This letter is in response to Debbie Sorenson's letter on Sept. 25. I would like to thank you for proving my point.
In your letter, you stated what the POA does for the city of Bella Vista. The POA manages fitness facilities, golf courses, lakes, tennis center, Blowing Springs RV park, the dog park, campsites, Tanyard Creek walking trail and so on. My point was, could not all of these be managed by a park and recreation department similar to what other cities have?
Look at the cities around Northwest Arkansas. Do not most cities have the amenities you mentioned in one form or another. Rogers has a golf course the pro golfers come to from around the world to play at. I could almost guarantee it costs a great deal less than $1.1 million dollars to manage.
As far as restaurants, don't most restaurants usually have in-house managers?
As far as putting out the stump dump fire, I live close to where the fire was and for almost a year it burnt. The POA hired air quality companies to come and study the air in the area. It spent thousands of dollars doing this. All it would have had to do was spend more than a couple of hours down here and that would have told the POA. It stank. Period. If the POA would have acted back in July when the fire first started, it could have dug it up and put it out before it spread as it did. This would have saved a great deal of money. The POA just wanted to point fingers and put the blame on anyone else. Only when its hands were forced did it actually do something about it. When it finally did, it only took about three weeks to put it out.
As for your invite to the Recreation Committee meeting, I would like to but, like the vast majority of people who live in Bella Vista, I work. Try having the meeting in the evening or possibly on a Saturday when more people could come. You might find you would have a better or larger gathering if it were more accessible for people to come -- just a thought.
Thank you once again.
Michael Holmquest
Bella Vista
Editorial on 10/09/2019