Park ownership ensures green space

BENTONVILLE — Train Station Park will remain a green space in the downtown Arts District for perpetuity.

Downtown Development Inc. recently offered the .38-acre land at 412 S. Main St. to the city.

The City Council voted 6-0 to accept the donation during Tuesday’s meeting. Council member Tim Robinson was absent.

The park is across from the public library on South Main Street. It’s north of what was formerly the city’s train station.

“It’s a part of our history,” Mayor Bob McCaslin said outside of Tuesday’s meeting.

The city was approached a few months ago to see if it was interested in the property.

City ownership would make sure the land remains a park and prevent it from becoming a commercial development, McCaslin said.

Downtown Development deeded the property to the Bentonville Library Foundation in 2005, according to property records.

The foundation recently deeded it back to Downtown Development, according to David Wright, parks and recreation director.

“Our residents will not see a difference in how the land is currently being provided as a public space,” Wright wrote in a memo to council members. “Accepting this land donation should not impact the annual budget as Park and Recreation

currently provides maintenance for the park.”

The park includes a gazebo with benches as well as short walking paths.

The council also approved declaring two Ford Crown Victorias from the Police Department surplus and transferring them to Decatur.

Both cars were used as marked patrol cars and are equipped with light bars, sirens, consoles, gun racks, hard rear seats, prisoner containment systems and other law enforcement equipment, according to Jon Simpson, police chief.

Those items would need to be removed before any non-law-enforcement transfer of ownership. They can be transferred to Decatur’s Police Department with the equipment intact, Simpson said in a memo to council members.

“Transferring ownership in this manner represents a responsible and safe disposition of police equipped vehicles and also saves the city the costs associated with the removal, storage, and proper disposal of law enforcement only equipment that cannot be transferred to another vehicle,” Simpson wrote.

It also encourages local partnerships between police departments, he said.