Bella Vista to spend more than $11 million on capital projects this year

BELLA VISTA — The city will spend $4.5 million in 2024 on the Central Fire Station/Town Center Complex remodeling project.

Bella Vista has budgeted more than $11.2 million in capital expenditures for 2024, and work on the complex is the largest single project by far.

The next biggest capital expenditure is for the Street Department to overlay and resurface city streets at a cost of $1.9 million.

Combined projects and expenditures within the Fire and Street departments total $8.4 million, making up the majority of the capital budget this year.

The Police Department requested $615,914 for replacement vehicles, along with other expenses totaling $230,090. Community Development Services capital requests total $234,355, including more than $144,000 for a city code reform project.

Under debt service, the capital budget includes $282,000 in payments for the city’s new ladder fire truck, purchased in 2023.

Information Technology requested $185,000; administrative capital requests total $99,340, including $30,000 for city rebranding; Bella Vista Public Library improvements total $25,000 for HVAC replacement; and legal/court capital improvements total $10,000 for new courtroom chairs.

In addition to the projects for this year, the city has earmarked capital requests through 2028 totaling more than $20 million.

The budget was approved unanimously Dec. 18.

The budget estimates total revenue at $21.6 million for 2024 and shows an unassigned fund balance of $17.7 million, per audit, as of Dec. 31, 2022.

“Right now our unassigned funds that we have in the bank, when you take out the 25% that we’re supposed to keep as emergency funds, is around $12 million,” Council Member Doug Fowler said. “So [in 2024] we have a capital outlay of $11 million. If we would spend all of that, we’d only have like $1 million left in our unassigned funds. And then we have about $18 million projected over the next four years.”

The city is anticipating $3.8 million in city sales tax receipts and $9.3 million in county sales tax receipts this year, making up over 53% of total revenue, according to revenue highlights published with the 2024 budget.

Property taxes, the second largest revenue source for the city, are anticipated at $3.4 million.

The full 2024 budget, including both the operating and capital budgets, can be found at bellavistaar.gov under finance and budgets.