Bella Vista Lake Trail remains closed for repair

BENTONVILLE — Thousands of trail users will have to avoid Bella Vista Lake for the next few weeks as city crews continue to remove debris and repair damage from the April flooding.

Large tree limbs littered the parking lot at the veterans memorial on the lake’s northeast corner this week. Chain-link fences with signs reading “park closed” stood at each end of the dam separating the parking lots from a section of the trail along the top of the earthen dam on the lake’s north side.

Another fence blocks the entrance to the trail’s south side.

The dam needs repair, but there are also trail sections where water “undercut everything beneath” the trail on the east side of the bridge that’s on the south side of the lake, said David Wright, Parks and Recreation director.

The trail won’t open until repairs have been made on the dam, said Mayor Bob McCaslin.

“We’re not taking out the

dam. We’re not building a new dam,” he said, adding the repair is needed to make the structure safe before trail users cross it.

The dam’s future has been embroiled in a lawsuit as a group — Friends of Little Sugar Creek — fight to stop the city from replacing it. The group advocates for the dam to be removed. The lawsuit was dismissed after construction permits and a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant expired.

Travis Matlock, city engineer, said the city filed for an extension May 23 for the $2.7 million FEMA grant, but it’s unclear the direction the city will take.

The dam was topped by flooding in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2015. The gates were removed after the 2015 flooding.

City officials are working to see what their long-term options are for the dam, they said.

“There is still no decision,” Matlock said.

The Transportation, Engineering and Parks and Recreation departments will meet next week to create a cleanup plan and will likely hire contractors for the repair work, Matlock said.

“As for a cost, until the cleanup gives us a clear picture, I don’t want to speculate,” he said.

Storms dumped up to 8 inches of rain in some areas of the state April 29 and 30. Amy Jankowski, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Tulsa, Okla., said 4.46 inches of rain fell in Fayetteville and 5.24 inches of rain fell in Highfill on April 29.

May and June are the busiest months for the Parks and Recreation Department as youth sport leagues start, the rainfall keeps grass growing quickly and landscaping needs more attention, Wright said. All that activity keeps the department’s 20 full-time maintenance employees and other seasonal employees busy without storm cleanup.

City trail counts have reached 30,000 users some months, and the Bella Vista Lake Trail is the second busiest in the city, coming in behind Crystal Bridges Trail, he said.

The damage from that heavy rain is the worst he’s seen, Wright added. The bridge over the spillway on the east side has shifted, the back of the dam has more erosion and the gate system on the west has more damage, city officials said.

Erosion also caused a new hole just north of the parking area and around the west side of the spillway.

“You could fit some of your living room furniture in it, it’s that big,” Wright said.

NWA Democrat-Gazette/SPENCER TIREY Wood and debris is piled up Friday on top of the dam and against the spillway at Lake Bella Vista.

NWA Democrat-Gazette/SPENCER TIREY The Lake Bella Vista’s trail has been closed since heavy ran flooded the lake and piled wood and debris on the dam earlier this month.