Visitors bureau
sets voting policy
The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau implemented a new policy last week granting employees two hours of authorized leave to vote.
"Our right to vote is important, and I want to provide everyone a little extra time to ensure each of you have an opportunity to exercise that right without having to utilize PTO [personal time off] to do so," Gretchen Hall, the bureau's chief executive, wrote in an internal memo dated Oct. 19, the first day of early voting in Arkansas.
Hall said each full-time bureau employee who is a registered voter would be granted two hours of authorized leave between Oct. 19 and Nov. 3, and that two hours of leave would become a policy each year during the primary and general elections.
According to Arkansas law, employers must schedule work hours so that employees have time to vote.
Other local agencies, including Central Arkansas Water and the Metropolitan Housing Alliance, allow employees to take a set amount of time to vote without taking paid time off. Others, including the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority, which ends the scheduled workday no later than 4:30 p.m. on Election Day, and the Central Arkansas Library System, encourage their staffs to coordinate their schedules to ensure staffing needs are met when voting.
Center to tap city
incentive program
Youth crisis center Immerse Arkansas is taking advantage of a city development incentive program to expand its operations, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. announced last week.
The organization, at 5300 Asher Ave., has launched a five-month, $805,000 renovation and expansion of its center.
In September, Scott announced an incentive package for developers that includes waiving some permit and utility fees for projects in areas that have historically seen less economic development than other areas of the city, including federally designated opportunity zones and other areas in Ward 6 and Ward 7.
"I'm excited that this organization is jumpstarting our revitalization efforts in this area of our city. I am also grateful that their savings will be reinvested into life-changing programs for youth," Scott said in a news release.
Pop-up bike, walk
lanes' count given
More than 500 people used temporary bicycle and pedestrian lanes set up between the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children's Library and War Memorial Park over the three weeks they were in effect, according to the project's coordinator.
The Central Arkansas Library System and the city's Parks and Recreation Department partnered to use signs and traffic cones to open two lanes for people walking and biking on Jonesboro Drive. The project was funded by a $12,500 grant from the Safe Routes Partnership, a national nonprofit. The temporary lanes were in effect from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17.
The library system's Kay Kay De Rossette, who coordinated the project, gave the numbers to the library system's board of directors at Thursday's regular meeting. De Rossette said she hoped the success of the pop-up effort would lead to the city making permanent improvements to the corridor.