Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

City jumps on Amendment 2 bandwagon

Prescott's City Council joined the growing bandwagon in voting to support proposed Amendment 2.

The council approved a resolution in support of the issue, at its regular monthly meeting Monday, Sept. 20. The resolution states: "The State of Arkansas lacks the necessary economic incentive component to successfully locate an economic development super project in the state."

Super projects are described as projects creating a minimum of 500 jobs with a capital investment of $5 million. Such projects, the resolution states "will increase the quality of life for the citizens of Arkansas."

Such projects require large up-front commitments in money for infrastructure, such as water/wastewater capacity, rail access and connection of roads to interstate highways and utilities. Voters are being asked to amend the Arkansas Constitution to allow the Arkansas General Assembly, either in regular or special session, to approve general obligation bonds not to exceed 5 percent of the state's general revenue to fund economic development projects investing a minimum of $500 million and creating a minimum of 500 jobs.

Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, said state would pay for the infrastructure improvements with the bond issue, and at no point could more than 5 percent of the state's budget be involved.

Other states, he said, have such programs and it has paid off. In Kentucky the state spent $180 million to create 3,000 initial jobs and wound up with 7, 500 jobs. However, the spinoff jobs created from the plant was 35,000.

"This is one reason Arkansas doesn't have an auto assembly plant," Chadwell said. "This won't raise taxes as the money will come from the existing state budget."

Should Amendment 2 be approved by voters, before any money could be spent on a project the Arkansas Department of Economic Development (ADED) and the Arkansas Department of Finance Administration (ADFA) would have to sign off before it reached the governor's desk. Once the governor approves, it will be sent to the Legislature for final affirmation.

"This is important for Arkansas to be able to compete for big companies and get them to locate here," Chadwell said.

In his report to the Council, Chadwell said the sales tax budget was rearranged to do the inside of the fire station/parks office on the east side of town. This will be two projects.

Potlatch, he said, has agreed to donate the dimensional lumber for the interior, and International Paper has been asked to donate the plywood. "It should be quick once we get started."

Chadwell has met with Joe Heath about the walking/jogging trail project. Lights have been ordered for it and should arrive in the next few weeks. Lights will be installed before the gravel and asphalt are put down. The trail will have benches at different spots so people can rest when they need or want to.

"We're looking to get trees later on," he said, "to help provide shade in the future."

Crews from the city will be doing most of the prep work to keep the cost down.

The sidewalk project is almost done, he said. The work currently being done is at the contractor's expense because it wasn't done right the first time. A spot by Gilbert's Lumber had to be done a second time because a pipe had been removed or stolen.

This project, Chadwell said, has taken 17 months, though it was supposed to have been done in less than a year.

There has been talk about the trees on the corners, he said. These trees were put in by the contractor at no cost to the city. The trees were bred to be small, not growing more than six to eight feet in height with a shallow root structure.

The contractor, Chadwell said, had them left over from a project done in Little Rock and put them in without telling anyone.

In talking about the Leadership Nevada County program, he said this year's class is doing well.

"It's a good program, but we have problems getting minority applicants and people from the south part of the county," he said. "It's valuable to the community to have people more aware."

Applications for the 2005 class are being taken until Oct. 15. The idea, he said, is to make the classes as diverse as possible. A total of 15 can be accepted into a class.

Those who apply but aren't accepted are automatically placed in the class for the following year.

The air conditioning at the garment building had to be repaired, he said, adding the building is being rented on a month-to-month tenancy by Firestone for storage. The building was also shown to a prospect during the month.

The Shop Prescott First campaign is going well, Chadwell said. A meeting with participating merchants will be held in October to see if any want to continue the program next year.

Work has begun on the street improvement project. At this point, he said, prep work is being done to give this crew a head start on the asphalt crew.

Chadwell informed the Council he had taken the Certified Economic Developer test in St. Louis, Mo., and was one of six who passed. Having the CecD emblem on letterhead, he said, shows people they're dealing with a professional who knows about economic development.