State Offers Fiber-Park Funding
by September 17, 2001 12:00 am 72 views
Fayetteville’s planned $16 million business park got a shot in the farm Sept. 12 when the Arkansas Economic Development Fund gave $500,000 to help fund construction of roads and water and sewer lines at the pastoral site north of the Fulbright Expressway.
The city asked for $1.15 million, but $500,000 is certainly better than nothing.
“It’s a little less than half, but over half the people didn’t get anything,” said Bill Ramsey, who took over as president and CEO of Fayetteville’s Chamber of Commerce in early September.
The state Legislature voted this spring to eliminate the AEDF, so the Sept. 12 meeting was its last. The fund had $7 million to distribute and $41 million in requests from across the state.
The fund had previously given $190,000 toward development of the park, which has been named the Arkansas Business Technology Park.
Fayetteville has already spent $2 million on the project, and Southwestern Bell gave $600,000 of in-kind contributions to see that fiber-optic cables were laid underneath the site.
Ramsey said construction of roads and water and sewer lines should begin soon, but he didn’t know exactly when.
Participating in the presentation before the AEDF in Little Rock on Sept. 12 were Ramsey, Bobby Ferrell formerly of Southwestern Bell, Tommy Deweese of Southwestern Electric Power Co. and Jeremy Webb of If World Inc.