The Sevier County RDA met Wednesday, MAY 15th at noon in the Tres Agaves Board Room at UA Cossatot in DeQueen. The members of the board discussed and approved the minutes from their February 5th meeting and the financial report submitted by Treasurer Crystal Rankin. Chair Dr. Steve Cole led a brief discussion and provided an update on the progress of the hospital in DeQueen. Cole indicated that the license was being secured to guarantee local ownership of the hospital and he let the board know that there will be a published Pro Forma coming out within the next two months and the hospital project timeline should be finalized this Friday.
The RDA welcomed Bill Hegmann and Lane Powers from Southwest Arkansas Telephone Cooperative (http://www.swat.coop/) to discuss the possibility of applying for a multi-million dollar USDA grant to provide high-speed internet to Sevier County. While the grant will be very difficult to obtain, the RDA voted to engage a company to write and submit the grant. This push for high-speed internet addresses one of RDA's five points of their strategic plan. Chair Cole said, "Sevier County residents and businesses deserve easy access to high speed internet and we thought that at least trying to obtain a grant like this is a great place to start."
Members of the RDA board are Dr. Steve Cole, Crystal Rankin, Gary Golden, Dick Tallman, and Ray Wilson and work within the mission of the group, which is to engage in all related activities which have as their objective the long-range economic development of Sevier County.
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