Springdale approves $71 million bond issue (Updated)

(UPDATE) Voters overwhelmingly approved all three bond proposals to raise $71 million for the City of Springdale to improve roads, build a new multi-use park and update fire services in a special election Tuesday (Aug.14).

Though the city council was split 4/3 on the decision to bring the bond issue to the voters, the majority supports making the improvements now – $45 million earmarked for major road infrastructure, $17 million for parks and recreation and $9 million updates for the city’s fire department.

Voters approved each of the proposals individually.

Mayor Doug Sprouse says all three of the items on the ballot are needed in the city — yesterday.

Following the election results Sprouse said he is anxious to begin working with city officials to get the bonds sold in the next few months.

"I am so pleased the Springdale residents saw the need to make these improvements. It's a big step in the right direction to getting major work done," Sprouse said.

With all of the votes counted, the road infrastructure passed 1,423 for and 533 against. The parks and recreations proposal garnered support from 1,210 votes with 736 against. Lastly the fire department improvement proposal passed with highest percentage -76% with 1,485 votes in favor and 472 against.

Local businessmen Don Gibson, CEO of Legacy National Bank, and Roger Davis, general manager of the Holiday Inn and NWA Convention Center, each supported all three proposals.

“All the uses of the $71 million bond revenue will be for the purpose of helping Springdale grow along with the rest of Northwest Arkansas, and doing so in the right way," Gibson said. "The city has the cash flow to pay the bond cost without reducing services. We cannot adopt a pay as you go strategy to meet the existing needs or we will never catch up with the rest of Northwest Arkansas.”

“We are asking residents to pass three separate issues that will help the city grow businesses and improve the quality of life for local citizens,” Sprouse said.

While it’s an expensive proposition at $71 million, taxpayers are not being asked to ante-up the money as Sprouse said repayment will come from within the city’s Capital Improvement Plan budget.

Springdale levies a 2% sales tax, and half of that revenue goes directly into the capital improvement plan which will be used to repay the debt created from the proposed bond issue.

“The city can afford to do this now, we have been frugal, setting aside $5 million a year from the CIP budget for nearly four year during one of the worst economic downturns in history. The annual cost of the entire proposal is $4 million a year with a slight annual increase for 20 years,” Sprouse said.

Despite triple reserves and a sound fiscal balance sheet, not all of the city council members support the borrowing. The measure narrowly passed with a four to three vote.

Aldermen Brad Bruns, Mike Overton and Jeff Watson voted against putting the bond issue to a citywide vote, as they would prefer the city use a pay-as-you-go plan.

Aldermen Rick Evans, Eric Ford, Kathy Jaycox and Bobby Stout all support the issue.

“I would rather have total council support, but in the end the majority agreed Springdale needs to invest in its infrastructure now while rates are incredibly low and revenues are more than adequate to cover the debt” Spouse said.

Voters will have the chance to vote individually on each of the three items based on their own merit – it’s not an all or none proposal.

ROAD IMPROVEMENT
The largest piece of the $71 million is major road improvement. Some $25 million of the total issue would go for the completion of a new interchange and exit from Interstate 540 at Don Tyson Parkway.

Sprouse said the city is committed to finishing this project as has already saved $15 million but remains short of $25 million needed to send the project out for bidding.

“We either pay for this over 20 years or try and secure some short-term financing to get this project done. It’s needed to relieve congestion off of U.S. 412 and provide better access to the western side of I-540 which is crucial for further development,”  Sprouse said.

He reminds citizens that it was their positive vote that brought Arvest Ballpark to Springdale, and the issue only passed by 14 votes.

“I don’t think anyone would disagree now that they ballpark has been a positive aspect for Springdale,” Sprouse said.

PARK NEEDED
Parks and recreation is asking for $17 million for a proposed multi-use park that would be a combination of recreation space like Murphy park and sports facilities like Tyson Park.

Spouse said Tyson park was built in the 1980s and the city has just added three softball fields since that time.

“Our city has experienced tremendous growth since the late 80s and we just don’t have nearly enough recreation space for our own residents. Not to mention we are missing out of added sales tax revenue from the hospitality side of this issue because sports teams are going elsewhere to host tournaments,” Spouse said.

Davis said the city and chamber’s efforts to recruit more sports teams to host tournaments in Springdale isn’t going to happen unless there are more fields constructed. Davis also serves as a member of the local advertising and promotion commission.

“We have a great deal of interest from soccer associations to hold tournaments in Springdale, but there simply aren’t enough fields. The same is true with softball and baseball. Meanwhile our neighbors in Rogers are building new fields and Bentonville has done a terrific job tapping this market,” Davis said.

He said when the city has hosted large sports events like Pitch for the Cure, hotels are full with players and families from outside the area, who eat, buy gas and stay over for two days or more.

Sprouse said he has become a believer that parks are part of the quality of life piece that Springdale must promote like it’s neighbors to both the north and south if it’s going to continue to grow a certain segment of its population.

FIRE UPDATES
Kevin McDonald, assistant fire chief, said the $9 million proposal put to voters will bring the city’s antiquated network up to date. As the city has grown to the northwest and southeast there are two stations that need to be moved from the city’s core to better serve the expanded area.

McDonald said stations No. 2 and No. 3 were built with bond money in the 1960s and have only one bay. He said the city has not had the funds to provide the needed updates in recent years through regular budgeting, and the bond is needed to get the city back into modern era standards for response times.

He said firefighters see overlap in drive time which extends response to between 12 and 15 minutes. The proposed updates which include moving two existing stations and building a third would reduce that to about 4 minutes.

Last year the city fire department responded to 12,000 total calls. About half were emergency medical service calls, according to McDonald.

The fire department has 117 firefighters, and an addition 10 or 11 would be needed if the bond passes and a seventh station is built in the next three years.

Three years is the timeframe for the completed updates should the measure pass Tuesday’s vote.

“This would be enough to get Springdale through the next 30 years,” McDonald said.

If the measure fails it would be at least five years before the city would have the funds to build new stations.