By Martin Couch
The Bryant City Council and the Bryant Water department worked together to secure water for the city's future needs from Lake DeGray through the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
"We're pleased to announce that Bryant will have a water supply for the next 80 years," Mayor Larry Mitchell said in last Thursday's City Council meeting. "There will be 15 million gallons of water a day available for citizens of Bryant, because of this."[more]
The Council and members of the Bryant Water/Waste water commission posed for a picture before the start of the Council meeting and gained the applause of several in attendance.
The city recently entered an agreement with the Corps to secure 15 million gallons of water for storage. DeGray Reservoir was authorized and constructed under the River and Harbor Act of 1950 to include 152 million gallons a day of storage for municipal and industrial water supply.
Central Arkansas Water recently completed a master plan that identifies Lake DeGray as its preferred long term water supply. CAW is taking steps to secure a 120-million gallons per day allocation from Lake DeGray. Therefore, it is likely that Bryant will work with CAW and others to develop the Lake DeGray water source.
By securing its own allocation from Lake DeGray, Bryant has preserved its option to share the ownership of future water intake facilities, water transmission lines and water treatment facilities to serve its citizens. The 15 million gallon per day allocation from Lake DeGray secures a long term, reliable water supply source for Bryant's future.
The City Council also unanimously approved to spend $76,000 for a matching stormwater grant for the Forest Cove area and passed an approval to spend up to $50,000 to hire FTN to complete the engineer designs and bid documents and the city's required matching responsibility for a $376,540.00 grant to elevate Forest Drive low water bridge.
The Council approved the Bryant Fire Department's request for a standard of operation of line of duty death, revised time trade policy and change to the holiday pay policy. Also approved were the contracts at Bishop Park concerning the sponsorships of Heartland Bank, Landers and Allied Waste.
Approval was granted for the street departments asphalt overlay projects that total $131,837.75 and to study culvert opening alternatives.
A second reading of an ordinance to amend the comprehensive zoning ordinance from residential and commercial to only commercial on Raymar Road was tabled until November to give residents time to speak with developers and come up with a proper solution to concerns with the project.
