A proposed $20 million development of the Fianna Hills Country Club is no more after developer Lance Beaty of Fort Smith-based FSM Redevelopment Partners pulled the project from consideration at Tuesday's (April 1) regular meeting of the Fort Smith Board of Directors.

“I believe we had the vote (to approve a zoning request needed for the project to proceed). But it’s not just about the vote. It’s a business decision. It’s mathematics. ... In a deal like this let’s say that 100 things have to happen in an ordered manner for this to transpire. We got to say, number 60 and determined that it was not a deal for us. It’s that simple. We’ve conducted due diligence on this for months, and our risk-weighted analysis is that it is not a deal for us,”  Beaty explained.

Beaty declined to comment about efforts in recent days to scuttle the project, saying instead that, “I may have some additional comments at the appropriate time, but before the vote, I think it unwise.”

Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack said the Board could still take action on the issue. He said the Board could table it, vote on it as is, or amend it. Gosack said Fianna Hills Country Club Manager Jim Shields has asked that the zoning issue be tabled until the May 6 meeting. According to Gosack, Shields said that would give club owners time to determine if there is other interest in the property and to see if the zoning change would help with that interest.

STORY UPDATE
The Fort Smith Board of Directors voted Tuesday (April 1) to table the proposed planned zoning district until owners of Fianna Hills Country Club can hear out offers from two other interested parties before moving forward.

Before the Board voted 6-1 to delay the PZD decision, City Director Keith Lau made his feelings known on the collapse of the planned development by Beaty and his business partner, Dr. Stephen Nelson, explaining that he had an e-mail from the country club's current owner threatening shut down should the PZD not go through.

"I have to operate on knowns and that's the known that I have to operate on the thought with my real estate experience that if that club goes dark, that if the golf course goes in disrepair, it is going to affect each and every property owner in Fianna Hills and I would hate to see that happen. That would be terrible. And in my guestimate, in my professional experience, that each and every owner will probably be dinged $10,000 worth of property up there and that's something that we can't allow."

Lau also said the controversy that erupted in the last several weeks surrounding Beaty's planned purchase and redevelopment of the club is an example of what drives investors and businesses to other cities instead of Fort Smith.

"I looked at it today and I'm thinking, 'What does this say about Fort Smith, how this all came down?' And people always ask me, 'You know, why isn't Fort Smith like Northwest Arkansas? Why isn't Fort Smith growing? Why aren't we doing what everyone else in the state is doing?' This is why we're not doing what everybody else is doing in the state. OK, what's wrong? It's our attitude, it's our what if it goes wrong attitude. What if we fail? It's not what if we succeed. I think everyone in this room thought that if this program that Mr. Beaty presented succeeded, that it would be an asset to the city of Fort Smith. I know it would have provided jobs. I know it would have provided economic development."

Lau also said he had a letter from the chief of staff from Mercy Hospital stating that the hospital supported the development, with City Director Pam Weber chiming in later to add that projects such as Beaty's now-scrapped plan were what would drive business recruitment in the region. During her remarks, Weber noted the far-reaching impact of the $20 million investment Beaty had previously been willing to make, asserting that the investment could have impacted the local economy by up to $60 million.

City Director Mike Lorenz said that contrary to what anyone may have thought, he and others were not opposed to the project, but instead to other land uses included in the PZD presented to the Board on Tuesday.

Also speaking at the meeting was Lisa Clay, who spoke with The City Wire last week and had a petition signed by more than 250 Fianna Hills residents asking that many conditional uses be removed from the proposed PZD if the Board were to approve it.

Clay did announce that she and several club members would meet with club owners on Thursday about purchasing the facility, though no formal offer is on the table.

Before the Board voted to table the item until the May 6 meeting, Lau attempted to rally support for voting on the PZDas presented, but received no support from fellow Board members. No further action on the item following the vote to table the issue.

INITIAL PLANS
Plans to redevelop the country club first came to light in November 2013 when Beaty confirmed that he and business partner Dr. Stephen Nelson were working with club owners David Mille and Jim Shields to purchase not only the club, but also the 18-hole golf course.

It was the second major planned investment for Beaty's company, which purchased the 35-acre site of the former Phoenix Village Mall when it was nothing more than a poorly-maintained site that included about 10 acres of structures. Since Beaty's purchase of the old mall site in January 2009, FSM Redevelopment Partners invested more than $10.5 million worth of improvements at the site, including a successful expo center that was open for about three years before closing to make room for a regional service center operated by Health Management Associates. In all, the former mall now houses more than 1,100 jobs.

CLUB CHANGES
The proposal from Beaty for the country club included the addition of guest suites for use by members and their guests, as well as the addition of a medical concierge service and other upgraded amenities. The country club would have also been gutted and rebuilt on its original footprint, expanding from a current square footage of 27,000 square feet to 85,000 square feet.

As part of the revamp of the club, FSM Redevelopment had developed a business plan that would have members joining the facility for a $30,000 fee that could be paid out over time, similar to the membership fee members of the club have already been paying. In order to make the club a reality, Beaty had said he would need about 500 commitments with individuals making refundable deposits of $1,000.

While there was some vocal opposition to Beaty's plan for Fianna Hills Country Club, things appeared to be moving in the right direction on March 11. It was on that evening that the Fort Smith Planning Commission approved a planned zoning district at the site of the country club by a vote of 9-0.

As the project moved closer to Tuesday's vote, more opposition started making their voices heard and left the project in limbo.

In statements to The City Wire published March 17, there was not a consensus among the Fort Smith Board of Directors on whether or not the PZD would pass the final hurdle of Board approval. Fort Smith Vice Mayor Kevin Settle said while he supported some aspects of the club, including the renovation and addition of member suites, he had about other uses included in the PZD.

"The concerns that have been brought to my attention by many citizens in the Fianna Hills area are the other potential developments that are being asked in the PZD. These other potential developments are something that I am going to research and get a better understanding on how they could affect the existing homeowner property values."

Fianna Hills resident Lisa Clay was among those expressing concern about the proposed uses within the PZD. Clay eventually launched a petition which garnered more than 200 signatures asking the Board to pass an amended PZD that would have removed several land uses.

Pat Ross, president of the Fianna Hills Property Owners Association, said a conversation with Beaty occured in which Beaty allegedly said he would turn the site into an office complex. Beaty said March 27 that Ross' allegations were "simply not true or is completely out of context."

CLUB CLOSING?
Clay said at the time that she would like to have a company come in and keep the country club just that, adding that she was aware of companies interested in purchasing the facility. But when reached for comment, Mille said no other buyers had approached him about purchasing the country club, which he said is heavily subsidized by his other business ventures, which include Mid-South Steam Boiler and Engineering.

He also said that should the Board not approve the planned PZD for the land he currently owns, he would not waste any time shutting down the country club.

“It’s not an idle threat. I assure you. My problem is that I’ve been subsidizing the operating capital of that club for years, and it’s gotten to the point that it’s taking a toll on me financially. And if he (Beaty) doesn’t buy it, i’m going to close it immediately.  ... when it starts to hurt your other businesses, I mean, I’m just not going to do it anymore.”

Continuing, Mille noted: “These people opposing this and spreading rumors and bad information to try to stop this, they don’t see what they are doing to Fort Smith. I have a lot of friends who are members there and I enjoy having a place for them to buy a drink or whatever, but I can’t keep subsidizing all that just because they are friends. ... Nobody is lining up to do this (buy the club), and so if this (Beaty plan) doesn’t work, you’ll see a lot of weeds and grass on the course, because I’m not doing it anymore.”

Efforts by Wal-Mart to build the next generation of retail has resulted in investments of about $2 billion in tech startups since 2011, according to Leon Nicholas of Kantar Retail. These investments are helping the retailer organize content and win favor with Gen Y, which if successful could place the retailer two big steps ahead of the retail pack.

In what could be a warning to other retailers Nicholas said Wal-Mart isn’t investing in technology for the fun of it, and the company expects a return over time. 

Carol Spiekerman, CEO of NewMarketBuilders, said Wal-Mart’s strategic investment plan to acquire multiple tech capabilities is “smart, bold and aggressive.”

““Instead of sitting on their hands looking for that one big fantasy acquisition, Wal-Mart has instead become highly opportunistic, picking up multiple companies that fill specific niches.”” Spieckerman said.

Kosmix was acquired in 2011 and is the foundation for @WalmartLabs, which Spieckerman said set the stage for other 10 investments as the company seeks to build out its tech capabilities that she says are key to future sales and user engagement.

Since then Wal-Mart has assembled a global crop of tech savvy professionals at @WalmartLabs who are building a very different type of retail operation. Neal Ashe, CEO of Global eCommerce for Wal-Mart Stores, has said these strategic acquisitions and those to come will take Wal-Mart further and faster toward the next generation of retail which is occurring at intersection of the physical and digital worlds.

Analysts agree that the work at @WalmartLabs is data rich with layers of analytical and predictive capabilities beyond what competitors and suppliers have seen, or are likely ready to process.

CONTENT DRIVEN
Wal-Mart is collecting a slew of consumer related-data from social media, analytical applications and weather patterns that goes way beyond point-of-sale data that has been the key metric for the industry and its suppliers for the past three decades.

”“Wal-Mart is a media company and therefore a media spend for suppliers. The opportunity is to position for multi-media content opportunities that leverage Wal-Mart’s entire platform.” Spieckerman said. “This is the forefront of a retail movement for mainline brick and mortar retailers. Suppliers need to catch up with this concept.”

She said there is a growing data divide between retailers and suppliers, but Wal-Mart continues to extend invitations into its fold. The point-of-sale data is a just small sliver of the data ecosystem today, Spieckerman said. And the same goes for marketshare or other post sale metrics which has been what suppliers and retailers have typically shared in the past. 

That is something Wal-Mart seeks to change. Key marketing executives such as Stephen Quinn have repeatedly spoke of the retailer’s desire to share content strategies with key suppliers.

“I don’t know how many different ways Wal-Mart can say it, invest in our platform and we will invest in you,” Spieckerman said of Wal-Mart’s request. “One hand washes the other. They want to see suppliers hand over the content they have created. Wal-Mart has already made the investments and suppliers can benefit if they turn over some of their assets in the form of user (and) shopper content.”

Stephen Quinn, chief marketing officer at Walmart U.S., said during the recent Year Beginning Meetings that the retailer was focused on the “Big Three: Big insights, Purposeful Positioning, Total Experience.” He said the retailer would use its Big Data capabilities to drive more content marketing. He reiterated Wal-Mart’s desire to partner with suppliers on marketing efforts across multi-channels saying the retailer would measure and report the effectiveness.

