House Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development Committee
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Welcome to the House Agriculture, Forestry, and Economic Development Committee. We also have, let's see, Richard Coy of the Arkansas Beekeepers, welcome. We have the Rector FFA and their sponsor, Amy Dawson. I believe they're guests of Representative Jett this morning. And then we also have the Young Farmer Development Program with Riceland Foods.
It's the Riceland In-Depth Program, and we have several participants here today. We have Mark Coleman from Corning, Todd Cullen from Jonesboro, Billy Elliott from Lake Village, George Floyd from Bells, Tennessee, Benji Foote from Duval's Bluff, Dustin Little from Piggott, let's see, Clint Roth from Stuttgart, Seth Skarda from Hazen, and then Fred Black with the Reisland Commodity Marketing, Robert White, Reisland's Director of Training, and Bill Reed, Reisland's Vice President for Public Affairs.
I hope I called out everybody, but you guys, welcome to the House Agri Committee. We have a special order of
business today, House Bill 1385, and at this time I will recognize Representative Payton to present his bill.
Chair
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pleases the committee, Representative Miller is with me on this bill, and he has another meeting. He needs to be in his committee, so we're going to ask him to make a few comments early on in the presentation. And I appreciate the time of the committee, and I appreciate, Mr. Chair, you and the members indulging us as we approach a topic that may not seem all that important.
And many of us, as I've talked to you throughout this week, we've questioned why it takes legislation to locate a district fair. But the location of the North Central Arkansas District Fair doesn't necessarily rank high on your priorities. But you can see by the crowd that has come from the districts and the counties that are affected by this that it is high on a lot of priorities. We have people here who work for free, volunteer their time,
and spend a lot of time and effort trying to make sure that this fair is successful. And we have a couple of dignitaries that I'd like to introduce if it's okay. They're not going to speak. Well, some of them have signed up on the four list. But we have two former representatives here, Lance Reynolds, if we could welcome him to the room, and Josh Johnston, right over there. And we have the county judge from Cleburne County, Jerry Holmes, standing right back here.
And we have the city mayor from Heber Springs, Jackie McPherson, right here. And I don't want to short anybody, but I don't want to take up too much of your time. I just want you to know it is important to some people. It's very important. and we have the board members from the North Central Arkansas District Fair who voted 10 to 4 to relocate the fair. It was a tough decision for them to make, I'm sure, and we're going to welcome a couple of them up here in a minute to help answer your questions and explain why they feel it's important to relocate.
But I'd like to let Representative Miller at this time get his words in so we can turn him loose to
Representative Josh Miller
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go to his committee. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I'm going to keep my remarks pretty short here. The folks representing the district fair contacted me and Representative Payton several weeks ago concerning this move, and here's the way I look at it. It's their job to oversee the fair and have its best interest in mind.
They, after doing their due diligence, doing their homework and their research, they decided two to one on the vote, over two to one, and it was in the best interest of the fair to locate to Clebron County. And the reason for that is Cleburne County and Heber Springs has more to offer to allow the fair to prosper. That's what these folks are, that's what their purpose is, is to see that the fair does as well as it possibly can.
Heber Springs has the motel rooms, the restaurants, the campsites around Greer's Ferry Lake. We have the infrastructure in place to allow the fair to grow. We've got the acreage for the fairgrounds, and there's a lot of folks here that would love to see the fair come here. Clebron County is committed to it and would see that the fair has every opportunity it needs to do the best that it can. And with that, I'm done.
Chair
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I'd appreciate it. Thank you, Josh. District fairs are important. He's going to go to his committee. I'm going to invite Ms. Carolyn Lewis, who is the manager of the
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Fulton County Fair, and she is the treasurer for the North Central Arkansas District Fair. And she can help me with some of your questions. But before we move on to the questions, I'd just like to say a few
Chair
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more words here. District fairs are important to Arkansans because agriculture is important to Arkansans.
And at the fair, we celebrate our heritage in agriculture. The truth is, a district fair that involves seven counties has no business in a town of 1,700 people. All the other district fairs in Arkansas are in Jonesboro, Pine Bluff, Harrison, Hope, Fort Smith, large towns with large populations to help support the attendance that's necessary for a district fair to flourish. We're not talking about a county fair. We're talking about seven counties that participate in this district fair.
Students and farmers and people who put their entrance in their county fair, they have to win the first, second, third place in order to go to district. So it's like the championships of a ball game to go to the district fair and show your products, your agriculture, your animals. If you look at the seven counties involved, Van Buren County, who strongly supports this move, Cleburne County, are on the southern end of the seven counties. But they encompass a third of the population in the seven counties.
And with Independence and Stone, which is on the northern border of those two counties, they would have no further travel to come to Heber Springs than they would going up there to Melbourne. So we're not handicapping it. But it's not a light thing whenever Ms. Carolyn Lewis here, who is the manager of the Fulton County District or County Fair, which is on the Missouri border, and she and the people that she represents have decided that it's in the best interest to see this fair flourish, that they would drive all the way to Heber Springs, which is 80-mile drive for most of them.
They're on the northern end of this district we're talking about. So I don't want you to think that she's made this decision lightly or the people that she represents. I know that the board put out in November asking the counties involved for presentations because they saw it was necessary to move. I'm a businessman, as most of you know, and sometimes you have to make a tough decision. District fairs are not a business, but they have made a business-like decision,
and it's one of the worst kept secrets in the world that a key to business is location location location and when you're cornered by legislation in a town of 1700 people and you're trying to manage a district fair that involves seven counties and you don't have the motels and you don't have the restaurants and you don't have the infrastructure there to accommodate the people that come to the district fair it's going to be really hard to grow they They have a carnival provider that has said he won't come back.
He won't come back to Melbourne. He's pulled out unless they move the fair. The board had to make a tough call. And you may think that it's wrong to be at the legislative level in Little Rock making this decision, but these people had to drive a long way to come here today. I hope you'll hear their testimony. I hope you'll listen to what they have to say, and I hope you'll make a common-sense decision on
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that. And with that, I'll be ready to take questions and ask Ms. Lewis to help me.
Thank you, Representative Payton. We're going to take a few questions at this time.
Representative Homer Lenderman
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Representative Linderman. Thank you. You said this is a business decision. I don't disagree with that at all, so I'm not sure who will be able to answer all these questions, but I've got several questions. I've been very involved with the fair, district, county, and state fairs. What are the number of participants that are participating at this time in our district fairs?
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In 2012, we had 5,190 exhibitors. That was exhibits. The number of exhibitors was
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has the district fair been at the present location? I
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believe the legislature organized it in 1997. Okay. How
Representative Homer Lenderman
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many buildings are there in the two different locations? How many exhibit buildings?
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The present location has a large barn, has a horse barn, which we do not use, has a poultry barn. It has a creative arts building and a small commercial exhibit building. Okay.
Representative Homer Lenderman
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What about the location that you're looking at moving it to?
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Okay. I may have to have some help from Cleveland County
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on this. I can probably help with that. We have a
Chair
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cattle barn. We have a goat barn. We have a pig barn. We have a commercial display building that's totally enclosed.
