Two North Little Rock residents submitted the name chosen for the city's planned downtown plaza, city officials announced Tuesday.
Glenda Gaines and Susan Gaither each submitted Argenta Plaza as their suggestion during a public contest that ran for two months in the fall, drawing more than 100 entries.
Gaines and Gaither will each be awarded two passes to every public ticketed event at the plaza during its first year of operation. The two winners also will be invited to the plaza's groundbreaking ceremony.
Plaza construction is to begin in April with a completion date estimated to be in December.
The $4 million plaza will be on Main Street in North Little Rock between Fifth and Sixth streets. It is to feature oxbow-shaped berms, a freestanding water wall and jetted fountains, according to a conceptual design released in September.
The passes are nontransferable, and minors won't be allowed to attend any event that has an age limit of 21 for tickets, according to the city's announcement.
Argenta Plaza was among 108 suggestions made during the public contest that was open to North Little Rock residents, including city employees. Neither Gaither nor Gaines are city employees, city Communications Director Nathan Hamilton said Tuesday.
A city committee then narrowed the suggestions to 19 and then to six. Online voting among the six finalists took place on the city's website for one week in February, with 613 votes cast.
The public vote wasn't to be the determining factor in the final name, but Mayor Joe Smith recommended Argenta Plaza after that name received 41 percent of the final vote. The North Little Rock City Council concurred with Smith's recommendation Feb. 26.
Smith had said during the process that he preferred the plaza's name include Argenta to better market the city-owned site, because the city has spent the past 20 years or more identifying its downtown as Argenta.
North Little Rock was named Argenta from 1906-1917, and its downtown business and residential areas are within the Argenta Historic District.
Metro on 03/07/2018