TONTITOWN (KFSM) – Tontitown is wanting to build their own water transmission line, but they'll first need voters to approve to fund the project.
The City of Tontitown is hoping voters approve a new three-fourths of one percent or 0.75 percent sales tax during a special election this summer. The city wants to build a water line to connect to the Benton Washington Regional Public Water Authority.
Paula Arterberry and her husband moved to Tontitown two years ago from Oklahoma.
“We don't mind to pay a little bit more knowing that in the long run our water bill will be lower because it's pretty high here right now especially compared to where we moved from, it was about half,” she said.
Tontitown now gets their water from the City of Springdale, but with the increased use of water from the growing population they said it may not be enough for the next five years.
Tontitown public water director James Clark said if the city does build this water line they estimate it will cost around $7.5 million dollars. He said once this project is paid for the sales tax will go away.
“In order to be fair to our rate payers, we felt like a sales tax was a better option because that lets people traveling through the town pay for the construction, it doesn't put the burden of the cost on the citizens,” he said.
Clark said getting this water line is vital to the growth of Tontitown.
“We encourage everyone to get out and vote for it. It's the only way I feel that Tontitown can secure the future. Without this we're going to be limited as far as our growth in the next couple of years,” he said.
He said residents could see a 5 to 10 percent decrease in their water bills once the water line is complete and running.
If this passes, they hope to put out for bids in January of 2018. They think the project will take 18 to 24 months to complete.