Highfill receives grant to move community building

June 3, 2015 at 5:00 a.m.

by Staff Reports

Submitted Photo With the grant check for Highfill are ARDC commissioner Lonnie Turner, ARDC commissioner James Myatt, grant writer Cassie Eilliot, Governor Asa Hutchinson, ARDC chair Glenn Priebe, AEDC deputy director Amy Fecher, ARDC commissioner Jamie Pafford-Gresham. Not pictured are Senator Bart Hester and Representative Dan Douglas.
Submitted Photo With the grant check for Highfill are ARDC commissioner Lonnie Turner, ARDC commissioner James Myatt, grant writer Cassie Eilliot, Governor Asa Hutchinson, ARDC chair Glenn Priebe, AEDC deputy director Amy Fecher, ARDC commissioner Jamie Pafford-Gresham. Not pictured are Senator Bart Hester and Representative Dan Douglas.

HIGHFILL -- The city of Highfill received $13,500 to move its historic community building to the city park and restore it. Governor Asa Hutchinson presented the Arkansas Rural Community Development Grant to Cassie Elliott, representing the city of Highfill.

City officials have been discussing moving the community building from the curve on Arkansas Highway 264, where it blocks the view of drivers and makes negotiating the curve for large trucks hazardous.

With the addition being built at the fire station, the need to move the building became even greater because of further reduced visibility at the curve on the highway. Moving the building will allow the curve to be rounded out and be safer, according to Stacy Digby, Highfill's mayor.

In Benton County, $322,475.00 was awarded to 29 rural communities selected for the Fiscal Year 2015 Cycle III funding through the Arkansas Rural Community Grant Programs. The grant awards were distributed at a May 21 awards ceremony held during the Arkansas Rural Development Conference in Little Rock.

The Department of Rural Services works in partnership with the Arkansas Rural Development Commission to administer the Arkansas Rural Community Grant Programs in three cycles each year. Incorporated cities and towns and unincorporated communities in rural areas of less than 3,000 in population are eligible to apply for assistance through the mayor or county judge's office.

Community on 06/03/2015