We have the exhibit building, which is totally enclosed. We have a covered pavilion for outdoor activities like a concert or something like that where the seating is also covered. I'm trying to remember what they call it, a horticulture building. If you look at number of buildings, we definitely in Cleburne County have many more buildings. Now, the ones, to be fair, the ones in Melbourne are larger and fewer of them. Square footage, my sister, who's been very involved in showing animals at the county, district, and state level,
she drove to Melbourne for me on Monday morning and took a look at the facilities up there. And to be fair, it looks like they have almost as much square footage under roof as what Clebron County does. As far as show rings, Clebron County has three, and Melbourne only has one show ring. So what that does to you is you have to drag out the showing over a five-day period. If the board so chose, and I'm not going to make this decision for them,
with three show rings you can consolidate that to a three-day venue instead of a five-day. But what happens is somebody has to come in on Monday and Tuesday to show, and then they rotate out. Somebody else comes in on Wednesday and Thursday to show, and they rotate out, and somebody comes in on Friday and Saturday. So, you can't get the whole crowd there at one time. With three show rings, that problem is solved. In Cleburne County, these buildings and all the facilities there have been supported by
the community, and there's been fundraisers by the Young Cattlemen's Association, 4-H. People that show, I mean, a lot of the people that are here today have vested a huge amount of time and effort and fundraising into building those buildings. The state has subsidized the district fair in Melbourne, and it continues to lose attendance and continues to lose display, even though it's being subsidized. And so, you know, on the investment side of it, on the facility side of it, I would call
the two facilities equal. My sister, who has a lot more experience than I do, made that statement on Monday. She said if you look at them both today, even though Heber Springs has some advantages, she would call them equal. She was not aware that the horse barn was not used, though. She mentioned that it had a large horse barn, and this is the first I knew that they did not use the horse barn. So I'm sure if I called my sister and asked her about taking the horse barn out of the equation, it would definitely throw it to Heber Springs.
But the bottom line is it's population, it's community, it's infrastructure, it's motels, it's restaurants. We have a 40-acre fairgrounds there in Cleburne County, plenty of room for those investment dollars to be used. And you don't want to throw good money after bad by continuing to subsidize it in an area where there's just not enough population. Melbourne is the county seat, and it's 1,800 people. I've got a couple more questions.
Representative Homer Lenderman
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One of them is exactly how and what kind of money has the state subsidized
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and how have they done that for the fair? The state gives the district fair $48,000 every two years. We have used that to build the buildings that are on the Eastern County Fairgrounds. There was a smaller barn and a small creative arts building when the district fair was organized there.
Representative Homer Lenderman
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You said it was subsidized, but now my understanding is all the district fairs get that as a building design.
Yes, they do. Is that correct? Yes, they do. The Cleburne County, they have a county fair at this time? Yes, sir. Are the plans in place that will
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going to have it? They made a proposal, and I'm going to let her
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elaborate on that. Okay. They made a proposal that they would have their county fair two weeks before the district fair. They would not have a carnival. It would be more or less an exhibit fair only. They won't have any event that we would be having at the district fair.
Representative Nate Steel
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Vice Chairman Steele, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm curious to know, this is the first time I've really seen statutes
Chair
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like this. Are all district fairs in the code? I'm not sure about that. I do currently have somebody checking on it, and the other district fairs do not suffer this handicap. They are in large towns, large areas, and I don't know what placed them there. The law that I am trying to amend here definitely does not address the other district fairs.
You have it before you. We're changing one word from Izzard to Cleburne, and so absolutely it does not affect the other district fairs. However, I would hate to draft legislation that adversely affected them because they are not suffering from this problem. I guess I should clarify
Representative Nate Steel
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my question. I mean, are all district fairs identified by which county they're going to be in in the code? Yeah, okay. Is there any way that this is possible to be modified on a local level?
You mentioned earlier you'd rather not bring something to a state level if you can avoid it. I think all of us would rather leave local control when we can. So is there not any mechanism, I guess, since this
Chair
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is in the code? Since this is in the code, you would have to have a bill to either repeal this law, and at the same time you'd have to, you know, designate it to be put in the hands of the Fair Board. This should be simple. I mean, the Fair Board voted 10 to 4. When I got the e-mail from Ms. Lewis saying that they had voted 10 to 4,
I called over to BLR and asked them to draft this legislation. I thought it would be good common sense for the legislature to recognize the authority of the Fair Board and support them in their decision. I'm a freshman. I didn't take into consideration the power of the lobby, and we know that common sense doesn't always prevail. So I'm appealing to your soft side to ignore the lobby and look at the facts. Can I have one more question? I
Representative Nate Steel
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haven't heard any lobby on this, so I'm not coming from that.
But here's my concern. It seems to me if we were just going to do this on a purely majority rules deal on a fair board, the populated areas would always win over the unpopulated areas. And it also seems to me that we have the same argument when it comes to highway funding and other infrastructure, which is, you know, does it follow the traffic? My friends in northwest Arkansas say we've got all the traffic, we should have all the highway funding. Others say we've got to invest in rural Arkansas to have any chance of economic development. So it seems like the same arguments that you're making for why it should move to Cleburne County would also work against you.
They would say this is an area that already has these resources and we should do what we can to provide resources in Isard County where they might not have all those opportunities. How would you respond to that?
Chair
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I'll hang up and listen. Thank you very much. That's a good question. And I really appreciate the concern for the unpopulated areas because I've lived in the country all my life. The bottom line is people have a free choice. And when you load up the kids and you load up your horses or goats and you head off to the district or the state fair,
you're always traveling away from home far enough that you're going to need accommodations when you get there. Not everybody wants to camp out in their trailer for three or four days and cook every meal. They need restaurants. They need motels. They need to take showers. So the infrastructure is important to have a successful district fair. Every county has its own fair. and they definitely have the opportunity to have their own fair. The bottom line is when they win at the county fair,
the parents are making a decision to invest time in their children and take them to the next level, which is the district fair. And then from there you go to the next level, which is the state fair. So somebody's going to have to travel, and most of them are coming from rural areas. I still believe Cleaver County is a rural area, But I do appreciate your question, and that is something to consider. However, attendance has been dropping drastically where it's at.
Representative Gillum, you're recognized for a question.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Payton, you and I have talked about this beforehand. I got a lot of my questions
answered, but one just popped up when you were talking about kind of making the date, that you showed more concise because of the difference in the show rings between what you have there in Cleveland County versus what they had in Israel County and everything from
a economical perspective I was curious what your thoughts might be on would would it not make the concession stands and the
vendors more money to have it stretched out over over days I mean I'm kind of thinking that from the economic side of it stretching it out more days actually makes more sense
uh than trying to to me to me i think you might lose money i guess is what i'm asking this and
Chair
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i wanted to see what your thoughts were on that well please forgive my presumption that that is a good question i'm not on the board i don't make that decision and sometimes i'm a little forward and i speak my mind and uh it's not like i vetted that for very long before i said it uh it would be an option and in business options are always good uh i'm not saying it's a good
option and it would be up to the board to make that decision but having the ability to show in two rings at once or three rings at once can be beneficial because we have things like mud bog there in cleveland county we have a huge mud bog on the fairgrounds where they can have monster trucks come in and do that we have concerts at fairs we have rodeos at fairs and so you start trying to crowd all that in to a venue you definitely might be better off on a five day versus a three, but you may want some of your showing to happen simultaneously, even though
you have these other events that drag it out five days. I've not been on the fair board, so I'm talking out of school here, and if you want to ask
a question of Ms. Lewis, I'm sure
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she'd be happy to answer it. I should have directed that to
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whoever had the knowledge. I apologize. Okay. We will not cut the length of the district fair down. It would still be a six-day fair because our premium money is based on the number of days that we have a fair. You know, we get points, and that's based on that. But it would make it so much better on the agri-instructors now from Independence County, Van Buren County, Cleburne County.
