Benton County Officials To Consider Road Plan

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace will get their first look at the county's proposed 2015 road paving plan tonight.

The Road Department has prepared a list of paving projects for next year that calls for 43.4 miles of paving work with a price tag of about $2.6 million, County Judge Bob Clinard said. The roads in the work plan are selected taking into account traffic volume, emergency services and improving the connectivity of the county's road system. The paving work is a goal Road Department officials think is attainable, he said.

"It may take some overtime, and it will take a real good weather year," Clinard said. "We can't have any more ice storms or floods."

The plan calls for the county to do about 23.5 miles of asphalt paving, about 4 miles of single chip and seal and another 15.8 miles of double chip and seal paving, Clinard said. The cost includes both the paving and the prep work needed to get the roadways ready for paving, he said.

The county had to reduce its paving program in 2014 after a major storm hit Benton County in August 2013, Clinard said. Much of the repair work from that flood was done in 2014. That cut the paving program down to about 28 to 30 miles. The county is still working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on two bridge repair projects from that storm, Clinard said. The county isn't reimbursed for the repair work unless the federal agency approves it in advance, he said.

"If we don't wait for them, we don't get any money," he said.

The justices of the peace have asked county departments, including the Road Department, to trim their budgets by about 3 percent from their 2014 levels to provide money to pay for ambulance service in the event voters reject one or both of the revenue plans on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, which includes much of the southwestern part of the county, said the paving work planned for 2015 likely will include many projects delayed by the flood repair work done this year.

"I would think those are the ones that were in the pipeline last year and didn't get done," he said.

The Road Department should be able to put forward a paving plan similar to last year's original proposal, which was reduced by $450,000 to provide money for rural ambulance service after it became obvious the flood repair work was going to take up much of the department's time, manpower and resources this year, Moore said.

"If their paving budget is similar to last year's total, before the $450,000 was cut, it's not going to be any big deal," Moore said. "If its substantially more, we ll have to have some discussion."

Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for District 9, said she wants to begin to consider the Road Department plan, but she said that department's final budget, like all county departments, will hinge on results from the November vote on ambulance service.

"I would hope they took into consideration our issues and the possibility of our not being able to fund everything," Anglin said. "I think it'll be important information for us to consider as we work through the budget."

The people she has spoken to about the ambulance vote seem to understand the county will have to cut other services if there is no revenue source for ambulance service, Anglin said.

"They understand we don't manufacture money, and they don't want services cut," she said. "The reality is we may have to live with less services. I think that has to be part of the discussion."