AEDC’s recent progress highlighted in public hearing

A public hearing was held during the city board meeting Tuesday night to update board members and residents on two projects the Arkansas Economic Development Commission has underway in Siloam Springs.

The hearing was led by Jay Stallard, senior grants administrator for the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District, who first addressed an arrangement that he referred to as the Simmons Feed Ingredients project. The project was an agreement made between the AEDC and Simmons Feed Ingredients, a division of Simmons Foods, that accepted a $1 million grant from the AEDC to construct a pretreatment dissolved air flotation unit at their wet facility, Stallard said.

Simmons agreed in return to create 75 new jobs, a condition that they have already fulfilled and slightly exceeded, as the actual number of jobs that were created is closer to 80, Stallard said. Stallard added that the timeline — from beginning to end — for the entire transaction also exceeded expectations.

While most projects like this can typically take anywhere between two and three years, this one was completed in about a year and half, in part due to Simmons’ ability to fill the jobs quickly, Stallard said. The final step will be to get the jobs certified, which is something that Stallard said will take place within the next several days.

Stallard then addressed the Twin Springs Street project, which he said the AEDC provided a grant to the city in the amount of approximately $346,000. This development is intended improve the condition of an existing ditch that starts on West Jefferson Street just west of South

Street, moves west behind a number of homes located between West Jefferson Street and Twin Springs Street and then cuts north under Twin Springs Street, said Ron Homeyer, the civil engineer tasked with working on the project.

The project was needed because certain areas of the ditch have severely eroded. The main purpose of it is to stabilize the bottom of the ditch as well as the banks that run alongside it in order to fix the erosion and prevent it from reoccurring in the future, Homeyer said. While all of the preliminary design work has been completed, Homeyer said that construction bids have not yet been sent out, making the timeline for this project unknown at this time.

The board also considered a number of other items shortly after this public hearing, which are summarized below.

• Unanimous approval of a proposal for the city to receiving its auditing services with Hinkle and Company, PC, for a period of three years in the amount of $180,900. They chose this company because after receiving bids from five different companies, it submitted the lowest bid, with the highest being $201,000, according to a city staff report.

• Unanimous approval of a contract in the amount of $157,250 that will allow for the installation of final clarifier launder covers that are needed for the wastewater treatment plant. The reason these covers are needed is because after wastewater is treated, its clarity dramatically increases and when this water is exposed to sunlight, the process of photosynthesis begins, which subsequently catalyzes the growth of algae, according to a city staff report. Covering the launders will stop the process of photosynthesis.

• Unanimous approval of a budget amendment requested by the city’s electric department to purchase a new 2018 Dodge Ram Tradesman 1500 truck, in the amount of $21,894, according to a city staff report.

• Unanimous approval of an ordinance that will rezone a 1.13 acre property located at 626 N. College St. from R-2 (residential, medium) to P-D (planned development). This rezoning necessary as the applicant, Chord Properties, has plans to construct 11 multi-family dwelling units on the property, according to a city staff report.

• Unanimous approval of an ordinance to rezone a 16.88 acre property located at 850 S. Wright St., from R-2 (residential, medium) to G-I (general institutional). This rezoning was requested by the Siloam Springs School District because the G-I zone is most appropriate for the school, is consistent with the city’s future land map, according to a city staff report. Other reasons include the school district’s desire to close certain rights-of-way on this property as well as build new facilities on it.

• Unanimous approval to place an ordinance on its first reading, suspending the rules and reading by title only, that would eliminate the five percent electric bill discount that is offered to large power users who own their own transformers, according to a city staff report. The change would not affect those who are already receiving the discount, only those in the future. The board chose to place it on its first reading in order to give the public more time to offer input on the ordinance before making a final decision.

• Unanimous approval to authorize a final plat development permit for a 6.11 acre property located between the 2200 and 2400 blocks of North Carl Street. The applicant, The Roth Joint Revocable Trust, is requesting the permit because it is needed to finalize the second phase of a residential housing construction project that is being referred to as the Heritage Ranch addition, according to a city staff report.

• Unanimous approval of a resolution to request a county judge to rename Bridlecreek Road to North Carl Street. This request pertains to the final plat development permit for the second phase of the Heritage Ranch addition that was approved, as this property extends from the northern end of North Carl Street to the southern end Bridlecreek Road, the latter of which is located on county property, according to a city staff report. This creates an issue because the city does not have the authority to change street names that are located on county property. If left unchanged, the street name would change from North Carl Street to Bridlecreek Road in the middle of the street. This would lend itself to another set of problems, such as, among other things, emergency services like fire and police having potentially reduced response times to this location due to confusion of the address provided.