Aquatic center sets opening
Siloam Springs Family Aquatic Center will open on June 18, City Administrator Phillip Patterson announced during the city board meeting on June 2.
Patterson said the city has been working on a way to figure out how to open the center in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The aquatic center will be open from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday until Aug. 16, he said. Beginning Aug. 22 the aquatic center will be open on weekends only.
The splash pad at Memorial Park will also be open starting June 18 every day with the same hours as the aquatic center until Aug. 16, according to the city’s Facebook page. Beginning Aug. 22, the splash pad will be open on weekends only.
The maximum occupancy for the aquatic center will be reduced from 300 people to 125 to ensure proper social distancing, Patterson said. This would be 50 percent occupancy with the remaining 25 being staff, he said
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businesses to Siloam Springs. Director Brad Burns said small entrepreneurial companies have set up businesses in Siloam Springs.
“I think the future, well I know for a fact the future isn’t going to be trying to get large industry,” Burns said. “The future is what we have going on right now. We have large groups, we have small entrepreneurial companies that are filling in spaces that are growing (and) expanding and they provide services to the corridor.”
Burns said he traveled extensively last year and visited places such as Portland, Ore., and other cities where small start-up companies are common. Some of the companies were coming to Siloam Springs to work with or service Walmart, Burns said.
One upside of Siloam Springs is there are some old houses in the city many entrepreneurs are fond of rehabbing which are much more affordable than where the entrepreneurs come from, Burns said.
Director Carol Smiley agreed with Burns, saying the smaller tech companies are what drive Siloam Springs and the quality of life is what brings these entrepreneurs to the city.
Patterson also agreed with Burns, saying economic development relates to jobs, housing and retail.
“When you look at jobs and you break that down into other sectors and part of that is entrepreneurial jobs,” Patterson said.
There’s an argument that small business is what really drives the economy, more so than big businesses especially in smaller towns, Patterson said.
Director Marla Sappington said while she is not against the tech businesses, there are a lot of families who really need to be able to make a better income and the city needs larger employers that can offer benefits for those families.
“I’m just looking at the needs of our citizens and they definitely need the help and (insurance) coverage,” Sappington said.
Patterson did agree with Sappington that larger industries do need to be pursued. He said the city needs to put forth the effort to promote small entrepreneurial businesses, but also needs to make a better effort at recruiting large industries.
Patterson also said he has spoken to large industries who have shown an interest in moving to Siloam Springs, but for one reason or another the city could not land them.
None of the companies chose sites in Arkansas so it is not like the city lost them to larger communities such as Rogers, Patterson said. He said he spoke to several companies over the years, but was not able to reach a deal.
“I think the mayor said there was one company from Maine and we had the representatives from Japan,” Patterson said.
He took the Japanese representatives around town, took them by La-Z-Boy and showed them properties out in that area and they were very interested. Patterson said the city received a thank you card from the Japanese company and some tea but never heard from them again.
“We’ve been close, but we haven’t gotten that big fish yet,” Patterson said.
Some of the companies the city tries to entice may be large tech industries, but they are still going to have some blue collar jobs, Patterson said.
He said he thinks nationally it’s becoming more and more difficult to attract large industrial companies since many have moved their plants overseas.
“That being said, where we find ourselves today, usually dependent on another country to manufacture and do a lot of things for us, we might start seeing some of that manufacturing come back to the United States,” Patterson said.
Director Mindy Hunt asked about whether the city’s contract with the chamber of commerce regarding increasing or encouraging more economic development has been looked at recently.
Patterson said the contract was already in place when Wayne Mays, former chamber president, resigned and the current chamber president, Arthur Hulbert, was hired. He also said the city looks at the contract annually to make sure everyone is focused on what needs to be done. Patterson said the chamber does a lot for the city and a lot of it is under contract.
At the beginning of the discussion, Patterson also addressed the first portion of the goal, which is economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic. Patterson said he was going to continue to watch March’s revenues, but said it may be more important to look at April’s revenues because it would be a full month into the shutdown.
Smiley said she thought Patterson covered everything in his presentations during the city board meeting and didn’t feel it needed to be addressed during the goalsetting workshop.
When the board finished discussing the goal, the members took an informal vote and placed the goal on the work list.