City of Mayflower rising again after storm

MAYFLOWER — The city of Mayflower is rebounding after a deadly 2014 tornado cut a swath through the community, Mayor Randy Holland said.

Holland said homes are being rebuilt, new businesses have expressed interest in coming to Mayflower, and a plan to create a walkable town center in Mayflower won an award.

In March, the University of Arkansas Community Design Center’s project Slow Street: A New Town Center for Mayflower won the 2015 World Architecture News’ Future Project Urban Design Award.

The plan is designed to create a town center with mixed residential, recreational, commercial and city functions.

The “downtown triangle” of the proposed town center would begin at Arkansas 89 and 365 and go north to Stroud’s Diner. The heart would be near City Hall and Frank Pearce Memorial Park.

It would be similar to The Village at Hendrix, the mayor has said. The design center partnered on the project with the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District and the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

Devin Howland, workforce innovation and opportunity program director for the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District, was the local disaster recovery manager when the plan was developed.

For the dream to come to fruition, he said, residents have to agree on the plan, and funding must be found. To that end, the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District contracted with Metroplan, which brought in its Jump Start initiative. Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for the region, contracted with Gateway Planning in Dallas.

The Mayflower City Council adopted Jump Start codes in December, which will make it easier for a mixed-use development.

Holland said in an interview following the tornado that 160 homes and 16 businesses were damaged or destroyed in the city of about 2,300 residents. The trauma has been obvious to motorists on Interstate 40, who can glance over and see broken trees, debris and slabs where buildings once stood.

“We finally got some of those places cleaned up on the freeway,” Holland said.

Holland said he has been in discussions with two businesses that are interested in locating in Mayflower. One would employ 30 to 40 people, he said, and the other one is a retail business.

“I’m looking at sites,” he said.

He said last week that many homes are being rebuilt, particularly on Dam Road, which was hit the hardest. Those homes aren’t visible from I-40, he said.

“We have just about finished our storm safe room behind City Hall,” he said.

The facility, which can be accessed through a door in a courtroom of City Hall, will accommodate 111 people. A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant of $246,500 was awarded for a safe room, and the city had to provide a match of $61,625.

The space will include “almost a full weather station,” Holland said, and will serve as the command center during a disaster.

“All the communication needed for the city will be there. It will have all of our siren system in there, [the computer] mainframe of the whole city, … so we can run the whole city from there if we had to. I’m just excited about it,” he said.

“Anybody can use the safe room. The command center itself, it’s in the same building, but it’s separated,” he said.

When a Code Red weather warning is issued, Holland said, the safe-room doors will automatically open, whether it’s in the day or the middle of the night, and residents can seek shelter in the center.

Holland said the facility is about a month away from being completed, depending on the weather.

Another project Holland said he’s excited about is the redesign of Blue Star Memorial Park on Arkansas 365, which is visible from the interstate. The park honors members of the military.

“It’s going to be more than just a park; it’s going to be a symbol of Mayflower coming back,” Holland said. The park will include a 7-foot fountain and a white fence to separate the site from the interstate.

Holland said the park had deteriorated, and the tornado left debris in it.

“I’ve been wanting to put it back for a long time,” he said. It will be a symbol of recovery where people can “sit, touch it and feel it, and it will show that we’re starting to rise up.”

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

Upcoming Events