Board OKs $2M for athletic housing
Southeast Arkansas College board trustees voted Wednesday to transfer $2 million from the school’s reserves to a construction account used for the renovation of a former nursing home into an athletic village.
The account is based at Partners Bank, which is headquartered in Helena-West Helena but has branches in eastern and central Arkansas. SEARK President Steven Bloomberg said the purpose of the transaction is to fund nearly 50% of the needed renovations of the former Davis Life Care Center at 6811 S. Hazel St., across the street from SEARK’s Seabrook Activity Center, where the college will host baseball and softball games starting next school year and basketball games starting in the 2024-25 academic year. SEARK acquired the old Davis complex for $990,000 in February.
“The total cost to renovate is approximately $4.3 million,” Bloomberg said. “The college deposited $2 million, and there is a loan that our developer, The P3 Group, obtained per its partners and is contributing in debt equity.”
The loan will cover the remaining $2.3 million, nearly $1 million more than Bloomberg projected when he said in February the college was prepared to cover $3 million.
Demolition at the Davis complex is scheduled to begin next Wednesday (March 15), with completion projected for the second week of August, shortly before fall classes begin.
SEARK will formally introduce athletic director and men’s basketball coach Chad Kline and dean of students Ka’Lisa Stanfield at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Seabrook.
Kline and Stanfield were both candidates to serve as both athletic director and dean of students, but Bloomberg said he selected Kline for the former and tabbed him men’s basketball coach in addition because of his experience holding both positions, most recently at Dyersburg State Community College in Tennessee. Kline is also a former head coach at Arkansas Tech University.
“Coach Kline has more than 20 years as a successful basketball coach,” Bloomberg said. “His prior position at Dyersburg State, he was AD and head coach. He was head coach at Arkansas Tech, and in just six years, he was the fourth-most winning coach in the history of the school. His skill sets were more suited to being AD and
basketball coach, so the coach got a great value added in not only him but Ka’Lisa as well.”
Stanfield, a Pine Bluff native, is tasked with developing what Bloomberg called a “more robust activities program” on campus including intramural sports for non-athletes. Stanfield, a former assistant in athletic departments at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, UA Monticello and Alabama A&M University, will also work closely with Kline on academic advising for athletes.
Kline and Stanfield have already begun their roles at SEARK.
“In fact, Coach Kline has finished job descriptions for a soon-to-be hired baseball coach and a soonto-be hired softball coach,” Bloomberg said. “Within the next 45 days, we expect to name both head men’s baseball and head women’s softball coaches.”
During their introduction, Bloomberg is expected to announce a capital campaign for athletics, with part of the funds going to convert the rubber floors at Seabrook into hardwood surfaces to meet playing standards.
Bloomberg has also announced the hiring of former Pine Bluff police Sgt. Richard Wegner as the college’s chief of police. Wegner retired from the Pine Bluff Police Department on Feb. 23 after nearly 10 years on the force and began working at SEARK on March 6.