"Embarrassing," "a slap in the face" and "deplorable" were just some of the words and phrases Mike Dumas, former mayor of El Dorado and Union County Judge and current Justice of the Peace, used to describe maintenance on North West Avenue and Hillsboro Street, two state highways that run the length of the city his JP district sits in.
"We have two state highways that run through this city... If any city in the State of Arkansas has worse state highways than those two, then I feel sorry for those cities, because I feel sorry for El Dorado," Dumas said. "I think ARDOT (Arkansas Department of Transportation) has sat back and done absolutely nothing to those streets, using the excuse that they're going to be under construction."
Highway 82 -- Hillsboro -- is set to be expanded from Texarkana through El Dorado as part of ARDOT's Connecting Arkansas Program. Business and property owners located along Hillsboro have reported that land acquisition has started.
The project calls for a widening of the highway; two roundabouts at College and West avenues; a new viaduct to be built just north of the existing Hillsboro viaduct; a new bridge between Park and Rock Island Right-Of-Way; and landscaped medians.
Once the changes are complete, the city will adopt and maintain the road. The project was estimated in 2020 to cost $80 million, approximately $3.5 million of which was to be paid by the City of El Dorado, according to previous News-Times reporting.
In the meantime, however, Dumas said it's incumbent upon ARDOT to ensure the roads are well-maintained.
"I travel those streets almost daily. Hillsboro -- it's as though ARDOT has said we're going to rebuild Hillsboro so we're not going to do anything to it. They haven't done anything to it except a few little patches in 10 years... They haven't even relocated the utilities yet, so we're still a long way out," he said. "Especially from Hillsboro to Grove, that section of South West Avenue, they have failed to maintain the surface."
Dumas also noted that he was surprised the roads were in such condition since state Rep. Matthew Shepherd, Speaker of the Arkansas House, is from El Dorado.
"We have state Rep. Matthew Shepherd, who is Speaker of the House, and for ARDOT to treat their highways and this city, in (Shepherd's) city (this way), I think, is a slap in the face to Matthew Shepherd," Dumas told JPs last week.
Shepherd said while there's always room for improvement, he does know ARDOT officials have been in El Dorado within the past two months.
"Obviously I live here in El Dorado, so I travel these roads quite a bit; I haven't -- I mean, there's always room for improvement -- (but) I haven't had any specific complaints as to the road condition," Shepherd said. "I can say that the director and others in the upper leadership of the Department have been here in El Dorado at least twice since the beginning of May, and I'll be glad to express those concerns to them so that they can take a look at it."
David Archer, ARDOT District 7 engineer, said the level of maintenance on the state highways that run through El Dorado hasn't changed.
"I have talked to the Area Maintenance Supervisor and he indicates we recently trimmed limbs around the Walmart area for sight distance at the driveways and mowing is scheduled for the next week or so on both routes," Archer said, noting that he could provide more details about maintenance with more specific complaints.
"If there's another city in Arkansas that has worse streets than we do, feel sorry for them. Pray for them," Dumas said. "I don't know if there's another city in Arkansas that has streets this deplorable."
Dumas said his hope is that his message reaches ARDOT and maintenance on the state highways that run through El Dorado is improved.
"Even though they're going to rebuild Hillsboro -- they say they are someday -- they still have a responsibility to maintain road surfaces. It's like they walked away... That's exactly what it looks like on Hillsboro," he said. "I want to make the statement that I think ARDOT is treating El Dorado unfairly by not taking care of the streets."
A section of North West Avenue is seen from the intersection with Liberty Street on Wednesday, June 22. (Matt Hutcheson/News-Times)