City officials will schedule a specially called meeting to sort through issues surrounding a funding request from the Murphy Arts District.
The El Dorado Works Board approved the $2.2 million request from MAD Tuesday and agreed to recommend the request to the El Dorado City Council.
The additional funding would come from the El Dorado Works tax.
The matter appeared on the council’s agenda during a regular meeting Thursday; however, due to a scheduling mix-up, the item was tabled.
When the council reached the item, which was listed under new business on the agenda, Mayor Frank Hash called out for Robert Reynolds, chairman of the El Dorado Works Board, who was to have presented the MAD funding request to the council.
“Is Mr. Reynolds not here?” Hash asked, scanning the audience.
“That’s not like him,” added Council Member Billy Blann.
Audience member Sherrel Johnson — special projects coordinator for the Union County Water Conservation Board, of which Reynolds serves as president — called Reynolds on the phone during the meeting.
“He’s out of town. He had the wrong date (for the city council meeting). He had it down for next week,” Johnson told council members.
Hash explained that the El Dorado Works Board rescheduled its regular monthly meeting from Oct. 9 to last Tuesday, and the change likely threw Reynolds off his schedule.
“Normally, the council meeting would have been the following week,” Hash said.
He said the circumstances work in favor of the council by allowing time to discuss the matter further before the aldermen vote on the request.
At the Tuesday meeting, Austin Barrow, MAD president and chief operating officer, said the $2.2 million would reimburse MAD for cost overruns on the construction of the district’s amphitheater/parking lot and playscape.
The city committed a total of $13.4 million to the development of the MAD entertainment complex, pledging $9.02 million from the former El Dorado Forward economic development tax in 2013 and an additional $3.2 million from the current El Dorado Works tax in 2016.
Barrow pointed out that preliminary estimates of $6.4 million for the amphitheater/parking lot and $2.7 million for the playscape were not hard figures.
The estimates were listed in purchase-lease agreements that MAD signed with the city.
The arrangement calls for MAD to use city tax dollars to acquire the property; pay for construction costs; turn the deeds over to the city; operate and manage the property; and lease the property from the city for a nominal fee.
The last of the Phase I projects — the $100 million MAD development project is divided into two phases — was completed earlier this year with the grand opening of the playscape in May.
Barrow provided EWB members with a breakdown of costs, including change orders and other issues that led to the overages.
For instance, he said, land acquisition from Union Pacific Railroad for the playscape came with more acreage than initially planned, bumping the size of the play area from 1.5 acres to 2 acres.
An increase in overall acreage called for additional playground equipment and security features, including surveillance cameras, fencing and lighting.
An environmental impact study was conducted for the railroad property at a cost of $59,217.74, bringing the total price of the playscape to $3.4 million, Barrow said.
He also said several change orders for the amphitheater, the largest of which was $282,520 to go from grass to artificial turf, drove construction costs from an estimated $6.4 million to $7.8 million.
During a city council meeting Oct. 4, Hash said MAD had not turned over the deeds to the properties, and state legislative auditors had homed in the matter.
“MAD has had some cost overruns, and they will attend the (Tuesday) EWB meeting to request additional monies,” the mayor said at the time. “I don’t know how we jump that shark, but we’ve got to figure it out. The auditors are aware, and we’ve got to account for $9-plus million.”
Hash and MAD have consulted with the Arkansas Municipal League on the matter.
“Had MAD handed over those deeds prior to that conversation with the city, the city would have no legal means to extend those (additional) funds to MAD,” Barrow said. “Once those funds for the additional expenses are paid, the deeds will be handed over to the city. It will be clean.”
Hash said he also spoke to the AML, which has offered to send a team to El Dorado help sort out the matter. He called for a meeting between city officials, MAD and the Municipal League.
During the council meeting Thursday, city officials tentatively scheduled the meeting for noon Tuesday, Oct. 23.
Barrow, who was in the audience with Madison Murphy, also of MAD, said he plans to attend the meeting.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.