Bryant residents will vote on whether to extend a temporary tax increase another three years to fund several city infrastructure projects.
The special election will ask voters to decide whether to refinance the bond they first approved in 2006 to build Bishop Park. Refinancing would allow collection of the accompanying 0.5 percent sales tax to continue beyond 2031 to 2034. Election day is Aug. 9, but early voting begins tomorrow.
The refinancing would cover up to $23 million in infrastructure projects, if all projects are approved by voters.
Those projects include the construction of a new street from Interstate 30 to Reynolds Road, additions and improvements to city parks and the construction of two new fire stations to replace two existing stations that are operating out of mobile homes.
The city council approved putting the issue to a vote at its meeting in May , with all eight council members voting in favor, according to meeting minutes posted on the city's website.
In favor of the reissue is community group Keep Bryant Moving. The group supports all of the issues on the ballot, and posted on its Facebook page that the reissue will support infrastructure jobs and improve services.
"Next month, every vote will have a huge impact on Bryant's future," a July 18 post on the group's page reads. "We will have the chance to drastically relieve our traffic congestion, improve our parks, and increase the effectiveness of our firefighting services."
Many people have left comments on the group's page in support of a new parkway but arguing that the city should address the conditions of current roads before building a new one. Some said they would vote against the reissue.
An email to the group was not returned Friday afternoon.
The proposed new street -- called Bryant Parkway -- would appropriate up to $14 million of a new bond, if approved. It's intended to relieve traffic congestion on Reynolds Road, which can get bad at the beginning and end of the school day, city staff attorney Chris Madison said. People had been bringing that up, along with general connectivity in the city, as an issue for quite some time, he said.
"One of the complaints is Reynolds Road sucks during school time," Madison said.
What takes a few minutes to drive normally can take a half-hour, he said.
The proposed bond refinancing also would provide up to $4.5 million for new entrances to Bishop Park, a flood mitigation study for the park and additional construction. Other city park improvements include updates to Mills Park, new shade structures, more soccer fields and a new park at a location to be determined north of Interstate 30.
Voters approved a bond a few years back to build two new fire stations, but that bond did not come with an additional tax increase, Madison said. The city never began construction on those stations because officials decided the bond couldn't be paid for with existing fire department revenue, which is about $1.2 million to $1.3 million annually, based on three-eighths of the city sales-tax revenue.
The current bond issue would appropriate as much as $5.5 million to construct two new fire stations.
The main problem with the current fire stations, Bryant Fire Department Asst. Chief Brandon Futch said, is the cramped space. The mobile homes are large enough for a small family but not for a firefighting operation, he said.
"It's tight quarters," Futch said. "When you've got up to three or four big firefighters in there, it presents its challenges."
The current bonds for Bishop Park are on pace to be paid off by 2019 instead of 2031, based on current sales tax revenue in the fast-growing city, officials said. Based on 2015 sales tax revenue, the new bonds would be paid off by 2034.
The bond reissue will appear on the special election ballot as four separate items.
The first issue will be the refinancing itself. Voters will mark "for" or "against" refinancing the bond. The next three issues will be the individual projects: one item for the city parks improvements, one item for the fire station construction and one item for the new street projects.
For any of the projects to move forward, voters must first approve of the refinancing proposal. After that, the refinancing would only cover the project proposals approved by voters.
Metro on 08/01/2016