Springdale taxpayers are being asked to believe that their entire City Council was clueless about the city's advertised bids and signed contracts for street construction that they approved. They now express amazement that just last week they approved a $4.7 million bid by Sweetser Construction to pave Wagon Wheel Road with concrete, when it could have been done with asphalt for $1 million less.
“None of us knew that this was going to be constructed with concrete,” said Alderman Mike Overton, and Alderman Bobby Stout harped in, "I think we've been taken." No joke. They blamed Van Lee, the Construction Dynamics Group engineer who oversees the 2003 Springdale bond program, for not telling them what was in the bid or the contract they approved.
Van Lee told them what everyone else already knows. The road is being constructed with concrete to accommodate the trucking industry, and the taxpayers are graciously providing the subsidies. It is only $1 million on this project. Just think how much the truckers and the Northwest Arkansas Council want us to pay for concrete highway construction in expanding I-540 for business interests -- and how little interest they have in light rail and mass transit for the average citizen.
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