Quinn also said Wal-Mart would lever Big Data and Weather Fx – a service through the Weather Channel – to drive merchandising and ad campaigns.

Spieckerman believes the retailer can recoup the value of its acquisitions and add to its platforms and its suppliers’ platforms at the same time when they can partner on content strategies.

USER ENGAGEMENT
The acquisitions of YumPrint and Social Calendar are fostering Wal-Mart’s ability for user engagement, something Spieckerman said is a long way from the old-line retailer mindset of studying sales data.

User engagement is nothing more than getting to know your potential customers who may become loyal shoppers or never spend a dime. By acquiring these two companies, Wal-Mart also gained access to the respective user bases which they can engage. Spieckerman said this path-to-purchase data is a great place for suppliers and retailers to collaborate as they organize and share content around brands, that could eventually lead to user engagement and shopper loyalty.

For example: YumPrint features recipes, which involve food ingredients — a common thread for Wal-Mart and its CPG food suppliers. Spieckerman said suppliers can start by going after this type of low hanging fruit. 

She said the content sharing conversations should not necessarily be directed to Wal-Mart buyers. Suppliers should be reaching out to the new content and emerging media personnel which are being added regularly to the retailer’s payroll.

“Suppliers can’t be waiting for a magic pill for content, they are going to have to look at niche opportunities. It’s not a single point of contact. Soon, there will be a whole new criteria for becoming a Wal-Mart supplier. Price and product aren’t the only levers the retailer is pulling today and just like technology is pulling retail along, @WalmartLabs and other retailer innovation incubators are pulling headquarters along,” Spieckerman said.

WOOING GEN Y 
Nicolas said Wal-Mart’s tech investments are very much in tune with their efforts to reach Gen. Y consumers, also referred to as Millennials. According to Nielsen, this 77 million-strong consumer group represents a $200 billion opportunity, with more spending power in the coming years.

“Investing in Millennials is absolutely the thing to do,” said Beth Brady, president, segmentation and local market solutions for Nielsen.

Brady said during a March 25 webinar that retailers and brands should invest now if they want to capture this demographic that is very different from past generations. Personalized deals, resonate with Millennials, something Walmart.com is apt to experiment with at some point given its ability to engage in distinct email specials with its users. A two-way dialogue is also important to Millennials, Brady said. This is also something Wal-Mart is now able to do because of its growing user base from each tech acquisition.

It is no secret that Millennials are plugged in. Some 72% regularly use FaceBook and these users are also adept at other mobile and social applications. She said they are driven by deals, but they also desire authenticity in their purchases. While Millennials are brand loyal, they also seek labels that share similar values and represent good causes.

“They are comfortable with tech and trust social media,” Brady said. “In fact, social media is the new consumer report.”

The value of building permits in Fort Smith, Greenwood and Van Buren were a combined $24.913 million in March, up 203.96% compared to $8.196 million in March 2013.

For the first three months of 2013, permits for the three cities totaled $41.787 million, up 50.9% compared to the $27.691 million during the same period in 2013.

FORT SMITH
The city of Fort Smith issued 191 permits during the month of March, nearly even with the same month last year, but the permit values totaled $20.410 million last month, up 197.7% compared to $6.856 million during the same period last year.

The primary driver of Fort Smith's higher totals was the $13.3 million building permit issued for the new Mill Creek Wastewater Pump Station, located at 210 Navy Road.

Another large project pushing totals higher is an expansion at Darby Junior High, valued at $1.674 million, as well as a $1.1 million permit issued for a new immigration office at 4624 Kelley Highway. The Kelley Highway site is the former home of what is now known as KNWA-TV and its now shuttered Fort Smith newsroom. The station consolidated newsroom operations to its Fayetteville newsroom in 2006 when Oklahoma City-based Griffin Communications sold the station to Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting, leaving the former television station mostly unoccupied since that time.

In addition to the three large commercial projects, the city of Fort Smith issued 120 residential building permits worth $1.641 million, a drop from March 2013 when the city issued 125 permits worth $2.525 million.

GREENWOOD
A total of six permits were issued for the city of Greenwood in March, totaling $373,676. That represents a 43.66% decrease from the same period in 2013, which saw $663,300 in permits.

VAN BUREN
The city of Van Buren saw an increase of 510.75% from $676,000 in March 2013 to $4.129 million last month. The higher values in the city last month was largely due to construction of the city's new police headquarters, which is being constructed at the former Sherman's Grocery site. The new police station has an estimated value of $3.567 million.

Other construction in the city was relatively minor, with a spattering of permits issued across various categories, including four permits worth $89,000 for residential remodels, the second largest category after commercial construction.

2013 RECAP
Combined values in the three cities during 2013 were $203.037 million, compared to $157.32 million during 2012. The 2013 value is above the $201.079 million in 2011.

Fort Smith closed 2013 with the largest share of valuations, logging $177.687 million (a one-year increase of about 30.24% from $136.428 million in 2012), while Van Buren was the next largest with $17.067 million (a one-year increase of 38.96% from $12.282 million in 2012). Greenwood posted an additional $8.283 million, the only city to show a decrease from the previous year's total of $8.609 million (a decrease of 3.79%).

The gains in the Fort Smith market were largely from industrial construction projects at Chaffee Crossing, the construction of Mercy's new orthopedic hospital along Phoenix Avenue and various municipal construction projects across the city.

Much of Arkansas could face large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes on Wednesday and rain the rest of the week, with the Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas areas almost at the center of the large weather pattern.

AccuWeather.com reports severe thunderstorms on Wednesday will threaten 18 million people from northern Texas to eastern Kansas, much of Missouri and central and southern Illinois. The threat on Wednesday includes the potential for a couple of strong tornadoes.

The severe weather on Wednesday is part of a multiple-day severe weather event that will continue through the end of the week and will reach parts of the Midwest, East and South.

Cities in the area of concern for dangerous and disruptive weather conditions Wednesday and Wednesday night include Dallas; Wichita, Kan.; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; Little Rock and Fort Smith, Ark.; Kansas City, Springfield, Joplin and St. Louis, Mo.; Shreveport, La.; Memphis, Tenn.; Paducah, Ky.; Evansville, Ind.; and Mt. Vernon, Ill.

Travel delays and difficult driving conditions are possible along I-35, I-40, I-44 and I-70 in the region.

The storms spanning Wednesday and Wednesday night will bring large hail, high winds and flash flooding to a number of communities. However, a few of the storms can bring a tornado.

According to AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Executive Mike Smith, "There is the potential for a couple of large tornadoes along the Kansas/Oklahoma border late Wednesday afternoon and evening."

While the coverage of severe weather is forecast to expand greatly on Thursday, people should stay on alert prior to and following the main event. Smith passed along a saying among storm chasers, "The day before the day is often the day that catches people by surprise."

The storms late Wednesday will fire near the boundary of dry air to the west, warm, moist air to the southeast and cool air to the northeast.

According to Severe Weather Meteorologist Justin Pullin, "Storms in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma later Wednesday will not have much competition and will be in a favorable zone with strong winds at mid-levels of the atmosphere.”

Even late in the day Tuesday, a few storms over parts of north-central Texas and central Oklahoma can become severe with an isolated tornado.

A Tuesday (April 1) meeting of the Sebastian County Election Commission provided information on complaints about the consolidation of polling sites in rural Sebastian County, as well as the look for a new election coordinator following the resignation of former Election Coordinator David Mansell.

The polling site consolidation involved moving 7,142 voters from previous sites to newly consolidated, existing sites and was approved at the commission's Feb. 27 meeting.

Since that time, the commission has fielded several phone calls from residents in the Bloomer community who are upset that their precinct was closed, requiring a further drive for many of the 500 voters in the community. According to Election Commission Chairman Lee Webb, he has fielded 18 calls about the consolidations, with 13 of those being residents in the Bloomer community.

While some locations, including Central City, were under consideration for consolidation before Bloomer, Webb said laws dictate that incorporated cities and towns must have at least one polling site. With Bloomer not being an incorporated city or town, it made the list — a list which itself had been narrowed from 13 possible sites to seven, he said.

Due to the number of complaints about the polling site at Bloomer, Webb said the commission would reconsider the site closure following the May 20 primary and possible runoff election three weeks later, adding that the commission would be able to compare stats from the last election and the upcoming May 20 primary to determine if a reversal of the commission's Feb. 27 decision should take place.

"I told them we would readdress the Bloomer site and see if there was anything else could do there, see if it affects the turnout much in that area there. We'll be able to tell by the precinct number how it affected the turnout and we'll look at that. That will be the best gage if it affected anything. We'll look at that precinct number from Bloomer and see if they turned out and went to Union or if it was just a select group of people."

Webb added that the calls from Bloomer caught his interest, especially considering the lack of calls from larger precincts that were consolidated within Fort Smith and other areas.

"Because even larger precincts, I got fewer phone calls on. Like Haven Heights, you'd think I'd get a bunch of phone calls on, but I just got the one from a lady who was concerned she was in a different Senate district now."

County Judge David Hudson was on hand at Tuesday's meeting and addressed the search for a new election coordinator, following the resignation of newly-hired Election Coordinator David Mansell less than two weeks ago. Mansell resigned following a series of errors, which included getting the order of candidates for lieutenant governor wrong on the Republican ballot as well as misspelling the last name of U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, who is one of three Republican candidates for the lieutenant governor's post. Hudson said the search is ongoing for a new election coordinator, which he said would ideally begin work before the end of April. In the absence of an election coordinator, former Election Coordinator Jerry Huff has agreed to stay on through certification of the May 20 primary election.

Webb also said even in light of the errors attributed to Mansell that resulted in a re-printing of Republican ballots at a cost of $5,200, ballots would still be delivered by April 3. In all, there will be 18,345 Republican ballots, 8,980 Democratic ballots and 1,423 non-partisan ballots, which Huff said was based on the previous election's voting totals.

Huff also briefly addressed a lawsuit in Pulaski County, where that county's election commission has received conflicting information from the state Board of Election Commissioners and the Attorney General's office on how to count absentee ballots. The Board adopted a rule that allows absentee voters time to prove their identity, while Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in February that those voters should not be given additional time because it is not clearly spelled out in the law.

Huff said the state board's rule is binding on the Sebastian County Election Commission, though the attorney general's opinion would give commission "sovereign immunity," protecting the commission from a lawsuit should it need to.

A ruling on the lawsuit is expected before the May 20 primary, though it could be delayed should the Republican Party of Arkansas be successful in having McDaniel's office removed from defending the law it wrote a legal opinion against. The Arkansas GOP requested to represent the state board on March 26 and also filed a proposed motion which would dismiss the Pulaski County Election Commission's lawsuit. No decision on representation of the proposed motion has yet been made.

