HOT SPRINGS - Oaklawn Park will complete construction on its expansion by the end of 2014 or 2015, general manager Eric Jackson said.
Jackson said the tenuous date stems from scheduling construction around the presence of horses at Oaklawn.
Jackson said earlier this year that “horses and jackhammers don’t get along very well.” Horsemen start arriving in early November and generally are out by the end of April, which leaves Oaklawn from May 1 to Nov. 1 for construction.
Six of the seven city directors on the Hot Springs Board of Directors voted Tuesday in favor of a resolution approving Oaklawn’s site plan, which already had been approved by the Hot Springs Planning Commission.
Mayor Ruth Carney abstained.
Jackson said Oaklawn will pay $20 million for the expansion, which eventually would create an estimated250 jobs.
“We are excited about it,” he said.
The site plan for Oaklawn’s expansion was approved by the Planning Commission in June, but businessman John Girolamo appealed the decision.
In his appeal, Girolamo said that Oaklawn’s “predatory food [and] drink campaigns” negatively affect nearby restaurants. Girolamo also urged the board to request an “impact study” on Oaklawn’s 2009 expansion before it approved a new expansion project.
In a phone interview Wednesday morning, Hot Springs Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman said the board was the “final decision-making body” for the city.
“Their decision is final unless it would go to court,” Sellman said.
Speaking before the board Tuesday night, Girolamo said he planned to take his appeal to the “next court of jurisdiction” if the site plan was approved by the board.
The expansion calls forthe first floor of the existing building to be expanded 160 feet to the south, adding 23,541 square feet to the first floor to be used for warehouse, office and receiving-facilities space for operation and maintenance staff members.
The second floor also would be expanded 160 feet, which would add 34,634 square feet to expand capacity for approximately 500 more gambling positions to be added to the 1,000 existing positions.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Sellman addressed questions about the work already taking place at the track. She said Oaklawn “was not doing building construction … they are moving utilities, they are moving an access point, they are redirecting traffic, they are installing a traffic signal.”
“All of these things are being done at Oaklawn’s cost. There is no work being done at this time that is not allowed at this point by the site plan and by the conditions established by the Planning Commission.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 20 on 09/22/2013