Clarendon voters to decide $700k bond issue

Let the people decide.

That was the unanimous decision of the Clarendon Board of Aldermen last Tuesday, February 28, as they voted to put a $700,000 street improvement bond issue on the May 12 ballot.

City Administrator Lambert Little presented his street improvement plan to the board and said the city could pay the debt off in seven years.

“I’m going to have to earn the trust of the citizens, and that will be tough,” Little told the board. “But this is our best shot to get something done.”

City Aldermen expressed concern over the state of East Fourth Street, which was torn up this past summer with the promise of being re-done, and they pressed Little on when that project would be finished, asking specifically if it could be done before the election.

“Even if I have to go do it myself, yes,” Little said. “I know we can do this.”

This month the city finished paying off bonds from a $1 million street project that was completed in 2006. Because of that, Little tells the Enterprise that the city can make payments on the bond issue he proposing without raising rates on the citizens.

“My expectation is to service this debt without increasing taxes or fees,” Little said.

The new project, as Little proposes, would focus on Sixth Street from Koogle to Goodnight, Third Street from Allen to Bugbee, Carhart Street from US 287 to Sixth, and a one-block stretch of Wood Ave. between Jackson and Faker that the administrator described as “a mess.”

Work would also be done on Allen and Sims streets adjacent to Broncho Stadium, and also, if Clarendon College officials agree, on Clarendon Avenue and Regents Avenue.

Little said city crews would do the base work for the street and a contractor would be hired to do curbing and the two-pass tar and gravel seal coat. A section of Sixth Street from Parks to Kearney, which carries a lot of drainage by the baseball parks, would be done in two-inch hot mix.

In 2003, city voters turned down a $2.5 million project after petition called for an election on the matter. The city later went ahead with a $1 million project funded by tax revenue bonds, which do not require voter approval. In voting unanimously to put the new proposal on the ballot, city leaders say this time they are taking the issue directly to the people.

“It is not like last time,” said Alderman Tommy Hill. “This time it’s up to the citizens.”

Mayor Larry Hicks also vowed that if the citizens do not approve the bond election, the city will not try to side step them and do the project anyway. Hicks also said he personally supports Lambert’s proposal.

“I believe we can make it work,” the mayor said. “This is one of the main things people want to see done.”

Little admits the pressure is now on the city, which has just two months to turn Fourth Street into what the administrator calls “a crown jewel” and show the citizens it can deliver what has been promised.  City Hall is advertising this week for bids on seal coating Fourth Street.

Voting in favor of putting the issue on the ballot were Aldermen Terry Noble, Ann Huey, Jesus Hernandez, Tommy Hill, and Will Thompson. Voting against the measure: none.