BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's road paving program is on pace to be completed by October, officials were told Thursday.
Jay Frasier, public services administrator and head of the Road Department, briefed the Transportation Committee on the road program on Thursday.
Frasier said the county has done about 16.7 miles of paving so far, with the county planning on 39 miles for the year. Frasier said much of the remaining paving work is chip and seal paving.
"We'll be pretty close to completing our paving around the end of October," Frasier said.
Frasier said the tentative road plan for 2019 calls for 31.8 miles of paving.
Frasier the county spent $49,500 with an outside contractor to patch 900 potholes. County road crews patched another 500 potholes.
Frasier also briefed the justices of the peace on dirt and gravel road work and work on bridges, culverts and guardrails.
Mike McKenzie, justice of the peace for District 1, said his constituents tell him the paving work has been done well.
"I've only heard favorable comments from everybody where paving has been done," McKenzie said.
Frasier also told the panel the county is still working on repair work on roads and bridges damaged in the April 2017 flooding. He said the county has applied for and been awarded grants to do some improvements, in addition to the usual state and federal disaster assistance. He said the county received FEMA assistance payments on all but two of the 2017 flood projects, with Snavely Bridge and Edinburg Road remaining to be done.
Joel Edwards, justice of the peace for District 15, asked if the county is looking at expected growth, including new schools, in developing its road plan. Frasier said officials are talking with cities and school districts.
"We're looking at the cities and the towns that are growing," Frasier said
The committee also heard a report from Ozark Regional Transit about the transit systems activity in 2018.
Jeff Hadley, public information officer for the transit system, said the organization is still recovering from a fire in January 2017 in which 20 transit buses were destroyed. Hadley said the system has been operating with borrowed, leased and donated buses since the fire. He said Ozark Regional Transit has replaced eight of the 20 destroyed buses and was recently approved for a $3.6 million federal grant to replace the remaining 12 buses.
Hadley said overall the system saw an 18 percent drop in ridership in 2017 and ridership in 2018 is also down, with another 2 percent drop.
NW News on 07/13/2018