Highway pact leads to $65M feed mill

State chips in more money after Hempstead County takes over maintenance

An estimated $9 million project to improve a 14-mile section of a state highway in Hempstead County has helped pave the way for the construction of a $65 million Tyson Foods feed mill.

The Arkansas Highway Commission on Wednesday approved an agreement between the Arkansas Department of Transportation, Hempstead County and Tyson to pay for the project.

The agreement is part of a longtime partnering program in which the Transportation Department fast-tracks projects if other entities help underwrite the cost.

In this case, the department will contribute $4.5 million toward the project. Tyson Foods is contributing $3 million, the the Arkansas Economic Development Commission is contributing $1.5 million in block grants and Hempstead County is taking over the maintenance responsibility of 11.6 miles of lightly traveled state highways in the county.

The so-called super feed mill will employ about 50 workers, but it will replace older feed mills in Hope and Nashville, which support chicken growers in the region, according to Steve Harris, president of the Hempstead County Economic Development Corp. The Nashville feed mill closed last year.

Southwest Arkansas is home to about 450 growers, Harris said. Tyson also maintains large processing plants in Hope and Nashville that together employ almost 3,000 workers, as well as hatcheries, Harris said.

The more modern mill will make it “more efficient to park a [110-car] train and be more efficient on the input of the feed,” Harris said. “Most of the input is corn.”

The feed mill is critical because Tyson is the region’s largest employer, he said.

“This is just the next step to upgrade, modernize and be more efficient and get bigger,” Harris said. “It’s great news for Hope and Hempstead County.”

A potential obstacle was the condition of the section of Arkansas 195 between Fulton and Arkansas 73. Tyson purchased a 326-acre tract along the highway near where it intersects with the main line for Kiamichi Railroad Co., a short-line company based in Hugo, Okla.

Portions of the highway were rated to carry trucks weighing no more than 64,000 pounds. Fully loaded trucks can weigh 80,000 pounds.

A study by the state transportation department determined that to hold the heavier trucks, 5 inches of asphalt would have to be added on the section of Arkansas 195 between Fulton and Arkansas 73. Nine inches would have to be added north from Arkansas 73 to U.S. 278.

The section of Arkansas 195 isn’t on the department’s primary highway network, a system of heavily traveled highways on which the agency focuses its statewide maintenance dollars. The section carries about 330 vehicles daily, according to department data.

As a result, Scott Bennett, the department director, said that initially the agency was willing to contribute no more than $3 million. But the department added another $1.5 million after Hempstead County agreed to take over the maintenance of the other selected highway sections in the county, he said.

“The present value of dropping those highways from the system is about a million and a half dollars because of future maintenance costs that we won’t be responsible for,” he said.

The department likely will award a contract this summer and the project likely will be completed before the end of the year, Bennett said.

A commission member, Philip Taldo of Springdale, said the importance of the agreement cannot be underestimated, adding that Tyson had considered building the new feed mill in Tennessee.

“I’d like to commend our staff for their leadership in seeing this thing through and the cooperation with AEDC, the governor’s office, Hempstead County and Tyson Foods,” he said. “It’s just not a transfer of jobs. They had opportunities to move this facility to Tennessee.

“On the one hand you can say we’re not creating jobs or as many jobs,” he said. But “we’re sustaining jobs. I think it’s a really positive thing.”

Wednesday’s meeting marked the first for the commission’s newest member, Marie Holder of Little Rock. Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed her last week to replace the late Tom Schueck, who died March 3.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the commission signed an order designating a section of Cantrell Road, also called Arkansas 10, between Pleasant Valley Drive and Chenal Parkway as the Thomas B. Schueck Highway.

The meeting also marked the last for Bennett, who is retiring after 32 years with the agency, including nine years in the top post. His last day is Friday. The commission named his top deputy, Lorie Tudor, to succeed him.