The city of Bentonville continues to grow, making it now the 10th largest city in Arkansas and as we can see by your comments on our Facebook, there's a lot you'd like to see change in 2013.
Number one: road congestion, especially on I-540 and Highway 102.
"According to the Highway and Transportation Department, that is the most dysfunctional interchange on the 540 system and that is scheduled for major reconstruction," says Mayor Bob McCaslin.
But relief is on the way.
"There's safety issues there and it's certainly over capacity."
So in the meantime he says I-540 expansion will also help congestion.
Number 2: Perry O'Brien wants to bring more shopping to bentonville. He says "Right now unless people are going to Walmart it seems you have to travel to Rogers or Fayetteville for any shopping."
"The two cities are certainly remarkably different and are both unique in their own rights, the promenade would be something we'll never duplicate here in Bentonville," says McCaslin.
Number 3: Rising sewer rates.
"All we're trying to do is recover the cost associated with treating waste water.
"
A portion of that coming from a regional waste facility the city built about 10 years ago to support the growing population.
"It cost a lot of money to build that facility and it costs a lot of money to service that debt but had we not built that, we would have had to have stopped development in Bentonville. Our capacity was such that we could take no more customers."
Finally, the cost of education with plans for a new high school on the horizon.
"We have to invest in tomorrow's children just like someone invested in us and it will cost money," says McCaslin.
Number one: road congestion, especially on I-540 and Highway 102.
"According to the Highway and Transportation Department, that is the most dysfunctional interchange on the 540 system and that is scheduled for major reconstruction," says Mayor Bob McCaslin.
But relief is on the way.
"There's safety issues there and it's certainly over capacity."
So in the meantime he says I-540 expansion will also help congestion.
Number 2: Perry O'Brien wants to bring more shopping to bentonville. He says "Right now unless people are going to Walmart it seems you have to travel to Rogers or Fayetteville for any shopping."
"The two cities are certainly remarkably different and are both unique in their own rights, the promenade would be something we'll never duplicate here in Bentonville," says McCaslin.
Number 3: Rising sewer rates.
"All we're trying to do is recover the cost associated with treating waste water.
"
A portion of that coming from a regional waste facility the city built about 10 years ago to support the growing population.
"It cost a lot of money to build that facility and it costs a lot of money to service that debt but had we not built that, we would have had to have stopped development in Bentonville. Our capacity was such that we could take no more customers."
Finally, the cost of education with plans for a new high school on the horizon.
"We have to invest in tomorrow's children just like someone invested in us and it will cost money," says McCaslin.
