Chaffee enjoys ‘love fest’; Pradco project back on go

story by Marla Cantrell
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Ivy Owen, executive director of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, is still riding high from two days of meetings with Arkansas legislators from the joint House and Senate Committee on Transportation.

“It’s been an exciting week, I can tell you that,” Owen said. “I told the group this morning (March 18) at Graphic Packing, standing in front of 16 legislators, of whom half were running for reelection, that I didn’t know if it was a win-lose situation, but it seemed like an opportunity to ask for things.”

Owen said the meetings were almost a “love fest.”

The meetings began on Wednesday at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith.  Owen told the FCRA board the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority presented the legislators with its long and short term infrastructure goals in an effort to secure future funding.

At Thursday’s meeting at Graphic Packaging, Owen said UAFS Chancellor Dr. Paul Beran assured the lawmakers of his continued support for the economic development at Chaffee Crossing.

“He (Beran) talked about his partnership with Chaffee and they had submitted in their request a $5 million line item to build a building here at Chaffee and he’s pursuing that aggressively,” Owen said. “To have a university on site, doing that, is just incredible.”

Owen said the UAFS facility would offer on-site, customized training to the industry coming to the area. It’s something he sees as critical to future development of the 2,100 acres set aside for industrial development.

And there is also news on Pradco, a manufacturer of fishing lures. Groundbreaking is expected to take place by June of this year after being delayed because of the national economic downturn. However, Owen said the size of the facility has been downsized from 300,000 square feet to 191,000 square feet.

The FCRA is also asking for $2.5 million in federal funds for water improvements at the new section of Chad Colley Boulevard, and $1.3 million for sewer improvements in the same area.

“Last year we requested about $6 million,” Owen said, “and we got approved for about $300,000. We’re still trying to figure out how to get it. It’s coming through the Department of the Interior.  …It’s just a waiting game.”

The FCRA board also discussed I-49. City leaders and the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce made separate trips to Washington, D.C. to lobby for funding to finish the project, which has been in the works for more than 40 years. Work is now underway on the section of the interstate that runs through Chaffee Crossing.

But federal funding is pending for the Jenny Lind phase, which is the six-mile stretch between that will eventually connect to U.S. 71 north of Greenwood. It’s expected to cost $30 million.