Developer Questions Fayetteville

Local developer and businessman Gary Combs said “We’ve gone nuts in this city,” referring to Fayetteville’s new ideas within the city government.

Combs said he sat through three hours of “garbage” at the Feb. 26 city council meeting before he got his chance to talk about his business concerns.

“[The council and the mayor] sit there and talk about saving money, but then they go out and pay a guy about five bucks for every tree he counts,” Combs said.

He was referring to the city paying $75,000 to have a company inventory all of the tree species and diameter in the city. It is called the Urban Forestry Plan.

“This guy gets up and says the University [of Arkansas] couldn’t count ’em because they were not emotionally connected,” Combs said. “I thought, ‘Did I just hear this?’ I’ll tell you what, when I buy land, I’m emotionally connected when someone tells me I can’t cut my own trees. But that’s the kind of deal we’re dealing with in this town.”