Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

New business hires four

Businesses in the Prescott Manufacturing building are operational and have hired four people so far.

This is what Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, told the Prescott City Council at its February meeting. (See related article for resolutions passed for these companies.)

In addition, he said, Prescott Rubber, Inc. is doing test runs and is getting geared up to start running. PRI has also rented the old armory building to store materials and product in.

Chadwell said Prescott went from having too many empty buildings to having none. "I think they'll have to hire four or five people to transfer materials if they get the contract they're expecting."

Right now, he said, the virtual spec building is more important than ever. With a virtual spec building the community would have building plans on hand for prospects.

"We have money in the budget to get a set of plans drawn for a virtual spec building," he said. "We'll take requests for qualifications from engineers on doing the plans. We won't do much site work this year, I'd like to see that budgeted for next year. I'd also like the engineers to tell us the best spot for the location of a spec building.

The only building open in the city is the old hospital, and someone has shown interest in it, Chadwell said. "I may be able to bring something to the next meeting about it."

Two businesses have also expressed interest in the Prescott Industrial Park, he said, saying they could pay a visit to the area soon.

When the ground dries up the walking/jogging trail can be staked out. All the materials to build the trail are in hand, but the weather hasn't cooperated so the work can be done.

In talking about the housing project, Chadwell said the paperwork for the county dwellings is still in Little Rock. The state, he told the council, can take up to 180 days to approve the applications, but have been making the decisions in around 30 days, and it's hoped they will be approved any day.

A total of 19 people met the requirements of the program for the city. Those applications, he said, should be sent in by April.

There is a pool of $450,000 available to do the renovations or reconstruction, he said, and the number of houses to be rebuilt will determine how many houses are done.

But, he added, once 80 percent of the money has been spent, the company can apply again, and get more homes improved. "The consultants were overwhelmed by the volume of applications," Chadwell said. "It goes to show that housing is a big need in Prescott. People would move in if housing were available."

Should the state manage to land an auto manufacturing plant, he said, the plant will need suppliers. It is unlikely Prescott or Southwest Arkansas could get such a company to locate here because of the lack of an available workforce.

However, he said, the suppliers for auto plants would be spread out all over the state, and one of these could easily locate in Prescott. In fact, an auto manufacturer that located in San Antonio, Texas, looked at locating a supply plant in Prescott, but decided to go elsewhere.