BENTONVILLE -- City council members tabled a vote to increase electrical rates and heard from people concerned about Lake Bella Vista during their Tuesday meeting.
The proposed increase would increase the residential electrical rate 4 percent next year and add two increases in 2017 and 2018 for a 10 percent increase over three years.
Proposed electrical increases
Bentonville City Council heard rate increases in electric service. If approved residents would pay $3.99 a month more in 2016, an additional $3.11 in 2017 and $3.21 in 2018, based on an average bill of $99.74. The council’s next meeting on the rates will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Community Development Building, 305 S.W. A Street.
Source: Staff report
No increases were recommended for water or sewer rates through 2020, according to the plan presented to the council.
Electrical rates haven't been increased since 2009, consultant Tom Gould, vice president at HDR Engineering, said after the meeting.
Part of the proposed increase is to catch the city up and part of it's for infrastructure improvements, Gould said.
The plan proposes $32.3 million in improvements to city infrastructure during the next five years.
One of the improvements on the proposed plan would be a $9 million new electrical substation that would cost the city $4.5 million because it would be built as a partnership with private industry, said Travis Matlock, engineering director. Second transformers could be added at two substations that serve businesses and residential areas and 20-year-old equipment at a third substation would be updated, Matlock said.
The increase would mean the city would be on a pay-as-you go model and not need outside loans for the improvements, Gould said.
The changes will zero out a power cost adjustment that appears on monthly bills, folding it into the bill instead of adding the fee, Gould said. The cost of power has changed in the last six years, he said. His recommendation called for the city to review the rates again in 2019.
The council voted 5-2 to table the question for the next meeting
Council members Jim Webb, Stephanie Orman, Bill Burckart, John Skaggs and Tim Robinson voted to postpone the rate increase for the next meeting. Octavio Sanchez and Chris Sooter voted to not postpone the rate discussion. Councilman James Smith was absent.
"It's more data than you can absorb in 24 hours," Burckart said after the meeting.
He wanted to postpone the vote so he can talk to people who would be affected and to see if there's a way to raise the needed capital without raising rates, he said.
The increase would be 4 percent in 2016, 3 percent in 2017 and an additional 3 percent in 2018 with no increases projected in 2019 and 2020.
The last scheduled increase for sewer rates was in 2012 and water and sewer rates increased in 2009, said Mike Bender, Public Works director. Incremental water cost increases from Beaver Water District to the city automatically are added through a pass-through clause in city ordinance, Bender said.
Council members elected to hear from audience members concerned about Lake Bella Vista and asked the council to consider demolishing the dam and returning the stream. About 20 people attended the meeting and five signed up to speak on the topic.
Nothing on the agenda involved the lake, Mayor Bob McCaslin told the council.
City ordinance sets meetings as a limited public forum, meaning public comments are meant to be limited to topics on the agenda, said George Spence, city attorney. Tuesday was the first time that ordinance had been tested, Spence said.
The next time Lake Bella Vista will appear on the agenda will be on a design contract, McCaslin said.
Audience members said they were concerned the matter wouldn't be publicly addressed. Council members voted to hear from three people who talked about the liability of the polluted lake and the need to return it to a stream.
"Lake Bella Vista is a bad lake. It's built in the wrong way and in the wrong place, said Bentonville resident Darrell Bowman, an aquatic biologist.
Other funding to return the stream is available outside the Federal Emergency Management Agency money promised to the city, Bowman said. The watershed surrounding the lake is too small, creating an environmental disaster that's difficult to manage, he said.
People have been trying to address the council and mayor for a long time and felt rebuffed, said resident Ken Leonard after the meeting.
The group organized on social media and will likely return once the issue is added to the council agenda, he said.
NW News on 10/14/2015