EASTERN ARKANSAS — First District Congressman Rick Crawford of Jonesboro said rural communities face infrastructure challenges for aging water and wastewater systems.
Crawford said he is working to help solve those problems.
“Rural communities are obviously behind the 8-ball when it comes to their ability to fund critical infrastructure,” Crawford said. “The way I see it, the best opportunity that we have is to forge partnerships, that is to spread the cost of operating those water systems across multiple entities. If you’ve got small communities in a given county or in a given region, if they can partner, collaborate with their neighbor communities, they’ll spread that cost over the operating systems that exist in that area.
“To me, that consolidation, which sometimes is a dirty word depending on how you perceive that, but right now, we’re in a position where these communities can sort of shape what that consolidation looks like as opposed to waiting for very much longer and having that consolidation model forced on you where you don’t have a real voice in the process,” Crawford added. “We’ve been encouraging small communities to look at possibly collaborating with their neighbor communities so they can enhance their water and wastewater treatment systems.”
The city of Trumann in Poinsett County will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday for its new water treatment facility and tank project. The city received a $2 million economic development grant in 2024 for the project, and also received a $5.3 million forgivable loan from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission in December for a new filtration system associated with the clean water tank.
