North Little Rock notebook
Argenta council luncheon nears
Hugh Forrest, chief programming officer for South by Southwest of Austin, Texas, is to be the keynote speaker at the Argenta Downtown Council’s annual luncheon at 11:30 a.m. June 5 in the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock.
The luncheon is the major fundraiser for the Argenta Downtown Council, a nonprofit that promotes the Argenta Arts District in North Little Rock’s downtown. Tickets are $125, with proceeds to benefit the downtown council’s efforts to improve and market the Argenta Arts District.
Tickets can be obtained by emailing ckent@argentadc. org. More information on the organization is available at argentaartsdistrict.org.
Forrest joined South by Southwest (SXSW) in 1989 after serving on the National Advisory Board for the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. He is a member of the board of directors for Austin Habitat for Humanity and the Austin-based accessibility company, Knowability.
South by Southwest is a series of interactive film and music festivals and conferences in Austin. The SXSW Festival in Austin began in 1987. Its conference last year attracted 75,098 people, according to a news release about the June 5 luncheon.
Hubble telescope exhibit to kick off
NASA’s “New Views of the Universe: Hubble Space Telescope” exhibit will be on display May 31-Aug. 31 in the second-floor gallery of the William F. Laman Public Library at 2801 Orange St.
An opening reception will be 6-8 p.m. May 31. Project engineer Maurice Henderson will talk about his work with NASA’s support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Science on a Sphere room-sized visualization platform and the interactive Hubble Space Telescope exhibit.
The exhibit will kick off the library system’s University of Stories Summer Reading Program events. The University of Stories program, consisting of books, DVDs and audiobooks, will run through Aug. 3. Program information can be obtained using the Summer Reading tab at lamanlibrary. org.
Programs’ funding focus of hearing
A public hearing is scheduled for June 10 in the City Council Chambers in the North Little Rock City Hall, at 300 Main St., during the 6 p.m City Council meeting. The council will consider approving the proposed annual action plan for the 2019 Community Development Block Grant and the 2019 Home Investments Partnerships program funding.
A 30-day comment period began May 12 and will end June 10, which is the deadline to receive all comments.
Copies of the plan are available for public review at City Hall and at the Community Development Agency, at 500 W. 13th St., in North Little Rock. The plan is also online on the city’s website at nlr.ar.gov/communitydevelopment.
The public comment period and public hearing are to allow comments from city residents on the strategies and priorities outlined in the plan in addressing the needs of low- and moderate-income households and neighborhoods.