They're having to go back and forth. They're having to haul goats in one day. They're having to haul cattle in one day. They're having to haul hogs in one day. So, you know, they're having to go back. They're continually having to go back and forth. And it would be better if we could have them all there at the same time. And we would still have a six-day fair for our vendors and things. And all the exhibits, you know, would be the
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creative arts and everything would be there the full six days. Okay.
And Representative Payton, just to clarify, options are good in business, and I do agree with that. But money is also pretty good with business, too. So that's why I asked the question was what was going to get them, you know, the biggest bang for the
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buck. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Thompson,
Chair
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you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of
Representative Tommy Thompson
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all, some of the most successful county fairs that I ever worked with,
and I worked 38 years as an agri-agent in several county fairs, and some of the most successful ones were in small towns. And you stating that, and I wrote it down, they have no business in small towns. I strongly disagree with that. Now, a lot of the people that participate in those small fairs
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enjoy the fact that they can stay on the fairgrounds.
It's a learning experience. It's an experience for the youth that are involved from various areas to get to know each other, to work with each other and to learn things from each other. You made a statement that the carnival runs your fair, basically, when you said the carnival's not going to come if we don't do such and such. And that has been an issue with county fairs throughout Arkansas for years and years.
Representative Tommy Thompson
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Carnivals will threaten you, but believe you me, there's
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more than one carnival out there. And the last statement was the fact that the lady said the district fairs get $48,000. Will your fair accept that $48,000? Should we decide to move it down there, or are you going to continue to participate as a county
Chair
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fair? I would like to answer your questions down the road, but for the last question, I'll probably need to refer to Ms. Lewis.
I live in a small town. We've always relished our county fair, and in Cleburne County, we do not have a carnival with our fair. There's a big difference between a county fair and a district fair. A district fair has to encompass seven counties or more. This one particularly has seven counties that's involved. So the infrastructure for a district fair is drastically different than what you need for a county fair. We love our county fair. As a businessman, I've been down there at the premium show spending a lot of money
to make sure that kids are rewarded for the efforts they put into it as they groom these animals and take care of these animals throughout the year to get them prepared for the fair. It is a tremendous value to hometown values, family values, learning responsibility, You know, understanding what it takes to have quality livestock, the breeding, the genealogies. All that is taught to our kids and our towns through the county fairs.
So if I said anything that sounded derogatory towards small towns and county fairs, I apologize. Please don't take that out of context. We are talking about a district fair, and I believe that does reach a different level. When you get to the state fair, everybody recognizes that there are a lot of people drawn to it by the activities other than the show level. And at a district fair, we hope to draw attendance from people who are not living on the farm
and who are not raising and grooming the animals so that they can be exposed to that agriculture and develop an appreciation for it. But these events that go along with the district fair help to promote agriculture among the part of the society that's not involved in the county fair. Heber Springs and Cleburne County by no means is a metropolitan area. So having grown up there, I appreciate everything you said about the small town, the small fairs,
And I really feel terrible that I may have implied that that's not good. I believe Izzard County and Melbourne should continue to have a county fair and should bring participants and entrants to the district level, and I would hope that the state would be supportive of that at whatever level we support other counties. I am not experienced enough in the legislature to answer your question on the money that
goes to the district fair, but I'm going
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to let Ms. Lewis try to address that. Okay. The $48,000 that we have been getting every two years is used to improve the Eastern County Fairgrounds. We spend it. We have bought three computers, but other than that it has all gone into buildings and facilities maintenance on the Isard County Fairgrounds.
We also paid them $5,000 a year as a lease, which we were told we could take out of construction money. So, really $43,000 is going into the Isard County Fairgrounds. We have no, we do not get, when they rent those buildings that we have built, we do not get anything from it. It all goes to the Isard County Fair. Cleburne did not charge any rent? Cleburne County agreed to not charge us any rent, and
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rent on the buildings that we build. Do you have a debt service
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in Isard County that you're dealing with? Are you referring to the Isard County Fair or to the District Fair?
Representative Tommy Thompson
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The money that's coming in as a result of the District Fair, is it being used to pay on a debt service?
Speaker 23
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I was told by their treasurer, I think it was two years ago, I made the statement to her that I will mail you the $5,000, and she said just so we get it in time to make our loan payment.
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Now, that's all I know about it because I have not
Representative Tommy Thompson
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seen their financial records. Do you know if they have a debt service in the Hebrew Spring,
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that's Cleburne County Fair? I probably have people in the audience that could answer that question better
Chair
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than I can. I think there may be a building with a very small debt on it, but most of those buildings have been built by fundraisers and contributions, and if you'll indulge me, I'll definitely get you the answer from the audience.
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I really don't need that. And I just wanted to get that information
Chair
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out. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Gene, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Payton and Ms. Lewis, I've got several questions. And you'll have to revisit some of this because I didn't catch all of it. Because you all serve as seven counties, is that correct? Could
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you list the counties for me? Okay. It is Kleber, Fulton, Independence, Isard, Sharp, Stone, and Van Buren.
Chair
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Okay. How many is on this district fair board? There is two
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representatives from each county. Each county has equal representation on the fair board, so we have a 14-member board. Okay. And the vote was 10 to
Chair
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4? Yes, it was. Was it a voice vote or was it a? It was a written vote. And the Secretary has the ballots on record. You
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know where the four votes came from? Two of them came from Sharp County.
Chair
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Two of them came from Eastwood County. Okay. So my question is, you know, I understand we have the responsibility of this,
but, you know, to make a good judgment, I would think members of this committee would need to see the fairgrounds. I've never been to either one of those fairgrounds. And I agree with Representative Steele that we need to make local choices, and I cannot make a good choice on this without seeing the fairgrounds. And I think that's unfair. But I want to hear the rest of the testimony. But Independence County would be the largest county.
Speaker 26
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Yes, it would. And they do not have a fairgrounds that will handle it. I understand they only have 12 or 15
Chair
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acres in their fairgrounds. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative
Representative Bob Ballinger
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Ballinger, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair.
Representative Gene asked my primary question, or actually you answered it for him. The board makeup is proportional with all the counties. So a larger populated area wouldn't necessarily have any more sway over this decision than a smaller populated area in the vote of the board.
Okay. Then the other question that I would have is you all actually put this out for bids, and I think that Representative Payton stated that you put this out
for bids to all the counties, and then only two counties actually came back with an option. Yes. In our
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November board meeting, we asked that any county that was interested in hosting the district fair to give us a proposal. The only one we received was from Cleburne County, and we went back to the Hissard County Fair
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board at a board meeting in January and asked them specifically for a proposal, and they got us one after January.
Representative Dan M. Douglas
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Okay. Thank you. Representative Dan Douglas. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have had the opportunity to serve on a fair board. Worst job you'll ever have in your life, I'll guarantee you that. But my sympathies to all fair board members. But what
is the attendance of your fair, and is it declining?
