In the News

A new park complex expected to open in Benton on April 1 will offer numerous amenities, Hot Springs Village Property Owners’ Association governmental affairs committee heard during member reports at its March meeting.

GAC member Paul Day said Benton Mayor David Mattingly recently briefed a Benton Area Chamber of Commerce committee on several major projects.
The $50 million Riverside Park is anchored by the 87,000-square-foot River Center and its 5,200-seat arena. River Center will have basketball and volleyball courts, space for civic events, offices, exercise equipment and meeting rooms.

The park will also have a senior center, an aquatics facility, numerous playing fields and a 50,000-square-foot center for Saline County Boys and Girls Club.
The flexible space will provide a key new meeting venue for central Arkansas, and will complement the Benton Events Center, Mattingly told the Voice last year. The River Center will provide a more casual atmosphere for even larger meetings. “It will give people another reason to stop in Benton,” he said.

The park is on the site of the former runway of Saline County Airport. It was funded by a half-percent “quality-of-life” sales tax approved by voters in November 2013, as well as funds rededicated from the existing advertising and promotion tax. Site preparation proved more costly than anticipated, so funds from the A&P tax on restaurant meals and lodging was rededicated to the project so the city could keep its commitment to voters to build the entire project, Mattingly said.

Another project, the $16 million Alcoa Road expansion, is underway and may be complete in late 2018. Also, numerous stores are expected to open in Benton this year.
Day said Josh Merkel, a senior aide to U.S. Rep. French Hill, spoke at the Saline County Republican meeting last month on how Congress plans to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans hope to maintain health coverage, but to make it more cost effective by allowing health care companies to compete nationwide, not just within each state. Reducing cost of prescription drugs and tort reform – to tighten limits on lawsuits – may eliminate unnecessary medical tests, Merkel told Saline County Republicans.
In his highway report, David Whitlow said the $78.5 million U.S. Highway 70 project between Interstate 30 to Hot Springs is the largest single project ever undertaken by McGeorge Contracting of Pine Bluff.

U.S. 70 will be widened to five lanes, including a continuous turn lane. Work will proceed from west to east in three-mile sections. Six percent of estimated time and four percent of allotted funds have been expended.
In his Hot Springs report, Yeric said Hot Springs directors unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the Arkansas National Guard’s plan for the shuttered Ouachita Jobs Corps Center in Royal.

Also, Hot Springs is poised to assume a minimum water allocation of at least 15.75 million gallons/day of Ouachita’s 30 mg/d total supply, Yeric said.
Garland County Quorum Court has appropriated funds to convert approximately 5,000 square feet of the former detention center into the county’s primary 911 call center.
The quorum court unanimously appropriated $779,332 for the conversion. Funds are from 2016 receipts of the county’s half-percent sales tax. The tax exceeded budget expectations, Yeric told the comittee.

GAC chair Gerald Allen said the Life Long Learning Institute has 221 members. Its membership committee seeks more members. Monthly meetings are generally an hour long. Those interested are encouraged to contact Pat Stratton, chair, by email at yrttep@aol.com, using the subject line, “LLI committee.”