AAC
FEATURE
Saline County officials and its partners broke ground on the new Saline County Career and Technical Center, which they expect to be completed in the fall of 2021.
Saline County marks beginning of new career and technical education center construction
Story and Photos by Holland doran AAC Communications Coordinator
districts, Saline County has marked the beginning of the construction of the Saline County Career and Techni- cal Center. A crowd of around 100 state and local dignitaries and guests gathered March 9 at the Benton Events Center for a groundbreaking ceremony for the center that is set to open in the fall of 2021. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Saline Coun-
A 28
ty Judge Jeff Arey, Saline County Economic Development Corporation (SCEDC) Executive Director Lamont Cornwell, SCEDC Chairman Shane Broadway, Arkansas State University System (ASU) President Dr. Chuck Welch, and ASU Tree Rivers Chan- cellor Dr. Steve Rook spoke at the ceremony. Arkansas State Sen. Kim
fter more than five years of planning and collabora- tion among county offi- cials, local and state lead- ers, educators and school
Hammer led the group in a prayer. Gov. Hutchinson praised the lead- ership of the six Saline County school districts — Benton, Bryant, Bauxite, Harmony Grove, Glen Rose and Sheridan — for working together to support and fund the center. “Tis is amazing that you can bring this kind of teamwork together,” he said. “Please understand how spe- cial this is because I have seen other similar career centers in other parts of the state in which high schools and colleges are competing against each other for it, or they plan on having multiple high schools participate in it, and it doesn’t work out that way. So this is very exciting to me what your leadership has accomplished.” In the November 2019 general election, Saline County voters passed Issue 6, a temporary, county-wide three-eighths percent sales tax that will provide money for the center. Arey expressed gratitude for the
voters’ approval of funding. “Certainly, the voters of Saline County are the first ones I want to talk about because if it was not for their
vote of confidence in this project, then we would not be here,” he said. Arey thanked the Benton, Bryant
and Hot Springs Village chambers of commerce, which campaigned for the sales tax increase, and for Gov. Hutchinson’s support and guidance. He also recognized the Saline County Quorum Court for seeing the center as a “worthwhile invest- ment,” and thanked SCEDC for their encouragement to improve economic development in the county. “Tat’s what really got us started on this … SCEDC saying what do we need to do to improve economic devel- opment in Saline County,” Arey said. Cornwell used a football analogy to describe the teamwork among all en- tities: “You’ll notice that I didn’t call any names when I talked about who did what, when and where because it’s not about who did what, who did when and who did where,” Cornwell said. “We did this as a team. You hear that analogy that there’s no ‘I’ in team, that’s very true. But this team moved forward everybody in its own right, and we worked together as a
COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2020
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
