State OKs $1.9M in loans for utilities

Panel also adds to sewer project grant

State natural resources officials approved $1.9 million in loans to four utilities Wednesday to go toward improvements of water systems.

The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission also increased a grant award by $131,325 for cost increases on a sewer project in Hickory Ridge and Fisher, and accepted two rejections of loans that were previously granted.

Commissioners approved a loan of up to $700,000 to the city of Melbourne, which has 2,368 customers, and a loan of up to $603,600 to Harmony Grove Water Association, which has 938 customers, for replacing old water pipes and meters. That association is in Ouachita County.

A loan of up to $360,000 will go to the city of Wilton, which has 190 customers, for upgrades and repairs to the water tank. The estimated cost of the project is $355,000. Wilton is in Little River County.

The loans must be repaid within 10 years, and interest and borrower rates will be established later.

A 10-year, 0.5 percent annual interest loan of up to $225,000 will go to the city of Lamar in Johnson County to replace water meters that aren’t accurately measuring water.

Hickory Ridge’s increase is related to the amount of time it took the utility to get rights of way from landowners to connect its system to the town of Fisher in Poinsett County, said Mark Bennett, commission water development division manager. After four years, the costs of the project rose.

Commissioners also accepted the city of Bearden’s rejection of the loan of up to $303,400 that was approved for the city in Ouachita County in November. The city had requested the loan to replace water meters but declined it upon considering the city’s current debt, the mayor wrote in a letter to the commission.

The city of Norphlet in Union County also rejected its loan of up to $600,000, approved in November 2017, telling the commission it had secured another funding source.