Students behind community-center project

PANGBURN — Several Pangburn High School students hope their efforts will lead to a community center for the town.

Tenth-graders Patrick Stephens and Grace Neal and ninth-graders Kaleb Turner and Savannah Tharp discussed the idea for a community center with the Pangburn City Council at its regular April meeting.

The students presented information from research conducted by two of Sandy Roe’s classes at the high school.

“It was amazing at the way they handled themselves and presented the information to the City Council,” Roe said.

Roe, who teaches a seminar class to prepare students for college, said her students brainstormed about what community-service projects would be good for Pangburn. They came up with a shortterm goal of holding a health fair and a long-term goal of a $4 million community center.

“I’m not going to tell them they can’t pull this off, because they can pull it off if they put their minds to it,” Roe said.

Pangburn Mayor Gary Doyle said the City Council was receptive to the idea of a community center. He said the students had canvassed the community, asking its members if they would be willing to purchase a membership if a center is built. Roe said the idea was well received.

“There’s not a lot here for teenagers to do,” Roe said. “There is a city park and baseball fields, and a community center at Heber Springs that’s about 15 or 20 minutes away.”

Roe said many families from Pangburn drive to Heber Springs to use the community center that opened there in March 2010.

The Heber Springs community passed a 1-cent sales tax to pay for the project in April 2007. But Doyle said that using sales tax money in Pangburn isn’t possible because the town collects no city sales tax, and Roe said the students might meet with some opposition if they begin suggesting a sales tax.

“Because tax revenue is not there to support the center, it would have to be self-sustaining,” Roe said.

The students are considering several fundraising ideas to provide furniture and equipment for the center. But if the community center idea comes to fruition, the facility may have to be built in stages because of the lack of funds. Roe said she has hopes someone will donate land for the project.

They want to have a swimming pool, a basketball court, a track, a community meeting room, a social and civic room and a business center.

Roe said representatives from the William J. Clinton Foundation will come in this week to talk to the students about the steps involved in such a large project.

“I think it is great that the students are involved in it; it’s their future,” Doyle said.

“I encourage anything the students are trying to do. They do come up with good ideas.”

Pangburn High School students are also responsible for establishing the new Veterans Memorial that is downtown, and a museum that is housed in the old City Hall building.

Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.