City Council to hear Hillsboro update
The El Dorado City Council will hold a regular meeting at 5 p.m. today in the Council Chamber of City Hall.
The opening prayer and Pledge of Allegiance will precede the meeting at 4:55 p.m.
Council members are expected to review a report of the most recent inspection of the Hillsboro Street/U.S. 82 B viaduct.
The viaduct, which is nearly a century old, is slated to be removed and new bridge built as a part of long-running plans by the Arkansas Department of Transporation to widen and improve Hillsboro/U.S. 82 B, a state highway, through El Dorado.
Mayor Paul Choate obtained the report while following up on a request by local business/property owner and downtown developer, Richard Mason, who previously asked the council to consider forming a community group to explore options to repurpose or remove the Hillsboro Street/U.S. 82 B viaduct.
Highway improvement plans include the widening of Hillsboro: two roundabouts at College and West avenues; a new viaduct to be built north of the existing viaduct, just east of Washington Avenue; and a new bridge, another viaduct, between Park Avenue and Rock Island Right of Way; and landscaped medians along the highway.
The Rock Island bridge was also built in the 1920s.
Both bridges have been added to the National Register of Historic Places within the past two years.
Mason has said that the viaduct is a “vital part of the remining historic downtown.”
He has asked city officials to look into the viability of assuming responsibility of the viaduct to potentially save it and repurpose it “as a pedestrian shopping, dining and entertainment venue.”
ArDOT last inspected the bridge in September of 2022 and council members will discuss findings in the multi-page report today.
Also on the council’s agenda is a proposed resolution and contract for a new concessionaire at the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex.
Former Council Member Mike Rice, who owns popular downtown restaurant fayrays, was selected by the Department of Public Works as the new concessionaire for the complex after the position was vacated late last year by the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado, former complex manager and concessionaire.
Rice has already gone to work serving food at the complex, which opened its busy season last month.
In other business, Council Member Dianne Hammond is on the agenda to discuss the council’s rules of operation, including a conversation about taking votes about city business by phone.