Friends,

Infrastructure maintenance is a basic and essential need for any city. Little Rock is no exception. With more than 1,200 miles of roads spread across Little Rock's 120-square-mile footprint, we must invest in maintaining and improving streets, sidewalks and drainage. Our residents and visitors deserve safe streets to drive on, safe sidewalks to walk on and property safe from flooding.

Our Public Works Department currently has 70 ongoing projects across our City, and you can learn more about them on the Capital Improvement Project dashboard on our website. Even so, we recognize we have hundreds more ongoing needs from repaving to sidewalk building to pothole repair.

Over the last several years as we listened to residents and developed the Results For The Rock penny investment plan, we made infrastructure a strategic priority. We know that, as City Director B.J. Wyrick likes to say, infrastructure makes up "the nuts and bolts" of our City. That's why Public Infrastructure is a pillar of the Results For The Rock plan.

With voter approval on Election Day, we will set aside a total of 133 million dollars for street, sidewalk and drainage improvements. This funding will help us put a dent in our growing list of priority infrastructure needs. Part of that money will be applied toward ongoing maintenance projects such as resurfacing and pothole repair. (We repaired hundreds and hundreds of potholes after the January storm alone. This proposal set asides special funding to tackle one of the top complaints from motorists after icy weather.)

We know that construction costs have skyrocketed in recent years. It's estimated that road construction costs have more than doubled since 2010. For example, the cost to build one mile of new, two-line road in 2010 was about 1.5 million dollars. Now it's more than 3 million dollars. So in order to cover the costs of new infrastructure projects, it is necessary to make additional investments.

With voter approval of the Results For The Rock plan, we will seek feedback from the Board of Directors and community stakeholders about which infrastructure projects should be prioritized and funded. It will be the same process our Public Works Department used to identify street, sidewalk and drainage projects to be completed with funds from both the 2011 sales tax and 2022 Renew The Rock bond program. 

The Public Works Department maintains a list of project requests from residents, and any resident may go online to complete a form requesting Public Works consider an addition to that list. Our Infrastructure Project Request Form is available online.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Early voting starts on Monday, Oct. 21, and there are 13 early voting sites across Pulaski County.

Little Rock voters will have two special election measures at the end of the ballot. One is to decide on a temporary 5/8ths-cent sales tax increase to fund capital projects, such as new public safety technology, quality-of-life amenities for our parks and community centers and job creation through the Port of Little Rock. The second is a 3/8ths-cent sales tax increase to support our ongoing needs, including additional support for priority infrastructure projects.

As we entered the fourth quarter of 2024, I joined Police Chief Heath Helton and LRPD command staff at a news conference last week to talk about the positive results from our comprehensive crime reduction strategy.

Over the last five years, there's been a 34 percent decrease in homicides, and violent crime is 6 percent lower overall. While we will never rest in our efforts to make Little Rock a safer City, it's important to note these statistics and show appreciation to our law enforcement officers, community programs and residents who have had a part in crime reduction. 

We must continue this momentum, and in doing so change the perception about crime on our City. The facts are clear: both violent crime and overall crime are down compared to last year and over a 5-year average. We can link these reductions to our holistic approach of targeted patrols in high-crime areas, the implementation of our police Crisis Response Teams to de-escalate certain situations, and investment in prevention, intervention and treatment programming.

We ask residents and businesses to aid in the effort by signing up for Eyes On The Rock, an initiative of LRPD's Real-Time Crime Center. About 4,000 cameras are already a part of the program. Businesses may request to integrate their cameras with the Real-Time Crime Center, while residents can notify LRPD that they have cameras on their property. Only when police are seeking assistance in active investigations will police ask residents for permission to access recordings.

The Results For The Rock penny investment plan contains more than $30 million for technology upgrades and expansion of the Real-Time Crime Center and $15 million to support community-oriented policing and crisis response teams. That is in addition to money dedicated for police, fire, and code enforcement vehicles and equipment.

Residents can learn more about crime statistics and the Results For The Rock proposal at LRPD's quarterly meetings, which started last week. Two more are scheduled, including Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Northwest Station, 10001 Kanis Road, and Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Southwest Station, 6401 Baseline Road. The meetings are open to the public, and residents have an opportunity to share their feedback. Each meeting starts at 6 p.m. 

• The Little Rock Board of Directors meets Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. at the City Hall Board Room, 500 W. Markham St. All board meetings are livestreamed on the City of Little Rock's Facebook and YouTube pages.
• The Community Development Division of the City's Housing and Neighborhood Programs Department will hold public meetings today (Monday, Oct. 14) and on Thursday, Oct. 17, at two locations in the City. Monday's meeting is at 6 p.m. at West Central Community Center, 8616 Colonel Glenn Road. Thursday's, also at 6 p.m., is at Dunbar Community Center, 1001 W. 16th St. At these meetings, the division will take input from residents about community needs and priorities as part of the City's plans for seeking and allocating federal grant dollars.
• "Movies at MacArthur" returns on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 503 E. Ninth St. This month's feature is "Black Hawk Down: The Untold Story." A discussion of the film will also be held. Admission is free.
• The Little Rock Parks and Recreation Commission meets Wednesday, Oct. 16, at noon at The Centre at University Park, 6401 W. 12th St.
• The Creep 'N Crawl Half Marathon and 5K race is Saturday, Oct. 19, at Two Rivers Park. The race has been named one of the 10 best half marathons in the country by USA Today. It starts at sunset, so flashlights or headlamps are strongly encouraged. Participants are asked to dress up in their best costumes for this fun event. There's also a virtual race option. Visit creepncrawl.com for more details about this event, operated by the Little Rock Marathon team.