Tontitown making second attempt at special election

TONTITOWN, Ark. ( KNWA/KFTA ) — Tontitown filed an ordinance Wednesday for a bond refinancing item to be placed on the November ballot.

The bond that is being refinanced was originally passed in 2017. Mayor Angela Russell of Tontitown estimates, if passed, the city will have $19 million to distribute to four projects: $6.5 million each for a new police station and to improve and build new roads, $5 million to install a new water tower and $1 million to update the city’s park and refurbish an old fire station into a community center — all things deemed a priority by the city.

“We are right here on (Highway) 412,” Russell said. “We have people coming in from Oklahoma, going into Springdale, going into Fayetteville using this area, going into Rogers-Bentonville area. So, there is so much traffic that’s going through Tontitown. We have to have some type of relief to be able to manage the traffic properly.”

In November, Tontitown filed an ordinance with the Washington County Circuit Clerk trying to get the same bond refinancing on the March primary ballot. That filing was supposed to go to the county clerk’s office, instead.

The city wasn’t notified of the error until January 5, which was after the filing deadline, and the city was forced to delay the ballot item to November.

To avoid the same error from happening, Russell said she “knew exactly what I needed to do, where I needed to go and I personally did it, myself.”

The Tontitown Police Department currently has 18 officers on staff, according to detective Keith Lindley, who said the volume of traffic in and out of the current station can lead to overcrowding.

“We’re bumping into each other just in a hallway,” Lindley said.

Lindley said the department utilizes other buildings away from the station to work out of, but a new police station would help it in its day-to-day operations.

“If we were to arrest a violent offender, we don’t have anywhere to keep them here,” Lindley said. “There’s not a safe and secure environment other than a chair that we can handcuff them to, and we can do better than that.”

You can read the full ordinance here.

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