FAYETTEVILLE -- Money that will help pay for Walton Arts Center improvements and the first phase of a regional park should be available by the end of next month.
The City Council on Tuesday authorized issuing $11.9 million in bonds. Voters overwhelmingly approved the bond package Nov. 12.
At A Glance
Council Action
Fayetteville’s City Council met Tuesday and approved:
• Keeping the city’s property tax rate at 3.1 mills in 2015
• Appointing seven residents to five volunteer boards and committees.
Source: Staff Report
The bonds will be paid using the Advertising and Promotion Commission's half of a 2 percent tax on hotel stays and food purchases in restaurants. According to Paul Becker, finance director, and Dennis Hunt, bond underwriter with Stephens Inc., it will be late October before all documents are finalized and the bonds can be sold.
Up to $1.5 million will be available to pay off remaining debt associated with Fayetteville Town Center construction.
Another chunk of the bond package, not to exceed $6.9 million, will be put toward an estimated $23 million renovation and expansion of the Walton Arts Center on Dickson Street.
Becker said Tuesday the arts center money is specifically intended "for site improvements and structural improvements for Starr Theater, (the arts center's) backstage staging area and the lobby."
A separate, $6.2 million bond package, backed by fees and fines from the city's paid parking program, is paying for a municipal parking deck on the south end of the arts center as well as a building on the north end of the deck where new administrative offices and backstage space for the arts center are going.
Erin Rogers, public relations director for the center, said Tuesday construction is expected to begin next summer and wrap up in the time for the center's 2016-17 season.
Up to $3.5 million of the $11.9 million bond package will be spent on the regional park, which, in November, was expected to cost about $28 million.
Becker said the focus for the park's first phase will be baseball and soccer fields, but he couldn't specify how many ball fields will be built.
"We've got to see what the costs are," Becker said.
Park planners have said they anticipate construction on the first phase of the park to begin by the end of the year.
As much as $680,000 of the bond package will be set aside for debt service reserve, possible bond insurance and other bond issuance costs, including fees for Stephens Inc. and bond attorney Kutak Rock.
Hunt estimated the average interest rate over the life of the bonds at 3.75 percent. City officials will have up to 30 years to pay the debt. Hunt said he expects total payments, including principal and interest, to be about $17 million.
Aldermen also approved a $265,000 contract Tuesday with Kessler Consulting of Tampa, Fla., for a 10-year trash reduction, diversion and recycling plan.
The plan is intended to identify what it might take to divert 80 percent of material the city collects from the Eco-Vista Landfill in Tontitown.
The city's 2010 diversion rate was about 15 percent, according to the city.
Kessler Consulting will do a waste audit and make policy recommendations, which could include recycling mandates; a curbside composting service; a better method for collecting construction and demolition waste; and a ban on certain types of products, such as plastic bags.
"We want to put a workable plan together where we meet our very aggressive goal that the city has put forward," said Alderman Mark Kinion, chairman of the City Council's Water, Sewer and Solid Waste Committee.
The plan is expected to take about a year to complete.
NW News on 09/17/2014