By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
St. Francis County is in line to receive an unexpected economic boost in the form of a multi-million dollar lodge to be built at Village Creek State Park, according Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Danny Ferguson, who made a presentation on the project before the St. Francis County Quorum Court on Tuesday.
Justices agreed to the creation of a public facilities board to oversee the issuance of bonds to help finance the construction of the 124-room lodge. Plans for the lodge and 27-hole golf course originally called for the facility to be located in the Cross County section of the park, but St. Francis County's status as a federal enterprise zone will allow the project contractor to build the facility in St. Francis County and issue no-interest bonds for the construction.
"The plans for the lodge call for the shift to St. Francis County, due to St. Francis County being in the enterprise zone. The way the East Arkansas Enterprise Community is arranged, St. Francis County, with the exception of Forrest City, is included in the enterprise zone. In Cross County, only a small portion of Wynne is actually in the enterprise zone. The bonds being issued will not cost the county anything, and they will be private bonds. This is really an unexpected windfall for the county, and will be just a tremendous project for the county," Ferguson told justices.
"This lodge and golf course is expected to be one of the top 50 public courses in the nation when it opens, and the developers feel that it could be one of the top 10 in the world with the way that Village Creek is set up. This project could benefit the county in many more ways if we can spin other opportunities off of this," Ferguson said.
According to Ferguson, projected sales from the lodge are in the range of $10 to $12 million annually, and the county will also benefit from a federal mandate through the EAEC designation that requires 35 percent of all employees at the lodge to be St. Francis County residents.
"This is really going to be an all-around boost for the county," said County Judge Carl Cisco. "This is a win/win situation for us because not only will the employment rate go up, but we'll also see an increase in sales tax revenue for the county. If we get the spin-off opportunities, that just helps us even more," Cisco said.
While the golf course will remain in the Cross County portion of the state park, the 124-room lodge and hotel will be located near Lake Austell. The facility will also include a convention center, sporting clays range and restaurant.
According to Ferguson, voters in St. Francis County may be given an opportunity to vote on the issuance of the bonds as early as January if everything goes as planned.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City City Council on Tuesday adopted an ordinance to waive the bidding requirement to sell a piece of equipment, and also set the city's millage rate for the coming year.
The equipment, a Model 613 Caterpillar scraper, has been in disuse since the landfill closed. The city has had one other offer on the scraper, of $5,000, according to Mayor Larry Bryant. However, Darrell Larker of Brinkley, who deals in used equipment, has offered $13,500.
On the vote, John Gadberry, Mary Jeffers, Brent Ponder, Roy Hancock, Louise Fields and Steve Hollowell voted yes. Cecil Twillie voted no and Roger Breeding abstained. Twillie and Breeding said they weren't sure the sale constituted an emergency.
The council also set the millage at 3.9 percent, unchanged from the current millage.
In other business, the council heard from Don O'Neal, owner of a house at 301 Laney Drive. He said there is a drainage problem in the yard which threatens the stability of the house. The city has done some patch work on the problem in the past. After some discussion, it was decided to ask an engineer with the Municipal League to look at the house to decide if it was a problem the city could help with.
On another matter, two umpires with the city's softball program, Alice Long and Arthur Sanders, came before the council to ask for an increase in pay. They said Forrest City's umpires are the lowest paid in the surrounding area.
Twillie said he was in favor of giving the raise, but he said the request was being made too soon, because the budget process hadn't begun.
On a related subject, Bryant asked when council members could attend a budget meeting, and called one for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24.
On another subject, three council members (Hancock, Hollowell and Jeffers) attended a recent Municipal League meeting. Hancock said one of the main discussions was the legislation to prevent racial profiling.
"So we might as well get ready," he said. "Once folks find out about it and we stop someone for speeding, and they say that the police just stopped them because they're not the same race," there may be possible lawsuits.
Bryant said because of a new state law, the city has to have a policy on police bias in place by Jan. 1.
On another matter, the council voted to change the contract with King Disposal Inc. The company had offered to let the city decide which version of the Consumer Price Index it used to compute rate increases. After some discussion, Breeding, a member of a committee which had studied the matter, said there wasn't much difference between the different versions. The council decided to go with CPI-U, as it pertains to garbage haulers.
Joe King of King Disposal said that would mean a rate increase of about 4.3 percent, across the board.
There was some discussion on the garbage contract, and Bryant said the council, as it was made up when the contract was approved, had a chance to review it.
"The contract was shown to the council at that time," Bryant said. "I understand, and I take credit for not putting in the CPI average. . .I take credit for failing to dot an 'i' or cross a 't.'"
He said the contract could be rewritten when the time came.
"When the next contract comes up, we can start working on it then, and that's it. It's something that was done...There was some advice that wasn't given," he said, referring to the present contract. "There could have had better advice in some areas. It was the first time I had ever done a contract like this."
Twillie did not vote on the contract.
