By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Millions of dollars will soon be flowing into a number of counties in the Lower Mississippi Delta, including St. Francis County and Forrest City, to create both jobs and better housing.
That was the main thrust of a meeting held at the Forrest City Civic Center today, in which an overview of the program was given. The program, called the Emerging Markets Partnership, was first announced in a Monday briefing in Pine Bluff, and similar briefings have been set up in different areas of the state.
The Emerging Markets Partnership will be managed by the Enterprise Corporation of the Delta. It will include $20 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and another $45 million from Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages.
"This is primarily built around business development and home ownership," said William Bynum, CEO of the Enterprise Corporation of the Delta. "Those are two important building blocks that it's going to take to improve the quality of life for Delta residents."
Bynum said a lot of research had been done over several months, including experts in different sectors, including child care, health care, business development, home ownership, from which some programs have been developed.
"We want to make investments in those areas, in small business development and work force development, telecommunications. And child care and health care which we think are critical infrastructure area," said Bynum.
He said some people might not understand why home ownership is included in this program.
"You don't generally think of home ownership as being economic development," he said. "But it is a very important cornerstone in American life, and there is a very large gap in home ownership in the Delta against where it should be."
Bynum said there was a lot of work ahead.
"What we're doing is, we are providing some seed capital and acting as coordinators for Kellogg and Fannie Mae, the private sector and working closely with the governors who have committed to helping us make this work," he said. "We're going to take this and contract with local folks on the ground, and prime the pump, and see if we can see some tangible, measurable results. There has been a lot tried over the years, but we are going to hold ourselves to very specific numbers."
According to Bynum, once the money is used for matching funds and leveraging, the initial amounts will only be the beginning.
"We plan to invest at least $180 million in business loans and investments," he said. "We're going to try to leverage as much capital as we can from foundations and private investors. We think there are attractive business opportunities in the Delta."
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City City Council on Tuesday heard first reading on an ordinance to require street lights to be installed at the developer's expense in new subdivisions.
Mayor Larry Bryant said the requirement has never been put in writing.
"It was understood that they would do it," Bryant said. "But it came up and we went to the books and couldn't find it."
Council member Glenn Ford asked if the ordinance would affect subdivisions that have already been approved by the council. Bryant answered that it probably would not. He said the ordinance would take care of future developments only.
Second and third reading still must be heard on the ordinance before it is adopted.
In other action, the council heard first reading of an ordinance to change the zoning of the old Herman Young Peach Orchard on the west side of Ark. Highway 1. The area is currently zoned R-2 Residential, and the request is for it to be zoned C-2 Commercial. The request was given a do-pass recommendation by the Forrest City Planning Commission in October.
Bryant said if the city does not receive any negative feedback, it is possible that the council may choose to go ahead and hold second and third readings on the proposal at the next council meeting, and then vote on it.
There was also a bid opening for a truck chassis and leaf dump body. The only bidder was Scruggs Equipment Co., of Memphis. The Scruggs bid was $41,640. Bryant said that if the bid meets specifications, the bid will be accepted.
The council also gave the mayor permission to re-bid a traffic light for Buford Street.
On another matter, Bryant told council members that, "Your phones have probably been ringing off the hooks" during the transition time between the outgoing and incoming solid waste collectors. Waste Corporation of America was picking up its garbage carts last week, while King Disposal Inc., was putting out new carts.
"Like anything new, we had some minor inconveniences," said Bryant. However, he said most of those inconveniences have been worked out.
In other action, the council heard first reading of an ordinance to establish a deferred compensation plan for city employees, offered through the Arkansas Municipal League. The group also adopted an ordinance condemning some dilapidated structures.
In answer to a question, Bryant said he has not received word yet on what changes, if any, would be made in city ward lines because of the 2000 census.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City School District may face budget cuts as news from Little Rock points toward a growing number of cuts in state government.
