Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas has received a grant of $336,000 from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council to help pay for the restoration the of old Lockesburg Middle School.
The community college is based in De Queen in southwest Arkansas. But the college has three other campuses: Ashdown, Nashville and Lockesburg. Since 2017, the college has been working on acquiring funds to renovate all the buildings on the old campus that once housed Lockesburg Middle School and Lockesburg High School.
"This most recent grant will allow us to start restoring the middle school," said Chancellor Steve Cole in a news release. "When we finish phase 1, we will have two new classrooms, a large community room, and, most importantly, a museum to house and protect historical items from Lockesburg High School."
The planned museum will house all of the old Lockesburg High School memorabilia that UA Cossatot has collected already in addition to what it may get donated from community members. Anyone with old Lockesburg High School memorabilia can contact Barry Reed at breed@cccua.edu, according to the news release.
Cole said in the news release that he expects phase 1 to be completed by July 2021.
The college plans to apply for phase 2 funding next March to acquire the money to completely finish the middle school restoration.
The college is also filing an application with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program to turn the entire old Lockesburg campus into a historic district, Cole said.