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Council approves emergency power upgrades for Southland Casino amid summer reliability concerns
Summary
The council passed two emergency ordinances (Nos. 2705 and 2706) to waive bidding and authorize directional boring and cable installation to upgrade underground electrical service for Southland Casino after staff cited overloaded lines, prior pole fires, and summer heat risks; council approved the emergency clauses.
The West Memphis City Council authorized two emergency ordinances to upgrade the primary underground electrical service to Southland Casino, waiving competitive bidding for directional boring and for cable materials and installation.
City staff described the casino’s rapid load growth, supply-chain delays in obtaining the necessary cable, and prior pole fires that caused outages. To maintain reliability through the summer, staff said the city built a temporary line but needs to complete directional drilling under the casino’s parking area and install the new cable before peak heat months. The council approved both ordinances; staff said they solicited price checks from multiple suppliers and selected the lowest-priced vendors but did not run a formal RFP given the emergency timing.
Council members noted the casino’s growth and discussed longer-term engineering work to add capacity in the area. Staff reported regular coordination meetings with Southland and that reliability has improved over recent months, with no outages in over nine months for certain services. The ordinances were assigned numbers 2705 and 2706 and the council approved the emergency clauses to allow immediate contracting and work to proceed.
Council members said they expect additional capacity projects will follow as the casino and nearby development expands.