Several aldermen said they should have been informed if a lake was being built at the Municipal Sports Complex. John Gadberry asked if it should not have been brought before the council.
"Maybe it could have, maybe I should have, but the guy was out there," said Bryant.
Breeding said he was called by constituents about it and then had to read about it in the newspaper. Twillie also said he didn't know about it until after the fact, and said he wanted to be informed of things like that in the future.
"Noted," said Bryant.
The council also gave permission to bid out for a street sweeper, and also agreed to change the city's Christmas holiday schedule from the Dec. 24 and 25 to Dec. 25 and 26.
The council also agreed to pay all commercial garbage fees in the city for the month of November.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Efforts to pass a 2004 budget for county officials stalled Tuesday as one quorum court justice questioned an additional $1.1 million in anticipated revenue found over the past week by St. Francis County Clerk Elizabeth Smith.
Last week, it was reported that justices would seek to pass a budget which showed an overall surplus of over $1 million. Projected revenues of $8,063,720 and projected expenditures of $7,054,298 were adjusted in the plan presented to the full court Tuesday with the revenue figure standing at $8,221,220 for next year against $7,649,385 in projected expenses.
Justice Regan Hill said that while the overall budget surplus looks nice, questions still remain about the county's general account. According to the reconfigured budget presented Tuesday, officials decreased county projected spending for next year, from $3,410,800 to $3,177,459 while the projected revenue stayed at $2.5 million. Three items left off of last week's projected expenses were also left off of Tuesday's budget. An additional $169,500 will be added to cover an ordinance to spend $17,500 for additional life insurance for county employees; $78,000 to pay the city of Forrest City and $74,000 allocated for spending on 2004 elections.
"We all know that county general is where we're going to have problems, and this new budget still doesn't balance. This plan will leave us with almost $700,000 difference, but it won't leave any leeway for things that we know have to come out of next year's financing," Hill said.
Hill also questioned a projected $500,000 carryover for this year which would help boost the projected revenue. "I've looked at our records over the past four years, and we have not carried over even half of that figure in any of those years," Hill said.
Hill made the motion to table the budget talks until next month, which was unanimously passed. Justices also voted to table ordinances without discussion, which would have granted employees and elected officials a 5 percent pay raise for 2004, as well as an ordinance which would have increased the amount paid to the county coroner.
In other business, the court voted 8-to-3 to amend an ordinance which paid incentive bonuses to county employees. It was reported last week, that county employees with less than one year of service were paid on a pro-rated basis. The August ordinance which created the incentive pay called for $1,000 bonuses to be paid to all employees with more than six months of service and those employees with less than six months service receiving $500. According to St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco, the decision was made to pro-rate the bonus due to how the county had handled past bonuses.
"The decision was made to pro-rate the bonuses because that's how we'd done it in the past. It really wouldn't be fair for an employee that's been here for two or three weeks to receive the same amount as someone who's been working for five or six months," Cisco said.
Justice Evan Seawood disagreed with Cisco, questioning who has the authority to override an ordinance passed by justices. "I'm not really wanting a big fight, but if we're going to pass an ordinance, then I think that ordinance should be followed. I don't really care what or how things used to be done. We passed an ordinance that should have been followed, and I don't think we need to come back and pass an amendment changing that," Seawood said.
Seawood was joined in voting against the amendment by Earline Smith and Sam Armstrong.
Justices also voted to levy taxes for 2003, which will be paid next year, and agreed to redesignate funds from the County Indigent Care Fund payments. Justices unanimously agreed to place the remaining $200,000 payment for this year into the Road Department account while shifting the remaining $400,000 in payments for next year into the county trust fund. Justices then voted to appropriate $295,000 to the road department for the remainder of the year. The funding comes from the $200,000 payment, plus the department's tax settlement money.
An additional $26,000 was appropriated to pay three area charities. The St. Francis County Food Pantry and Forrest City CARE Center each received $9,000 from the county, and the Crowley's Ridge Development Center received $8,000 through the appropriation.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
The Crowley's Ridge Technical Institute's board voted Tuesday to end talks regarding a possible merger with a nearby community college after hearing a report from CRTI President Burl Lieblong who had visited four campuses of recently merged institutions.
At the request of board members, Lieblong presented his findings on technical school mergers during the board's quarterly meeting.
The board had requested Lieblong talk with other school officials who have been through mergers before accepting an invitation to visit on the subject with officials at East Arkansas Community College. The request stemmed from a letter from the EACC board, suggesting such a meeting.
Lieblong presented a school review of four state technical schools that have merged with colleges. According to the report, the schools visited were UAM College of Technology in McGehee and Dumas, Arkansas Tech University's campus at Ozark and Russellville, Arkansas State University at Searcy and Beebe, and National Park Community College in Garland County.
Lieblong spoke to the members about key problems that the technical portion of the schools had encountered as a result of their mergers.
