At its July 22 meeting, the City Council considered more than 20 items. Full meeting materials and a recording are available here. Here are some meeting highlights:

The City of Bentonville and Republic Services, its trash contractor for the past 20 years, won’t be breaking up after all. The city council approved a new five-year contract to continue the partnership.

As The Bentonville Bulletin previously reported, the prospect of selecting a new trash vendor was discussed at recent City Council meetings. City staff initially recommended a cheaper vendor to replace Republic Services, but all bids were eventually disqualified, prompting the city to return to negotiations with its longtime provider.

In a statement, the city said that it was able to reach an agreement with Republic Services that includes new provisions on reporting, public education for residents and businesses, emergency response planning, and clear accountability measures. The city also said residential customers will see lower monthly rates for standard trash and recycling service.

Two murals are coming to Bentonville’s streets, courtesy of students at the Thaden School. 

The "Urban Studies Library” mural will be on the trail section between SW Main and SW A Street, across from the Bentonville Public Library. It will incorporate the library’s logo.

“Trout Crosswalk” mural will be a temporary, 18-month installation at the crosswalk between Yoga Story and Onyx Coffee downtown, made in partnership with artist Seth Stewart.

Both murals will be installed at no cost to the city.

A new position, public works executive director, was approved. The position will oversee operations for multiple city departments, including electric, water, sewer, transportation, and engineering. The salary for the position is $113,048 to $192,046, according to meeting materials.

“As we’ve grown, we’ve kind of siloed a little bit, out of necessity to get things done, but now we need that person to bring us back,” Mayor Stephanie Orman said.

City Council member Bill Burckart suggested hiring a recruiter for a nationwide search, a break in tradition for the city, due to the large budgets and projects the leader will oversee. “What we’re talking about, from now until the future, not everyone’s going to be capable of handling that,” Burckart said. 

Additional money was allotted to a water leak repair contractor as part of the ongoing quest to repair the numerous leaks within the city. Hickman Underground’s contract was increased by $500,000, doubling the amount approved for the year in April. 

“The increased failure rate of water service lines continues to exceed the capacity of both existing staff and the current IDIQ contractors to meet demand,” a memo from city staff included in agenda materials said. “With that, it is necessary to amend the agreement to ensure the continued replacement of water service lines to help reduce water loss.”

In order to repair damage caused during the Memorial Day weekend storms of 2024, $1,129,000 was allotted to replace artificial turf at the Memorial Park Baseball and Softball Complex.

Roughly 75% of the cost will be covered by FEMA reimbursements, with the remaining 25% coming from the Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission.

A contract of $560,190 with Garver Engineering was approved to move sewer line projects forward in one of the beleaguered sewer basins. The agreement will include “engineering services for survey through bidding” for Shewmaker Basin, in the northeast part of town.

A rezoning for a planned 218-acre “agrihood” development on the outskirts of south Bentonville was approved. The neighborhood will feature single-family homes alongside a working farm, preserved green space, and trails.