Alma voters will decide on a smorgasbord of projects Tuesday on a special election ballot that, if all are approved, will cost more than $12 million.
Voters are being asked to approve continuation of a 1 percent sales tax, the revenue from which would pay off bonds that would be issued to pay for improvements to city streets, the fire department, the police department, parks and downtown.
Mayor John Ballentine said he realized people don't like paying taxes but the 1 percent sales tax they are being asked to renew has benefited Alma, allowing it to acquire new fire trucks in the past and make improvements to its water and sewer system.
He said the seven projects on the ballot would help the town of 5,400 to grow and provide citizens with services to improve their lives.
"It's all important. It depends on how people look at it," he said.
Polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. According to Alma's website, Precinct 1 voters will vote at the Alma Public Library at 624 Fayetteville Ave., voters in Precincts 2 and 3 will vote at Fire Station 3 at Rudy Road and Collum Lane, and Precinct 4 and the Eagle Crest precinct will vote at the Alma School Administration office at 916 Highway 64 East.
Revenue from the current 1 percent sales tax, passed in 2009, is being used to pay off water and sewer improvement bonds, Alma Public Works Director Mark Yardley said. That debt will be paid off around November, which will signal the sunset of the tax unless voters approve projects on Tuesday's ballot, he said.
The number of projects they approve will determine how long the tax will remain in effect, Yardley said. According to the city's website, if voters approve all seven projects, the tax would sunset in 2024.
Alma's sales tax rate now is 9.5 percent.
According to Alma's website, the ballot will include $1.955 million in street improvement bonds. Yardley said about half of the revenue would be used to rebuild what is now Arkansas 162 from U.S. 64 south to Fayetteville Avenue, the main downtown street.
The other half of the revenue would be spent to relocate utilities as part of the Arkansas 162 relocation project Alma is working on with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.
Yardley said the section of the highway to be rebuilt is being relinquished by the state to Alma as part of the highway relocation project.
The ballot includes nearly $4.7 million for fire department improvements. Volunteer Fire Chief Eddie Wakefield said the department wants to remodel or replace one of the city's four fire stations. Plans also call for replacing one of the department's pumper trucks and one of the brush trucks and purchasing and equipping a new pumper and a brush truck.
The department also would use tax revenue to buy equipment for the department, including replacement of 30 self-contained breathing apparatuses with spare air tanks and a compression station.
The ballot includes $2.5 million in bonds for downtown streetscape improvements, which Yardley said would consist of putting in a median on Fayetteville Avenue with trees in the median and on sidewalks, new sidewalks and landscaping in hopes of attracting businesses to move downtown.
Bonds for parking improvements totaling $375,000 would pay for replacement of 50 downtown parking spaces that would be lost because of the downtown improvements, Yardley said.
If approved, bonds totaling $1.15 million would be used to refinance outstanding Capital Improvement Refunding and Improvement Revenue Bonds that were used to pay for renovation, expansion and equipping of the police station and the municipal complex downtown. If voters approve the sales tax, Yardley said, the franchise fees now being used to pay off the debt would be used for other general fund purposes.
The ballot also would include $575,500 in bonds to pay off communication and computer equipment for the police department and $862,500 for park and recreation improvements.
NW News on 08/11/2014