PINE BLUFF -- Pine Bluff officials are searching for a professional fundraiser to help secure enough money for construction of a planned multipurpose building and an aquatics center that would be built near downtown.
A five-eighths percent sales tax and bond initiative that passed in 2011 allocated about $4.2 million toward the project, but Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth has said the amount isn't nearly enough.
More than $11 million will be needed to complete the two facilities, with the difference being made up through fundraising efforts, according to city plans.
Pine Bluff Finance Director Steve Miller said the city had planned on raising the remaining funds for the multipurpose and aquatics centers all along, and wording about a fundraiser was included in the bond project approved by voters.
Some city residents have questioned why such fundraising efforts weren't held sooner.
Playing with her young son at Regional Park near downtown Friday afternoon, Pine Bluff resident Lori Jones said she had hoped he would have already been swimming in the aquatics center's pools by now.
She said she's heard similar frustrations from her friends.
"We've been waiting and waiting, and now it looks like more waiting," Jones said. "Soon, people are going to get so fed up they may not support another tax project in this town."
Miller said the wait boiled down to the order of importance on city projects.
"There were higher priorities that were identified from the beginning," Miller said.
Among the priority projects were a new fire station and improvements to the city's sewer system, along with buying new safety equipment for the police and fire departments.
With those projects completed, the city is finally in the initial stages of a fundraising effort for the multipurpose and aquatics centers.
The Pine Bluff City Council recently approved a resolution to seek proposals from professional fundraisers, and a committee will be set up to oversee the process of hiring one. Likely sources a professional fundraiser would tap include foundations and corporations, Miller said.
Miller said the city could also seek grant funds to help pay some of the costs.
According to the resolution approved by aldermen, fundraisers interested in being hired must have held two successful fundraising campaigns in the past three years, with at least one of those campaigns raising $1 million or more from public or private services.
Both the aquatics center and a planned multipurpose center are to be constructed on 11th Avenue, just a few blocks from the city's Civic Center, which houses City Hall, the main library, and the headquarters for the police and fire departments.
Initial proposals for the multipurpose building show it would be more than 43,000 square feet, and the aquatics center is planned to be 26,000 square feet, according to plans drawn up by the Nelson Architectural Group of Pine Bluff.
The two-story multipurpose building's plans call for a number of amenities, including two game rooms; a room for dance, art, music and taekwondo; a fitness area; a miniature gymnasium; a track; a gym with indoor batting cages; a golf training room; a learning center and a kitchen.
The aquatics center, according to the plans, would feature two pools, bathrooms, party rooms, changing and locker rooms, a patio, a deck and storage space.
State Desk on 06/22/2015