Annexed area to get Hot Springs services in July

But city water, wastewater rates take effect this month

HOT SPRINGS — The city of Hot Springs will begin servicing the newly annexed 621 acres on Lake Hamilton’s north shore July 1, 27 months after the annexation was initially scheduled to take effect.

Assistant City Manager/ City Clerk Lance Spicer said Thursday that most city services, including police and fire protection, will be extended to the area that includes Lakeland and Lake Hamilton drives and Buena Vista Road by July 1. In the interim, the Garland County sheriff’s office and Lake Hamilton Fire Department will continue servicing the area.

“It’s a relatively large tract of land, but we feel very confident we can service the area,” Spicer said of the roughly 1 square mile between Central Avenue and Lake Hamilton that the Hot Springs Board of Directors annexed by ordinance in January 2016. “We’re excited and happy to welcome these residents into the city of Hot Springs.”

The city’s embrace was rebuffed by property owners in the area who filed litigation against the enabling ordinance. The last of two legal challenges concluded last week when the Arkansas Supreme Court declined to review a Court of Appeals ruling upholding a lower court’s dismissal of the claim.

The area includes about 500 permanent residents, according to the 2010 Census, and around 1,200 addresses. Spicer said its development and proximity to the Central Avenue commercial corridor are characteristic of an urban setting, leading many of the area’s part-time residents and visitors to presume it was already in the city proper.

“It’s got some good densities, what you’d expect to find in a city,” Spicer said. “If you’re a part-time resident, like so many folks who live in condos and lake homes, and you need service, in their mind, they think they’re inside the city limits. That’s a logical thought process.”

Spicer said city rates for water and wastewater will take effect in June and will be reflected on next month’s billing. Customers inside the city don’t pay the 50 percent premium charged to ratepayers in the unincorporated area of the regional water and wastewater systems.

“Water and wastewater services are one of the biggest benefits newly annexed residents can expect to receive,” Spicer said. “The vast majority, if not all of these residents, already receive city water and sewer services.”

Spicer said Suburban Sanitation Inc. will continue residential trash collection in the area through the end of the year. It entered into a five-year contract, with the option for a one-year renewal, with Garland County in January 2015. The contract allows it to continue servicing annexed areas for the duration of the term.

The county will bill customers through the end of the year, as many are paid in full through 2018. Spicer said he expects the city to contract Suburban Sanitation to service the area in 2019, and that the swapping out of county trash cans for city ones will likely begin in December.