During a committee meeting last week, Blytheville city attorney Mike Bearden jokingly asked Council members if they planned to solicit bids for a boat dock at "the Blytheville Recreational Lake."
While that quip might be worth a chuckle or two, the reality of the way taxpayers were bilked is no laughing matter.
It has been nearly nine years since the city entered into an agreement with E&S Materials for a recreational lake near Thunder Bayou Golf Links and the Blytheville Youth Sportsplex, a contract that the city is in the process of terminating. Blytheville was supposed to have a lake dug out in exchange for E&S keeping the dirt as compensation. The digging ceased some time ago, and all that's left is an unfinished product with no real value to the city. Seemingly, the only beneficiary was E&S, who probably sold off the free dirt for a nice profit.
Signed by former Blytheville Mayor Barrett Harrison and E&S Materials' Jack Stinnett on May 20, 2004, the extremely vague agreement for services contracts the company to help the city develop a lake for recreational purposes such as fishing, boating and other activities.
The contract says: "Contractor agrees that it will use its best efforts to assist city in completing the recreational lake at the earliest possible date, but shall not be penalized for failure to complete said recreational lake within a certain period of time."
The contractor certainly took advantage of having no firm deadline to meet.
Harrison and former Public Works director Rick Mosley were to oversee the project that was never really completed, in most everyone's mind, save maybe Stinnett.
The city is now expected to sell dirt from the area, after the Finance and Purchasing Committee gave the green light for Mayor James Sanders to enter into an agreement with Gardner Capital, the Springfield, Mo.-based company needing some 15,000 cubic yards of dirt to build 18 duplex homes (36 units) at Dogwood and South Division. If the company needs all that soil, it would pay $22,500 under the proposal.
That's $22,500 more than the city received last time.
According to old newspaper clippings, back in April 2004, Harrison told Council members he had been allowing dirt contractors to remove and sell dirt from a section of land on the Arkansas Aeroplex that was to eventually be a 20-plus acre recreational lake. The lake was to include Razorback Lake and extend along Perimeter Road west to the area of the Lights of the Delta where the Noah's Arc display currently stands, the article said.
At the time, Harrison contended the dirt was not being removed quickly enough, and he wanted to contract with a company to remove the dirt, according to lake specifications, at no charge to the city. Former Councilman David Lendennie questioned the move, saying if the dirt could be sold, the city should also benefit financially from the dirt removal.
According to the article, Bearden told Harrison he could not legally allow dirt to be removed from city property without a contract indicating the city was receiving some benefit from it, and outlining every item of the agreement.
The two sides did sign off on a rather lax contract a few weeks later.
However, nearly nine years has passed and the city is still without the promised lake and missing thousands of dollars worth of dirt. Combined with the other recreational opportunities nearby, the lake would have been a nice amenity that further enhanced the area.
Unfortunately, it's a project that will likely never happen.
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com