Fayetteville Projects Reviewed At Mayor's Town Hall Meeting

Mayor Lioneld Jordan
Mayor Lioneld Jordan

FAYETTEVILLE -- About 30 people came to the Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club on Monday for Mayor Lioneld Jordan's first town hall meeting of the year.

Jordan and several department heads updated residents on ongoing and upcoming city projects.

Web Watch

Town Hall Meeting

Video of Monday’s town hall meeting will be posted to the city’s website by the end of the week.

To view the video, go to accessfayetteville.… and click on “Live Meetings and Archived Videos.” Then click on the green tab labeled “Mayor’s Town Hall Meetings.”

Paul Becker, Fayetteville finance director, told attendees March was the first month of the year with better-than-budgeted sales tax collections.

City officials collected $2.43 million in March, about $107,000 -- or 4.6 percent -- more than the $2.33 million they budgeted for the month.

Sales tax collections were down about $128,000 -- or 4.4 percent -- in January and $202,000 -- or 8.4 percent -- in February, mostly because of bad weather, Becker said.

Even with March growth, collections for the first three months of the year were down about $223,000 -- or 2.9 percent. The city will have to post better-than-expected sales tax growth for the remaining nine months of the year for revenue to meet expenses and to cover salary increases aldermen approved in March.

The city's 2014 budget anticipates 2 percent sales tax growth for the year.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Becker said. "But there's a very, very good possibility we'll catch up by the end of the year."

Chris Brown, city engineer, touched on several street projects Monday that are being designed or are under construction.

An overpass connecting northbound College Avenue to Mall Avenue and westbound lanes of traffic on the Fulbright Expressway should be open this summer, Brown said. The bridge will allow drivers to access Interstate 49 (formerly Interstate 540) without having to turn around at Joyce Boulevard.

"We're really excited to be this close to completion," Brown said.

Workers with APAC-Central in late March broke ground on a one-mile widening and extension to Van Asche Drive between Gregg Avenue and Arkansas 112. The project will give drivers a better way to get from the shopping district around the Northwest Arkansas Mall to the area north of Sam's Club.

Brown also reviewed several trail projects Monday. City officials plan to complete roughly five miles of trail in 2014. Projects include the Clear Creek Trail north of the Northwest Arkansas Mall; a half-mile extension to the Frisco Trail between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Walker Park; and a 1 1/2-mile segment of the Tsa La Gi Trail from the Frisco Trail west to Razorback Road.

Terry Gulley, Transportation Services director, said the city's Transportation Division also plans to build more than six miles of sidewalk this year.

Jeremy Pate, Development Services director, updated attendees on plans for a city parking deck on the southeast corner of the Walton Arts Center property.

Pate said construction on the four-level, roughly 250-space deck should begin this summer and end in mid- to late 2015.

Construction is also scheduled to start this year on a roughly 200-acre regional park near the Cato Springs Road exit on I-540.

Connie Edmonston, Parks and Recreation director, said the first phase of the regional park will include six soccer fields and two or three baseball diamonds along with parking, restrooms, a large pavilion and playground.

NW News on 04/22/2014

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