History and railroad report part of FCRA meeting

story by Aric Mitchell
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Executive Director Ivy Owen had good news to report to the members of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (FCRA) at the monthly meeting Thursday afternoon.

This week, FCRA received confirmation that its non-profit application was approved by the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to this development, Owen said that, following August’s meeting, the Trust expects to be added to the National Register.

Status as a non-profit allows the FCRA to begin accepting tax exempt donations. Along with Owen’s report that mining revenue for the year is expected to beat projections by approximately $500,000, the April meeting gave FCRA members cause for celebration.

Other financial news found the March balance sheets revealing a net income of approximately $22,118.81 for the month, bringing its year-to-date total to $48,132.

During Owen’s executive report, he also indicated that the McClure Amphitheater structural renovations are about “96% complete,” and that OG&E has agreed to run the electricity at no cost to the FCRA.

“We still have some landscape matters to attend to — do the sodding and put a fence up. We’ve had several occasions of vandalism thus far, people dumping garbage and trash on the bike path. We have acquired night vision cameras, and hidden them well. We’ve also posted big signs letting people know its under surveillance. It’s hard enough to keep it clean from regular stuff that falls out of the sky, but when you have people intentionally dumping their garbage, it gets very difficult. We have found three envelopes with names in them, and turned them over to the police to investigate,” Owen said.

“We want to make sure that the McClure Amphitheater is a true benefit to the community with a shared vision and plan for operation,” Owen continued.

To help accomplish this, Owen announced his plans to compile a task force made up of representatives from government, education, performing arts, theater and other interested groups to help manage the facility’s daily functions and upkeep.

While April’s meeting held one action item on the agenda, the FCRA was unable to act because there were not enough members present for a quorum to allow for voting. Therefore, consideration and approval of an amendment to the original Board action approving the sale of five acres to Mike Tankersley will have to wait for next month’s meeting, which is scheduled for May 19.

Other reporting matters included advancements on the Chaffee Crossing rail improvement and the Mitsubishi new rail construction projects that are slated to be an additional source of revenue for the Trust. Rail improvements are approximately 50% complete with the first military train to arrive around June 4 from Fort Knox. The Trust is working on obtaining a grant to help fund the Mitsubishi project, which is expected to cost “anywhere from $1 (million) to $1.2 million,” Owen said.

To close, Owen told attendees to watch out for land sale announcements in the coming months as “approximately $2.5 million in offers are on the table from a variety of local buyers.”

Though Owen did not give specifics on the pending deals, he did say that they would encompass approximately 140 acres of mixed use land for commercial and residential purposes.