Springdale: Two cities can join authority
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005
SPRINGDALE - The Springdale City Council approved Tuesday the addition of Centerton and Highfill to the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority .
Aldermen voted 5-3 to accept the ninth and 10 th member cities into the authority , which intends to build a regional sewer plant west of Lowell .
Aldermen Jeff Watson , Billy Eden and Ray Dotson voted against the measure ,saying they were uncomfortable approving a measure that would give smaller cities more votes on the conservation authority's board than larger cities .
Bentonville , Rogers and Springdale each receive two votes on the
conservation authority board , while smaller cities get one vote each .
Bentonville and Rogers already approved adding the two cities .
"I want to see the number of votes more representative of the people in the cities ," Eden said .
Dotson said he was concerned the smaller cities could band together and hurt larger cities .
Springdale expects to complete a $ 28 million expansion of its wastewater treatment plant that increases treatment capacity from 16 million to 24 million gallons per day , said Rene Langston , Springdale Water Utilities director .
At its peak during weekdays , the plant treats between 12 million and 13 million gallons per day , Langston said .
Aldermen also unanimously approved a contract to provide more sewer service and upgrades to increase sewer capacity to Lowell . That city's customers will pay additional monthly service charges to retire construction bonds fora lift station and pipe upgrades for the project .
The extra capacity will include about 5 ,100 homes .
Springdale has provided sewer service to Lowell since the early 1990 s , but Lowell has worked with a development moratorium because of a lack of sewer capacity.