Overall Arkansas tax revenue is above forecast for the first nine months of the fiscal year, with sales and use tax collections – an indicator of consumer spending – continues to miss budget forecasts. However, March sales and use tax revenue was up more than 7%.

Year-to-date gross revenue (July 2013-March 2014) totaled $4.456 billion, 2.9% above the same period last year and above forecast by 1.1%, according to the report issued Tuesday (April 4) by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.

Collections have declined relative to how the fiscal year began. The gross collections were up 3.4% after the first six months of the fiscal year, and 0.9% above forecast. After the first four months of the fiscal year, the gross revenue was up 4.1%.

Individual income tax collections for the fiscal year totaled $2.154 billion, up 3.1% from last year and 2.1% above the budget forecast. Year-to-date sales and use tax collections were $1.629 billion, up 3% above last year and 1% below the budget forecast. The sales and use tax collections were up 4.8% four months into the fiscal year and up 3.9% six months into the fiscal year. Income taxes and the sales and use tax collections are the two primary sources of state revenue.

The corporate income tax collections for the first eight reporting months of the fiscal year totaled $305.8 million, up 3% compared to last year and 4.5% above forecast.

MARCH NUMBERS
March gross revenue was $546.4 million, up 6.9% above last year and 5.8% below forecast.

John Shelnutt, head of the Department of Finance and Administration’s Economic (DFA) Analysis & Tax Research division, provided this analysis of the March numbers: “All major categories of collections were above forecast in gross revenue terms and lower-than expected refunds provided an extra gain in net available funds. The monthly swing largely offsets the weakness in the prior month and adds to year-to-date gains going into the largest, and potentially volatile collection month of April.

“Results were significantly impacted by: 1) rebound in Sales and Use tax compared to year ago and versus forecast, 2) components of Individual Income tax compared to forecast, and 3) a decline in both individual and corporate refunds compared to forecast and year ago refunds.

“Among smaller revenue categories, most categories exceeded forecast except Tobacco tax collections were down sharply.”

Individual income tax collections during March totaled $246.6 million, up 12.6% compared to March 2013 and above forecast by 9.9%.

Sales and use tax collections during the month totaled $183.1 million, up 7.4% from last year and 3.7% below the forecast. Sales and use tax collections, considered a barometer of consumer confidence, ended fiscal year 2013 on a down note. Collections in the segment for the fiscal year totaled $2.124 billion, up just 1.1% compared to the 2012 period, and 1.4% below forecast.

The DFA in early December updated the projections for 2014 and 2015 fiscal year revenue. Gross general revenues are estimated at $6.203 billion for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014), down about 0.2% from fiscal 2013 collections.

The revenue forecast for fiscal year 2015 is $6.333 billion, up just 2.1% above the 2014 estimate. The 2015 estimate includes an anticipated reduction of $85.2 million from tax cuts approved in the 2013 Legislative Session.

OTHER TAX COLLECTIONS
Alcoholic beverage
July 2013 - March 2014: $37.6 million
July 2012 - March 2013: $36.5 million

Games of skill
July 2013 - March 2014: $28.6 million
July 2012 - March 2012: $25.4 million

Tobacco
July 2013 - March 2014: $162.5 million
July 2012 - March 2013: $167.9 million

Insurance
July 2013 - March 2014: $66.3 million
July 2012 - March 2013: $63.4 million

COLLECTIONS HISTORY
Tax collections during fiscal year 2013 (July 2012-June 2013) totaled $6.214 billion, up 4.9% above the previous fiscal year and up 2.5% compared to budget estimates. One result of the gains was a budget surplus of $299.5 million.

Fiscal year 2013 marked the third consecutive year of year-over-year gains. Arkansas tax collections reversed a negative two-year slide in the 2011 fiscal year, with collections up 4.5% in the July 2010-June 2011 period.

State tax collections for fiscal year 2011 totaled $5.673 billion, up 4.5% above the $5.43 billion in the 2010 period.

The biggest declines in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years were with individual income tax collections and sales and use tax collections.

The 5th annual The Compass Conference will be held April 17 and will feature an update on economic conditions – based on data from The Compass Report – in the Fort Smith metro area during 2013 and future opportunities and challenges of the regional medical sector.

The luncheon event is set for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., April 17 and will held at the Hennessy Center inside Mercy Fort Smith hospital (see map at bottom of story). Seating is limited, and tickets are $35 each, or a table of 10 for $325. To reserve a seat or table, contact Daelene Brown (dbrown@thecitywire) or Kathy Reed (kreed@thecitywire.com) by e-mail or phone (242-2800).

THE COMPASS REPORT
The conference is part of The Compass Report, which is the only independent economic analysis of Arkansas’ top three metro areas (Central Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas, Fort Smith region). The report, produced and managed by The City Wire, measures four leading and four current economic indicators to provide a grade for a regional economy. Fort Smith-based Benefit Bank has been the primary sponsor of the report for five years, and Cox Communications has been a secondary sponsor.

Regional economic conditions began to improve in 2013, according to the report issued for the third quarter of 2013. Slight but continued improvements in economic trends for the Fort Smith region during the third quarter of 2013 has resulted in the best quarterly grade for the economy since the first quarter 2009 launch of The Compass Report. A third quarter 2013 grade of C+ was improved over the C in the second quarter and the C- in the third quarter of 2012.

Economist Jeff Collins, who conducts the data collection and analysis for The Compass Report, said employment and other data indicate that the Fort Smith region “has performed reasonably well” during the first three quarters of 2013. However, Collins said the improvements will need to continue if the region is to return to employment levels seen prior to the recession.

MEDICAL SECTOR FORUM
A panel discussion on the medical sector will focus on highlighting conditions within the sector. Panelists will be Doug Babb, CEO of Cooper Clinic; Jeremy Drinkwitz, chief operations officer of Sparks Health System; Dr. Cole Goodman, president of Mercy Clinic Fort Smith; and Kyle Parker, chairman of the Fort Smith Regional Healthcare Foundation.

Medical sector expansions, changes in ownership and news of a planned medical college are likely to be the major regional stories in 2014. The sector also continues to be a job generator for the region.

In the regional Education & Health Services category, employment was 16,400 during January, down from 16,600 in December and below the 16,900 during January 2013. Annual average monthly employment in the sector has steadily grown since 2005 when it reached 14,000. In 2012 the average was 17,000, but fell slightly to 16,800 in 2013. Employment in the sector reached a record 17,300 in October 2012.

Following are some of the top news stories from the area medical sector during 2013 and early 2014.

• Fort Smith could soon be home to Arkansas’ first college of osteopathic medicine and one of just 31 in the U.S., thanks to a more than $58 million investment from the Fort Smith Regional Healthcare Foundation (FSRHF) and a grant of 200 acres from the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (FCRA).

• Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates (HMA) announced in April it would build a regional service center in Fort Smith and employ more than 500 with average annual salaries potentially exceeding $40,000. At the time, HMA was the parent company of Sparks Health System in Fort Smith and Summit Medical Center in Van Buren. The facility opened in September. Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems has since acquired HMA in a $7.6 billion deal.

• Work continued during 2013 on a plan announced in August 2011 by the St. Louis-based Sisters of Mercy to invest $192 million in the Fort Smith area as part of a 10-year plan to invest $4.8 billion in its operations in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Part of that investment was completion of the $42 million Mercy Orthopedic Hospital in Fort Smith that was estimated to add 100 jobs.

Dennis Smiley, doing business as HDS Holdings LLC, was sued March 25 by Delta Trust & Bank in Benton County, over a personal loan default – it was latest shoe to drop in an unfolding saga surrounding Smiley’s sudden resignation March 13 as president of Arvest Bank Benton County. 

He also faces a loan fraud investigation first reported by Arkansas Business on April 2. This report claims one of the loan payments did not clear Smiley’s bank account on March 10, which raised a red flag that led to his resignation.

Sources who asked for anonymity have told The City Wire that numerous Arkansas banks had lent Smiley money over the past four years and he each time he pledged the same restricted Arvest shares for collateral. Smiley reportedly borrowed an estimated $4.5 million from more than a dozen Arkansas banks dating back to 2009, according to Uniform Commercial Code filings with Arkansas Security of State. 

On Feb. 20, Delta Trust & Bank made its loan to HDS Holdings — H. Dennis Smiley Jr. of Benton County and his father H. Dennis Smiley Sr. of DeQueen — in the amount of $245,126. Smiley pledged 4,264 shares of Arvest Bank stock for collateral. The lawsuit claims Smiley failed to make the first installment on March 20. 

“The defendants have confessed that they are either unable or unwilling to pay the obligations to the lender. The defendants have caused the collateral to be substantially impaired and they are in nonmonetary default under the express terms of the note and security agreement and guarantee,” the complaint states.

The bank has asked for a judgment in the amount of $245,126, accruing interest until the debt is paid. 

Co-defendant Henry Dennis Smiley Sr. is chairman of First State Bank of De Queen, also on the list of banks involved in the federal fraud probe. The Sr. Smiley told Arkansas Business he was brokenhearted and could not talk about his son's financial and legal problems.

MISSED PROTOCOL
In an information age, one has to ask how this could happen given that banks are supposed to file certain protocol when making a secured a loan.

“When a banker makes a loan that is collateralized with securities, they are to file a UCC Financing Statement with the Arkansas Secretary of State. But they are also supposed to check to make sure that collateral has not already been pledged for other loans. When possible, banks like to hold the title or proof of title in their vaults until the loan is repaid,” said Phil Knight, a Northwest Arkansas-based banking consultant and loan broker.

The Uniform Commercial Code finance statements, which are available online, indicate loans dating back to February 2011 where H. Dennis Smiley pledged shares of Arvest Bank Group Stock, which are bestowed to top executives as bonus pay. These shares had value of just under $400,000, according to the last loan made by Delta Trust & Bank. At least 10 banks claimed all or part of the same collateral for loans made between 2011 and 2014.

“Using fraudulent collateral is nothing new. It can happen when banks don’t do their homework and follow through with the proper protocol for loans,” said John Dominick, banking consultant and professor of finance at the University of Arkansas. “This won’t be the last time.”

Garland Binns, attorney with Little Rock-based Dover Dixon & Horne, said banks make loans on good faith and it may be difficult to determine wrongful intentions in advance. He also points to the UCC Finance Statements as the proper protocol for banks to register their interest as lien holders, a record open to the public.

Knight said lenders typically would require a letter of guaranty from the stock issuer in a situation where the stock is nonassignable, such as restricted or closely held stock like Arvest Bank Group.

