The Department of Health's Markham Street headquarters in Little Rock will be open for business on Thursday afternoon, but Arkansans seeking birth certificates or other vital records won't be able to park there.
The parking spaces normally reserved for visitors will be taken over by Razorback Foundation donors headed to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's season-opening game that evening against Florida A&M University at nearby War Memorial Stadium.
According to the Razorback Foundation website, parking assignments in such priority lots are awarded based on a point system to season ticket holders who donate at least $750 to the foundation, which supports University of Arkansas athletics.
Health Department services such as vital records retrieval will still be offered until the normal closing time at 4:30 p.m., but no visitor parking will be available after noon, department spokesman Katie White said.
"We're just recommending that people either find a ride that can drop them off and pick them up at our building, or they'll have to find parking off site," White said.
Razorbacks fans will also be taking over hundreds of parking spaces used by department employees in the stadium parking lot. Those employees will be working at other locations on Thursday, White said.
"We're all expected to have phones available and be checking our email like normal to be able to provide our normal duties," White said.
Anyone parking in the 50 spaces that will be reserved for Health Department employees after noon will have to have a department hang tag, White said.
"With limited staff, there is not a straightforward way to provide necessary credentials and monitor and assist with the flow of visitor traffic," White said in an email. "The 50 reserved spots for [Health Department] employees will be in our back lot, and our usual visitor parking in front of the building will become available for those attending the game beginning at noon."
J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Gov. Asa Hutchinson, said the parking situation "isn't ideal." But he noted that services will still be provided and said Hutchinson is "delighted" that department employees are willing to work from other locations.
"We have to work with the situation and what we're able to do," Davis said.
The Arkansas State Police warned Tuesday that the game will also bring road closures and heavy traffic to the area.
According to the state police, the ramp to the westbound lanes of Interstate 630 at Pine and Cedar Streets will be closed, as will the ramp from the eastbound lanes of the highway to Fair Park Boulevard.
Also, the far-right westbound lane on the highway from the Pine and Cedar exit to Fair Park will be restricted to traffic headed toward the stadium.
"While no changes in traffic routes are planned for I-30 or I-430, motorists should expect traffic volume to be at, or near capacity," the state police said in a news release.
Traffic along Markham Street between downtown and Rodney Parham Road "is expected to be particularly [affected] during rush hour as business and government employees leave work," the release says. "Motorists who do not plan to attend the game are encouraged to find alternate routes traveling north or south of their usual routes of travel."
The kickoff is at 7 p.m.
The Razorbacks' contract with the stadium calls for one home game to be played in Little Rock each season through next year. Usually, the games are on a Saturday. The last weekday game at War Memorial Stadium, against the University of South Carolina, was also on a Thursday, on Nov. 6, 2003.
White said she didn't know whether the department gave up parking for that game.
On Thursday, she said, about 600 employees who normally park in the stadium lot across the street from the Health Department will have to work elsewhere.
An noon, the department will turn over 314 department parking spaces on its own property for football game parking, while keeping just 50 spaces for Health Department staff. The department normally has 47 parking spaces for visitors, she said.
Kevin Crass, chairman of the War Memorial Stadium Commission, said the stadium doesn't pay the Health Department for the use of the parking lot. He said he wasn't aware of any written agreement between the stadium and department regarding the use of the lot.
"We've just tried to go over there and ask them to be good neighbors," Crass said.
Attempts to reach a spokesman for the Razorback Foundation were not successful.
Metro on 08/30/2017