Fire, flood put Springtown’s bridges on priority
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/60004/
SPRINGTOWN — Just a few miles past Highfill on Arkansas Highway 12 lies a small town with a reported population of 135.
Springtown is a simple, farming community — its residence have well-water and septic tanks, and when the weather’s warm, the kids in town head to the local swimming hole to take a dip.
The trees form a canopy over the creek, which flows through three low-water bridges in town.
But age, tires and floods have worn those bridges down — and the residents of Springtown are wanting some repairs.
It wasn’t until Earl Dove died in a Feb. 23 fire that one of those bridges, located on Old Springtown Road, was placed as a priority. On that night, the Gentry Fire Department pulled a stuck patrol car out of the creek because it was blocking the most direct route to the fire for the Highfill Fire Department, which provided mutual aid at the fire.
When floods hit Benton County this week, that bridge was declared so impassable that it is closed for good.
Work on the Old Springtown Road bridge should begin in the next two months, according to county officials — but city councilman and former Mayor Paul Lemke said it’s been after years of attempts.
Springtown was incorporated in 1905. Although the town has only four municipal roads, five county roads come into Springtown. In the center of the 325-acre town lies a floodplain, where only 30 percent of the runoff is generated by Springtown.
The runoff has taken its toil on the three bridges, located on Old Springtown Road, Aubrey Long Road and Bredehoeft Road. Concrete rubble surrounds the three bridges, which have become cracked. Two of the bridges have collapsed over the years.
Lemke said Springtown reactivated its charter a few years ago in hopes of repairing the bridges.
In 1999, after conversations between then-Mayor Lemke and then-County Judge W. Cary Anderson, the Benton County Quorum Court passed the Road Work for Small Cities ordinance dedicated to assist communities with populations of fewer than 5, 000 residents.
According to the ordinance, 90 percent of county road tax retained from these smaller municipalities must be placed in a pool. No more than 50 percent of this can be used in any one municipality for a major project, and the project should be of benefit to unincorporated areas.
From the ordinance: “ An example might be a low-water bridge which is often not passable, but is necessary for emergency services for the health and safety of citizens of both the municipality and the rural area. ”
Springtown thought it was finally going to get its bridges repaired. Upon the election of County Judge Gary Black, Lemke said he felt the town was placed on the back-burner.
Lemke said the county had agreed to repair the Old Springtown Road bridge by recapping it with a six-inch concrete slab and building up the approaches. The county was also going to give the city up to 10 cubic yards of concrete to help stabilize a bridge on the east side of town, which sustained more damage recently from logging trucks.
Rosemary Goines, executive secretary for Black, responded to a Daily Record request to Black’s office for an interview.
Goines said the Springtown roads have been inspected by the Benton County Road Department, and Black’s office has drawn up new plans for the bridge.
“ We are applying for permitting to do that, and when we get the permit back from the state, we will construct a low-water bridge that will be two-lane instead of a single lane. ”
Goines said the process may take up to two months to complete.
Lemke is grateful for the news — and added that the flooding, which left Benton County designated as a disaster area, may help the city in finding funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to replace the other two bridges.
“ Any time we have a flood like this, and nobody gets hurt, and there’s no property loss, it’s always a blessing, ” Lemke said. “ Even though it might put the people out temporarily, instead of a patch job, maybe we can put a better project together. If we can come up with some FEMA money, money from the city and money from the county, maybe we can build something that will work 98 percent of the time. ”