“Absent that guaranty, or banks asking for it, is done more than you might think. Bankers like to make to loans, and they are unsuspecting of their friends and people they have known for years,” he said.

Arvest has been mostly silent on the high profile resignation, except to say it was of a personal nature.

BANKER BORROWING
Dominick said it is not uncommon for bankers to borrow from other institutions, they do so for independence. 

“A bank has be careful not to make too many loans to its own officers,” he said.

During the Northwest Arkansas real estate boom it was not uncommon for bankers to secure loans from other institutions, especially those dabbling in real estate market themselves. 

Knight said there is never problem until the loan can’t be repaid. He said regulators will also look past these loans as long as they are in good-standing. But, when things go south, there is nowhere to hide.

“Banks have zero tolerance for officers who default on loans made with other banks,” he added.

FALLOUT CONTINUES
The Delta Bank & Trust is the first civil lawsuit filed, but given the scope of the investigation Smiley could face criminal fraud charges. 

It is unclear how many banks are involved and to what extent. Based on the UCC Financing Statements four banks made loans to Smiley since Nov. 27, each pledging the same collateral.
• First Western Bank, Booneville
• First National Bank, Fort Smith
• First State Bank NWA, Huntsville
• Delta Bank & Trust, Little Rock

Legacy National Bank in Springdale also is encumbered by Smiley’s actions, but Legacy President Don Gibson, chose not to comment. Legacy did not file a UCC Financing Statement so it is unclear to what extent that bank is involved.

Other banks known to be involved include:
• First Security Bank
• Chambers Bank
• Bank of Fayetteville
• Signature Bank
• First State Bank DeQueen
• First National Bank of Mountain Home

It may not be the way a candidate wants to introduce themselves to potential voters, but it was exactly what happened to Sen. Bruce Holland, R-Greenwood. A mailer delivered to voters in Senate District 9 identified promises Holland claims to have kept since first being elected to the Arkansas Senate in 2010. The first promise?

"Cut taxes by over $175 annually.”

In a telephone call Wednesday (April 2), Holland made clear that the tax cut was much larger, and that the mailer missed an important word.

"It was supposed to be $175 million, that's the combination of all the tax cuts passed last session  — the income tax, the capital gains tax, tax cuts for veterans, the grocery tax — a combination of all of those taxes.”

He also said he would like to continue pursuing tax cuts should he be elected, and said he was in favor of former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson's tax plan, unveiled as part of the former congressman's campaign for governor. The plan would reduce the income tax rate from 7% to 6% for Arkansans earning between $34,000 to $75,000 a year, and from 6% to 5% for those earning between $20,400 to $33,999 annually, according to a report by Talk Business.

"I support reducing the state income tax," he said. "I think that's important to economic development and I think it's the right thing to do. Arkansas has one of the highest (tax rates) among neighboring states. The more Arkansans have in their pocket, the more spending power they have.”

Holland said he was a co-sponsor on many of the tax cut bills and voted for them all.

Also in the mailer, the senator boasted that he "Co-Sponsored and helped pass the most pro-life legislation in the country," which he explained was the 12-week abortion plan, which was recently struck down by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber, who said the bill was unconstitutional, citing other court decisions that do not restrict abortion until the fetus is “viable."

While the law was struck down, Holland said he was proud to have voted for the legislation.

"When something is important to your constituents, you vote for it. It is very important to the people that I represent. I campaigned on being pro-life. That's what my voters expect me to do and I represent them.”

He took issue with the judge's ruling, saying that the bill "should stand up to Constitutional scrutiny.”

"But you take that chance with any bill you pass. A lot of the legislation does get challenged. But it doesn't mean you don't do the right thing and vote in favor (of it).”

It was during his discussion of his pro-Second Amendment views that he took one of the first noticeable shots of the 2014 primary at Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, who is challenging Holland's re-election. The mailer said Holland had passed "legislation to expand gun (owner's) rights," and Holland explained during the interview that his pro-gun record was solid.

"The Advanced Arkansas Institute gives me a 100% ranking with the Second Amendment and gives Terry a 74%, based on the bills presented last session.”

Holland also said he was in support of Act 746, which is caused much controversy as Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said the bill does not allow for open carry of firearms, while several prosecutors across the state have said it does and have directed officers to not arrest anyone openly carrying.

Rice was quick to respond in an e-mail, calling Holland's claim nothing more than "scare tactics.”

"My commitment to the 2nd Amendment is clear.  I’m a lifetime member of the NRA, a concealed carry permit holder, I was a co-sponsor of Act 746 [the Open-Carry bill] in the last legislative session, I have voted to allow concealed handguns in places of worship, I voted to allow concealed handguns on college campuses, I have voted to protect the confidential information of concealed carry permit holders, and I voted to prohibit the Governor from regulating firearms in emergencies.”

Holland's mailer is not the first to show up across the district. A mailer from Rice attempts to tie Holland to Obamacare through his votes in favor of the private option, which uses federal funding to purchase health insurance for low income Arkansans who qualify.

In his statement to The City Wire, Rice said Holland was the deciding vote on the legislation.

"In the last campaign, he put out flyers and mail pieces stating that he would help to stop Obamacare here in Arkansas.  That is not a promise kept. That is a promise broken. He voted for the implementation of Obamacare in the 2013 regular session and again in the fiscal session of 2014. In fact, he was the deciding vote in the state senate to pass it during the fiscal session. I have consistently voted against implementing Obamacare here in Arkansas.  This was the largest expansion of government in Arkansas history.  Again, that is a promise broken, not a promise kept.”

Holland challenged Rice's point, saying he was not voting to implement Obamacare.

"Terry is misleading folks. The Private Option is not Obamacare. It is federal law that governs all insurance. Everyone in the state of Arkansas that has insurance at all has Obamacare. I don't have a vote on it. That's a federal issue. ...We never voted for the Affordable Care Act in the Arkansas state legislature. That is very misleading to the people of Arkansas.”

He added that he was not the deciding vote on the Private Option in the Senate.

"I voted when my name was called. Now if voting in the middle of the pack, if 'H' is the deciding vote, then I guess I did (cast the deciding vote)," Holland said jokingly. "But it was the right thing to do, whether I was the first vote or the last vote. It was the right thing to do. That's why I voted that way.”

The 9th Senate District includes parts of Crawford, Franklin, Scott and Sebastian Counties. The statewide Republican primary will be held May 20.

It was September 2013 when the Fort Smith Board of Directors directed the city administration to begin a phase-in of more compressed natural gas-run vehicles, as well as other energy alternative vehicles, in the city's fleet.

Since that time, not much movement has taken place with the plan to add more alternative energy vehicles to the city fleet for a variety of reasons, according to Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman, though he said it does not mean efforts have come to a halt.

The biggest obstacle, he said, has been the cost and availability of CNG vehicles, the primary focus of the September 2013 policy directive.

"There wasn't a CNG vehicle on the state contract at the time (the city last purchased vehicles)," he said. "And there wasn't anything from the manufacturer ready to go. So realizing that the conversion cost would be 100% on the city going forward to convert a $15,000 pickup (truck), along with spending another $10,000 on the conversion costs, that's a pretty significant thing. We sort of shied away."

The lack of vehicles available for bid from the state has also been a struggle for the city of Springdale, according to Administration and Financial Services Director Wyman Morgan.

"We've looked at some vehicles on the state bid contract, but there's not that many options available at the present time."

CONVERSIONS STILL POSSIBLE
While Fort Smith may be shying from spending money on conversions or new vehicles for the time being, it does not mean the conversions are not possible or probable, according to Dingman, who said during the budget preparation last year, alternative fuel vehicles were made a priority, as requested by the Board.

"When they (Board members) were going through the budget evaluation, they did express interest that we try to include alternate fuel vehicles in the budget. So we did that. As departments proposed capital replacement of vehicles — when we had our department budget meetings — we evaluated each of those and asked, 'Would this work as a CNG or electric hybrid?'"

He said as a result, some departments are designated to possibly receive an alternate fuel vehicle as they replace fleet.

And while the Board has been supportive of the effort, it has not been without some growing pains, with Dingman mentioning that an attempt to retrofit a Fort Smith Police Department cruiser not necessarily being a good fit.

"It was used on patrol for about a year, but it had a rough time staying on the road the whole time. It goes all three shifts and it just had issues with idling and there was some mention of having trouble with it when they had to be in pursuit mode."

As a result, the police department has shifted use of the vehicle to a supervisor vehicle, which sees substantially less mileage less idling.

The city's pilot program, which extended CNG use to a select few vehicles in not only the police department but also the fire department, customer service department and transit department, started in 2012 and saw what Dingman labeled as "moderately successful" results.

TRANSIT BUS ISSUES
What dragged down the program for quite a while was the conversion of the transit department vehicle.

According to Transit Department Director Ken Savage, the "medium cutaway bus" was sent out for a conversion in March 2012, arriving back to the department in August 2012 as the city's only fully-CNG vehicle (the other vehicles in the CNG fleet still have an unleaded gas tank that can be used in place of CNG).

"It was unreliable until mid-year 2013," Savage said. "During that time, we replaced two injectors, two fuel regulators and a fuel line during that time frame. All of it was scattered throughout the year."

The cause of the problems, Savage said, were directly tied to the conversion, though he said performance improved throughout the remainder of 2013, adding that "from that point on, it's pretty much been reliable once we got (the maintenance issues) taken care of)."

In experimenting with the CNG bus, the transit department also realized that the range on the vehicle would be problematic, as the CNG bus would need additional fuel stops throughout the day.

As a result of the testing, Savage said the transit department has found the CNG vehicles to be a good alternative on the on-demand routes since time can be factored in for fuel breaks between pickups. In fact, he said the CNG bus is working so well, the transit department has ordered two newer "small cutaway" buses to use on the on-demand routes, which should eventually be retrofitted for CNG.

In all, he said fuel savings for the first quarter of 2014 were $1,495.38.

SPRINGDALE CNG HISTORY
In Springdale, Morgan said the city has experimented with hybrid technology and has found it to meet some of the city's needs.

"We have operated a couple of hybrids that had a batter backup. I know one pickup that we did use for a good while, I think it was a Chevrolet, that would run off the battery when it needed to, it would run off the gasoline motor."

And while Morgan said the city has not conducted a cost comparison of using an all-gas truck versus hybrid, the reliability of the hybrid truck has lead the city to look at other options, including all-electric vehicles.

"I know we're looking at at using some electric vehicles for ambulance response on our trail system and some police (vehicles that are electric) that we'll use on our trail system.

POSSIBLE AEDC SUPPORT
In Fort Smith, Dingman said grants have helped fund half the cost of the city's CNG fleet (a total cost of $53,950), though no grants are available at this time, further limiting what is possible as far as alternative fuel vehicles.