"At UAM, it takes three signatures to requisition supplies (the campus is split, the nursing campus is in Dumas). All of the supplies come from the UAM campus. After the requests for supplies are submitted, they have found it can take several weeks for the supplies to get there. I spoke to the head of maintenance there, and he said that a request for cases of toilet paper can take weeks.
"They have raised the mark-up on their books from 10 percent before the merger to from 25 to 35 percent mark-ups, and they have lost 30 percent of their Pell Grant students because they cannot make payment arrangements on their own. The bottom line is that the technical school must operate like a college and make money," Lieblong said.
At ATU in Ozark and Russellville, Lieblong said all records had been moved to the Russellville campus, and that pay increases were limited to administration only. "The president and three assistant administrators were the only ones to receive pay increases. The faculty and staff received no additional money, and they did not receive a cost-of-living raise either."
The problems at ASU-Searcy and Beebe included an increase of book mark-ups of 25 to 35 percent, no additional money for the faculty and staff, but included a decrease of faculty work days. "The faculty works 185 days now instead of the 205 days they worked before the merger. Those 20 days that were cut were in-service days when the faculty put together their lesson plans." Lieblong also stated that at ASU-Searcy, they viewed the distance of the two campuses as an advantage. "They said it was an advantage because they (the Beebe campus) was not always over there."
The last school, NPCC had a different set of problems, according to Lieblong. "There are no school catalogs," he began. "They had no catalogs at the technical campus and told us to go to the registrar's office at the college campus. They (the college campus) gave us a CD that we could print the catalog from. The catalog was about 100 pages. We asked to speak to Dr. Carder (head of the technical school) and they didn't even know who she was.
"The courses are taught on a college-rotation schedule, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Tuesday and Thursday. The vocational instructors may only have students scheduled for two or three hours a day for two or three days a week."
Lieblong concluded his report by saying that with each school, "it is too early to tell if the mergers are beneficial." He also stated that, "I feel the students are the ones that suffer most (in these mergers). I don't feel technical training can be done in the time that is allowed by college rotation or with reduced faculty work days."
Lieblong also added that he had asked representatives from each school about visiting CRTI and speaking to the board members. The board had requested meeting with officials from schools that had already been through the merger process before meeting with the EACC Board. He stated that other school officials had requested that more than one day be offered to schedule visits.
Just as discussion of possible dates for visits began, member Odell McCallum made a motion that would end further research on a possible merger. McCallum was the lone vote against visiting the merged schools in the August meeting.
"With the uncertainty that these four schools are going through, I make a motion that we discontinue any talks about a merger with anyone," said McCallum.
The motion was seconded by member Ken Patterson saying, "You can't learn technical training in two or three days a week and for two or three hours a day. Who made the decisions to cut back the hours, the technical school or the college?"
Lieblong responded that he did not know the answer to that question.
Mike Lawyer, another board member, offered his opinion. "I know these things that have happened were not done to hurt these schools. The visits to these schools raise more questions. I would like to continue with this."
The vote split between the four members as members J.B. Smith and Lawyer voted no to the motion to end all merger investigations, and McCallum and Patterson voted yes. Chairperson Glenda Caldwell was called upon to break the tie.
"It (the merger) makes for uncertainty, and I am opposed to further talks about merging. I am voting yes."
At that point, the discussion on the possible merger ended.
Bids will be opened Thursday afternoon at the St. Francis County Museum to begin a long-awaited improvement project at that facility.
The museum was awarded a $157,136 National Scenic Byway federal grant in 1999 as one of four designated visitors' centers to be located on the Crowley's Ridge National Scenic Byway. The Forrest City Advertising and Promotions Commission provided the $40,000 matching funds for the grant.
The 1906 Rush-Gates house became home to the museum in 1999, at which time most of the restoration was completed on the interior of the house. The grant will enable further restoration.
Included in the improvements will be a partial glassed-in area
on the porch to enhance and enlarge the information/interpretive
capabilities, according to Museum Director Laura Mazzanti. "To
preserve the cultural and educational qualities of the building
and the collections housed there, an interior sprinkler system
will be installed, and insulation and exterior improvements will
be made. An elevator to provide handicapped visitors access to
the second floor will also be added," Mazzanti said.
The Forrest City Water Commission on Tuesday decided to see if a local dealer can meet the state contract price on two vehicles.
The state contract price on a V-8 pickup is $13,356, and a four-by-four pickup's price is $22,067.
After some discussion, it was decided to check with local dealers.
On another matter, the commission agreed to seek bids for the purchase of a small backhoe. The brand name of the one they were looking at is "Terramite."
The East Arkansas Community College Board of Trustees will meet Thursday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. in the EACC board room.
A report on the status of the Classroom Building 1 project and other projects will be given.
Visitors from Norton Radstock College in Bath, England will be welcomed and introduced.
Some other agenda items include approval of new program fees in nursing and music, resignations and new hires.