BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials placed on hold plans to expand its convenience center operation after they learned the Bella Vista location is in a floodplain.
The expansion is meant to encourage recycling and reduce illegal dumping.
Convenience centers
Benton County’s convenience centers offer residents the opportunity to dispose of bulky household items, including furniture, appliances and electronics, along with playground equipment, tires, household hazardous waste and metal. The county works with the Benton County Solid Waste District to operate centers in Rogers, Siloam Springs and near Centerton. Plans for a Bella Vista center are on hold after the initial location was found to be in a flood plain.
Source: Staff report
Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie said the city's new planning director, Kevin Gambrill, determined the site is in the floodplain, even though the city has no record of any flooding. The property on Pinion Bluff Drive is also the site of the Bella Vista Recycling Center.
Christie said an engineering firm hired by the city confirmed the site is in a floodplain.
The city would need state approval to build on the site, which Christie said he was told is unlikely. Officials are looking for an alternate site.
"It's a very long process, and, at the end of the day, we probably wouldn't get it," Christie said. "We think now we may have a couple of possible sites, and we're working with the county on those now."
The delay in finding a site frustrates Pea Ridge Mayor Jackie Crabtree, who is also chairman of the Benton County Solid Waste District board of directors. He said it's unlikely the center will open this year, but he wants to see the program continue to grow.
"It's a real advantage to Benton County having different locations where people can take stuff they no longer want or need. I think it's a great program," he said.
The county partners with the Solid Waste District to operate the convenience centers. Locations in Rogers, Siloam Springs and Centerton provide county residents a way to dispose of unwanted household items and household waste at no charge. There are limits on tires and household hazardous waste materials. Anyone dropping off material should be able to show proof of residence if requested.
The program replaced the countywide cleanup events Benton County had hosted once or twice a year. The county budgeted $165,000 in 2015 for two countywide cleanup events, according to information from Brenda Guenther, county comptroller. The county budgeted about $172,000 in 2016 for the convenience center program. The amount grew to about $212,000 in the 2017 budget.
County and solid waste district officials said last year the planned Bella Vista facility would open early in 2018. The county budgeted $30,000 for the Bella Vista center in 2018. Overall, the county expects to pay about $233,000 for the program this year.
County officials said the amount of solid waste brought to all convenience centers since the additional sites opened has greatly exceeded the amount collected in the 2015 cleanup events. In two cleanups events in 2015, residents brought in 2,697 loads of material.
For 2016, with the centers being open only part of the year, the number of loads of material brought to the convenience centers totaled 11,330.
County records show the number of loads brought to the three operating centers at 9,163 through June of this year.
Christie said many Bella Vista residents participated in the cleanup events when they were held at the Road Department yard on Southwest 14th Street in Bentonville.
"Since they ended the cleanup events at the Road Department, we have seen an increase in dumping of tires and paint and other materials in some areas of the city," Christie said. "Bringing a center here is going to be a real plus for Bella Vista."
NW News on 08/12/2018