Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

"Signifies Community's Prepredness To Begin Recruitment." Chandler Russ

Prescott is the newest city in Arkansas to be named an ACE community.

The Arkansas Community of Excellence (ACE) program was developed by the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission to recognize cities meeting rigid criteria.

According to Chandler Russ, the executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, Prescott has been working for the past two years to achieve this prestigious goal.

In order to be named an ACE community, Prescott had to complete the following steps: organizing an economic development agency; creating an existing industry program; preparing a marketable industrial site; preparing community information for economic development; developing a strategic plan; writing a marketing strategy; and undergoing a mock prospect visit.

Gov. Mike Huckabee has been notified of Prescott's achievement and will be on hand to present city officials with the new signs designating Prescott as an ACE city.

These signs will be installed by the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department at all city limits, including along Interstate- 30.

Russ said the important ACE logo can now be placed on all marketing materials from AIDC and the NCEDO.

The ACE program was first started under the direction of Gene Monk and continued under Jim Sharkey, the two former directors of the NCEDO, being completed under the direction of Russ.

"The City of Prescott, the Interlocal Cooperative Board and the NCEDO should be proud of the ACE certification," Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said. "It's one of the goals of this city's administration to become more competitive in the economic development area. This is a definite building block and one that will help us reap rewards in the future."

"The certification," Russ said, "ultimately signifies the community's preparedness to begin industrial recruitment.

"The Interlocal Cooperative Board, City and former executive directors worked diligently to achieve this goal and should be commended. ACE certification," Russ continued, "is not the answer to all economic development problems and will not automatically create development. Being placed through the scrutiny of the ACE process has made our community more marketable and a better place.

"We, as a community, must continue to work hard for industrial recruitment, even harder for our local business and industry and continuously improve and identify our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats."

Russ said Prescott should not be content to rest on the success of being named an ACE community, but should build on this accomplishment as it works toward greater things.

"I look at this success as boulder stacking," he said. "Prescott continues to stack boulders on the edge of a symbolic mountain and sooner or later an economic development avalanche will hopefully occur.

"Our job as a community and as an economic development office is to continue to stack these symbolic boulders and push as hard as we can."

Some accomplishments, he said, include the annexation, a Rip Griffin's Truck/Travel Center, the new water and sewer project looping the industrial site and newly annexed area, the expansions of Potlatch, Firestone, J.D. and Billy Hines Trucking, Ward Wood Products, Flywheel Pies, 12 new single family dwellings, new spec houses, a pro-business attitude, local city and county government collaboration, transportation, improved outdoor recreational opportunities, grants for business expansion, recreation and medical equipment.

The ACE certification, he continued, is another feather in Prescott's cap. It signifies the achievement of community preparedness and the beginning of the economic development process.