Forrest City School District Fiscal Officer Pat Flanagin said local taxes have taken a 2 percent hit through the first three quarters of the fiscal year.
According to a press release, $4,225,000 was budgeted for the 2001/2002 year which included an increase of $343,860 over the last fiscal year. To date, $967,926 of the local tax revenues have been received.
Flanagin said total state aid budgeted for this fiscal year totaled $16,385,199, which was $386,973 more than was budgeted last year. In the report, Flanagin states that unofficial reports from the state indicate that $80 to $100 per pupil could be cut from that figure which would be between $300,000 and $400,000 in state revenue cuts.
"We don't know the full extent of the cuts for the year, but we do know that they are coming. We depend heavily on state aid for our district, and the state in turn depends heavily on the sales taxes and state income taxes for funding. When they aren't receiving as much from their revenue sources then we have to take a hit in our funding. In order for the state to have funds for us there has to be money coming in from sales taxes and income taxes, and the slump in those two categories will impact Forrest City," Flanagin said.
According to Flanagin, this year's possible recession could be a sign of things to come and recent history could be close to repeating itself.
"In 1989, the state had a recession that it took years to rebound from. We saw cuts in several areas, and that may be what we're looking at soon. Those cuts were deep, and if things don't change, we may be looking at deep cuts again. Right now we really have to be cautious in our spending," Flanagin said.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Crawford Builders of McCrory was the apparent qualified low bidder for the construction of a new Senior Citizens Center at the Municipal Sports Complex.
The bid opening was held Tuesday at Forrest City's city hall.
Crawford Builders' base bid was $273,000 for the project. Bidders were also asked to submit "deduct alternates," or how much less the project would cost if certain features were left out. The alternates were an overhead door, carpet in the office, communication system and metal roof. Crawford Builders' bid would deduct $2,600 for the overhead door, $300 for the carpet, $2,000 for communication system and $12,800 for the metal roof.
There were four bids in all. Johnson Contractors of Madison seemed to have a lower base bid, of $272,500. Johnson Contractors also seemed to do well on the deduct alternates. However, the bid package was considered incomplete, because the company was not bonded.
Burnett Construction of Wynne bid $339,700 for its base bid and Murdock Enterprises of Marianna bid $330,000 for its base bid. Their deduct alternates did not bring either down to the base bid of Crawford Builders.
Mayor Larry Bryant said that Brian Sellers, with Stuck and Associates, would review the bids to see if they meet specifications, and a decision would then be made.
Forrest City police confiscated a bag of cocaine Tuesday afternoon at the Forrest City High School campus.
The bag, containing 3.5 grams of cocaine, was reportedly found by a student about 2 p.m. The student told police he noticed the bag, outside the southeast portion of the building, during his lunch break.
The cocaine has an estimated street value of $350.
A vehicle reported stolen in Louisiana has been recovered in Forrest City, but not before the alleged driver of the stolen SUV crashed through the front yard of a Mann Street residence.
The Forrest City Police Department reported Helen Dumas, 614 Mann St., Forrest City, reported about 2 a.m. today that a white SUV had crashed through the fence and guard rail at her home and fled the scene.
A short time later, police found a 2000 Cadillac SUV with front and rear damage parked on the Food Giant parking lot on North Washington.
A computer check on the vehicle found that it belonged to Amsouth Leasing Corporation of Shreveport, La., and had been reported stolen Tuesday night.
Damage to the Dumas residence is estimated at $500. A damage estimate was not reported for the vehicle.
The St. Francis County Election Commission met Tuesday to certify Monday's levee district elections.
Sam G. Ashworth of Hughes was certified as the southern levee district board member, and John McDaniel of Widener was certified as the northern district board member. Neither candidate faced opposition in Monday's election.
According to J. Harmon Smith, attorney for the levee districts, there are two representatives from St. Francis County who are elected through a general election by all registered voters. Smith also said that the division of the districts fall north and south of the St. Francis River.