For years, longtime Berryville Mayor Tom McKinney had been angling to improve water availability in his town.
When a 2011 referendum that would have created a water facilities board was defeated, McKinney had to put his plans to extend water infrastructure to rural areas on hold. But, with a renewed emphasis on economic development in 2014, McKinney took a different approach.
Rather than attempt to form a rural water association, he began to examine the possibility of extending Berryville’s water into the rural areas around the city.
Through a series of loans, grants, matching money and in-kind labor, McKinney put together a water extension project that could provide water to more than 330 new customers and add approximately 41 miles of water line into a future growth area outside Berryville.
In 2016, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) announced funding for Berryville’s rural water project. Their grants would pay 75% of the $8.8 million project, with the remainder of the funding coming from cash or in-kind labor courtesy of the city of Berryville.
The catch was that the city had to pre-sign 300 customers, a portion of whom had to be of low to moderate income. A series of public meetings were held to educate the public, along with other methods of outreach and information sharing.
Carroll County Waste helped sweeten the deal by offering to give residents who signed up for water service the same trash pickup rates as city customers. While accepting the trash pickup rate was not mandatory to receive water service, it would combine customers’ water and trash bills into a single bill.
Once the 330 sign-ups were complete, the project went into the bidding process for work on three sections of the extension project. Red Rock Construction of Jasper, L.E. Davis Construction of Harrison and Barrows Construction and Excavation of Berryville were approved by a city council vote in July, 2018.
In September of that year, the USDA gave notice that Berryville could proceed with the project, and McKinney was able to finally announce the water extension project he had dreamed of.
Total cost is $9,804,200, with $7,128,000 paid for by grants and $1,681,000 through a USDA loan.
“We know how important this is to this area with the possibility for rural development,” said Lawrence McCullough, state director of the USDA, when the funding was first announced in 2016.
Ryan Benefield, deputy director of the ANRC stressed Berryville’s need for “clean, reliable water.”
By last July, engineers were able to declare the project 80% complete, and contractors were beginning to charge the lines with water.
As contractors continued to work to bring additional customers city water, the Berryville City Council voted in August to set rural rates at $22 a month, a rate lower than the $34 to $40 originally calculated.
While the rates were slightly higher than what was previously paid by rural customers, McKinney explained they had to be high enough to service the USDA loan.
However, the more customers the city was able to pick up, the lower the rates could be kept, and the lower rates signify the success of the project.
“It’s not county-wide,” McKinney said, “but it’s a good start.”
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