Department History

Prior to late 2008, the Bella Vista Village Property Owners Association (BVVPOA) maintained Bella Vista streets much as they had for the past 30 years when the streets belonged to Benton County.
 
In the fall of 2008 and continuing through April 2012, the City contracted with the BVVPOA for day-to-day maintenance of all City streets. The day-to-day maintenance included anything that needed to be done to streets and rights of way short of major resurfacing.  Included would be right-of-way maintenance and mowing, drainage issues, tree and brush removal, pothole and other minor repairs, guard-rail maintenance, street signage and snow plowing.  The contract ran approximately $ 1.2 million per year. Since 2007, the first year of our existence, the City had directly contracted with various professional resurfacing contractors to resurface Bella Vista streets.  Resurfacing costs ranged from $800,000 per year to $1.7 million which was spent in 2011. 
 
Beginning May 14, 2012, the City will open and operate a city street department.   In January 2012 the City hired its first Street Superintendent, Michael Button.  Since coming aboard, Supt. Button has been busying assembling the necessary equipment the City will need to operate its own Street Department.  This includes mowing tractors, dump trucks, pickup trucks, a street sweeper, an asphalt roller, a road grader, as well as leasing some equipment.  The City is also negotiating a contract for the use of facilities from which to operate.  A number of the BVVPOA employees will transfer over to the City Street Department giving us much needed experience. 
 
 
Street Description

The City maintains over 500 miles of paved streets and some additional miles of unpaved streets within the City limits.  The three basic forms of pavement include:
·        chip and seal,
·        chip and seal slurry covered, and
·        asphalt. 
 
The first two forms are the basic methods used in most subdivisions in the center and eastern sections of the City while asphalt has been used on most major through streets throughout the City and in the subdivisions in the western section of the City.  Bella Vista’s developer installed the three forms of pavement with lot prices computed accordingly. 
 
In addition, the Arkansas State Highway Department maintains three state and/or federal highways running through the City —Arkansas 340 (Lancashire Boulevard), Arkansas 279 (Forest Hills Boulevard) and U.S. Highway 71.
 
Resurfacing Criteria
Resurfacing in Bella Vista includes three basic processes as noted in the paragraph above.  Chip and seal and asphalt are used to improve and smooth the surface and add some additional structure to the road while the slurry seal process is merely a sealing coat to add a limited amount of wear surface and additional life to reasonably good chip and seal pavement.  As with any evaluation of street conditions, considerable subjectivity exists in determining current status of the street paving for each individual street. 
 
Each year in the spring, every road in Bella Vista is driven and assigned a value of 1, 2, or 3.  A one indicates very little is needed to be done to that street and that it is in relatively good shape.  A two indicates some work short of resurfacing needs to be accomplished and that work is identified in the work order system for accomplishment as time allows, usually in the fall of the year.  A three indicates significant work needs to be done on the street, which usually means resurfacing by chip and seal or asphalt is needed.  The streets coded 3 are then ranked from worst to best in that category and the funds available are applied to that list of category 3 streets from worst to best as far as they will go down the list.  Those that do not make the resurface list are then treated as category 2 streets for the rest of that year.  The list of 1 and 2 streets is then reviewed to determine if a slurry seal coat would extend the life of pavement on those streets.  Items considered in that review include length of time since any resurfacing work was accomplished on the street and whether slurry would extend the useful life of the street.  Resurfacing by contractors usually occurs during late summer into fall in Bella Vista.

Chip and Seal

Slurry Pavement

Asphalt Pavement

Revenue for streets
The City receives turnback funds from the state that are derived from the gasoline tax and other vehicle related sources. The state annually establishes a rate per person for the turnback of those funds and those turnback funds can only be used for street-related uses.  For the recent few years the annual turnback rate per person for street turnback funds has been $47.50 per person and has resulted in approximately $1.254 million being received annually. The City also receives a portion (one-half) of the amount collected by Benton County in property tax for roads, approximately $440,000 per year in recent years. Those two amounts are restricted to being used for street purposes and are received directly into the City Street fund.  In addition to these sources of revenue, funds from the City general fund can be used for street purposes.  In the past few years, amounts transferred from the general fund to the street fund have ranged from $120,000 to $1 million per year. 
 
The expenses for the contractual operation of day-to-day street maintenance, street resurfacing contracts, streetlights and traffic lights are paid out of the city’s street fund.
 
Drainage and storm runoff
The original developer of Bella Vista provided a rural setting to promote the “village” concept so curbing, sidewalks, and a closed storm water drainage system were not included in the original plans.  Drainage and storm water run off was accomplished through use of an open drainage system.  When originally constructed the open ditches and culverts funneled the water to one of the lakes or creeks in the village in a reasonably adequate manner and run off was not an issue.  Over time those open ditches and culverts have been modified either purposely or unintentionally and with the increased population the drainage system has caused some erosion and damage to city streets and private property.  The City Planning Commission and City Council have undertaken implementing ordinances mainly affecting commercial and new development with residential guidelines to follow.  The Federal Government has entered into storm water run off in a big way in recent years and requires local jurisdictions to control run off in urban areas.  Bella Vista up to now has not been considered an urban area, but the 2010 census will probably change that and require Bella Vista to implement additional controls.

 
Restricted Drainage

Street Lights
Bella Vista has approximately 1750 streetlights that the City pays for. The lights cost the City approximately $120,000 per year to operate.  Also, many residents, either individually or in groups, pay Carroll Electric monthly to provide many other streetlights.
 
The BVV POA recognized in the 1990’s that providing streetlights on each and every neighborhood street so light would be visible for the safety and security of every house was not fiscally possible.  A policy was adopted where the only lights added were on major thoroughfares or at major intersections when warranted.  The City has continued with that policy and has not installed any streetlights since becoming a City.