ALC-Highway Commission Review and Advisory Subcommittee
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0:00
Thank you.
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Amen.
Speaker 2
6:30
we'll call our meeting to order chair sees a quorum
Speaker 3
6:39
do you have anything to say our first item of business is a report from the highway commission on the progress of public road construction projects of 10 million dollars or more looks like we have director Bennett with us today if you'd like to go ahead and introduce yourself since everybody knows you anyway but
Speaker 9
7:10
so we can get started thank you mr chair mr chair members of the subcommittee i'm scott bennett director of the arkansas department of transportation we do have a few of our staff members here. Lori Tudor, our Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer. Randy Orton, Assistant Chief of Administration. Patrick Patton, our Chief Fiscal
Speaker 14
7:33
Officer. And Gil Rogers, our Governmental Relations Officer. We had submitted the quarterly report, and it was for the quarter
that ended in September. I think you all have a copy of that. I'd be happy to answer any questions about any of
Speaker 9
7:48
the projects or anything in the report that you all may have or anything else you want to ask happy world kindness day by the way pardon happy world kindness day by the way you decided not to ask it after that
Speaker 3
8:24
the committee members i guess our next item i don't think we have any
Speaker 9
8:30
information on is that what i was told uh well right and and we will have
Speaker 14
8:36
at the at the next meeting the um um the next item on the agenda uh the expenditures from uh the revenue authorized under act 416
and act 416 was the act that added a sales tax on gasoline and diesel increased the registration fee for hybrid and electric vehicles and included casino revenue at the end of the year the act went into place October the 1st. Uh, so as of November the 1st, we hadn't expended any money. Now, uh, today we do, we do have a balance. So some of the registration fees are starting to
flow already. I think that the total projected, uh, for the year is a little under $2 million and we have received about $181,000 in, in those registration fees. Motor fuel taxes, that increase went into place October the 1st. It's reported in November and we should start receiving the fuel tax revenue in December and that was the bulk of the revenue and then the
casino revenue will get a one-time deposit June the 30th. So we've been trying to lay out the projects for that additional $95 million but we've received $181,000 so far and haven't had any expenditures yet because the money's not really flowing adequately yet are there any questions from any of the commemorative committee members
Speaker 8
10:08
while director Bennett's up here is there any other
Speaker 24
10:18
you've got a question go ahead representative right thank you mr. chairman I'm not a member but I would like to ask Scott a
Speaker 25
10:29
question. Scott, in Jonesboro on Commerce Drive, is that going to be a five-lane? Commerce Drive, are you talking
Speaker 9
10:36
about that extension of Commerce Drive to the north? I think part of it is five and part of it is three.
Speaker 29
10:42
Yeah, I believe part of it based on traffic is five lanes and part of it up on the north will be three lanes.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
10:50
But the heavy traffic will be five. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, Scott. Any other questions? thank you mr. chair uh mr. bennett we missed you at the ribbon cutting at maumelle but i do want to thank the department for the the contractor did a wonderful job and it's on time maybe if we can get the county judge to let us actually take full advantage of it and let
people be able to drive to it it would be a lot of fun but that's an argument for another day but But I want to thank RDOT for the job you did on that. It's a great asset to the community, and Lord knows we need it. It's so critical to that part of my district that people can get in and out of one of the fastest-growing areas in central Arkansas. Well, I appreciate
Speaker 9
11:43
that. I hated not to be there. The weather wasn't great, and I was a little under the weather that day. I was at the ribbon-cutting just 11 months ago.
So, yeah, we completed that project in 11 months. Yes, great. Great. That
Speaker 3
12:00
was a good one. Anyway, thank you very much, Scott. No, thank you. Any other questions or comments? If not, we are adjourned. Windermar next. Well, you're too late. Senator Tupperware. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Director
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
12:18
Bennett? Yes, sir. I know you're fully aware of the situation in Clarksville where the signs were at the school.
