Bella Vista Lake correction

Saturday's editorial featured our thoughts on the ongoing consternation over the future of Bella Vista Lake and the dam that creates it on Little Sugar Creek. To make things worse, though, we inadvertently added to the consternation with an error.

Bentonville's Parks Advisory Board in fact voted 7-0 on June 18 to support removal of the failed dam and full restoration of Little Sugar Creek as a free-flowing stream. That vote came after a 3½-hour meeting that included a failed motion to support a stream with what's called a side-channel lake.

Restoring the stream and removing the dam would cost about $9.6 million, according to Ecological Design Group and the Water Conservation Resource Center, organizations that helped developed three alternatives for the future development of Bella Vista Lake Park.

An earlier task force examining the issue, in a split vote, favored a free-flowing stream with a side-channel lake.

The point of Saturday's editorial remains: It's our hope the potential of a legal tangle between the city of Bentonville and the dam's previous owner, Cooper Communities, will not stop progress toward a solution for a dam and lake sorely in need of one.

Commentary on 09/18/2018

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