And usually you do not make business decisions unless you are thinking that you won't be able to continue operations. A major change like this, are you worried because of declining attendance that the fair might not be able to continue to
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exist? The paid admissions is where we get our money and from
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the business support sponsors. We do not get any sponsor money from the Eastern County area, none whatsoever.
Our paid admissions have gone down in 2010. We lost $2,006. In 2011, we lost $6,014. In 2012, we lost $5,280. That was a loss, you know, after we paid our expenses. Can you borrow any money from China?
Representative Dan M. Douglas
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No, but we have
Representative Dan M. Douglas
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Seriously, though, one thing you mentioned, Representative Payton, is that currently the livestock exhibits rotate in and out. Are you saying that hogs will be at the fair for a couple of days, and then they leave and then goats come in and cattle and so not all of the livestock is there at the same time is that that correct? That's correct. At the Clebron County would it give the opportunity with the show rings and do
the facilities exist to where you can keep all of the livestock there at all all times to where city folks might want to come in and see hogs, goats and cows at the same time and not just see, they might not like hogs. You know, they might want to see something else. Does this give more opportunity and flexibility that
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way? With the three show rings, it would. This is one complaint that we do get. We had an elderly gentleman come out last year.
He came out to see the cattle. They wasn't there, you know, and so this is something that's a goal. You know, it may not be able to accomplish it the first year or two, but it's a
Representative Dan M. Douglas
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goal to have them all there at the same time.
And one last question, Representative Payton, I still don't understand why we are making this decision here at the legislature. I feel like it should be local control. Would there be a way to amend the law to where we could just say, hey, the legislature keep
knows that local how the district fairs business let local control prevail well I'd like to
Chair
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remind the committee we are amending the law it's already there it already exists so anything we do requires some sort of a law I have not researched what the other district fairs need or want and I would be apprehensive about affecting their world without without some due diligence there I would be willing to put this in the hands of the fair board statewide, but that's my personal decision,
and I hate to say that that's a good idea without vetting it first. You know, there's a time frame issue here. Number one, we're not in session that long, and number two, they have to prepare to set this fair up all year long, and they need an answer in order to be able to start setting the fair up for this fall. So the time could be a problem, and how it affects other district fairs could be a problem also.
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
37:08
Well, could this not be amended to say the North Central Arkansas District Fair and Livestock Show board has the authority to change location wherever they see fed as a governing organization? It definitely can, and if it pleases the committee, I would put
Chair
Unverified
37:23
that amendment on there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Jett, you're
recognized for question. Thank you, Mr. Kerr.
Speaker 108
37:40
Representative Payton, first of all, I appreciate you taking this on. So just a quick math. I'm looking at, you know, roughly $500,000
that the state's invested in this since 1997, just a quick math. So how could you argue asking us to walk away from that type of investment and move it to a different facility? And excuse my ignorance on this question, because I'm really just trying to grasp what we're trying to do as far as the money part of it. Are we asking for more money when you move to Cleveland County?
Speaker 110
38:11
So I've got two-part questions, if you don't care. I
Chair
Unverified
38:14
don't know of any request for more money. I guess the assumption is that the money that the state currently invests in the district fair would follow the fair, but not any more money. To answer your question on the investment in Izzard County, they're keeping all that. They have a county fair there, and they will continue to have a county fair there, and they will reap the benefits of all that investment that has been placed there. And on a comparative basis, what they have at their fairgrounds in Izzard County
does not exceed what Clebron County has, having not had that $500,000 investment. So as far as a good trade for the state, you're trading what is basically equal value when you move from one to the other. And future investments would have a better return than past investments have. And the past investments will still be a benefit to the public in Izzard County. And my second question,
when we talk about mileage, I know Ms. Lewis talked about driving 80 miles.
Is Izzard County, which is more centrally located, Cleburne or Izzard? As
Speaker 7
39:25
far as geographically, I have a map, which would be hard for you to see. But Van Buren and Cleburne
Chair
Unverified
39:31
County are the two southernmost counties, and they have had the number one and number two volume of livestock entrants in the district fair. So Van Buren County, who is the host, or not Van Buren, excuse me, Izzard County, who is the host county, has come in third on exhibitors.
So, if you're talking about centrally located, are we talking about for the exhibitors, the livestock showers? And if you're talking about population, you could take the southern one-third of the district, and half of the population is in the southern one-third. So, population-wise, Heber Springs would be more centrally located. Livestock exhibitors, it's more centrally located. Real estate, it's a little bit of a disadvantage on real estate.
I appreciate you kind of getting around that answer, but bottom line is, Isard County is more centrally located, is what you're saying. I would not say that at all, no. I'm going to be sure I've got to go take with my bird. Okay. Okay, thank you. Well,
Chair
Unverified
40:43
excuse me, my ignorance. Can you kind of run through that one more time for me, please? I guess the key word in your question is more. You could argue it's more centrally located, but it's not centrally located. Okay, here's my question.
What's the shortest distance driving on average for everybody
Chair
Unverified
41:01
coming to the district fair? For everybody who is displaying livestock at the district fair currently, it would be Cleveland County. For everybody driving in attendance, you always draw from your locality. So historically, they've drawn from local people. You'd have to say it was Izzard County. I believe if it was moved to Cleveland County, the numbers of people visiting the fair would go way up because there's a lot more people within a 40-mile radius of Heber Springs than there is a 40-mile radius of Melbourne.
Well, I appreciate that. And I kind of defer to my buddy, Representative Lane Jean, because we're asked to make a difficult decision. Definitely. I've never been at
any facility, so I appreciate you. Thank you very much.
Representative Gillum, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just clarification questions here real quick. We've talked about a lot of numbers and things, and I kind of want to get this back in my head. Earlier I think it was mentioned that Cleburne County would probably go ahead and do some sort of a county fair prior to the district fair.
Was that correct? That's what Ms. Lewis said, yes. Okay. Are there
any other district fairs in Arkansas that also have a county fair, too, at the same location? Not that I'm aware of. I don't think any of them have a county fair. Isard
Speaker 26
42:21
does. Isard has a county fair. They have a county and the district. And the district. They have two as well.
They have two. That's what I was trying
Speaker 96
42:29
to kind of – And they have a lot of the same events that we were – Boone County does, okay.
I wasn't aware that Boone County didn't. So it wouldn't be unique. It actually happens a lot of times and places. And if
Speaker 106
42:42
you don't mind me asking Ms. Lewis, I think Cleaver County has said they're going to phase that out or
Speaker 23
42:49
are they going to keep it that way? They said they needed to go ahead and have their county fair for a while because they need to pay down their indebtedness. They own a building and they need to go ahead and have their county fair. They do get some help from their county government, I think, each year. We do not get any help from county government in Eastern County.
Okay. All right. So they would probably keep maintaining the money that is distributed for the county fairs and also keep the district money if that was allotted too. The district money
Speaker 45
43:22
that is allotted if the fair moves to Cleburne County will be used
Speaker 23
43:27
for buildings to benefit the district fair, not to pay on their indebtedness. Okay. But now, would
they be able to use those new buildings that the district fair built for their county fair purposes?
Yes. So it's a pretty good deal for them then. Yes. All right. And then one last question, if I might, Mr. Chairman, just to clarify something. Representative Payton, you might be the best one to answer this. Ms. Lewis might. I don't know. Either one can answer it. When you were talking about the buildings a while ago and you talked about the square footage and size, and you may have mentioned this and I just missed it, but did you mention what the conditions were like? I mean, like, do we have newer buildings in Cleburne County than Izzard? I heard square footage, but I didn't hear conditions.
