LR airport commission agrees to 2nd levee-district payment

The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission on Wednesday agreed to make another nearly $78,000 annual payment to Pulaski Drainage No. 2 Improvement District for the benefit the state’s largest airport derives from the 7.2-mile levee the district maintains.

The second such annual payment the commission has authorized to the levee district came without the discord that led up to the first one a year ago.

The district maintains the 72-year-old levee, four pumps and 14 drainage structures to provide flood protection from the Arkansas River to 2,560 acres of land, according to Larry Almon, the levee district’s chairman. The airport sits within the boundaries the levee protects, although much of its infrastructure — including the runways — is above the flood plain.

The district levies a fee on landowners’ property tax assessments, and that revenue pays for the operation and maintenance of the levee and pumps.

But the levee district has struggled over the past several years to generate enough money to maintain the levee, pumps and drainage structures. It reached out to the airport for help without success initially, which was documented in a 2017 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article.

The airport maintains it is exempt from paying taxes as a governmental agency and also asserted that Federal Aviation Administration regulations limited its ability to spend money on anything beyond capital and operating costs. At the same time, airport officials said they wanted to find a way to help the levee district.

Last January, the FAA said payments could be made if the airport could show it directly benefited from the levee district. The FAA also decreed the payments could only be made on a “going forward” basis beginning Jan. 1, 2018, and the methodology used to determine the payments must be nondiscriminatory and identical to that being used to charge other ratepayers.

Airport officials came up with the $77,901 figure to pay the levee district. It is based on the insured value of airport property as of September 2017 — reasoning that flood insurance is available to the airport because the levee that protects the airport is federally certified — and the improvement district’s fee of 2.3 mills.

The city of Little Rock and the Little Rock Water Reclamation Commission, which also has property within the levee district boundaries, also have agreed to make annual payments.

A recent assessment of the condition of the levee and its infrastructure has shown an estimated $1.25 million in work needs to be done within five years, Almon told the commission Wednesday.

The district, which has $200,000 in cash on hand, is exploring options to pay for the work, he said.

The district “fared well … with minimal damage” during the historic Arkansas River flooding earlier this year, Almon said.

“It was certainly the most horrific event in my 27 years on the [district] commission,” he said. “All four pump stations were utilized with over 82 hours of total pumping. It was an excruciating 24/7 event.”