Yes, sir. And the ruling was against the school and they're going to have to move those signs. And I had asked one of your staff members to have the engineer that originally started that process of having those signs removed to go up and meet with Dr. Hopkins, the superintendent, about finding another location because the school owns about a mile of highway frontage there. And all I've asked is that you send one of your men or have one of your directors go down and meet with Dr. Hopkins and find a suitable location that will meet your criteria to put those signs back up
because the school is going to lose about $250,000, as you're well aware of, by moving on signs. So that's all
Speaker 9
13:08
I'm asking you. Okay, we can do that. Okay. That's what we usually do, right. And I think we'd even, I know Senator Bozeman had gotten involved when we talked to Senator Bozeman's staff about, you know, even some of the signs being moved to the north end zone, right, so they would be out of the viewshed of the interstate. But, I mean, the spacing requirement would allow maybe two signs,
the width of the football field, face an interstate 40, but if they own other property, yes, or I'll have our folks contact the superintendent so they can go over the spacing with them and things like that and see if we can
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
13:46
get that worked out. They do own three-quarters or a mile of frontage going back west, and some of that might meet the criteria of the Beautification Act, and they could put
Speaker 39
13:56
them there if it's possible. Right, and we can
Speaker 9
13:58
do that. We probably need to get the city involved or the county if part of it's in the county
because of the zoning issues, but we can sure do that.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
14:11
Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. We'll do that for sure. Representative Vaught. Can I piggyback on that, Mr. Chair? So in my area, in the southwest corner of the state, we don't really have a lot of billboards. And so a lot of people have made really nice metal signs and have them displayed. And they've all gotten letters asking them to take them down, even though we don't really have billboards in our area because we're in the rural part. And a lot of those actually are on their own properties.
Speaker 9
14:37
well if it's a okay for the for the highway beautification act that goes all the
Speaker 14
14:45
way back to 1965 and then it was codified here i believe in 90
Speaker 9
14:51
in 67 68 i've read it 68 68 67 or 68 right um if it is what we
Speaker 29
14:58
call an on-site sign that means it's a site that's on that property that is advertising the business that is on that property. If it's on private property, but it's
advertising a business somewhere else, then it's subject to the billboard regulations. It's not all of the highways in the state. It's the highways that were considered primary highways as they existed in 1991. And there are some of them in Little River and Sevier
Speaker 14
15:22
County that fall under that jurisdiction. Okay. Is this something that we can look at for these rural
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
15:28
businesses who pay quite a bit in taxes just to be able to have a business, and now it can't even tell which way to go to their business? I wish we could. Okay. Would that be something you'd be willing to work
Speaker 29
15:42
with me and us write something up? Well, I think, right, right, and I think it's
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
15:47
going to have to start at the federal level. So I asked Congressman Westerman, because he was in my district on Monday, and he and I talked about it, you know, because we keep hearing, oh, we're going to get federal monies pulled, and he said, D, there's never been any federal monies pulled. I don't know why
Speaker 29
16:02
They're saying that. They had some in New York pulled just recently because of issues like that.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
16:06
Okay. But those were all like in big city metropolitan areas? No, it was in rural New York.
Okay. There were fine issues in rural New York. I will look that up because he and I, neither one could find any of that. And if you have it somewhere and could share it with me, I would like that. Okay, we can do that. He did say that he believes that our statute goes further than what actual the Beautification Act was meant to be. And he said that's where we need to fix it is
Speaker 29
16:33
at the state level. We'd be happy to look at that, too, right? Like I said, that's been in place not quite as long as I've been alive, but for a while. Right. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 17
16:42
Thank you so much. I'd appreciate working with you on it. Right. Anything else? Our next meeting will be December the 18th. We are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Report from the Arkansas Highway Commission on the progress of each public road construction project of ten million dollars ($10,000,000) or more, as required by ACA § 27-65-107(a)(19)
C. Report from the Arkansas Department of Transportation on annual expenditure of revenues from additional wholesales sales tax on fuel resulting from Act 416 of 2019, as required by ACA § 26-64-104(b)
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC-HIGHWAY COMMISSION REVIEW AND ADVISORY SUBCOMMITTEE, Nov 13, 2019 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Ex. B - HCRAS document 2020 Quarter 1 - final | Exhibit | 98 | Official source ↗ |
| Ex. C - ARDOT Annual Report on Expenditures from wholesale fuel tax | Exhibit | 2 needs OCR | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 2
Speaker 3
Speaker 9
Speaker 14
Speaker 17
Speaker 8
Speaker 24
Speaker 25
Speaker 29
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
Speaker 39
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified