What's in the $457 million Rogers bond issue

• "I think we're going to be best served by getting as much money out there as we can as quickly as we can so that we can beat inflationary costs and material delays and/or availability at all," Rogers Mayor Greg Hines told Axios.

How it works: The first question — whether to refinance $118 million in bonds — must pass for any other issues to pass, even if voters approve them.

🛣️ $195.5 million for streets

🚧 The bulk of the money is to overlay and rehabilitate streets, Hines said.

• The city has detailed data on the condition of all roads, meaning it can prioritize roads that need work the most or the soonest.
• "The money will follow the data," he said.

🚦 It'll also include some intersection and connectivity improvements. The city's website lists some along Oak, Walnut and Olive streets.

💧 Roughly $5 million would be allotted as seed money to compile data needed for a blueprint as the city likely develops a stormwater utility in the future.

• Hines explained the city is required to do limited regulation surrounding stormwater for now, but as the population grows, it will likely have to take on more responsibility.

🌳 $81.5 million for parks and recreation

🏀 The money would allow the city to purchase the Rogers Activity Center plus about 24 surrounding acres.

• The city rents the building from a nonprofit and helps run some of the programming at the center. The long-term goal is for the city to own it, expand it and add space for recreational amenities like more volleyball and basketball courts, Hines said.

The bond money would also be used to develop an open space community park with trails and a recycling drop-off center on land the city owns on the west side of Rogers near Pleasant Grove and Rainbow roads. The hope is to eventually have an environmental education center on the property, Hines said.

🧑‍🚒 $32.75 million for the Fire Department

🧯 The city plans to build a new fire training center, which includes classroom space to train not only Rogers firefighters but firefighters from other departments.

• The city had outgrown its fire training center, and then it was heavily damaged in the Memorial Day weekend 2024 tornadoes, Hines said.

🚒 The money will also go toward buying fire trucks and expanding Fire Station 2 to accommodate more trucks and firefighters, which Hines said was needed because of the city's growth.

🚔 $20.75 million for the Police Department

🫆 The Police Department needs to construct a building to store most evidence in one place, rather than across a few locations, Hines said. Few people would have access to the building on the police headquarters site. The city also has more physical evidence to keep given the growing population and a backlogged court system, he said.

👮 Voters in 2018 approved a bond issue that paid for a new dispatch center. If approved, money from this bond issue will be used to renovate the former dispatch center inside the police headquarters for criminal investigation and administrative offices.

🚓 The money would also go toward a covered parking area for police cars to protect them from things like hail.

🐾 $8.75 million for animal services

🐶 The money would go toward building a new animal shelter that can take double the number of pets as the existing one, which has 50 kennels, city spokesperson Peter Masonis told Axios.

🐈 In addition to holding more animals, the plan is for the new shelter to be better designed to meet modern expectations for animal shelters like having more dedicated space for volunteers and people considering adopting, Hines said.

🗳️ What's next: Early voting starts Oct. 19, and Election Day is Nov. 3.

• The deadline to register to vote in the election is Oct. 5. Check your voter registration and polling places.