Social media used in successful sales-tax rededication vote

CONWAY — Brad Lacy, president of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce and Conway Development Corp., said the unique aspect of Tuesday’s successful bond issue and sales-tax-rededication election was the way the campaign was run.

“It was all texting, Facebook and emails,” he said Wednesday. “It was a grassroots effort.”

Lacy had a big stake in the victory. The CDC partnered with Jim Wilson & Associates of Alabama to buy the city’s old airport property, Dennis F. Cantrell Field, for $6.1 million to create a mixed-use development called Central Landing. Within that development will be The Shoppes of Central Landing, which will include a Dillard’s store.

Proceeds from the sale of the property will go toward the new airport, which opened Sept. 1 on the outskirts of Conway near the Arkansas River. The old airport will operate for another month or so, officials said.

The Central Landing development hinged on the outcome of Tuesday’s election. The margins were big — 78-22 percent in favor on one question; 79-21 percent in favor on the second.

Jack Bell, chief of staff for Conway, said he was “surprised by the margin” of victory.

“It was a bigger percentage than I anticipated. I was hoping for 60 percent, but I would have been happy with 51 percent,” Bell said. “I think it’s a very resounding statement by citizens of Conway that they like the projects.”

Lacy said Wednesday that he was “ecstatic.”

“To me, the encouraging thing is that Conway citizens historically have always stepped up and done big things when the opportunity arises, and I think they did it again yesterday,” he said.

Conway residents approved rededicating a 1/8-cent sales tax and approved refinancing existing debt to help pay for street improvements, including an overpass, to provide access to Central Landing, as well as Lewis Crossing, a proposed shopping center anchored by a Sam’s Club, on Dave Ward Drive, east of Interstate 40.

Roundabouts are planned on Arkansas 365 (Dave Ward Drive), including one at Amity Road, where Lewis Crossing is planned on the site of a former sale barn.

The sales tax, set to expire in 2022, has been extended to 2045, with no sales-tax-collections increase projected.

“Any sales-tax-collections increase in the future shortens the bond payoff,” Mayor Tab Townsell said. “Just a 1 percent increase drops it to the 2040 range.”

Almost 2,400 people voted in the election.

“Most special elections draw a similar number of votes, so you have to work extra hard to make sure you win,” Lacy said.

“I think that is one of the important things about this — this is the lesson, maybe, to learn: We won this the old-fashioned way with new technology. We didn’t do a big marketing campaign; we didn’t spend a bunch of money. We definitely wanted people to get out and vote, but we were very targeted,” he said. “You find a group of people who feel strongly about it and ask them to help you find people to get out and vote.”

It was through social media, “and really, texting,” he said.

“I compare it to early elections I worked on in 2002 or 2001, and just how different this one felt. This is the first one I’ve really been working that hard on. This time, I made virtually no phone calls,” he said.

Lacy said he gathered a group together the day of the election to contact people to remind them to vote.

He said he expected a noisy room, and he was concerned it would be hard to hear.

“It’s so funny — they’re all in this conference room with their phones, and nobody’s talking,” he said.

People were texting.

“It was a very dramatic difference from things I’ve done in the past,” Lacy said.

Now, the project can get underway, but it won’t be immediate.

“People aren’t going to see dirt work for a while. We’re still working through the environmental assessment and other due diligence,” Lacy said. “The city is going to refine the final design of all those streets.

“At some point next spring and summer, it’s probably going to be a pretty amazing construction project that we probably have never seen in our lifetime, because it is going to go on and go on pretty quick.”

The projected opening of Central Landing is late 2016.

Townsell said city officials believe the shopping centers will “deepen the footprint” of Conway’s shopping perimeter.

“What we’re fully expecting is … inside that perimeter, we’ll capture a higher percentage of shoppers. One place I think we’ll change our footprint is to the south. We will encroach on the retail market in Pulaski County,” he said.

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

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