Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

CCIC Hoping To Hire Executive Director

Hiring an executive director for the Clark County Industrial Council is one of the organization's top priorities for 2001.

In the first meeting of the year CCIC President Brown Hardman said this is one of the most important things the CCIC can do. It would also allow Hardman, who's doing this job now, to focus in other areas.

The problem, though, is how to get permanent funding for the position.

Hardman said other counties have a sales tax used for this purpose, but didn't encourage the CCIC board of directors to seek a sales tax at this time.

Tim Stokes, director of Southwest Arkansas Learning Center, said it would be hard to get an executive director from somewhere, such as the University of Southern Mississippi , which has an economic development degree program, for less than $70,000 a year with a five-year guarantee along with benefits.

The CCIC's budget since the March 1, 1997, tornado has been around $50,000 a year, with the organization spending between $46,000 and $47,000 of this amount.

"We have to decide if the CCIC is worth keeping," Hardman said. "I don't want to go back where we were 14 years ago." Fourteen years ago, Clark County lost almost all its industrial base and had an unemployment rate around 18 percent.

Voters in neighboring Ouachita County, he said, narrowly defeated a sales tax proposal to fund an economic development office for Camden. However, this measure did pass in the city of Camden and could be brought back before the people of the city itself.

Nevada County, Hardman said, helps fund its economic development office with a sales tax as well.

He gave a brief history lesson, reminding the board the defunct Clark County Industrial Development Corporation was responsible for getting the Clark County Industrial Park started, but it ran out of money. This resulted in the county's banks taking over the property and selling it to the CCIC when it was formed.

Since then the park has nearly reached its capacity with industries locating there. The banks hold title to 110 acres bordering the park the CCIC could purchase later if needed.

"We need money to function," Hardman said. "We're now losing money and have to replace this revenue. We need to make some changes."

Membership dues, he said, were set low to get as many people involved as possible. The money brought in from this barely covers the cost of mailing information to the members.

At this time work on the satellite park on Malone Drive is in stasis as the CCIC doesn't have the money to finish it out.

It will cost about $750,000 to complete the project and the CCIC has $305,000 approved. However, $105,000 in state funds is tied up in a lawsuit.

Clark County, Hardman said, is the leader in turnaround in the last 10 years and ranks in the top 10 regularly with northwest Arkansas with its low unemployment rate.

The Arkansas Department of Economic Development, he said, doesn't care where industry locates in the state as long as it locates somewhere in Arkansas.

"We need to set our priorities on what's most important. I want us to be able to keep providing good jobs and growth."

The CCIC also appointed six new members to the board of directors. They are Ken Sanders, owner of Comet Cleaners; Henry Bell Jr., a retired educator; Joseph Nelson, an engineer with International Paper Co.; Amy Nichols, travel director with Ouachita Baptist University; Rene Pate, with the housing industry; and Blake Rogers, a CPA.

Hardman will appoint three other members to the board at the next CCIC meeting.