Enterprise-Leader

PRAIRIE GROVE — Administrators learned Thursday that the Prairie Grove School District was 97 percent compliant with the Department of Education’s Standards and Assurance inspection.

“Every five years the state department sends a team to visit the district, and go into every building,” Superintendent Randy Willison said Friday. “Out of the 165 areas they look at, they only found issues in five.”

All of the issues were small, and can be easily corrected, Willison said. One example was paperwork with a typo in the birth date requirements for entry into Kindergarten, and another was an example where the district requirements exceeded the base state “Smart Core” requirements.

Assistant Superintendent Vol Woods oversaw the preparations for the Standards and Assurance visit, and did a great job, Willison said.

“This was a spotless visit, and I can’t say enough about all the work the principals and the academic coaches put in to getting us ready,” Willison said. 

Besides the successful Standards and Assurance audit, the district also has rolled out a new Web site, designed by district Web master Miles Eubanks, and on Oct. 19 the district’s administrators presented their annual report to the public. 

“The report is a formality which we are required to do each year,” Willison said. The entire Power Point presentation of the report is available on the new Web site.

Among projects the district is looking at for the future are the multipurpose facility at the high school, which would give the district a varsity gym and a place to hold P.E. classes on the high school grounds; roof renovation throughout the district; purchasing a new bus each year; and installing additional seating for the band at the football field.

The district also wants to review the current classroom space at the other schools and the enrollment projections to make sure there is plenty of classroom space available.

“Before we spend the kind of money we are talking about for a multi-purpose facility, we need to make sure we don’t need to spend that money on more fundamental needs such as classrooms,” Willison said.

Financially, the district is in good shape with a balance of $2,227,376 as of July 1, and the same balance is predicted for July 2010. The district’s total revenues are in excess of $12 million, as are the expenditures.

At the Oct. 19 School Board meeting, the board also approved some bond restructuring, which will result in the district saving $791,996, by refinancing the bond at a low 3.99 percent rate.

The district was credited $27,407.11, which went into savings, Willison said.

“Dan Lovelady (vice president of First Security Beardsley Public Finance of Little Rock) said that the last bond issues they did went for 4.66 percent, so we got that at just the right time,” Willison said.

Two years down the road, the district may restructure all of its bond debt in order to collect $1.5 million, which it can then put toward the multipurpose facility, Willison said.

Enterprise-Leader

PRAIRIE GROVE — The Prairie Grove Chamber of Commerce “welcome” sign at the east end of town has to be moved, Chamber members learned Thursday.

The Arkansas Highway Department had notified the city and the Chamber that the sign would have to moved from the state’s right-of-way last month, but the Chamber appealed the decision.

After much discussion, the state decided the sign did not meet the requirements for exemption from the law which prohibits signs in the state’s right-of-way, said Larry Oelrich, city public works director. The sign had been there for years, but the Chamber recently paid to have the signs repainted and restored.

“I guess the state had not noticed the sign all these years,” Oelrich said, “but now that it is all nice and pretty, we’re on their radar.”

Oelrich said the appeal went to the top of the highway department’s administrators, and the final ruling was that the sign is a commercial endorsement because it mentions the city’s Chamber of Commerce, Oelrich said. The state recommended removing the “Chamber of Commerce” from the sign, but since the signs were paid for and placed by the Chamber, that was not going to happen.

“We need everyone to be thinking about somewhere we can put the sign that isn’t on the state right-of-way,” Oelrich said. 

“I think we can move the sign in one piece,” he added, “we just need somewhere to put it.”

Chamber Vice President Natalie Bartholomew also announced the dates for upcoming events.

The annual Chamber banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Clarion in Fayetteville. Tickets will cost $17.50 and will be available at local businesses starting this week, she said.

The Christmas Lighting at Mock Park will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 5.

Also, Chamber officers for 2010 will be the topic of the November Chamber meeting, which will be held at noon on the third Thursday, Nov. 19, because of Thanksgiving. All members are encouraged to attend.

Enterprise-Leader

LINCOLN — The Lincoln School District is still negotiating with the state on funding for a proposed new high school, according to Superintendent Frank Holman.

