Work is underway on Amazon NLR site
Work has started on a $414,000 project to set up a temporary distribution center for Amazon in North Little Rock.
Amazon, one of the world's largest retailers, has scheduled a Nov. 6 opening for the facility, which is on a 4.5-acre property at 1920 N. Locust St. near the Interstate 30 and Interstate 40 interchange, according to Norman Clifton, the owner of the property.
AAA Construction of Hot Springs, the contractor on the project, obtained a building permit Oct. 3, nine days after the North Little Rock City Council approved granting waivers of certain city requirements to clear the way for the temporary distribution center, which will serve as a sorting facility.
The center will be a 16,333-square-foot, one-story sorting facility. Three smaller, modular buildings will serve as a general office, restrooms and a break room, according to a site plan.
The center is a new concept for Amazon, Clifton has said. The goal is to speed package delivery by using tentlike distribution centers to sort packages from larger Amazon distribution sites and take them "the last mile," a service largely handled by the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS.
-- Noel Oman
28 farmers petition for use of dicamba
While the federal Environmental Protection Agency hasn't yet announced how or whether dicamba can be used next year anywhere in the nation, a formal petition filed this week by 28 Arkansas farmers asks the state Plant Board to allow the herbicide through the 2019 growing season.
The board set a special meeting at 1 p.m. Nov. 5 in Little Rock to consider the farmers' request.
Dicamba has been linked to crop damage in Arkansas and other states across the Midwest the last three growing seasons. About 1,000 complaints were filed last year with the Plant Board, leading to an April 16 cutoff date this year. About 200 complaints alleging dicamba damage have been filed in Arkansas this year.
The EPA is considering the future of three dicamba formulations produced by Monsanto -- which was bought this year by Bayer -- BASF and DowDuPont. All formulations were given only conditional, two-year permits, with all three expiring in the coming weeks. The agency has given no indication when it will rule, saying only that it wants to make a decision early enough to help farmers plan for 2019.
The farmers' petition asks the Plant Board to set a June 15 cutoff date for spraying dicamba with a downwind, quarter-mile buffer from non-dicamba crops. Spraying after June 16 would require a 1-mile downwind buffer, and dicamba would be prohibited on crops within a mile of certified-organic farms, according to the petition.
-- Stephen Steed
Bank OZK's 28.8% fall weighs on index
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 5.83 to 419.11 Friday.
Seven stocks advanced and eight declined.
One day after reporting that it had more than $45 million of charge-offs in the third quarter, Bank OZK plunged 28.8 percent with more than 20 million shares traded.
Two other banks -- Simmons First National and Home BancShares -- lost more than 3 percent each.
For the week, seven stocks rose and eight fell.
Windstream was up 9.7 percent for the week.
Bank OZK fell 28.6 percent for the week.
Total volume for the index was 41.7 million shares. The average daily volume for the week was 25.1 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 10/20/2018