Conway - Elected officials and representatives from state agencies including the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission met Wednesday to discuss Lake Conway's problems.

"You hear a lot about the problems with the lake, and you have for years," Mayflower Mayor Randy Holland said after the meeting. "Now I think we're starting to hear about the solutions."

What participants agreed was the most immediate concern involves the 117 people living in Rogers Country Estates, a subdivision just south of the Faulkner County line.

During heavy rains, water released from the lake floods the subdivision's only road in and out, forcing residents to use a pair of illegal dirt "ramps" their vehicles have over time cut into the Interstate 40 embankment to illegally access the interstate.

It's been a problem for more than 20 years, District 30 Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, said at the meeting. The problem was compounded after the 9/11 attack, when tightened military security measures ended an arrangement with the adjacent Camp Robinson allowing residents to get in and out through the base.

Baker said the dirt "on ramp" is a disaster waiting to happen, as passing traffic is largely unaware that vehicles will be attempting to enter the interstate there and getting a vehicle up to interstate speed on the rough dirt path is, at best, difficult.

"The moment one of those 18-wheelers hits a family, this whole dynamic is going to change," he said, and "fingers will be pointed" at himself and others who could have addressed the problem.

The solution, Faulkner County Judge Preston Scroggin said, is to build a new road. This would be an expensive proposition, Scroggin said, as a section of the roadway would have to be elevated to allow Lake Conway's runoff to pass underneath it.

The road could cost as much as $1 million, Scroggin said, but if the project started immediately the county could only spend about $100,000 on it.

Also compounding the problem is that the road would be built in and by Faulkner County, but would only serve the 117 Pulaski County residents of Rogers Country Estates, he said. No solution was reached at the meeting, but when one is, Scroggin said, it will involve Pulaski County funding.

"It'd be hard to explain to the Quorum Court that I'm spending 40 percent of my road budget on one project that serves 40 families in another county," he said after the meeting.

Flooding at the lake itself was also discussed. It was decided at the meeting that the first step in controlling the flooding would be a comprehensive study of the Lake Conway watershed, an area encompassing much of south central Faulkner County. Game and Fish Association representatives said they would begin talks with the Army Corps of Engineers to plan such a study, which would cost between $400,000 and $500,000 and likely require federal funding.

A follow-up meeting was tentatively set for mid-September.

(By Joe Lamb, Log Cabin Staff Writer.)

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