TEXARKANA, Ark. - Wes Crenshaw of Dallas has purchased local television station KLFI from Beech Street Baptist Church and will relocate the facilities to Wood Street downtown. Main Street Texarkana is working with Crenshaw on reworking the property in anticipation of KLFI setting up shop.
This item was one of several brought up at November's Main Street Texarkana meeting. The holidays were on the minds of everyone there as two major plans are falling into place.
"Our downtown Christmas parade is scheduled for Dec. 7," said Ina McDowell, Main Street Texarkana executive director. "The theme is 'A Tale of Two Cities,' and we are going with the stationary parade, with attendees driving by."
Volunteers are needed, she said, and can learn more at mainstreettexarkana.org online.
Keith Beason, city planner for Texarkana, Texas, said that for the parade, vendors will be set up in a farmer's market in the Kress Gap.
Also, this year's Main Street Christmas ornament has been announced.
"This year's ornament features the Jamison Building," she said. "This building, the first Texarkana African-American business building, was built in 1930 during the Great Depression. The ornament should be released soon after Thanksgiving."
Board member Dr. Charles Blankenship noted the continued interest in downtown Texarkana properties and development and expressed the idea that downtown and the I-30 development should dovetail and be complementary.
"The more public attention to downtown, the more interest projects here will get," he said.
Along those lines, McDowell said calls continue to come in about Arkansas small business grants.
"We still have access to the 50-million-dollar reserve offered by arkansasready.com. That's where interested people go to apply for grants from it starting next week," she said. "Also, if anyone has any question on it, how it works, who is eligible, those questions will be answered there as well."
The receipt of a $2,500 grant from the Texarkana Community Foundation to help maintain the downtown planters as well as other streetscaping needs was also announced.