Which has the better conditions, I guess, is my
Chair
Unverified
44:20
question. That's a great question, and I have not studied the year that the buildings were built, but having been in Cleburne County as a participant and a business, I can tell you the buildings there are very recent. We have had a huge push in Cleburne County for the last 15, 20 years to, well, our whole fairgrounds is relatively new. While Mr. Stovall was representative from Cleburne County, he was able to facilitate a purchase of 40 acres, and that was only about 20 years ago.
And so everything there is relatively new because it's a new fairgrounds. And that's why we have so much space. That's why we have so much opportunity for growth is because of his
foresight on that. And I'll be done, I promise, Mr. Chairman. But by that statement
just now, it spurred another thought on, have you been to the Izzard County facilities?
Speaker 106
45:20
I've been there, but it's been years. It's not been
recently. One option or idea that might work for us on this, too, might be if you would be okay with this.
It might be good if this wound up as an interim study and we
all had a chance to go to those sites and facilities before we made that determination going off of what Representative Jean and Jet had mentioned. So just an option for you. I appreciate that. Thank
you. Any other questions from the committee? If not, we will move to the list of individuals who have signed up and is Representative Wren
here? Okay. We're going to go to the list of individuals who have signed up and we'll start with those Those who signed up against, is it Mike Cohn? Okay, you can have
a seat at the end of the table.
Mr. Cohn, if you would, please state your name and then you can proceed with your statement. Yes, sir.
Mike Cohn
Unverified
46:50
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. to thank you for allowing us to come today. And my name is Mike Cohn. I am a previous mayor of Melbourne for 16 years. I was one of the original people involved in setting up the North Central District Fair when Mr. John Miller was state representative. And you know, we are real proud of our facility. We, about 1991, we moved from town off of
a little one-acre spot almost with four rides out to a 28-acre field. And a group of us men went to bank, bought over $200,000, and started building buildings and having auctions and donations. And we built, you know, real nice buildings. And we got the thing about it, and a lot of our people didn't go to Harrison, to the district. A lot of Sharp County people didn't go to Jonesboro. and we got the idea of maybe creating a new North Central District Fair
and we got to talk to Mr. Miller about it and got contacting the other counties around and they all seemed to think that was a real good idea and we invited them over to Melbourne at the college there and had a federal mistake dinner and kind of bribed them a little bit and everyone seemed to think that was a good idea and that actually passed and started in 1997 And at that time, the county owed in excess of $200,000 on our individual buildings.
And since then, you know, the fair has done great. You know, I'll put our fairgrounds and buildings second to none because, you know, when I was mayor for 16 years, you know, our employees worked out there around the clock if needed with no charge to the county or district fair. And, you know, there's been actually more than 500,000 of district funds spent on the facilities already.
And most of those expenses and increases in the buildings were due to the need of the district fair needing the county fair. We had adequate room for, you know, our particular entries. And so, you know, I was president of the North Central Fair for like 12, maybe 12 years, something like that. And when I left, you know, we never made a lot of money. You know, it wasn't ever the intent to make any money.
And the thing we've lost sight of is the reason for the county fair and the district fair is for our children. And, you know, we have a real, real safe environment there. We have 120 camper hookups. The entries have grown from up to around 5,000. And I don't want to differ with you, but I think you've got some bad numbers. You know, from the numbers I got from the livestock poultry this week, Sharp and Ezard County, out of the 5,000 entries, had 2,467.
The other five counties had 2,500. There was 167 total exhibits from Cleburne County at the fair, which is contrary to what you stated while going forward. Okay, but that's okay. But anyway, let me continue. And, you know, I would really invite you to come up and look at the facility before you make a bad decision.
You know, the money, I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the handout you got earlier from the funds. You know, we just tried to provide what was necessary. You know, in the last two or three years, there's been some events held that cost a lot of money. And I think the district members, you know, they're all friends of mine. I hope they still are when this is over, but I disagree firmly in what they're trying to do right now. But, you know, they spent a bunch of money on some rodeos, bull bucks, rented some sleds for $2,500, paid janitor $600.
You know, I'd bring in the prisoners and do, you know, there were some bad decisions, I believe, on spending. And then Nizard County is getting the blame for them losing money when they survived for 13 years without losing any money. And the entries keep growing. Our children love it. And, you know, I'd just like to ask you to take this, to heart it. And the population of Maryland, by the way, is 1,848. It's not just 1,800. But, you know, we worked hard, and the county does support the fire ground with money.
The city works out there around the clock with their mowers and molds it and keeps it up. And, you know, it's kind of personal to me, I'll be real honest, because I attended the first meeting and started this thing, and I'm going to run for mayor again next year. And if we do, we're going to continue to work out there around the clock if necessary to keep this thing going. And I'd be happy to answer any questions. I know I'm of rattle on, but it is important to me.
Vice Chairman Steele, you're recognized for a question. You
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
52:16
don't mind taking a question or two? Yes, sir. This was just done 10 years ago, so is it fair to say that the same arguments that are being made today would and probably
Speaker 135
52:25
were made in 1997? I'm not sure I understand the question. Well,
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
52:30
I mean, the population differences, the infrastructure, all those things were probably the same in 1997 as they are now. And my point is I imagine those same arguments were made then, but it was decided that the fair ought to be in Israel County?
Speaker 124
52:44
Right. You know, at the time, like I said, we had just moved out about six years earlier and built
Mike Cohn
Unverified
52:51
the new facilities, and we had new barns, new commercial buildings, and we had a nice facility. And people, you know, the other five counties agreed that they would like to try that. And honestly, up until two or three years ago, there's never been an issue. And there's been a lot of change on the board in the last, you know, out of the 14 board members, there's about seven of them and hadn't been numbered about two to three years.
And so it, you know, I just felt like everything's going great. I kind of stepped down, do some personal reasons, and I still remained on the county board, been only at 35-plus years. but when this all started happening I kind of started getting back involved and I just felt like this was you just need to come look at our facility I would imagine that horse
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
53:47
barn that hasn't been getting used
is going to be used this year, is it
Speaker 124
53:55
not? Well, you know Thank you The horse barn, okay we had a really nice cow barn, livestock barn
Mike Cohn
Unverified
54:01
Okay. And the cattle entries kept increasing. And it was either build, you know, add on to the cattle barn, build a new cattle barn. And some of the district members suggested that let's tear out the horse stalls in our, we had some of the nicest horse stalls that you could imagine.
And so we let them tell all of our horse stalls out of our big new barn that we had built, and they agreed to build this horse barn, you know. And it's used, you know, we use it during our fair, and I don't know why they don't use it. I mean, they decided not to bring their horses in and keep them overnight. But, you know, that's their decision. You know, it's there for their use. And, you know, I was just teaching. I appreciate your answers.