But he said that could change by the middle of this month after Patti Springs of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission's Energy Office sent out an e-mail notifying recipients of an "announcement regarding the vehicle conversion rebate program."

"At this time, no specifics are available regarding new vehicle purchases or retroactive conversions."

She said when more information is available, she would notify Dingman and others. It is a prospect Dingman is excited about.

"I don't know what that means, but it may mean there is more money available for conversions."

With the uproar over new Common Core standards leading some states, including Indiana and soon Oklahoma, to repeal all or part of the standards, local education administrators are defending the educational standards.

And the defense will only ramp up as more and more anti-Common Core groups voice their opposition to the program, including the group Arkansas Against Common Core.

According to the group's website, the group is seeking a reversal of Common Core standards in Arkansas because they say it will "Institute national control of curriculum, require $139 million to implement in (Arkansas), lower quality standards, provide parents and school boards no recourse to influence content or standards, undermine the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment authority of states over education," and "institute a massive national student tracking initiative."

A summer 2013 editorial at rethinkingschools.org alleged that the development and implementation of Common Core have been flawed from the start.

“For starters, the misnamed ‘Common Core State Standards’ are not state standards. They're national standards, created by Gates-funded consultants for the National Governors Association (NGA),” noted the editorial. “They were designed, in part, to circumvent federal restrictions on the adoption of a national curriculum, hence the insertion of the word ‘state’ in the brand name. States were coerced into adopting the Common Core by requirements attached to the federal Race to the Top grants and, later, the No Child Left Behind waivers.”

The rethinkingschools.org editorial concluded with this: “Unfortunately there's been too little honest conversation and too little democracy in the development of the Common Core. We see consultants and corporate entrepreneurs where there should be parents and teachers, and more high-stakes testing where there should be none. Until that changes, it will be hard to distinguish the ‘next big thing’ from the last one.”

COMMON CORE SUPPORTER
But according to Dr. Benny Gooden, superintendent of Fort Smith Public Schools, the assertions of Common Core detractors are simply not true and he said the Common Core standards are good for Fort Smith and all other school districts across the nation.

"Absolutely. We've got far too much invested in moving that direction. But there is nothing inherently evil about the common core. That whole initiative started with the (National) Governor's Association (Center for Best Practices) and the (Council of) Chief (State) School Officers."

He said the two associations developed the curriculum in order to create a set of standards that were uniform across the nation as American society becomes increasingly more mobile, resulting in students sometimes moving from state to state. But he was firm that each state is free to either adopt the standards or not, adding that fear of a federal takeover of local schools was unfounded.

While Gooden says Common Core standards are good for the nation and for local districts in this area, including his own, he said implementation has not been without hiccups.

"My take is they rushed the development of the standards and didn't involve enough grass roots across the country," he said, adding that much of the work was handled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation due to the level of funding required to establish the standards, though he was quick to say he was not criticizing the foundation or the curriculum.

"But what happened is they did it in a hurry. They would have been better served to lengthen the process to work with real teachers ... and gone through a little more participative process then they did. It might have ended up at the same place, but I think there would have been better acceptance."

‘GROWING PAINS’
Dena Ross, executive director of instructional services at Bentonville Public Schools, equated any problems with Common Core standards simply to "growing pains."

"I think there are growing pains with any new initiative," she said. "I feel with any set of standards or framework, they're neither good or evil. It's what you make of them and what the expectations are. Common Core standards are more rigorous, in depth in terms of student content than what the Arkansas standards were (previously). I don't think you'll find someone who disagrees."

Ross was quick to add that while the standards are more rigorous, the schools themselves are not expecting students to learn any additional content, but instead the students are expected to use more depth in the learning process and are expected to display that through evaluative tests.

As Gooden explained, it is more than bubbling in some letters on a Scantron, at least with the standards adopted by the state of Arkansas.

"There's some states in the country that their entire state testing protocol is bubble testing. Arkansas has a considerable amount of constructive response. That is the kind of thing that is certainly representative of deeper learning than bubbling in some sheets (with multiple answer choices). They said they wanted some more rigor like that, knowing it is a big undertaking."

TEACHER ADJUSTMENTS
Another of the growing pains Ross alluded to was teachers having to adjust their teaching styles to meet the new standards.

"There have been some real changes in terms of how teachers teach the content. If you want them to change how they learn, you have to change how you teach."

She said by asking students to use more depth, districts will have to implement "a change in teaching strategies and change with adults is harder than change with students."

"Students are young and flexible. Teachers who have been tremendously successful in the classroom are having to find themselves changing."

Even as teachers adjust to the new standards and students are adjusting to the new style of learning and testing, campaigns such as Arkansas Against Common Core are poised to continue across the nation.

Ross said it was important for people to do their own research and understand what the Common Core is and what it is not.

“Unfortunately, when I've read an article that there's a thing in the Senate talking about do we keep Common Core or not, the reason they cite is we're testing our kids too much. The test is not what Common Core is about," she said, adding that the standards are intended to make Arkansas and the rest of the nation more competitive in an ever increasing global economy.

"If you look nationally and internationally, we find ourselves in the U.S. compared with those countries in the Pacific rim because those kids always perform beautifully on math assessments. They're always high performers. The Common Core standards were written to be more in line with expectations in high performing countries and states in the U.S. If we want our students to perform their best and learn the most, then yes, I think these (standards) are good."

NOT ANOTHER FAD
As for talk among those opposed to the Common Core who say it is nothing more than another fad in education, Gooden said the Common Core was far from it.

"I certainly can respect why people can feel that way. …It's almost like it's the latest trend that trickled down from Washington. I think top-down reform is hard for people to swallow."

But he said the hope among educators and school administrators was that Common Core would provide states with common assessments and standards across state lines.

"It's too bad it's become politicized. You have both sides and I guess I'd like for us to meet in the middle somewhere."

Arkansas’ implementation of Common Core was recently endorsed by Raise Our Grade, an offshoot of Arkansas Learns, which is a self-described “private-sector alliance of parents, employers and citizens.” The Raise Our Grade alliance includes school administrator groups and businesses that are often on opposite sides of education issues. Members of the alliance include the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, Arkansas School Boards Association, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas, Arvest Bank, Murphy Oil, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and The Walton Family Foundation.

“On this issue, it is very telling that groups which typically go toe-to-toe now find themselves standing shoulder-to-shoulder in support of Higher Arkansas Standards,” Gary Newton, president and CEO of Arkansas Learns, said in the April 2 announcement of the alliance.

Corn is a hot commodity in the Natural State given the year-round needs of the poultry industry, but this year Arkansas farmers plan to plant 280,000 less acres of corn, a 32% reduction from last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s prospective planting report indicates row croppers are shifting away from corn to more soybeans and rice.

“The University of Arkansas crop budgets analysis this year indicates a better return on rice and soybeans, which is why many farmers are shifting away from corn,” said Matt King, director of market information and economics for the Arkansas Farm Bureau in Little Rock.

Arkansas growers expect to plant 600,000 acres of corn, compared to 3.35 million acres of soybeans and 1.52 million acres of rice, according to the USDA report. Soybean acreage is up 3% from a year ago, and rice acreage is up 41%.

Corn prices have fallen from around $6 per bushel last year to the $4.50 range, which has also impacted the national crop planting intentions. U.S. farmers expect to plant  91.6 million acres, down 4% from a year ago.

King said a long winter has put spring planting behind schedule in the Midwest and parts of Arkansas. With a smaller U.S. crop and increasing demand, King said any signs of drought or other weather impact could push corn prices higher given that U.S. supplies are tight.

LOCAL CORN
Mike Richardson of Triple M Farms near Brinkley said he will plant between 850 and 900 acres of corn this year, down from 1,500 acres in 2013.

“I hoped to have my corn planted by now, but we have rain lately that has kept the fields muddy and we are still dealing with some freezing temperatures at night. I hope to have all my corn in the ground before Good Friday (April 18), Richardson said during a phone interview.

Richardson sells his corn directly to the Arkansas poultry industry delivering to Tyson Foods and Wayne Farms.

“I deliver straight to the feed mills down around Pine Bluff, Pottsville and Clarksville. Once my grain is harvested, I dry it down below the 15.5% moisture level and then market it directly to the poultry companies. I get a better price and they get a higher quality grain without paying added rail charges,” Richardson said.

King agreed that local corn is typically higher quality than what is railed in from the Midwest. He said the local corn is closer to No. 1 quality than the blended No. 2 which is brokered out of the grain belt. Richardson said he stores the corn and markets it throughout the year.

Third generation row cropper Tommy Young co-owns a large farm near Newport. This year his operation will plan 2,300 acres of corn, about 2,300 acres of wheat and soybeans, along with 1,500 acres of rice.

“That is our standard crop rotation and we don’t deviate from it just because the price may be better this year or next. We started planting corn on Monday (Mar. 31) and got about 750 acres planted but we stopped because of rain yesterday. Rain and storms are expected so I imagine we won’t be done planting until around April 15,” Young said in a phone interview.

He said the ground has been cold, which has pushed planting starts back at least a week in his area. Young also markets his corn directly to the poultry and egg industries with feed mills within 200 miles of his farm. Young said as long as corn stays above $4 a bushel there is money to be made by row croppers who can sell locally. 

Young said he sells to Cal-Maine in Searcy, Peco Foods in Batesville and Butterball near Mountain Home, as well as to local brokers who transport his corn to the Springdale area.

“We dry the corn and store it in our elevators and sell where we can make the most money,” Young said. “We get about a 25 cent basis over the Chicago Board of Trade prices, that premium has come down in recent years as more corn has been available.”

He said the Peco complex around Batesville got all the corn they needed last year from local Arkansas farmers.

Todd Simmons, CEO of Simmons Foods, said they source grain from Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma as often as possible. This is typically during the harvest time period

Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest chicken company, estimates its grain costs will be $600 million less this fiscal year compared to the previous year, with lower corn and soybean prices. The meat giant spends roughly $1 billion in feed annually.

CROP INTENTIONS
King said rice is making a comeback in planted acreage in 2014, up 41% from a year ago. 

He said the California crop is short because of drought and U.S. rice suppliers are tighter than they have been in the past. He said as global production has risen, exports have subsided which diverted acreage to soybeans in recent years.

Young said he still plants rice, but he considers himself more of a corn and soybean farmer today because they crops are easier to manage.

Cotton acreage intentions are 340,000 acres this year, up 10% from last year, but still low in historical terms.

King said farmers have moved away from cotton toward corn and soybeans because they are easier to grow and have garnered better pricing.