The district submitted a proposal for a $22 million high school facility with 105,000 square feet to the facilities and transportation division with the Arkansas Department of Education. If approved, Lincoln expected the state to pay $14 million of the total costs. 

In May, the division released its approved projects’ list and the high school was on that list. However, the state indicated it would only allocate $1 million toward the new building.

Holman appealed the decision and the project is now on hold as the district continues conversations with state education officials.

Holman and another school official recently meet with Emily Hartman, an area planning manager with the public school facilities division, to look at issues that need to be clarified about Lincoln’s proposal.

Holman said Lincoln’s appeal indicated it would only proceed with a new high school if the school would receive $14 million in partnership funds from the state. However, the state apparently wrote a letter to Holman saying it understood the district was moving forward with the new high school.

Holman says the district did not receive that letter.

“They thought we were moving ahead,” Holman said. “We can’t move ahead with $1 million from the state.”

As part of the meeting with Hartman, Holman said he tried to confirm with her “every point we’re trying to make.  We hope she will be an advocate for us.”

Hartman said her visit with Lincoln officials was to look at the campus, not specifically about the new high school, though she said that project was discussed during the visit. She will submit a report on the visit to Doug Eaton, director of the transportation and facilities division. She declined to comment on the project, noting she will not make any decisions and has to treat all her districts equally. 

Several issues need to be resolved between the school and facilities division, Holman said.

The main issue, Holman said, is that the facilities division did not come up with the correct square footage for the new high school. The district, for example, plans to demolish one building with 40,000 square feet and convert the agriculture building into a new maintenance building. However, Lincoln was not given an allowance for losing this square footage, Holman said.

In addition, Lincoln now has 100 students in its new charter program, so total enrollment is up.

In all, about six issues need to be resolved, Holman said.

The next step will be to provide an engineer’s structural analysis to show what buildings will be demolished and why, Holman said. School officials will meet with the state to show how the district arrived with its cost estimates and square footage for a new building.

“If we’re successful, we’ll go ahead,” Holman said. “If not, we will set an appeal hearing.”

The school district’s original plan was to call a special election for a millage increase in March 2010. If the millage increase passes, the district planned to start on the new high school next summer.

Enterprise-Leader

FARMINGTON — Both Farmington and Lincoln are applying for grants to help their residents stay fit and active.

The Farmington City Council and Lincoln City Council approved resolutions last week to show support for their respective cities to apply for state grants to build a walking trail on public property.

If approved for a grant, Farmington would use the money to build a small section of the walking trail that is a part of the proposed sports complex on Southwinds Drive.

Lincoln’s proposed trail would be located at South Park, south of Highway 62 and on the east side of the Tyson Hatchery.

The cities are applying for grants through different programs.

Farmington is applying for a grant through the Trails for Life Grant Program administered by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism and the Arkansas Department of Health. The program uses funds made available through the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act. Friday was the deadline to submit applications for the 2010 Trails for Life Grant Program.

Farmington is asking for $46,648 to construct the northern entrance into the property, a parking lot with 18 spaces and 1,149 linear feet of walking trail that goes from the parking lot to the northwest corner of the property (next to the houses).

Farmington’s trail would be a hard surface, 8 feet wide and handicapped accessible.

In all, Farmington’s trail would loop around the property and be about one mile long. The rest of the trail would be built in phases.

City Business Manager Melissa McCarville said the city chose this section of the trail because it would not be affected when the rest of the ballpark is constructed. 

Lincoln is applying for a GIF Community Grant Enhancement Program through the Arkansas Department of Rural Services and the Arkansas Rural Development Commission.

City Business Manager Chuck Wood said the city is requesting $32,760. The city’s matching amount would be $6,550.

Wood said Lincoln proposes to use the money to construct phase one of the project, a walking trail of 1,700 linear feet. The trail would be 6 feet wide and constructed with compacted gravel and a metal strip border on both sides. This would set up the foundation to pave the trail in the future.

If Lincoln receives the grant, it would apply again next year to build phase two — a 2,440 linear feet trail.

The deadline for the GIF grant is Nov. 20. Wood said this is the first time Lincoln has applied for this type of grant.

Enterprise-Leader

GENTRY —The Prairie Grove Tigers (3-6, 3-3) turned in a performance that was nearly as sloppy as the mud marred field they were playing on in their 28-0 loss to the Gentry Pioneers last Friday in Gentry.

