Board ready to see hydrology study

With nothing new on the agenda, the POA board wrapped up its work session in record time but then remained to talk about the hydrology study.

General manager Tom Judson said the study will probably be ready around the first of February, which is about a month later than the original release date. It’s late because the engineers did more cross-sections of Little Sugar Creek than planned, he explained, but it won’t cost the POA any extra money.

The study was commissioned in August after a POA committee spoke with four engineering firms. In April, flooding damaged the golf courses where Little Sugar Creek flows through them. At Berksdale, the golf course closest to the Bentonville border, the flooding eroded the stream bed to a degree that left golf cart paths in danger of slipping into the creek. Nine holes of the course were not reopened after that flood.

Little Sugar Creek also flows through Kingswood and the Country Club golf courses which also were damaged by the flood.

Most of the golf course bridges will have to be replaced eventually, board member John Nuttall told the group. The bridges are damaged when flooding hurls debris, including large branches and tree trunks at their supports. A different design that doesn’t use in-water support would be preferable.

Judson has already scheduled two meetings to present the hydrology report to the public in March. One will be in the morning, at 10 a.m., on March 13. The other is scheduled for 4 p.m. on March 15.

The board members will get the report right away, but Judson said he won’t release it to the public until the board has a chance to read it. It will be much closer to the day of the public meeting, he said.

He asked the engineering firm to include an executive summary in “understandable” language and plans to release both the summary and the full report together.

At an earlier meeting, Judson said Lake Bella Vista is too small to have a significant impact on the portion of Little Sugar Creek that flows through Bella Vista. Lake Bella Vista belongs to the city of Bentonville, and the city has been considering a replacement for the failed dam. But the watershed that feeds the lake is very large and the lake is very shallow, Judson said. Even if Bentonville dredged the

lake, it wouldn’t make much difference, he said.

The discussion turned to a demonstration project along Tanyard Creek. The banks of that creek were stabilized using trees and rocks, but the project was funded by grants when the POA partnered with Watershed Conservation Resource Center. Nuttall said the cost of the project was too high to consider a similar approach to Little Sugar Creek which is a much larger area.

The only items on the agenda of the short work session were two changes in bylaws which both passed their first readings last month. If they are approved on a second reading next week, they will be final. The board typically does not vote at work sessions. One bylaw change states that actions taken by the board should not be used as a precedent by future boards. The other emphasizes the POA’s right to use the votes associated with lots it owns, except during board member elections.

The regular meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25, at Riordan Hall