Richardson used to grow cotton but back-to back years of blight was all he needed to make the shift to corn.

“Cotton comes out of the ground looking to die, corn and soybeans come out of the ground looking to live,” according to King, who said that’s what the farmers tell him.

Chuck Marohn spent three hours Thursday morning (April 3) denuding decades-long accepted conventional wisdom of local government investment in infrastructure and economic development. His message was simple: If you don’t stop doing that, you’ll go broke.

His “Strong Towns” presentation was attended by more than 160 representatives of local governments and municipal development groups from around Arkansas, and was held in the auditorium of the Donald W. Reynolds Center on the University of Arkansas campus.

“Strong Towns” is a concept founded and promoted by Marohn. His work is focused on helping city’s improve their budgets, budgeting process, bolster local tax bases, reduce taxpayer burdens, promote economic diversity and help community leaders “plan for long-term viability.” The official title of the workshop is, “Strong Towns: The Intersection of Land Use, Transportation, and Financial Resilience.” Marohn is a professional engineer, member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and earned a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Minnesota.

Michelle Halsell, managing director of the UA Applied Sustainability Center, said the conference “brought together a broad array of cities and counties representing many people around the state.” Communities represented included Bentonville, Clarksville, Conway, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Greenwood, Harrison, Hot Springs, Texarkana and Van Buren. Officials attending included Van Buren Mayor Bob Freeman, Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders, Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse and Conway Mayor Tab Townsell. The event also was sponsored by the Center for Community and Economic Development with the University of Central Arkansas.

‘GROWTH PONZI SCHEME’
Marohn opened the conference by getting to the point, noting that the “current path” of local government spending and economic development incentives “is not financially stable” for the long term. He said in the 1950s the average debt service for cities was 2% of their budget. That has risen to 16% in recent years, he said.

More than 90 minutes into his message he said most in the audience are probably asking, “‘Are you saying that nothing we are doing makes financial sense?’ No, it doesn’t.”

The primary problem, Marohn said, is that federal, state or private sector funding will result in a large outlay of money – to build a road, building or some type of facility – that appears to be an economic benefit. And it may be in the short term. The problem is that the local government is then on the hook for the future maintenance and service – police, fire, water, sewer, etc. – of the infrastructure.

“We are in a sense exchanging a short term benefit for an unknown long-term liability,” Marohn said, adding that the liability is more costly when the upfront spending pushed outward the geographical boundary of the city or county.

He said what followed World War II was a local government policy that “more is better” in terms of growth, infrastructure and economic development. He called it a “growth ponzi scheme” that “creates the illusion of wealth” until the long-term costs begin to exceed the upfront benefits.

“Cities have now become the dumb money at the card table,” and are expected to throw around subsidies, build infrastructure, provide tax exemptions and do other things to recruit businesses, Marohn said.

He also said individual and local government growth has shifted from growth through savings and investments to growth from debt accumulation.

“We needed the growth so bad, we encouraged folks who could not afford homes to buy homes,” Marohn said in a reference to the housing bubble that hit the U.S. in 2007-2008.

RETURN TO TRADITIONAL DEVELOPMENT
To control costs and better manage growth, Marohn said local governments must move away from the build-it-and-they-will-come model – “It’s a horrible economic development strategy.” – and return to something closer to one-block-at-a-time development patterns prior to WWII. He said that type of growth was “highly adaptable and very flexible and resilient” to socio-economic change.

“There is a reason our ancestors built this way. They built this way because it was foolproof,” he added.

Marohn said government investments do create economic return, but officials have to ask and answer “a more sophisticated question” about how the return best recovers costs so the local government may remain solvent and fund future projects. He encouraged government officials to quit “chasing these elusive developments at the edge” of the city and instead “look inward for developments” that might also improve quality of life and deliver more financial bang for the buck.

“We do not lack for growth. What we lack is productive growth – growth that creates wealth generation after generation,” Marohn said.

Part of that return requires local governments to adopt different policies toward highway infrastructure. Marohn argued that too often cities expand roads and streets for purposes of safety or efficiency, but the result is negative in terms of return on investment. He said spending millions of dollars to shave a minute or two from transit time may not be worth other impacts of widening streets – loss of neighborhoods, reduced pedestrian access, higher future maintenance costs, etc.

He said most highway development policies emphasize accommodating people within an auto-dominated environment. He said “productive places” accommodate autos within an environment dominated by people.

“The tragedy today is that we’ve spent so much money moving cars, and gotten so little in return for it. ... When we design places around people, we get enormous wealth and success,” Marohn said.

Marohn specifically cited the decision in most communities to build new schools “on the outskirts of town” to take advantage of cheap land and possibly have room for large athletic facilities.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Marohn argued. “Instead, we need to retrofit our places so our kids can walk to school again,” instead of building public facilities that “move people away from core neighborhoods.”

OTHER ‘STRONG TOWNS’ ASSERTIONS
• Sometimes cities need to allow citizens to make changes outside existing protocols. Citing neighborhood actions in Memphis in which citizens made slight changes without city approval, Marohn said local governments “don’t need better engineers and better planners,” they need more citizens “with the ability and the freedom to step up” with their innovative ideas outside the confines of government control.

“You will never identify the high-return investments in your city with a visioning session,” Marohn said, adding that no amount of public hearings with flip charts and priority stickers would have discovered the small block renovation in Memphis that the citizens made happen without city permission.

• Local governments have to do a better job of looking within their borders to support smaller projects that may have a smaller impact than a big economic development deal, but will not be a financial burden on the city in the long run. He said many cities “overlook the nickels and the dimes” of small but beneficial projects and instead pursue big ticket items.

• Local governments need to focus on “rational responses,” to complex problems, Marohn said. He said the thickness of a building code book or the number of boards and commissions related to growth and development should be re-evaluated.

“We have reached this point where we have a complexity of problems facing us … Instead of kicking the can down the road for a couple of years, we need to have rational responses,” Marohn said.

AUDIENCE RESPONSE
Michael Lejong, a resident of Greenwood, and an architect with Fort Smith-based MAHG Architecture, was one of seven from Greenwood to attend the audience. All seven, according to Lejong, are members of an economic development group newly formed by the city of Greenwood.

“It really causes you to look at how you revitalize existing areas rather than just look for the next new big infrastructure thing,” Lejong said after Marohn’s lecture.

Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said Marohn’s comments may prove helpful in how the city approaches development plans in the downtown area and older neighborhoods.

“I really got some good information that we can use to look at some things we are doing and maybe do them in a really different way,” Sprouse said. “Maybe we need to look at a better way to utilize the assets we already have.”

Van Buren Mayor Bob Freeman agreed with Marohn’s assessment that change is needed, but noted that it will not be easy.

“It is really a different change in thinking from what the culture is. ... And so it is easy to listen and talk through it (but) difficult in implementation because of that culture,” Freeman said.

He also said having a large group of people at the presentation from Fort Smith, Greenwood and Van Buren could help with a regional focus on smarter development.

“I think by having all those folks there, it’s not somebody, you know, a lone voice crying out there. It can cause some discussions to happen. ... I think those discussions will continue and they have to continue,” Freeman said.

Lejong said a regional focus would be ideal outcome.

“I would love for this (conference) to kickstart a regional discussion,” he said.

Fianna Hills Country Club is on life support with only one to three months of life left in it.

That was the message Club Manager and Co-owner Jim Shields brought to concerned members and neighborhood residents Thursday evening (April 3), only two days after developer Lance Beaty of Fort Smith-based FSM Development Partners announced he was pulling out of a planned $20 million revamp of the club, which would have added about 60,000 additional square feet to the club, as well as members suites and professional medical services, among other amenities.

David Mille, the club's other co-owner, was frank with those in attendance Thursday.

"But there will come a point if we cannot turn a profit, where we are going to have to close it."

Shields explained to the packed room of more than 100 individuals that a review is underway to determine if it would be possible to assess a fee to members in order to keep the club open until the end of the year, though he said the club lost about 75 members during the last few months, dropping the already lagging club membership to only 250 members.

Following the meeting, Shields said it would be a week or two before any possible assessment or increase in membership dues are made public.

The announcement that the club would stay open, at least for the time being, is a slight deviation from a previous statement to The City Wire that the club would close should the Fort Smith Board of Directors not approve a planned zoning district, which would have specified what Beaty, or other future developers, could have done with the land on which the country club sits.

He told members and guests Thursday that at the time he made the statement, he had every intention of closing the club.

"I had every intention — Jim and I both — because of the financial drain it has been on both of us over the years. I make no bones about it. There was a lot of financial drain. And most businessmen would have pulled the plug on this three or four years ago, but I've got a special attachment to this club."

Mille discussed his memories as a young man playing music in the club and the friendships he has developed in his time before and during ownership, which lead him to want to keep the doors open, even for a little bit longer.

Shields revealed that he and Mille had two interested parties that had approached them about a sale of the club, though he said at this time no formal offers have been made. One of those interested in a purchase, he said, was a private investor who became interested in the project after Beaty's plans began to receive a lot of attention throughout the community.

The other group is member-led, though he said it was a different group then that being formed by Kevin and Lisa Clay, who helped start a petition that received over 250 signatures that asked the Board of Directors to limit uses within the PZD. While the petition was presented, the Board tabled the issue until May 6.

Shields said both potential buyers have said they would want to continue to operate the club the way it has traditionally been operated versus the ambitious plans outlined by Beaty before he dropped his bid to purchase the club.

The Clays were on hand for Thursday's meeting, though Kevin Clay declined to comment for this story.

Gary Marcotte, who spoke to a small group of members following Shields' and Mille's meeting, explained that the group he and the Clays were attempting to form would offer two types of membership packages, including one similar to the Legacy Package that Beaty attempted to market, which had a $30,000 price tag attached to it, though it could be paid over time.

According to Marcotte, his group's proposal would allow Legacy members to have a vote at club board of trustees meetings, while another membership option at a monthly rate would allow use of the club and other amenities, though no voting rights.

Asked how such a model would be profitable when the current business model is failing, Marcotte said country clubs would probably never turn a profit and instead would likely turn to other ways to break even.

"There is no profitable model in a country club, if you work to break even. It's sort of like a REIT, a real estate investment trust. You're not looking to make a profit or break even. …If you can't (break even) by your business, then you have to assess your membership. It's a member-owned club."

The assessment would essentially spread out the losses to all members, something Marcotte said "Hardscrabble (Country Club) does every year."

"I would hope to not have to assess anybody. I wouldn't want to assess anybody. Actually, it would be my preference, if we did it as a club, to (do) fundraisers throughout the course of a year. Invite the public in. They can see the club. They can do this. They can have a party. Maybe gain some interest in the club because we're active in the community. Get more members and raise funds. I don't think assessment is the only option. I know that's what Hardscrabble uses and I don't blame them. I think that's a viable way, but it's not the fun way. This is for people's enjoyment. We should do fun things."

