SPRINGDALE -- The Springdale City Council has agreed to match funds provided by grants that will benefit Luther George Park and the Springdale Greenway Market, a farmers market.
The council, meeting as a committee of the whole Monday, agreed to move the measures forward for vote by the entire council during its regular meeting Aug. 10.
Both grants would come from the federal Outdoor Recreation Matching Grant program administered by the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, explained Jill Dabbs, executive director of the Downtown Springdale Alliance, which has contracted with the city to create a vibrant downtown area for commerce and recreation.
The council last year committed $2 million to the Luther George project. The city's money and another $4 million raised privately for the park will stand for the matching money with no added funds committed by the city, Dabbs said.
"I'm trying to turn your $6 million into $10 million," Dabbs told the council.
The second grant would help design and create a farmers market along the Razorback Greenway on the southwest corner of Meadow Avenue at the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad tracks.
The city would pledge up to $250,000 to match this second state grant.
The mayor's chief of staff, Colby Fulfer, told the council that the account for the city's Parks and Recreation Department included $500,000 available for the project. The money was returned to the city from tax money paid to the state by Springdale residents.
The Bank of America in September 2019 donated to the city about 2 acres facing Emma Avenue that included the lobby, offices, drive-through and parking lots of its Emma Avenue branch. First State Bank of Springdale was a predecessor of Bank of America in that location.
The lobby and offices of the bank have been demolished. The city has retained the drive-through building with the idea of providing restrooms, storage and a public meeting place.
Luther George Park will benefit from sale of city industrial land.
The council in May 2020 approved spending $1.7 million from the 2018 bond fund for road improvements to extend and improve Kendrick Avenue to North Jefferson Street in the city's industrial park north of town. That money was added to a March 2020 grant of $1.5 million earmarked to the Kendrick project from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Commission.
In return for the road upgrade, the Public Facilities Board, which owns the industrial property, committed to use $2 million from selling lots in the industrial area to work with the city on a future project. The council earmarked those funds for Luther George Park.
The Downtown Springdale Alliance has led the efforts of the $642,000 Design Excellence Grant awarded by the Walton Family Foundation for design of Luther George Park.
Spackman Mossop Michaels Landscape Architects of New Orleans in August 2019 unveiled its conceptual design for a redeveloped park, which had been created with public input sessions.
The City Council the next month hired Milestone Construction Co. as the general contractor for the park.
Dabbs said she anticipates the $10 million park project to break ground before the end of the year.