Voters approve tax for city improvements
Mayor calls passage of 11 bond issues ‘huge win’ for Forrest City residents; bond money to arrive in October
Mayor Cedric Williams this morning said passage of a sales tax to fund improvement projects is a “huge win” for Forrest City and its residents.
Voters on Tuesday supported all 11 issues on the ballot calling for improvements ranging from a water softening system to artificial turf on ballfields at the Sports Complex.
Eight of the 11 issues were approved by margins of 200 or more, while the bonds for streetscape, parks and recreation and the animal shelter received less support, but still passed.
“This is a win for our city,” said Williams. “A big thank you to the focus group of citizens who helped put these initiatives together. Thanks to the city council for putting this out to voters to decide, and thank you to the voters of Forrest City for passing this tax initiative and investing in the future of our Forrest City.”
Williams said the city will be transparent in how it spends the bond money. “At the town hall meetings, we said we would be very transparent through this entire process to make sure things that we said were going to be done with this bond initiative are done.”
Williams said the city can begin laying the groundwork for the projects, even though the funding won’t arrive until October. Residents could begin to see some of the work starting this fall.
“If things go according to plan, Oct. 1 is when we will receive the funds to actually start funding the projects that w e re approved,” said Williams.
He said that although the city has prepared for the passage of the issues, it’s different today knowing that the money will actually be coming to make the improvements.
“With the water softener, for example, we’ve had plans from the engineer, but now that we know we have the funding, we can actually start having some conversations. We’ll have to go through the bidding process and things like that, but we can start preparing specific bid packages so when October comes, we can put those particular things out to bid.”
Williams said the city is continuing to seek grants through state and federal agencies to offset some costs of projects approved for bond funding.
“For example, with police and fire, we get USDA grants each year. We want to have a conversation with the USDA to let them know that instead of two police vehicles we’re talking about 15 or so, so maybe we can get matching funds to help our money go a little further,” he said.
“It’s no secret that we’ve applied for a grant to help with the Deaderick Road project and we hope to receive favorable consideration on that so we can stretch that money further also,” said Williams.
“We want to move as quickly as possible, but also take advantage of matching opportunities out there to get the bigger bang for our residents,” said Williams.
Williams said the potential is there for business development along Deaderick Road to coincide with the widening project.
“There has been some interest expressed in developing that area for frontage property along the interstate,” he said.
After the bonds are sold, the city will receive a lump sum of funding to spend on the projects.
“We can expect to see all of those things starting in some fashion this year,” said Williams, cautioning that timing of some projects will depend on other agencies being involved in the process, such as the Deaderick Road project. “Same thing with the water softener. We will have to get the permits and everything required with a project of that magnitude.”
The mayor said the low turnout in Tuesday’s election was not surprising, as special elections traditionally see fewer people voting. “We expected a low turnout even though we had five town hall meetings,” he said.
“Thank you to everybody, but now the work really starts,” Williams continued. “The citizens trusted us with these initiatives and now it’s time to make it happen.”