Blytheville, Arkansas

that is about to change. “What we’re doing now, is working on our infrastructure to better provide services to the people that live here,” he states. “We have an estimated $14 million in projects, going on, right now, around the city. Our water department is having new wells drilled, plus new fire hydrants for $5 million. We’re also working to have a new, $8 million wastewater treatment plant built to ensure that we’re able to treat our water as it leaves our city, and stay in compliance with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s regulations.” Callens elaborates: “A major problem we have here is a lot of iron in our water, so one of the things that we’re doing with water is upgrading our filters. Then, in the past, we used chlorine gas as an additive in our water. But, we’re getting away from that, because the health department wants the city to get away from the use of chlorine gas because of its potential danger. So, we’ve gone to a liquid bleach, which will make it must safer for the community if something ever did happen. We’re in an earthquake zone; a major earthquake could cause a leak of chlorine gas, which could cause some major health issues.” “We’re always looking for areas we need to improve on,” Callens adds. “We brought water engineers in and we found out that, quite often, when a city expands, and moves outward from its water plant, it can have fire flow issues. So, we’re spending an additional $800,000 to put in a non-potable well to add fire flow to certain areas, so when additional housing or businesses come in, we offer the protection that they need.” “These investments that we’re looking at now are inspired to expand the longevity of our infrastructure systems,” Sanders remarks. “These are one-time fixes that we’re talking about to save money. For instance, regarding the wastewater plant - right now, the system that we’re operating on is over 30 years old. Because of the old equipment, we have high electric bills from the use of those old treatment facilities and their BLYTHEV I LLE , ARKANSAS Proud to be part of the NE Arkansas community for more than 30 years!