.

City Attorney Kit Williams said he intends to open sealed bids Tuesday from two companies interested in the former Tyson property: Des Moines, Iowa-based Kum & Go convenience stores and Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s General Stores.

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