The slippery footing played a part in preventing a couple of potentially long Tiger runs, by pulling the rug out from under the Prairie Grove ball carriers, but the biggest impact was the slick condition of the pigskin, which attributed to nine Tiger fumbles, four of which were recovered by the Pioneers.

Two of the Prairie Grove fumbles led to Pioneer touchdowns, while one fumbled snap helped stymie a Tigers drive inside the Pioneer 3.

“I think the effort was there, we just fumbled it too much,” said Tigers Coach Danny Abshier. “It’s been a rough season.  We’ve got to do the things that we know to do, fix the problems that we got and keep going.”

Prairie Grove marched 67 yards down to the Pioneer 3 on their second possession of the contest, but a fumbled snap on third-and-one and a stop by the Gentry defense a play later forced the Tigers to give up the ball just short of the promised land.

The Pioneers then proceeded to march the other way, eventually scoring on Gentry quarterback Caleb Ramsey’s 11-yard scramble for a touchdown, giving the Pioneers a 7-0 lead.

Gentry recovered a Tiger fumble on Prairie Grove’s next series, then turned the recovery into a 68-yard scoring drive, capped off by a 1-yard Ramsey run, swelling the advantage to 14-0.

Not only was Ramsey nimble with his legs, but he was also deadly with his arm, passing for 171 yards on a 16-for-24 performance, with one touchdown.

Ramsey’s passing touchdown came on the Pioneers second possession of the third quarter when he completed a 5-yard toss to Justin Wilks, increasing the lead to 21-0.

A Tiger turnover on the ensuing kickoff led to a 25-yard Pioneer scoring drive, giving Gentry their final winning margin of 28-0.

Offensively, the Tigers were limited to 180 yards rushing and 48 yards passing, while allowing the Pioneers to rack up 360 yards of offense. 

Thomas Soehner paced Prairie Grove’s ground game with 98 yards on 18 carries, while Dalton Phillips (five carries) and Stephen Thomas (six carries) finished with 44 and 27 yards respectively. The defensive effort was led by lineman Taylor Lewis and Braiden Lacey and by linebackers Thomas and Zach Schrock.

The Tigers look to right the ship before the playoffs when they travel to Gravette on Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. 

Friday, Kiwanis is sponsoring a chili supper before the home football game against Shiloh Christian. The supper will be held at the high school pavilion from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tickets will be $5 for adults, $3 for children 12 and younger. 

For information about either event, contact Ron Wright at 266-1802. Chili supper tickets are available at the school’s administration office or can be purchased at the event.

By Lynn Kutter

Enterprise-Leader

FARMINGTON — About $200 was the goal at Lynch Middle School for a penny drive to benefit the Leukemia and LymphomaSociety, but the coins kept coming in, along with dollar bills and other denominations.

Amy Bond, a counselor’s aide at Lynch, said the students smashed the goal in one day and for the three-week penny drive, donations averaged$200-$300 per week. The total at the end of the three weeks: $1,500.61.

 “It was unbelievable,” Bond said. “The kidsliterally emptied out their pockets for this cause.This goes to show that kids do make a difference if given the chance.”

Bond said a representative of the society contacted her about sponsoring a “Pennies for Patients” benefit and the school agreed to move ahead with the idea. The benefit also was of personal interest to Bond because she lost a baby cousin to the disease.

“This is special to my heart,” Bond said.

To make it more interesting, she turned the benefit into a competition among all the classes in sixth, seventh and eighth grades and the class that brought in the most money would enjoy a pasta party donated by Olive Garden in Fayetteville.

“It’s a good competition and every day the kids are asking me who’s ahead,” Bond said last week as she was counting the money.

At the week’s end, she announced that James Miller’s sixth-grade class won the contest with $312.46. Stefanie Bramwell’s seventh-grade class came in second with $294.45.

In addition to real U.S. money, students brought in a variety of coins from other countries. Someof these included pesos, Canadian coins, wheat pennies, an Austrian penny and possibly a Middle Eastern coin. Bond even received Chuckee Cheese tokens.

Bond had the job of counting all the money and said she enjoyed the drive, but noted by the end of the week, “I’m tired of pennies.”