Fayetteville High School
Severance Tax
Ambulance Agreement
Thank You, Patsy
Affordable housing is a subject I am passionate about. People of all walks of life should be able to live in a house they can afford within our City. While lots of folks look for solutions, Patsy Brewer and Habitat for Humanity have quietly made it happen for families in Fayetteville. After sixteen (16) years as Executive Director for the non profit, Patsy will be retiring June 30 to care for her husband, Ted now on his own journey with Alzheimer’s Disease. Habitat and Fayetteville will be losing a dynamic force in the battle to provide affordable housing for families. But, what an impact this dynamic lady has already made!
Patsy Brewer is the true example of the non profit ethic. She gives hours of her time, effort and energy working for a goal she sees as critical for low income families. She wants them to achieve the dream of actually owning their own home and has selflessly worked to make those dreams a reality. Starting as volunteer director and working herself into a full time position as Executive Director, Pasty has worked for 16 long and productive years to help families put in “sweat equity” towards actually building their own homes. At the same time, she has energized large segments of the City who eagerly volunteer their own time and sweat to make these homes a reality. It’s hard to say no to Pasty because she has an enthusiasm about her work that is just infectious!
Through her efforts, Habitat for Humanity, Fayetteville can proudly point to 40 families who have moved into their own homes in our City. But that’s not the whole story. Two of those houses are, “Houses Jane Built,” meaning they were constructed by all women crews! The other houses were built by members of our community all touched and motivated by Patsy’s vision and enthusiasm. Just last year, Habitat opened the “HabiStore” on 15th street where they are reselling building supplies, tools and home improvement items donated from a variety of sources. It’s just hard to say no to Patsy!
Patsy Brewer is one of Fayetteville’s true hero’s. Her work and dedication to a cause has made a definite difference in our City. While she will be missed as the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity, her impact on the organization and families in need of low cost housing will be felt for years to come. Under Patsy’s leadership, the organization has just closed on 8 acres of property formerly owned by the City just off Huntsville Road and Morningside Drive. Eventually, a neighborhood of 40-50 houses will become a reality. A neighborhood of AFFORDABLE housing for low income families from our City. What a legacy!
Although Patsy is retiring to spend all of her time with her beloved Ted, I suspect she will remain a vibrant and active citizen of Fayetteville. I sure hope so because people like Patsy Brewer just can’t be replaced or duplicated. The City owes Patsy a huge, “Thank You,” for a job well done.
May 28, 2008
Fayetteville High School
A very popular question these days seems to be, “What should we do about Fayetteville High School?” As a private citizen of the City of Fayetteville, I most certainly have an opinion. I want the best educational system, environment, and facilities possible for our children of Fayetteville, and I would like to see the close ties with the University maintained. I believe that can be done best without moving our facilities to the fringes of our city limits. That would be my opinion as a private citizen. However, when I am asked, how I feel about the High School as Mayor, I have to take a different approach to the question. What I believe personally, at that point, is totally irrelevant.
As the Mayor of Fayetteville, it would be my charge to follow policy and do what the citizens of the City direct. The 2025 Plan is a set of goals developed through citizen input and voted on by the City Council. They are meant to be a set of guidelines to follow as the City grows and moves towards the year 2025. Included in that Plan is a guideline that directly discourages “sprawl” and, instead, encourages in fill within the City. I strongly supported the 2025 Plan when the Council passed it and I still do. It is a good document and a direct reflection of what our citizen's want in terms of development. It is from that point of view I would have to filter any question regarding new development.
Using the 2025 Plan as a guide, I would have to argue placing a new High School on the fringe of the City would be a direct violation of those guidelines. As we have clearly seen with the opening of the Owl Creek Middle School, development follows schools. Sounds simple but it is anything but. A school, the residential and commercial development that surely follows requires serious infrastructure including roads as well as water and sewer service, solid waste, and police and fire coverage. None of those are cheap and all of these items would fall on the City to provide. In 2003 the city conducted a roads and transportation study, that stated we were currently 44 Million dollars behind in road infrastructure and that we would need approximately an additional 81 million dollars of investment in order to keep pace with the anticipated growth and development over the next 15 to 20 years. Remember this is 2003 dollars. With numbers like this we need to be very conscious of where development goes and what infrastructure cost is associated with the development. The City Engineer had told public citizens inquiring about the future cost associated with the proposed new school location that approximately 10 to 15 million dollars of additional investment would be needed for infrastructure should this become the school location. ALL of those expenses would fall to the City. In the end, it is still called “sprawl” not in-fill and it has real cost that must be considered.
