Project of promise

LITTLE ROCK — Menifee Mayor Lee Smith remembers playing basketball in the school gymnasium in the 1960s. “I thought it was one of the biggest gyms I’d ever been in. After I got exposed to bigger things, it was so small,” the 64-year-old said, laughing. “It was almost like center court was the 3-point shot. I made quite a few of those.”

The building, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, has fallen into disrepair.

The Menifee Community Development Center, a nonprofit organization, has a fundraiser planned, with proceeds to go toward a restoration project for the gym.

The MCDC Shopping Expo is scheduled

for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the City

Center, 68 N. Mustang St. Admission is

$3.

Vendors will sell a variety of new items,

such as jewelry and clothing, and door

prizes will be awarded.

The gymnasium, which the city owns,

was built in 1938 through the Works Proj

ect Administration, using local stone.

The gym has been the site of basketball

games - even some played on donkeys -

graduations, agricultural shows and proms,

and was used as a temporary classroomafter it was the only school building to survive a May 5, 1960, tornado.

“The main school was in Menifee,” Smith said. “Black kids were bused into Menifee. It was a close, family-type atmosphere.”

In the 1970s, according to a history of the town, the building was briefly used as a garment factory for jean parts.

The Menifee School District merged with Morrilton and Plumer vi lle in 1980 to form the South Conway County School District. In 1989, t he S out h C onway County School District gave the gymnasium back to the city of Menifee.

“It’s important for the kidsto learn something about the history to learn about where t h e y c om e f rom ,” S m it h said.

Jer r y C oleman, 48, of Menifee played in the gymnasium as a member of the junior-high basketball team.

Now, as volunteer executive director of the Menifee Community Development Center, he is working to restore the gym.

He said pigeons got inside the facility and caused damage, and “the floor’s not in the best condition.”

Leaks damaged the hardwood floors, and the roof was replaced last summer.

The development center received a $29,000 Arkansas Historical Preservation matching grant for the work, which cost $40,000, Smith said.

Smith said that in additionto new floors, the building needs plumbing and electrical work.

The total cost of the renovation will be “about $250,000, I’m guessing,” he said.

Coleman said the community used the gymnasium off and on through the 1990s.

“It’s a vital part of the community; it had a great impact,” Coleman said. “We don’t really have any type of youth center or community center, so if we can get this restored, it can serve as a community center and a stage.”

The entire town - population 302 - can fit in the gym, “and then some,” Coleman said, laughing.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 59 on 02/23/2012

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