TONTITOWN, Ark. — The city of Tontitown is looking to make some much-needed improvements.
"We're the fastest growing percentage-wise in the state of Arkansas in 2023," Tontitown Community Development Director Mark Latham said. "There's all kinds of needs, especially roads."
Those include revamping the local park, creating new streets with more connections, building a new police station, revamping the old fire station into a community and senior center, and building a new water tank.
"We currently only have a 250,000 gallon [tank] and we're using almost a million gallons a day right now," Latham said.
Funding would come from a $22.2 million bond paid for by extending a current 0.75 cent sales tax. It's set to expire in 2036, but leaders hope voters will agree to push that to 2044.
Voters will first decide whether or not they want to refinance the bond. Then they'll vote on each individual project:
- Refunding bonds and taxes for the maximum amount of $1.4 million (for or against)
- Police improvement bonds for the maximum amount of $7.1 million (for or against)
- Street improvement bonds for the maximum amount of $7.1 million (for or against)
- Water improvement bonds for the maximum amount of $5.5 million (for or against)
- Parks and Recreation improvement bonds for the maximum amount of $1.1 million (for or against)
If any of the four projects don't pass, the bond issue will be reduced, shortening the length of the sales tax extension.
"We just have to take one step forward, and then this one might pay off in 10 years," Latham said. "Maybe we can reevaluate, decide whether or not we need to get rid of it."
Tontitown residents can vote on this issue during the general election. Early voting begins Oct. 21. Election Day is on Nov. 5.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.