BALD KNOB — Although Bald Knob Mayor Doyle Wallace said there has not been an official announcement, the ground has been broken for a new Harps Food Store in Bald Knob.
The new grocery store, scheduled to open in spring 2012, will be north of town on Arkansas 367 in the Bald Knob Industrial Park, just inside the city limits, said J. Max Van Hoose, Harps Food Stores Inc. vice president of store planning.
“We’re just tickled pink,” Wallace said about the new store. “It’ll employ 40 people, and that’s great for our city.”
Wallace said the store will include gas pumps.
“It’s just a win-win situation,” he said.
Harps purchased the land from the Bald Knob Industrial Development Commission, said Alvin Hearyman, commission president.
“The city seems to be growing north,” Hearyman said. “The store will be a benefit to the city in several ways. It will employ 40 people and bring a good tax base into the city.”
There is one other grocery store in the city, Wallace said. Sexton Foods is on the south side of town, so having a grocery store on each end of the city will make it more convenient for residents, he said.
The new Harps in BaldKnob will be similar in size to one that is south of Batesville. Wallace said he visited the Harps store there and was “real impressed.”
“It was a combination of a lot of little things,” Van Hoose said about the choice of Bald Knob for the company’s 67th store.
Van Hoose said Harps Food Stores will have 48 locations in Arkansas when the Bald Knob store is finished. The remaining stores are in Oklahoma and Missouri.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com
Three Rivers, Pages 119 on 08/28/2011