Council approves new Head Start location

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

DECATUR - Two meetings were called by Mayor Charles Linam on April 29 to discuss locations for a new Decatur Head Start school facility.

The Decatur Planning and Zoning Committee met at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the feasibility of the old park location and to find an alternate site that fit Head Start’s criteria. The committee found that the site in Edmiston Park, off Austin Street, is a better location. The committee voted to recommend that the Decatur City Council accept the acquisition of two and one-half acres of Edmiston Park for the new Head Start facility.

At 6 p.m. the city council met to review the planning and zoning committee’s recommendation to move the Head Start’s school location to the Edmiston Park location.

“They (the planning and zoning committee) recommended that we allow them (Head Start) to build in Edmiston Park right along Austin Street from where the road goes into the park back to the edge of our (city of Decatur) property,” Linam stated.

In a unanimous decision, the council approved the recommendation, and the city of Decatur will file the grant on behalf of Head Start of Northwest Arkansas at the Edmiston Park location.

Kaleigh Rigdon, community partnership coordinator for Head Start, was on hand to answer any questions. In the city council meeting of April 25, Rigdon was asked if they could apply for the grant with a specific location or could they change that location after the approval of the grant.

“If we settled on a location and decided that it needed to be changed at the time we were awarded the grant - if we were awarded the grant - then we can change the location with an addendum.”

Should a better location become available, the site could be changed if needed.

Because of Internet disruption in the area, HeadStart and the city of Decatur were given a two day extension for filing the grant application - until 4 p.m. on May 3.

It was expected that word of the grant request’s approval or denial will not come until sometime around July 1.

News, Pages 3 on 05/08/2013