That's all I've got, Mr. Chairman. Representative Linderman, you're recognized for
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
54:55
a question. Thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. It's Mike Cohn. Mike Cohn. Okay, Mike, this, it was alluded to earlier, $48,000 is furnished by livestock and poultry, and that is for buildings and improvement within the buildings. Have you all utilized that money to build buildings, and do you currently have debt on any of those buildings at the Ezra
Speaker 124
55:20
County Fairgrounds? And I'm happy to say that the $200,000-plus at Izzard County Borough back in 1991,
Mike Cohn
Unverified
55:29
I believe I have the president of our county board with us, Ms. Kenny White, but we were discussing that on the way
Speaker 124
55:36
down. I believe the bank called this week and said our payment was coming due. We owe $19,000, and we have got $10,000 to pay on it, and we'll have a total of that on our whole facility of $9,000 after next week when we make that payment and redo the loan. And we've come a long way and done it a hamburger
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
55:57
at a time. Okay. Do the counties, do the individual counties get funds?
Do you know this? And this may not be a question that you
Speaker 124
56:06
know, and if so, how much? The last time I checked, it was $7,200 construction funds for each
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
56:12
county fair. And the district fair got $48,000. Yes, sir. So this would be a financial hardship on the Isard County Fair Association, Isard County, if you all lost this fair. Is that correct? Well, you
Speaker 124
56:23
know, and I don't know if you'd want to say. No, we're going to survive. You know, we survived before we
Mike Cohn
Unverified
56:31
had it. But, you know, they pay us.
The $5,000 was started after about two or three years, And we had cut our fire down to three days a week in order to help pay on the loan. The district board at that time, everybody was in 100% agreement that they would pay us the $5,000 to help reduce our loan for the use of facilities. It wasn't an issue for 12 or 13 years. But, you know, with the debt being as small as it is, yes, we would survive. But, you know, I don't see the problem.
We just have a really good fair, and it is more centrally located than Van Buren County or Cleburne County. Okay. You
Speaker 3
57:18
mentioned the board. How is the board made up for this district fair? Okay. When the
Speaker 124
57:24
law was written in 97, it was set up that there would be two board members from each county, one of those members in the county being nominated by the county fair board, the other member being elected by the Farm Bureau of that county.
And to my knowledge, it's still set up to that way today. And the Farm
Mike Cohn
Unverified
57:46
Bureau of the county appoints one board member, and the local fire board supports the other member. Okay,
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
57:53
do those members serve for one-year terms, or what's the length of
Mike Cohn
Unverified
57:57
their terms? I think it's, like I said, I've been out of the district for about three years, but when I left, I think they were serving
like four-year terms. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Ballinger, you're recognized.
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
58:17
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is, when you compare the facilities in the two locations, can you explain to me specifically, well, first of all, I guess the first question is, would you say that your facilities are better than what is in Clebron County? And if they are, will you explain
in detail why they would be? Well, and
Mike Cohn
Unverified
58:41
I can't answer. I stated that we just have good facilities. I have never been to Cleveland counties and seen their facilities.
On the answer, when they were talking about keeping the three rings to show their animals, I can't imagine them having enough space to keep all of the animals there at one time. you know and so I don't I think all fairs I know the state fair even they rotate animals in you know each day and they come in stay a while and they go home and and they show different I mean just like playing basketball if you got a boy's team a girl's team you know they play different days I mean that's just something we have to do sometimes it's uh but I don't I don't believe
they would have the facilities to house all livestock coming in at one time so they could show them in three separate arenas, unless they, you know, it would just be a really
big, lots of barns. Any other questions of this
witness? Thank you, Mr. Cohn. Thank you. Going back to the list of those for and against, the next on the list, speaking for the bill,
Is it Jenny Evans? Janie Evans, I apologize. Ms. Evans, if you'll take a seat at the end of the table. Ms. Evans, if you would, please state your name,
Janie Evans
Unverified
1:00:16
and then you're free to give your statement. My name is Janie Evans. I am treasurer for the Cleburne County Fair. I'm also the district fair president.
And I've been on the district board for over 10 years, the Cleburne County board for 25 years. We were asked at a November meeting for proposals of Cleburne County. I went back and discussed with my fair board, and they felt that this was a positive thing for us to do, that we had the volume at Cleburne County, the population, to be able to support the district fair. I've heard the comments today And one thing that was just discussed a few minutes ago
Was the ability of the Cleveland County Fair To have all of the livestock there at one time And yes, we can do that A whole lot easier than what we can at the district fair Some of the things that they forgot to mention Perhaps at the district fair Is we have outgrown their barns We had to buy extra pens last year And put actually livestock in where the cattle go We had to put goats in the cattle barn. So there are a lot of opportunities to Cleburne County, you know, and I hope that you would consider the move because we think it's the best thing financially for the district.
Thank you. Any questions? If not, thank you for your testimony. Representative Wren, do
you desire to speak against the bill? Representative Wren, you're recognized
Representative Tommy Wren
Unverified
1:01:58
to speak against the bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Tommy Wren, Representative. Committee, you know, I want to comment on a couple things that I think is important today.
In 97, this North Central District Fair was established, and it was established in the location that it was because it was centrally located in those counties. It's the center point for, there's been testimony that it would be easier on ag teachers. Well, it would be easier on ag teachers in the southern part of the district fair if it was moved to Cleburne County. But it was put in Isard County because it's centrally located, and it's the same for everyone.
It's been mentioned that the solvency of the fair. Well, the fair has been operating in the black since 97. and I understand that there's some debt currently and in that proposal when Isard County was asked to submit a proposal on reducing the fees they were more than glad to do that to help with that debt it's been mentioned that Isard County is a small rural county
well it absolutely is a small rural county There are a lot of small rural counties in this state. And the fact that a district fair can only survive in a larger area, I think that we've shown that this district fair has survived in a small rural county. And it's been doing it since 97. If you were going to move this fair to the most populated area with the most businesses and the most support, you would move it to Independence County, bottom line. Our community has
Isard County has supported the North Central District Fair Overwhelmingly And I think the problem that exists here today Is the fact that you have people That you have personal differences And we've come today to decide on something Where a district fair should be Based on personalities And I think that's the crux of it. And at this time, I'd be happy to answer any questions of the committee.
Representative Ballinger, you're recognized for a question?
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
1:04:25
Would you be in support of it if it was given to the local board to make the decision about the location of
Representative Tommy Wren
Unverified
1:04:33
the district fair? Representative Ballinger, I think that any time you've got people that are involved in this that have personality differences, you can move this fair every year, every two years. I think some of the other district fairs are where they're at because that's where they were set by the state because of the location.
So, no, I think that it's where it should be because of the location of the fair. When you look at, you know, we take this as representatives, We're supposed to serve the general public, and we're supposed to serve all of our districts. And that's what I do, and that's what you do. And the district fair was there because it was the most fair centrally located for those counties that
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
1:05:17
were involved. Can I have another question? Then would you say that it's our position that we need to make a decision based on geographically,
probably based on where the exhibits and the livestock come from? where the infrastructure is, where the hotels, basically the best place that would flourish for the district fair and for the community. That's basically what we've got to decide right now then. Well, absolutely.
Representative Tommy Wren
Unverified
1:05:41
I think the location, because it's centrally located, I think the infrastructure, and I want to mention something. Ms. Evans just mentioned that they could support all the livestock. Well, the testimony today is that they have never used our horse barn.
Well, how come we're not putting livestock in that horse barn that we spent over $100,000 on that we were asked to have? Those things are petitions, sir. So you could put cattle in there. You could put goats in there. You could put any of those exhibitors in there. That horse barn is there for the North Central District Fair, and it's there for those exhibitors, and they can use that at any time. And it is petition. It wouldn't be like one county only has one stop. I mean, the exhibitors could use that as they please.