The world population is expected to explode to 14 billion people in the next 61 years, according to figures cited by Arkansas Economic Development Commission Executive Director Grant Tennille.

And while the rest of the world may balk at the prospect of how to feed a world double the size of today's population, Tennille said Arkansas is primed to do that and more, explaining that it all comes back to educating the students of today and the leaders of tomorrow.

Tennille's speech to the Fort Smith Area Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Breakfast at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith highlighted some of the many innovations that have changed the world that began in Arkansas and explained how education will lead the state even further.

Putting focus on the movement of goods, he highlighted the state's logistics industry as a primary example of what Arkansas innovation has done to change the world.

"Logistics was invented in Arkansas. Before Sam Walton and David Glass and J.B. Hunt, what we now know as logistics was just people driving things around in trucks. There is now incredible science behind how we move goods around the world. The concept of 'just in time delivery'— which if you're in business in this room, I promise you understand 'just in time.' That's the way the world runs now — that was invented in Bentonville, Arkansas."

He explained that the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is among the top logistics programs in the nation, again emphasizing the impact Arkansas has had and will have on the world.

Tennille also pointed to advancements in agriculture, adding that research taking place at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff was leading to increased yields for farmers, garnering attention from as far away as Vietnam and leading the university to launch a doctoral program focused on agriculture.

Noting the state's seven Fortune 500 companies, while also pointing out that Arkansas has never had a population with more than 3 million people, Tennille said he felt there was something that had taken place in the state.

"There's something in the water in this state. There is something that sets the people of Arkansas apart from our counterparts around the country and around the world."

But in order to continue Arkansas' competition in an ever increasing global economy and serving the needs of the world's projected 14 billion people, Tennille said it would take more than just will power and determination. Students, he said, now must have training beyond their high school diploma in order to secure a good job and the state must continue to invest in education in order to see innovation continue in the decades to come.

He said the biggest hurdle to education has been the cost, which he said is one reason he believes Arkansas has largely trailed the entire nation in terms of residents holding at least a bachelor's degree. Tennille said with the passage of the Arkansas Scholarship lottery, more students are able to not only start a college education, but also finish what they have started.

While there has been a lot of focus put on four year degrees, the focus must go further, Tennille said, explaining that skill sets obtained through concurrent enrollment programs for high school students or vocational education programs will be vitally important, as well.

"There are incredibly talented, capable, high achieving – dare I say wealthy – people who don't have a four-year bachelor’s degree. It's not the end all and be all. Now do we need more Arkansans with four-year bachelor degrees? Sure we do. We're last, or second to last, depending (on different rankings). That's unacceptable. We've got to have more. But do we need an increasingly large population of specifically skilled individuals who have helped make our industrial and manufacturing (industry) efficient and productive? Absolutely. It's not either/or, which is the choice I think a lot of folks were laboring under for a long time."

For Arkansas to meet the needs of the world, he said everyone will need education and training after high school.

"Call it what you want. Call it college. Call vocational education. Call it technical training. Call it what you want. Everybody's got to do something after they graduate from high school."

A new Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll shows the race between party front-runners Mike Ross (D) and Asa Hutchinson (R) to be a virtual dead heat, with the Democrat up by one point – 44-43% – over his potential GOP rival.

“This is not where this race will end up, but it is a representation of where it is today,” said Talk Business & Politics editor-in-chief Roby Brock. “The anticipated match-up between Mike Ross and Asa Hutchinson appears to be very close. Against their underdog rivals, these two front-runners appear to be in solid shape.”

The latest poll results suggest that the 2014 election cycle may become a game of margins as both parties motivate their bases to show up on election day.

“If Democrats can squeeze an extra percentage point or two out of their base or Republicans do the same, it could swing the election if it remains this competitive,” Brock added. “It is also interesting to note that the undecided margin in this race has shrunk considerably from six months ago.”

In October 2013, a Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll showed Hutchinson with a 41-37% lead over Ross with 22% undecided. No third party candidates were included in the October survey as it was before the Green Party and Libertarian Party conventions.

The latest survey of 1,068 likely Arkansas voters was taken on April 3-4, 2014. The sample included voters who have participated in multiple or all of the last five general elections. Also, only voters who said they were “very likely” (96%) or “somewhat likely” (4%) to participate in this November’s election were allowed to complete the survey. Cell phone users were also included and the poll has a margin of error of +/-3%.

Q: In the race for Governor, imagine the candidates are Libertarian Frank Gilbert, Green Party Candidate Joshua Drake, Republican Asa Hutchinson, and Democrat Mike Ross. If the election for Governor were today and these were the candidates, which candidate would you support?
3%  Libertarian Frank Gilbert
2%  Green candidate Joshua Drake
43%  Republican Asa Hutchinson
44%  Democrat Mike Ross
8%  Undecided

ADDITIONAL MATCH-UPS
The latest Talk Business-Hendrix College survey also pitted the two party’s front-runners against alternative party candidates.

Q: In the race for Governor, imagine the candidates are Republican Curtis Coleman, Democrat Mike Ross, Libertarian Frank Gilbert, and Green Party Candidate Joshua Drake. If the election for Governor were today and these were the candidates, which candidate would you support?
30%  Republican Curtis Coleman
48%  Democrat Mike Ross
4%  Libertarian Frank Gilbert
3%  Green candidate Joshua Drake
15%  Undecided

Q: In the race for Governor, imagine the candidates are Democrat Lynette Bryant, Republican Asa Hutchinson, Green Party Candidate Joshua Drake, and Libertarian Frank Gilbert. If the election for Governor were today and these were the candidates, which candidate would you support?
27.5% Democrat Lynette Bryant
48%  Republican Asa Hutchinson
4.5% Green candidate Joshua Drake
3%   Libertarian Frank Gilbert
17%  Undecided

“The front-runners for their party’s nominations – Asa Hutchinson and Mike Ross – do appear to have advantages for the general election campaign,” Brock said. “We will poll each party primary in a few weeks and test the inter-party match-ups between Hutchinson-Coleman and Ross-Bryant. That will require a different sample.”

Additional poll results will be released this week by Talk Business, including the U.S. Senate race, an ethics-term limits amendment, one of the medical marijuana proposals, and a potential minimum wage initiative.

ANALYSIS
Dr. Jay Barth, professor of political science at Hendrix College, helped craft and analyze the latest poll. He offered this analysis of the poll results:

“To no one’s surprise, the race to replace Mike Beebe as Governor of Arkansas is an incredibly tight one. While both have to survive a party primary, most all observers expect that Mike Ross and Asa Hutchinson will be the two parties’ nominees in November.

“Looking ahead to that general election, Democrat Ross has a tiny lead (44-43%) over Republican Hutchinson, well within the survey’s margin of error. Both candidates have strong support among their partisan bases, but while Hutchinson leads with independents that lead is not quite large enough to overcome the slight Democratic advantage in partisan identification. The fact that Ross has withstood a barrage of negative ads in recent weeks suggests that the race for Governor will likely stay close throughout the months ahead.

“We did match up both leaders for their respective party’s nomination with the lesser-known candidate on the other side to gauge strength of support. Ross leads in a hypothetical match-up against Republican Curtis Coleman, 48-30%, while  Hutchinson holds a very similar 48-27.5% margin over Democratic challenger Lynette Bryant.

“Examining the cross tabs in the race for Governor, a small gender gap is emerging in the race with Hutchinson leading among men while Ross has a lead among women (historically the larger group of voters in the Arkansas electorate).

“Looking geographically, Ross is holding his own in his native Fourth district, which has skewed decidedly Republican in recent cycles while the other three congressional districts show the typical patterns – Republicans running best in the Third, while the Democrats run best in central Arkansas’s Second district.”

METHODOLOGY
This survey was conducted by Talk Business Research and Hendrix College on Thursday and Friday, April 3-4, 2014. The poll, which has a margin of error of +/-3%, was completed using IVR survey technology among 1,068 Arkansas frequent voters statewide.

Approximately 9% of the voters in our sample were contacted via cell phone with live callers. This is in response to the increased reliance by voters on cell phones. Additionally, we applied our standard weighting to the poll results based on age, gender, and Congressional district.

Family Dollar is adding more than 400 food items across its 8,000 stores as company execs prepare to defend their convenience turf against Wal-Mart and other grocers. The discounter also promised lower prices on 1,000 items, including brands like Ragu, Hellman’s and Kraft.

“It’s important for us to constantly evaluate our assortment, making sure that we have the products and national brands that are relevant to her and her family, always at a great everyday value,” CEO Jason Reiser said earlier this month.

The dollar store format has exploded with growth in recent years capitalizing on the consumer’s desire for more convenience — which equals time savings. This quick trip market is valued at $415 billion and comprises some 40% of the consumers’ grocery spend, according to Bill Simon, CEO of Walmart U.S. 

He said Walmart U.S. has been able to garner just 10% of this market, which is why they are aggressively rolling out more smaller format stores this year and next. These quick trip market competitors include dollar, drug and convenience stores that have grown by 16,000 units since 2005. In response to the growth, Simon said Wal-Mart is ready and able to deliver convenience with several formats including drive through depots for online orders which are filled at the closest Supercenter or Neighborhood Market.

“Quick stops to pick up a few items or get gasoline are the primary reasons that consumers visit convenience stores. Many are improving their offerings to provide healthier alternatives appealing to shifting consumer tastes, hoping to encourage more visits,” said Ali Lipson, senior retail analyst at Mintel, a Chicago-based research firm.

As product offerings improve at dollar stores, so has the perception of the discount chains, according to recent research from Mintel. Half of survey respondents who earn $150,000 or more said they are shopping in dollar stores the same amount as they did the previous year, and 10% said they are shopping in dollar stores more.

Convenience and price drive shoppers to dollar stores, but more than half of survey respondents also said the stores are pleasant to shop in, and they find brands and products sold there to be as good as those found in other retailers. Still, one in three of the high-income shoppers expressed dissatisfaction with the selection.

Family Dollar isn’t the only discounter adding grocery offerings. Dollar General has expanded the number of coolers in its stores to sell perishable products. Additionally, the company launched a more grocery-oriented Dollar General Market format to compete with conventional supermarkets. Both retailers added tobacco last year which they report has driven more store traffic and incremental sales.

Dollar Tree also mounted its own level of competition in recent months. Dollar Tree has increased the number of freezer and cooler installations to 550 additional stores, up from the chain's original plan of 475. Bob Sasser, CEO and president, said Dollar Tree has refrigerated equipment at about 63% of its store base after the recent expansion. 

