With closing of visitors center, Clark County quorum court moves funding to small business initiative

By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com

For many years, local up-and-coming entrepreneurs have relied on the services of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center to help launch their dream of opening a business and keeping it running.

With a local office no longer available — ASBTDC shut its location on Henderson State University’s campus as the university battled financial turmoil — the Arkadelphia Area Chamber of Commerce will provide local services to help entrepreneurs on their path to creating a successful business.

Starting in February the chamber will begin Blueprint, an initiative being billed as a venture to empower the small business community through resources that include workshops, training sessions and personalized consultations. Blueprint is a collaboration of the chamber and a network of partners, namely The Conductor, an entrepreneur support organization based in Conway.

While the Arkadelphia Alliance had secured enough funding to ensure the program is free to participants, the Clark County Quorum Court was asked Monday to reallocate its share, which for more than a decade had been appropriated to the operation of the Diamond Lakes Regional Visitor Center. The visitor center, housed in Southern Bancorp’s former Caddo Valley bank branch, shut its doors at the end of 2023 due to a lack of foot traffic. The quorum court had been budgeting $10,000 annually toward the operation of the visitors center.

The request to reallocate the funding was made in October, but the county erroneously listed the budget expenditure for the visitors center.

Alliance CEO Shelley Short explained to justices of the peace that the fundraising effort for the Blueprint initiative included pledges from the City of Arkadelphia, Arkansas Capital Corp., Southern Bancorp, South Central Arkansas Electric Cooperative and South Central Connect.

Collectively, those entities are fronting $30,000 toward the Blueprint initiative.

Short fielded questions from the court before it took a vote, which carried 9-2 with justices David Forthman and Albert Neal dissenting. Both later told arkadelphian.com their reasons for voting against the measure.

“I didn’t see where it was necessary to spend $10,000 of taxpayers’ money for something that was already fixing to go through,” Forthman said. The District 6 justice added there are other pending requests for funding, including Men United’s request to fund an after-school youth program.

Neal said it was a matter of being left out, noting the other entities that pledged funding knew about the initiative before he was made aware of it. “This is my first knowing of what’s going on,” Neal said, “and I didn’t think it was in my best interest to vote to fund something other folks already knew about.”

The funding will ensure Blueprint’s availability through 2024, at which time additional funding would be requested to continue the program on an annual basis.

Blueprint’s launch is set for early February, with services to be provided at the Alliance office at the corner of 26th and Pine streets.

Until the official launch, the chamber is asking for input from small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. A pre-launch survey is available here.