A far better question than where should the High School be built would be how can the City and the School Board work more closely in the future? It is the job of the School Board to plan where new schools will be needed. It is the job of the City to help direct ALL development within the City as wisely as possible following our guidelines. I want to work to bridge this gap so the placement of new educational facilities in the future can happen much more easily and within the guiding development principals of the City. I want to make the City and the School Board a win-win combination where all of our citizens are served without ignoring or violating development guidelines.
Posted April 21, 2008
Severance Tax
As cities work hard to provide comprehensive transportation programs and fund needed projects, I support Governor Beebe’s natural gas severance tax proposal recently announced by the Governors office. Raising over 14.5 million annually in tax revenues for the municipal aid fund — would allow these severance tax revenues to go towards targeted city streets and an equally a similar amount for county roads thus reducing the further tax burdens on communities like Fayetteville. This is just another step in diversifying available revenues outside of local sales tax collections. I support this severance tax, and below is the communications I sent to our locally elected officials.
I am writing to encourage you to support and vote for Governor Beebe’s proposed legislation to increase the state severance tax on natural gas and dedicate 95% of the revenue as special revenues to be distributed as provided by the Arkansas Highway Revenue Distribution Law, § 27-70-201 et seq. Our constituents deserve a safe and efficient public transportation system, and I know that you share my commitment to doing all we can to achieve that result.
No one can deny that our transportation needs are great nor that the funding for our transportation system in Northwest Arkansas is inadequate to met those needs. As a member of the City Council and as Chair of the Street Committee, I am well aware of both the transportation needs and the construction costs for well designed streets. This legislation will not solve all of our transportation problems, but the revenue would be a significant contribution toward that goal.
Governor Beebe's proposal would generate an estimated $57 million next year and about $100 million annually by 2012. If 95 percent of that revenue is distributed under the Highway Revenue Distribution law, it eventually will mean an additional $14.25 million annually for the Municipal Aid Fund for streets and an additional $14.25 annually for the County Aid Fund for county roads, as well as an additional $66.5 million for state highways.
Thank you for your consideration of my request that you support this important legislation in the upcoming Special Session. I appreciate your dedication to public service, and I look forward to working with you on other issues of mutual concern in the future.
Sincerely,
Lioneld Jordan
1600 Arrowhead
Fayetteville , AR 72701
Posted March 26, 2008
Ambulance Agreement
Tuesday night, the City Council voted to join the inter-local ambulance agreement with Washington County. This was one of the biggest decisions facing the City because of its serious and far reaching consequences. As chairman of the committee, I believe that the committee members, the City Attorney, and our ability to avoid being pulled into emotional attacks, helped us reach what we believe is a new win/win agreement that will work for Washington County, the smaller participating cities and our City. As always, the overall welfare of the City of Fayetteville ultimately guided my vote. Several issues weighed in on this particular vote.
The issues include:
- Fayetteville will pay the lion's share of the cost for this program, so I think we need additional representation on the governing board. The new agreement continues to give Fayetteville more than one seat on the newly formed entity.
- This agreement needs to be open for review. No new program like this should be an assumed "forever" deal. A periodic review is needed if we are to be accountable to the citizens of Fayetteville. The new agreement allows this newly formed inter-local agreement to be reviewed after two (2) years, and there is an opportunity for Cities who believe this is not a beneficial program for their citizens to leave the inter-local agreement after six (6) months notice.
- Failure to reach an agreement with Washington County would have left the City of Fayetteville very vulnerable financially because of our many interlocking agreements with the County.
Should the County Judge have carried out his threat to cancel agreements, the City of Fayetteville would be put in dire financial straits – potentially costing the City over 1.6 Million dollars in new cost. The frustrating realization is...the County holds all the cards. The City had to be protected financially.
I believe we were able to negotiate the best agreement possible for our citizens, and still maintain a good working relationship with other partners in our NW Arkansas community. I will keep working on this, listening to all sides and continue monitoring the effectiveness of this program for our citizens. My bottom line is the welfare of the City and its citizens. Thank you for reading this. It is important to me that citizens understand why I have been persistent in asking questions regarding this agreement.
Posted March 18, 2008