“We like what [that] does in sales and traffic, and we like what it does in raising the sale of our variety merchandise also. We are also committed to our consumable business. We’re going to drive that part of the business too,” Sasser said. “Our inventories are fresh and our stores are full of exciting merchandise for the spring season."

Analysts expect the competition will continue between the various small format convenience formats given the dollars at stake. 

Wal-Mart’s recent opening of Walmart To Go, a hybrid convenience store in Bentonville, is a signal to competitors that the retail giant isn’t going to blindly stand by and concede sales to smaller stores, said Jason Long CEO of Shift Marketing Group.

The retailer said there are no other Walmart To Go stores planned, saying it is merely a concept store. Analysts think the format has plenty of potential.

“Given Wal-Mart’s highly-developed supply chain, particularly in fresh (food), it will go in with a huge advantage. This is particularly true as convenience stores evolve from selling beef jerky, cigarettes and hot dogs on metal rollers and into becoming destinations for healthy snacks and meal occasions,” Carol Spieckerman, CEO of NewMarketBuilders, said of Wal-Mart’s convenience store launch.

Wal-Mart Stores tweaked its pregnancy policy in March following a proposed shareholder resolution and separate Jan. 11 charge filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a woman who claimed she was not offered accommodations (lighter duty options) during her pregnancy. 

“Over the past several months, we looked at what other assistance we could provide to our pregnant associates. As a result, we enhanced our policy because we believed it was the right thing to do for them,” said Randy Hargrove, corporate spokesman.

Hargrove said Wal-Mart’s policy already provided managers across its network the authority to make accommodations for any pregnant employee, such as carrying a water bottle or providing a stool as needed which complied with federal law. He said the new revision now allows for additional accommodations for all pregnant workers.

“This includes, but isn’t limited to moving an associate to another job so she can continue working. For example, if a pregnant associate were an overnight stocker and was restricted from lifting, we can move her into another vacant position where the duties of the job meet her restrictions,” he said.

Hargrove said allowing the new accommodations could help some pregnant women continue working, when in the past they may have had to take an early leave of absence. 

A group known as A Better Balance said they had been asking Wal-Mart to change this policy since January 2013, when they wrote a letter arguing the retailer’s employment policy violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Wal-Mart disagreed saying its policy was “perfectly legal” and now with the revision, “goes beyond the law.”

Another group of Walmart associates recently filed a resolution for shareholder proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for broader accommodations for all pregnant Wal-Mart workers. Hargrove said the shareholder proposal was looked at before the company made this recent revision expanding the accommodations, and is now moot because of the recent revisions.

The EEOC charge filed Jan. 11 is still active, according to Liz Watson, senior counsel of the National Women’s Law Center. Watson told The City Wire that Wal-Mart’s recent revision to its employment policy is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t go far enough because the language used is ambiguous.

“The revised policy only provides accommodation for temporary disabilities caused by pregnancy, and it’s unclear whether it applies to healthy, pregnant workers," Watson said.

 Wal-Mart reiterated that the accommodations it’s willing to make are for all pregnant employees.

Watson’s group is among those involved in the recent EEOC pattern and practice charge against Wal-Mart. She said the company has a history of denying accommodations at the store level. It is important that the corporation make this new policy clear from the top down, she said.

“As the nation’s largest employer their practices affect huge numbers of women. This issue of pregnancy discrimination has become all too common in the workplace. We see it in retail, hospitals, restaurants and the postal service,” Watson said.

Complaints of pregnancy discrimination are prevalent. The EEOC notes that it receives about 1,000 calls per year on work and family issues alone, according to Sharon Terman, senior staff attorney for the EEOC.

Nearly a year after it was first announced, work has begun on the Garrison Pointe West development, which will convert six Garrison Avenue buildings into a mixed-use commercial and luxury apartment building.

According to Project Manager David McGuire of Griffin Construction, the $3 million development should hold its grand opening no later than Nov. 3, meaning construction will take about seven months.

When the project was announced April 25, 2013, developer Rick Griffin said the project would be a "complete historic renovation, both interior and exterior, of the six buildings" located in the 400 block of Garrison. The result of the complete rehabilitation of the six buildings will be five storefronts and 12 luxury apartments.

Even though the project has just now gotten underway, McGuire said his team is already preparing for what will be a daunting task of turning five different buildings into one while maintaining both the building's structural integrity and historic charm.

"One of the challenges to this project is these buildings were all built at different times, so we're taking and creating a hallway all throughout this building (for the apartments), which is a challenge to say the least. What we're going to do is I'll blow out all these openings and then we can set laser(s) up to shoot down," he said. "To make this building structurally sound, we'll find (any) low points and then we'll come in with three-inch angle iron on both sides with seven-inch lag bolts that's epoxied into this masonry so they can never give. On top of that, I'll do a two-by-six and then we'll have a structural floor joist that will go on top of that."

He said the resulting building will be very different from what stands empty across from La Huerta restaurant on Garrison Avenue.

"Once we do that, the building will be pretty much a new structure. The building can never do this anymore (show weaknesses) because it's anchored to the masonry and then it's going to be bolted to those new trusses. We'll do that layer, then I'll send my team upstairs and they'll get the ceiling joyced and everything. And then by that time, we'll have underground utilities done down here and they'll come down here and do that and we'll just keep that ball rolling, hopefully like that."

McGuire said his construction team also will remove much of the mortar in place and replace it, similar to the process when Griffin Construction renovated Adelaide Hall.

Also similar to what Griffin did previously at Adelaide, McGuire said his team would rip out the concrete from the commercial spaces on the ground floor and leave a gravel floor along with the exposed brick walls on either side of the space.

"So my instructions are ... where there's concrete, remove the concrete and put gravel back down, get the utilities underground for the apartments out back, and then leave these…brick (walls) exposed (with) nothing but gravel on the sub-base. That way, when a potential tenant wants to lease it, then they'll pay us to renovate that space for them. Then by leaving the concrete out, we can run those underground utilities where we're still keeping the ambiance of the existing brick…and make it whatever they want."

All five commercial units are on the ground floor, facing Garrison Avenue and will range in space from 1,000-square-feet to 1,300-square-feet.

The apartments will be divided among one and two-bedroom apartments, with four units behind the commercial units on the ground floor and eight units on the second floor. Rent, Griffin said last year, would be in the range of $800 per month, "give or take a little."

Space that could be used for an additional commercial and apartment unit each will instead of used as a courtyard for residents and will be available for rent.

The project is funded by private funding and state and federal tax credits, according to Griffin, who said at the time, "Economically, we've got to have it for the project."

In addition to the Griffin project, other construction permits issued in Fort Smith last week include a new $2.34 million Mercy Clinic at the intersection of Waldron and Free Ferry Roads, as well as a new Mill Creek Wastewater Pump Station, a $13.3 million project located at 210 Navy Road.

Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor holds a three-point lead over his Republican rival, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, in the latest Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll. Pryor, whose seat has been highly targeted for a Republican pick-up, leads the first-term Fourth District Congressman 45.5% to 42.5%. Only 8% are undecided.

“With more than six months to go, the Senate race is game on. The political environment can certainly change between now and November, but today you have to say nothing is a foregone conclusion,” said Talk Business & Politics executive editor Roby Brock.

In October 2013 shortly after Cotton entered the Senate race, a Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll found Pryor with a one-point lead, 42% to 41% with 17% undecided. Six months later, the race remains within the poll’s margin of error.

“Unlike in 2010, this Senate race is shaping up to be highly competitive,” Brock added. “We’ve already seen millions of dollars in advertising spent on both sides of this race and much more will come. With all of that money spent, the race has barely moved. I foresee a real messaging battle to win small percentages of the electorate as a key for how this race will be decided.”

The latest survey of 1,068 likely Arkansas voters was taken on April 3-4, 2014. The sample included voters who have participated in multiple or all of the last five general elections. Also, only voters who said they were “very likely” (96%) or “somewhat likely” (4%) to participate in this November’s election were allowed to complete the survey. Cell phone users were also included and the poll has a margin of error of +/-3%.

Q: In the race for U.S. Senate, the candidates are Democrat Mark Pryor, Republican Tom Cotton, Libertarian Nathan LaFrance, and Green Party candidate Mark Swaney. If the election for U.S. Senate were today, which candidate would you support?
45.5%  Democrat Mark Pryor
42.5%  Republican Tom Cotton
2%   Libertarian Nathan LaFrance
2%   Green candidate Mark Swaney
8%   Undecided

In results released Sunday, the latest Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll showed a virtual dead heat in the Arkansas Governor’s race between front-runners Asa Hutchinson (R) and Mike Ross (D).

Additional poll results will be released this week, including voter attitudes on an ethics-term limits amendment, one of the medical marijuana proposals, and a potential minimum wage initiative.

ANALYSIS
Dr. Jay Barth, professor of political science at Hendrix College, helped craft and analyze the latest poll. He offered this analysis of the U.S. Senate poll results:

“Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, who led his Republican rival U.S. Congressman Tom Cotton by a bare 42-41% margin during our last polling in October 2013, continues to hold onto a narrow lead in this latest survey. His three-point margin (45.5-42.5%) remains within the poll’s margin of error. Two third party candidates are in low single digits.

“The Arkansas U.S. Senate race has become one of the highest-profile in the nation with millions of advertising dollars spent by both campaigns and a variety of outside groups. That spending appears not to have moved the race much, suggesting that the race will remain close at least until the point when voters engage after Labor Day.

“Looking below the top line of numbers, Pryor’s tiny lead is driven by his particularly strong lead with women voters (he leads that group by 10 points). In contrast, Cotton has a 7 point lead (48-41%) with male voters.

“Pryor has also coalesced African-American support and is also running strongly among Latino voters, while Cotton has a 5 point lead with white voters. Both candidates have strong support from their fellow partisans and while Cotton leads among independent voters 50-34 that lead is not quite strong enough to fully offset the slightly larger percentage of the electorate that remains Democratic.

“Looking at the race geographically, Cotton has a solid lead in the Third Congressional District while Pryor has smaller leads in the other regions of the state. Together, these patterns lead to the very close overall race.”

METHODOLOGY
This survey was conducted by Talk Business Research and Hendrix College on Thursday and Friday, April 3-4, 2014. The poll, which has a margin of error of +/-3%, was completed using IVR survey technology among 1,068 Arkansas frequent voters statewide.

Approximately 9% of the voters in our sample were contacted via cell phone with live callers. This is in response to the increased reliance by voters on cell phones. Also, we applied our standard weighting to the poll results based on age, gender, and Congressional district.