Voters may decide as early as March on funding low-water dams in the Arkansas River.
City councilor G.T. Bynum chairs the river task force. He said holding an election in the spring will make it clear whether voters want the dams and will give officials time to discuss renewing the Vision 2025 sales tax.
"The tradeoff is it puts us on the clock to come up with a proposal," Bynum said. "What I like about this group is that we just — we meet every other week and we take it one step at a time. We knew a lot more today than we did when we started six months ago, seven months ago."
The task force is exploring how a river development authority could be used to fund dam operations and maintenance.
The task force also has a preliminary estimate of what it will cost to operate and maintain dams to put water in the river. Between contributions to a sinking fund and actual maintenance, the early figure is $580,300 a year.
Consultant Gaylon Pinc said plans for Zink Dam are far enough along that the costs can be extrapolated, but it’s still a preliminary estimate.
"So our cost estimates probably have close to a 20 percent contingency, meaning it's plus or minus 20 percent," Pinc said. "Generally, one would assume plus 20 percent."
The estimate also calls for one full-time employee at each dam at $74,000 a year. Pinc says one or two workers could handle all four once they’re up and running.
