Time runs out on Bentonville dam repair plan

BENTONVILLE — A lawsuit to stop the replacement of the Lake Bella Vista dam is over, but city officials still need to figure out the future of the failed dam.

Attorneys for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Friends of Little Sugar Creek filed a joint stipulation for dismissal in U.S. District Court on Friday.

The four-paragraph motion says complaints filed by Friends of Little Sugar Creek are now moot since the construction permit to rebuild the Lake Bella Vista dam has expired, and FEMA told the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management that Bentonville cannot spend grant money until the city obtains a new permit from the Corps of Engineers.

“There is no way because of the bureaucracy that we could complete that application” before the FEMA grant expires May 9, Mayor Bob McCaslin said.

The Friends of Little Sugar Creek is a nonprofit organization advocating for the dam to be removed and Little Sugar Creek restored. It filed two complaints — one Dec. 21 and an amended one March 21 — against the Corps and FEMA.

The complaints said the dam isn’t serviceable and is therefore ineligible for federal money the city wants to use to rebuild it.

“We’re collecting a lot of facts right now,” McCaslin said, adding that it’s too early to say whether the city will pursue other money options to rebuild the dam.

The city wasn’t a party in the litigation, but the lawsuit has been punitive to the city since it’s already spent more than $400,000 on the dam project, McCaslin said. That money was allocated with the anticipation of being reimbursed with federal money.

The city wouldn’t have spent the money if leaders had listened when the Friends of Little Sugar Creek voiced opposition to the project, said Greg Van Horn, with Friends of Little Sugar Creek.

He recalled when former Alderman John Skaggs and nearly 100 residents — many Friends of Little Sugar Creek members — urged the city not to spend $478,800 to hire CP&Y to design the dam in December 2015.

“The citizens of Bentonville should be upset with the way tax dollars were spent by the administration,” Van Horn said.

The dam replacement was going to be paid for with federal and state money. The replacement was expected to cost $3.5 million.

FEMA has committed $2.7 million to the city for the project. The remaining money would have come from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and Arkansas Department of Economic Development.