By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Lawmakers gave architects the go ahead today to flesh out design plans for a proposed tunnel that would connect the state Capitol to new office and meeting space in another building on the Capitol mall.
The Legislative Council endorsed a recommendation by its executive committee to pursue the proposed $1.8 million tunnel, though some lawmakers questioned the need for the tunnel while the state is in the midst of a recession.
“At a time when our nation and our state are in such poor economic condition, our citizens are hurting for food, to pay for their homes … to keep their homes, I just say what is the urgency?” said Sen. Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville.
“I don’t want to hear the yells and screams of my constituents when we talk about doing this and proposing raising taxes even more,” Whitaker said.
Sen. Steve Faris, D-Malvern, and others assured the panel the project is not a done deal and that it must still go before the Joint Committee on Legislative Facilities.
“This just moves it to the next step,” House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, said later. “Legislative Facilities will decide what to do next.”
Wills is to meet Monday with Gov. Mike Beebe, who has previously expressed opposition to the proposed tunnel.
“(The governor’s) position all along is this is not something we need. But he’s always willing to listen to people, so we’ll do that on Monday,” Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said Friday.
The proposed 100-foot tunnel would connect the state Capitol to the fifth floor of the Multi-Agency Complex — popularly known as the Big Mac Building — on the mall across from the west entrance of the Capitol.
The State Library is moving from the building into the newly refurbished old Dillard’s building on Capitol Avenue.
Plans for the nearly 70,000-square-foot space in Big Mac include a series of offices and two large meeting rooms, one able to handle 100 people or more.
David Ferguson, director of the Bureau of Legislative Research, said the meeting rooms would be big enough to handle large legislative committee meetings, and the bulk of the new offices would be occupied by bureau staff.
Current bureau staff offices in the basement of the state Capitol would then be used by House members.
The refurbishing of the State Library is expected to cost about $6.5 million, according to State Building Authority Director Anne Laidlaw.
The tunnel is needed, Ferguson said, so bureau personnel can carry documents and other papers back and forth between buildings. Not only would the tunnel make it more convenient, it would protect employees and documents from the weather, he said.
Also, Ferguson said, the state would be in jeopardy of not meeting requirements of the American with Disabilities Act if it required everyone to leave the Capitol and walk across a parking lot to get to the other building, Ferguson said.