Thank you. Any other questions of Representative Wren? If not, thank you, Representative. Thank you, committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Speaking for the bill, I recognize Phyllis Young. Ms. Young, if you would, please state your name, and then you're free to give your statement. Thank you.
Phyllis Young
Unverified
1:07:01
Thank you for having us this morning. My name is Phyllis Young. I am a board member of the North Central Arkansas District Fair and have been for about two years. I'm one of the newer members. I work with Corrine Weatherly in the Photography Division in the Creative Arts area during District Fair as well as working with the Mayor's Cookie Jar which supports our scholarships
that we award annually. I live in the suburbs of Shirley, Arkansas in Van Buren County, am a retired AT&T employee Born and raised in North Little Rock, moved with a job and retired back here in 1998. I am a member, have been a member of the Fair Board, Van Duren County Fair Board for over 10 years. I am currently the Vice President and I do coordinate all of the creative arts that come
into our county fair. We've heard a lot of information today. Being a new person on the District County Fair Board, I came in with basically county knowledge, understanding that it was a bigger fair as a district fair. For the past three years, and again with my financial background in corporate America, the financials have gone down every year.
We have not been able to make money. In looking at the data that's available for us, we have a very nice and a very large complex at the district fair, and we do appreciate the money that comes in that makes that available. Izzard County has a very large county fair, a nice county fair, three weeks prior to the district fair with a carnival. happened about four years ago and I may be wrong a little bit on my timing but
now we have a county fair and a district fair in a small area and as most fair people understand it's hard for a fair to or a carnival to support two fairs There's within a 90-day window, there's only so much money available for spending on entertainment in a small area or a large area, and selections have to be made.
County, as in Vanbury County, counties supported first. That's understandable. What we're up against now is where can the district best survive so that we continue to have a district fair for exhibitors in our seven counties. And as a discussion of many meetings at the district fair, the decision was made based on a vote to move it with the potential of having a more likelihood to succeed and build
our district fair in the Cleburne County. Thank you. Thank
you. statement. This time, I'll recognize Kenya Wyatt to speak against the bill. Ms. Wyatt, if you would, state
your name, and then you're recognized to give a state.
Kenya Wyatt
Unverified
1:10:51
Hi, my name is Kenya Wyatt. I have become president and I've served on the county board probably the last seven to eight years. And the last three years I've
Speaker 168
1:11:05
been president of the Izzard County Fair Board. I would
Kenya Wyatt
Unverified
1:11:08
like to say that we're very proud of our grounds. We have great facilities. We have lots of acres and even more acres for improvement that we could do. to state what she had said about, you know, corporate America, I'm in finances.
I know all about it. We own a bank, and I know all about finances and how things operate. And if you look at the financial statement they're passing out, you can see that, you know, it's more just when your expenses exceed your income, you're not going to make it. And if you can look at, like, in their, as I said earlier, like in the truck pools that they put on, it's on your second page about three-quarters of the way down, spending $2,500 on that,
plus trying to do a rodeo on a bull buck, $2,500. You've got $5,000 right there you're spending, which way exceeds, you know, we have a Pioneer Day in Melbourne that's big, and we don't even spend that much on our rodeo that we put on for Pioneer Day, and it's a huge event for us. You can't spend that kind of money and expect that you're going to come out ahead. It's going to put you in debt. I would also like to comment on, you know, they said you can't do 90 days
and have a county fair as we do. We moved our county fair back to the beginning of August, and the end of September is when the district fair is. Well, that 90 days is not going to affect our county fair or the district fair. But is Cleveland County, as they said, they're going to have a county fair too. So if they're having a county fair, is that going to coincide too and make them fail as well in Cleveland County? It doesn't make a lot of sense if you're trying to move and do the same thing that we're doing and you're failing there.
It's kind of, as you say, the way I look at it, if you're going to make it, or say you have a restaurant. This is just a simile. Say you have a restaurant, and then you serve bad foods, you have bad management. And it fails if you move to a different location, and you do the same thing and have a restaurant and serving whatever. It's going to fail just as well. Location does not matter. If you can't operate in one place, moving to a different location is not going to make it any better.
Speaker 17
1:13:32
I'm open for any questions. Any questions from
the committee? If not, thank you for your statement. Thank you. This time I will recognize Corinne Weatherly. You're not wondering? Everything's been said? Okay. There's no one else signed up to speak against the bill.
Is there anybody in the audience who wishes to
speak against the bill? If not, the remainder of those signed up are for the bill. As I go through this list, please be consider the committee's time. If there's additional information you think that is important to provide, then certainly we'll try to do our best to recognize. If not, if everything you wish to say has already been said, we would certainly appreciate it if you would just let us know that.
Mr. Jim Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham, just a second. Representative Douglas, you're
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
1:14:44
recognized. Mr. Chair, I move to limit debate. Okay.
That's a proper motion. All those in favor of limiting debate, say aye. Any opposed?
Speaker 175
1:15:03
I'd say five minutes aside. Mr. Cunningham, you're recognized. Jim Cunningham. I'm a retired agri teacher and have gotten involved on a different, rather being a participant, on the other side of this thing. And I'm a new member this past year is when I went on the board. And the facts are, have been brought out. Financially, are we going to go ahead and bleed to death?
or are we going to be proactive? That's my stand. We just need to be sure that we have a district fair for our boys and girls, and if we are broke, we can't do it for whatever reason. That's the bottom line. Okay? Thank you.
Again, no one else to speak against the bill. Let's see.
Ms. Carol Johnson, to speak for the bill.
And I'll remind the committee that Representative Payton's time closing is part of the five minutes. You're recognized. Thank
you. Good morning for having us and for hearing
Speaker 176
1:16:22
about this fair issue. I'd like to speak to you not on personalities or even profit. I'd like to speak to you as a parent today. I have a daughter that's 14. I didn't let her show at the district fair until she was about 10. So we've been going to Melbourne for four years.
And diplomatically, I'd like to thank all of you from Melbourne. Everybody there is very friendly and very courteous. But the problem that I have is the accommodations. My daughter slept on a floor in one of the bed and breakfasts last year. There's not accommodations. The restaurant choices and opportunities for the students to go during their lunch break, there's not. When a student goes to an activity like this, it's about, you know, them being together and being able to go out and do things in the community.
And there's really not anything to do there. When they're there, they're at the fairgrounds. It's limited. And as a parent, you know, you have to consider that. So that's all I'd like to bring to you, unless you have some questions for me
specifically. Any questions? Thank you for your testimony. Thanks. Speaking for the bill, is it Mr. or
Ms. Lewis? No, I know you've already spoken. I can't read the first name. I'm sorry.
Not going to speak. Okay. Jackie McPherson. My name is Jackie
Speaker 177
1:17:55
McPherson. I'm the mayor of the city of Heber Springs, and Mr. Chairman and members of this committee, I want to thank you for allowing us to come and discuss this issue with you today. I'm just here today to let you know that the city of Heber Springs would be excited about hosting the district fair in our community.
We're very blessed to live in an area where people love to come and visit. Heber Springs, if you hadn't had the opportunity to come, I would encourage you to do so. We do live in a beautiful area, and again, we're accustomed to having visitors to our area. I think that would help us with this event. We have over 400 beds in Heber Springs in the close surrounding area. We have over 40 restaurants in our community. We have 1,300 campsites on Greer's Ferry Lake.
