AAC
FEATURE
Saline County officials and its partners broke ground on the new Saline County Career and Technical Center, which they expect to be completed in the fall of 2021.
Saline County marks beginning of new career and technical education center construction Story and Photos by
Holland doran AAC Communications Coordinator
A
fter more than five years of planning and collaboration among county officials, local and state leaders, educators and school districts, Saline County has marked the beginning of the construction of the Saline County Career and Technical Center. A crowd of around 100 state and local dignitaries and guests gathered March 9 at the Benton Events Center for a groundbreaking ceremony for the center that is set to open in the fall of 2021. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Saline County Judge Jeff Arey, Saline County Economic Development Corporation (SCEDC) Executive Director Lamont Cornwell, SCEDC Chairman Shane Broadway, Arkansas State University System (ASU) President Dr. Chuck Welch, and ASU Three Rivers Chancellor Dr. Steve Rook spoke at the ceremony. Arkansas State Sen. Kim 28 cl_Spring_ 2020.indd 28
Hammer led the group in a prayer. Gov. Hutchinson praised the leadership of the six Saline County school districts — Benton, Bryant, Bauxite, Harmony Grove, Glen Rose and Sheridan — for working together to support and fund the center. “This is amazing that you can bring this kind of teamwork together,” he said. “Please understand how special this is because I have seen other similar career centers in other parts of the state in which high schools and colleges are competing against each other for it, or they plan on having multiple high schools participate in it, and it doesn’t work out that way. So this is very exciting to me what your leadership has accomplished.” In the November 2019 general election, Saline County voters passed Issue 6, a temporary, county-wide three-eighths percent sales tax that will provide money for the center. Arey expressed gratitude for the voters’ approval of funding. “Certainly, the voters of Saline County are the first ones I want to talk about because if it was not for their
vote of confidence in this project, then we would not be here,” he said. Arey thanked the Benton, Bryant and Hot Springs Village chambers of commerce, which campaigned for the sales tax increase, and for Gov. Hutchinson’s support and guidance. He also recognized the Saline County Quorum Court for seeing the center as a “worthwhile investment,” and thanked SCEDC for their encouragement to improve economic development in the county. “That’s what really got us started on this … SCEDC saying what do we need to do to improve economic development in Saline County,” Arey said. Cornwell used a football analogy to describe the teamwork among all entities: “You’ll notice that I didn’t call any names when I talked about who did what, when and where because it’s not about who did what, who did when and who did where,” Cornwell said. “We did this as a team. You hear that analogy that there’s no ‘I’ in team, that’s very true. But this team moved forward everybody in its own right, and we worked together as a COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2020 7/14/20 1:13 PM
