Bella Vista gets positive response to buying rural water system

Bella Vista received a positive response to a letter of intent to purchase a portion of Centerton’s water system.

The portion Bella Vista wants runs into Bella Vista along Arkansas Highways 72 and 279.

Frank Holzkamper, utilities director with Centerton Utilities, said that the waterworks and sewer commission met and agreed to sell part of the water system to Bella Vista.

Officials in both cities, he said, have discussed this sale before, but the request included some lines that were not discussed previously. Centerton has agreed, he said, to sell the portions of the system they have already discussed with Bella Vista officials.

If Bella Vista remains interested in the purchase, he said, a value analysis will be done by the city’s engineers, factoring in the initial costs as well as depreciation.

“We have a USDA loan on all of our rural water lines,” he said, “and they have final say on what it sells for.”

Once they have a concrete price, he said, they can get that information to Bella Vista.

Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie said that he will be discussing whether the city should proceed with this purchase.

“I’m going to call together my gurus and see if we want to proceed,” he said. “I think it’ll really come down to price.”

The other concern, he said, is the size of pipes already in place. The diameter is too small, he said, to fit the area’s needs if there is any significant development, meaning the city will need to do construction on the system down the road.

He expects, he said, to at least proceed with the next step and see what the value of the system is before making any decision.