Monticello builds up its case for a new community center

— City leaders in Monticello are hoping that a series of forthcoming public meetings will intensify support for building a 150,000-squarefoot community center on the University of Arkansas at Monticello campus.

Monticello Mayor Allen Maxwell said the city isn’t planning to raise taxes to fund the construction but will rely on a combination of grants, private donations and university funds. He said he hopes to see the center completed in two to three years.

As part of its contribution, the university may issue bonds, or agree to lease the center and take responsibility for maintaining it for the city, University of Arkansas at Monticello Chancellor Jack Lassiter said.

Right now, though, “it’s just too early to tell exactly what kind of funding we will be looking at,” Lassiter said, adding that the university is also reaching out to local schools to become partners in the project.

Maxwell said construction cost estimates have been as high as $33 million, quickly adding that some trimming would be likely.

“I don’t think we are going to build something that will cost that much,” he said. “We will have to figure out what we will have to cut out of the project as we go along.”

Earlier this year, the Monticello City Council approved a 3 percent advertising and promotions tax that’s funding planning for the center. Proceeds from the tax, which will total about $100,000 annually, may also be used to help pay the center’s utility bills once it’s constructed, Maxwell said.

Such a facility in Monticello would be akin to economic gold, the mayor said.

“I can envision conferences, family reunions, basketball tournaments ... all kinds of things coming to our city and using this facility,” he said.

“It would most definitely benefit us. And we want this to be a regional facility, not just Monticello and Drew County.”

Lassiter said the building will either be named the Seark Community Center or the Southeast Arkansas Community Center, keeping with the goal of marketing a regional facility.

“We feel like this will be a big boost for the region,” he said. “There are so many possibilities.”

Preliminary plans for the center include three swimming pools, an arena, meeting rooms and various other multiuse rooms, Maxwell said.

More details about the building will be provided at the public meetings, he said.

The meetings will be Tuesday at the Earl Willis Auditorium on the Drew Central campus; on Nov. 7 in the Monticello Middle School auditorium; and on Nov. 10 in the Fine Arts Center on the University of Arkansas at Monticello campus. Each will begin at 7 p.m.

If the center is built, Monticello will join two other Arkansas cities that have recently constructed multipurpose centers.

In El Dorado, the $14.4 million, 50,764-square-foot El Dorado Conference Center was completed last year. It was built in a partnership with the city and South Arkansas Community College.

A 1 percent sales tax passed in 2007, along with a $5 million donation from Murphy Oil Corp., to fund the center’s construction.

Stuttgart’s 63,000-squarefoot, $15.4 million Grand Prairie Center, completed earlier this year, was built on the campus of Phillips Community College and was funded by private donations and grants.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 10/27/2011

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