ROGERS, Ark. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is making an offer it hopes some landowners near Beaver Lake won't refuse.
More than a hundred landowners gathered Tuesday in Springdale to hear what USACE had to say about buying their land in order to protect the lake.
"If the federal government is putting water on someone's property, the Constitution says we have to offer you fair market value, at least give you the chance. And so, we invited all those landowners, everybody that we had addresses for here, to a meeting tonight to discuss whether they were interested sellers or not," said Jay Townsend, a spokesperson with USACE.
Townsend says they have quite a few people interested in their potential offer.
"We had a really long line of folks saying they were interested sellers. In a lot of cases, it's a little piece of land, a tenth of an acre or less that's underwater already, and so they'll agree to enter into some sort of contract with us and sell. But then several people said, 'Hey, I'm not selling,' and that's okay," Townsend explained.
USACE is hoping to use that land to keep the water quality high at Beaver Lake.
"One in five Arkansans get their drinking water from Beaver Lake. And so, in order to keep the treatment cost and the water quality really good, you want a vegetative buffer around that reservoir. And so that's why the Corps of Engineers wants the land. We want to ensure it is managed correctly for the health of the reservoir," Townsend said.
Landowners say that it's all about the right price.
"They have to have a good price," said landowner Florence Dusek. "We have property that's not usable property because it's very far down from our home and you know, we can't really get to it. I tell people, unless you want to rappel, you know, down a holler to get to it."
Townsend says USACE will work hard to get them a fair price.
“We're going to hire an independent appraiser to come out there and tell us what fair market value is, and then we'll be able to tell you what that property is worth. But tonight, we couldn't guarantee anybody what their property costs are," Townsend said.
Landowner Gary Morris says he would hand over his land by trading it.
"We're willing to negotiate to hopefully trade seeing how they have limited funds. We're hoping that that's the opportunity for both of us to be in a win, win situation," Morris said.
However, right after 5NEWS talked with Morris, he found out a land trade would not be possible, at least for now.
If you want to learn if you are eligible to get an appraisal, you can call the Corps at 501-324-5551 or email them at ceswl-pa@usace.army.mil.
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