So I think from every aspect that we can house and feed the people that come to our area. And, again, being a resort area, we know how to treat our visitors when they do visit us. Again, we're excited. As a mayor, naturally, I want to generate tax revenue for my city, and I'm sure this committee wants to generate taxes for the state of Arkansas. And I'm confident that Heber Springs, nothing against where this fair is being held now, but from the infrastructure that we have in place, I'm confident that we can generate more taxes.
and more activity with this fair, and I'd be happy to entertain any questions. Thank you. Any
questions from the committee? If not, thank you for your statement. By my count, we've got
about a minute left on the four side. There are three remaining individuals who signed up. Pam Lloyd. Is it Stan Miller?
Speaker 179
1:19:50
then finally Frank Evans thank you my name Frank Evans I have been on the Cleveland County Fair board for this will be my 26th year and I've served in all capacities I am presently the fair manager for the Cleveland County Fair I've also been on the district board for nine or ten years and I just have a few
statements that I would like to answer that has been made in the past. One of the questions that had been brought up was location. If there's not enough people in that area to support what you're trying to do, you're not going to make it anyway. The amount of money that we're talking about in our bank account that is not being
made is through the general account. We receive money from the state for construction funds and also for premium funds which goes to the kids. The general account is where we get the money from to pay our bills. Mr. Evans, I apologize. We
had limited debate to five minutes on each side and that the five minutes has expired so we
appreciate you appearing but the time for the proponents of the bill has expired there's no one else has signed up to speak against the bill and I would just like one last opportunity anybody to speak against the bill if not as I alluded to earlier mr. Payton's
time to close was that is actually part of the time allotted on the motion to limit debate so there's no time remaining to speak in favor of the bill at this time I'll represent I'll recognize
Representative Lampkin for a motion I'd like to make
Representative Sheilla E. Lampkin
Unverified
1:22:09
a motion because I feel uncomfortable voting for this because one it's a local matter to I don't know anything about the facilities along with some of my colleagues I like to make a motion put this in an interim study and let us at some point maybe in the interim go up and look at this and kind of look at it from all angles if that's a proper motion.
That is a proper motion. Any discussion on the motion to refer to interim study?
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
1:22:46
I have a question. I don't know procedurally where this is at, but I think I may be making a substitute motion. It is my understanding that Representative Payton may be willing to amend his bill that would make it acceptable to several people on the committee. And so I'd like to
make a substitute motion to allow him to pull the bill and amend it and bring it back.
Representative Sheilla E. Lampkin
Unverified
1:23:19
Now, Mr. Chairman, in light of that, I would be willing to pull my motion
You're going to withdraw your motion. Yes, sir.
And then Representative Ballinger, what is your motion?
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
1:23:32
My motion is to allow Representative Payton to pull his bill and amend it and bring it back in a
way that we can look at it
again. I don't think it's a proper motion to pull the bill. I think Representative Payton could unilaterally withdraw the bill. Is that what he
Speaker 5
1:23:49
desires to do? Well, and that's what I don't know exactly how
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
1:23:53
to do it if he can't close for his bill. So that's why the question was.
Chair
Unverified
1:23:59
Mr. Sheriff, I could be recognized. Representative Payton, you're recognized. Thank you very much. I would be willing to pull the bill and amend it so that we never have to deal with this again at the state level. I will put in language in that says that the district board has the authority to move it, but not more often than five years to take care of Mr. Wren's argument or worries about it being moved
too often. Without objection, the chairman will allow Representative Payton to withdraw the bill.
Now, with regard to what amendments he may or may not put onto it, that would be for him to determine going forward. But, again, without objection, we're going to let him withdraw his bill. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Payton. Members of the committee, I believe we have one other
bill that we are going to take up today. That's House Bill 1365. Representative Dale, you're
Speaker 108
1:25:04
recognized to present your bill. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Robert Dale, Representative. We're here to discuss House Bill 1365. I'm asking Crystal Phillips to join me here. Crystal works for the Natural Resources Commission, and this is a bill to clean up some of the the legislation that we've had in prior years, mainly... Representative Dale, can we hold up just a second?
Let's let the room... You apparently know how to clear a room.
Speaker 147
1:25:39
I hadn't really thought about that, but...
If we could take just a moment so that someone would get the door, please. I want to
make sure that we give Representative Dale our proper attention.
Speaker 191
1:26:00
Thank you. Representative Dale, I apologize. You may
Speaker 108
1:26:03
proceed. I was trying to go fast in the interest of time there, Mr. Chairman. Under the current program, the individual applying to be a certified water well driller
or PRMP installer must first complete the current apprenticeship program, and that can range from one to three years in length. Prior to the inception of the apprentice program in 2003, a person applying to be certified had to have two years of experience as a driller or pump installer. This bill removes all reference to the old two-year experience requirement and language added to the law to facilitate the reintroduction of the apprentice program. So other subdivisions have been moved to other laws and bills there.
I'm going to let – refer any technical questions we might have to Ms. Phillips. Thank you. Ms. Phillips,
if you would, state your name, and then if you have any further comments to make, you're welcome
Crystal Phelps
Unverified
1:27:07
to make those. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Crystal Phelps, and I'll be happy to answer
Speaker 194
1:27:13
any questions you might have. Representative Dale did a great job of summarizing things, and I have
no further comments. Any questions from the committee? Representative Thompson, you're recognized for a question.
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
1:27:26
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On line
Speaker 76
1:27:34
34, page 1 of the bill, it says part of their qualifications is of good moral character, as determined by
Crystal Phelps
Unverified
1:27:53
who? That's definitely an interesting comment.
Speaker 78
1:27:57
Let me just tell you, that man sitting beside you has got as good a character as there is in this
Speaker 76
1:28:04
Capitol. And I respect him wholeheartedly. And I'm just playing with him. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Representative Jett, you're recognized.
I'd like to make a motion for proper time, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Representative Dale, are you closed for your bill? I am closed. Representative Jett, you're recognized for a motion. Make a motion do pass, Mr. Chairman.
We have a motion do pass. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Mr. Dale, Representative Dale, you've passed your bill out of committee. Thank you very
Speaker 201
1:28:41
much, committee. You've been very kind. Seeing no
other business to come before the committee without objection, we will be adjourned. Thank you.
Agenda
HB1385
HB1365
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Joe Jett Chair
Unverified
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd Chair
Unverified
Speaker 7
Chair
Unverified
Representative Josh Miller
Unverified
Speaker 15
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
Speaker 23
Speaker 26
Speaker 20
Speaker 46
Speaker 45
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
Representative Jeremy Gillam Chair
Unverified
Speaker 67
Speaker 70
Speaker 72
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
Speaker 76
Speaker 78
Speaker 84
Speaker 80
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
Speaker 29
Speaker 108
Speaker 110
Speaker 96
Speaker 106
Mike Cohn
Unverified
Speaker 135
Speaker 124
Speaker 3
Janie Evans
Unverified
Representative Tommy Wren
Unverified
Phyllis Young
Unverified
Kenya Wyatt
Unverified
Speaker 168
Speaker 17
Speaker 175
Speaker 176
Speaker 177
Speaker 179
Representative Sheilla E. Lampkin
Unverified
Speaker 5
Speaker 147
Speaker 191
Crystal Phelps
Unverified
Speaker 194
Speaker 201