Sprucing Up

The City of Ashdown is trying to keep the sidewalks from rolling up and instead let the sidewalks attract customers to downtown.

Construction has started on replacing the sidewalks on both sides of Main Street in downtown Ashdown.

The older sections of the sidewalks are broken, chipped and in disrepair.

"Some of the sidewalks are as old as Ashdown," said Mayor Carroll McLarty.

Ashdown was incorporated in 1892.

The city received a $132,000 grant from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department for sidewalk improvements, McLarty said.

"They help cities improve their downtown where they've deteriorated over the years," he said.

Ashdown had to provide about 20 percent of the money, which includes the engineering fees.

Andy Franks Engineering from Texarkana, Ark., completed the plans for the sidewalk and will have conduits installed underneath the concrete for the next phase of installing decorative lights, said McLarty.

Ashdown took two years in collecting funds to match the grant, and Domtar helped plan an auction to raise money for the city's share of the grant.

The first auction in 2011 raised $19,164.94.

The auction grew, and in February it raised $29,000.

The auctions were sponsored by Domtar's Community Advisory Team. The team includes volunteers from the mill and the community.

If an item had any value, the Ashdown Community Auction committee sold it.

Auction items included a pop-up camper, college scholarships, HD televisions, grills, picnic tables, home-baked goods and Arkansas Razorback memorabilia.

"The sidewalk improvement project will be a tremendous asset to the City of Ashdown. Domtar is proud to invest in a project like this that will improve the quality of life for people in the community. I'm also glad that the Ashdown mill can be a part of these win-win partnerships," said Bob Grygotis, Ashdown mill general manager. Domtar recently donated $20,000 to the sidewalk project.

Another phase will be to complete a renovation of downtown buildings, replace awnings and do a general fix up, McLarty said.

"Our goal is to eliminate the image of Ashdown being dead or dying. We want to show people Ashdown is alive and well," he said.

The traffic on U.S. Highway 71 near downtown exceeds 13,000 vehicles per day.

"The latest number from the highway department shows an average of 13,000 cars per day pass through Ashdown on U.S. Highway 71 (downtown). This is why it is so important that we improve the image of our downtown area," McLarty said.

He also credits several groups who participated in the decisions, including the city council, Little River County Quorum Court, Little River County Historical Society and downtown merchants.

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