The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce's Executive Committee convened a special called meeting Tuesday to address proposed legislation that would bear on the city's water policy, but the discussion veered toward a strained city-county relationship that hasn't worn well with the business community.
The initial discussion centered on Senate Bill 405 introduced earlier this month by state Sen. Alan Clark, R-District 13. It would put water service requests in unincorporated areas that have deeded their lines to a municipal water system on a par with requests emanating from inside a city's boundaries, amending a current law that doesn't obligate cities to provide service outside their boundaries.
Its introduction was borne out of one of many issues complicating relations between Hot Springs and Garland County officials, a division chamber CEO and President Jim Fram said is bad for business. He said the committee didn't reach a conclusion on Clark's bill during the hour and a half discussion but did express concern over the city-county estrangement.
"There continues to be an issue with the city and county on several fronts," he said. "That was what a lot of the discussion was about. I think we can probably recap our conversation in one sentence: The entire community is getting frustrated with that."
Clark's bill responds to a policy that gives priority to city-based requests for new service, a practice that owes to a water supply city officials said reached 80 percent of its roughly 30-million-gallon-a-day capacity 55 times in 2012.
City Attorney Brian Albright said capacity concerns are at the fore of what city representatives of the Community Water Committee want addressed. Albright and Garland County Attorney Ralph Ohm serve in an advisory role on the nine-person body of county and city officials, which convened last year at the chamber's urging to determine if a compromise exists between the city's conservation-centered position and the county's desire for expanded service.
"(The city's) primary concern is providing adequate water supply and protecting all existing customers, whether inside or outside the city limits," Albright said. "We don't have an endless supply of water. Without an endless supply, we have to be judicious with the policy."
The inability to access water for development outside the city limits factored into the county Finance Committee not appropriating the county's share of the Hot Springs Metro Partnership's 2015 funding. Doubting its ability to attract industry to unincorporated areas that can't access water, the committee denied the public-private economic development alliance's $75,000 appropriation request.
Fram, who is also president and CEO of the chamber-affiliated HSMP, a stand-alone corporation, said he was unaware of an instance in which the policy dissuaded a company from relocating or expanding in the unincorporated area of the county.
He said HSMP facilitated service for a company that plans to locate inside Mid-America Industrial Park, which lies outside the city, and is helping an existing business outside the city with its application for a water and sewer upgrade it needs to expand operations.
"I anticipate the city will approve that one, because it will provide new jobs," Fram said, noting that non-disclosure agreements prevented him from speaking specifically about either project.
Fram said companies aren't inclined to invest their capital in communities riven by political disharmony, viewed as unbecoming by site selectors who influence where companies locate.
"That was part of the discussion we had last night," he said. "I attended a forum back in December where there was a panel of about a dozen site selectors. A lady from Ernst & Young, one of the biggest consulting firms in the country, said something to the effect that when a company's looking at a community where there's political discord, we advise them to move on to the next city on the list.
"That's common sense. I didn't have to hear that from a consultant."
Fram said he, Community Water Committee Chair Larry Stephens and consultant Kirby Williams planned to meet today to discuss the final draft of the frequently asked questions-and-answers piece they'll submit at next Wednesday's committee meeting.
Fram said committee members will review it for "accuracy, errors and omissions" before the final draft is issued.
"That's the primary reason we're putting together this FAQ, to get correct information out there so people can understand it," he said. "It's a complex issue, from the way the (U.S. Army) Corps (of Engineers) measures and distributes water, all the way down to how cities administer and distribute water.
"It's not something you can describe in short sentences. It's a very complex issue and takes a lot more research and a lot more study."
Mid-Arkansas Water Alliance has requested a 30 mgd allocation from Lake Ouachita. The application is wending through the reallocation study required by the Corps before the district commander can reallocate part of what Corps engineer Katy Breaux said was Lake Ouachita's 2.76 million acre feet of storage capacity.
The lake isn't congressionally authorized for water supply, but the lesser of 15 percent of its storage capacity or 50,000 surface acres at a depth of one foot can be reassigned for that purpose.
The city has a preliminary allocation accounting for 15.75 mgd of MAWA's requested 30 mgd, which Breaux said equates to about 50,000 acre feet. A draft report is scheduled for a late March release, Vicksburg District Public Affairs Chief Greg Raimondo said earlier this month, followed by a 30-day comment period.
The Corps' Mississippi Valley Division in Vicksburg, Miss., and its headquarters in Washington, D.C. have to review the final report before it's released, Raimondo said. Not until then can a finding of no significant impact on the environment be issued, allowing the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works to sign the supply agreement with MAWA.
The North Garland County Regional Water District has the only Lake Ouachita allocation. Raimondo said MAWA's requested allocation would be drawn from the pool immediately below North Garland County's.
The city committed $1.07 million for its 20 mgd DeGray Lake allocation, a sum Albright said represents a percentage of the interest payment Central Arkansas Water and its predecessor, Little Rock Water Works, took on to acquire right of first refusal to the 152 mgd Congress authorized for municipal and industrial water supply.
The payment services debt incurred to build DeGray Dam, Albright said, explaining that part of the consideration for the city's allotment includes purchasing property for a city-CAW intake site and right of way wide enough for city and CAW water lines.
"We're not putting in their lines," Albright said. "We're just acquiring the right of way."
The Malvern-based Kimzey Regional Water District, serving areas of Garland, Clark, Hot Spring and Montgomery counties, has a six mgd allocation from DeGray Lake, Kimzey General Manager Keith Daniell said.
A six-member subcommittee of the water committee was tasked last year with identifying a mutually acceptable policy, but Fram said it had yet to submit a proposal. County representatives have floated the idea of an independently elected water commission.
Local on 02/26/2015