City requests residents to ‘put on their best face’

With time winding down until the grand opening of the Murphy Arts District, the city of El Dorado is being asked to put its best face forward.

The MAD opening is set for Sept. 27 — Oct. 1 with concerts by some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Smokey Robinson, ZZ Top, Train, Brad Paisley, Ludacris and more.

It is the first step in a twophase, $100 million project to create an arts and entertainment district on the south end of Downtown El Dorado.

MAD is the lead project and major component of an ongoing effort to rebrand El Dorado as the “Festival City.”

Steered by El Dorado Festivals and Events, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization, proponents have said the massive project will be transformative for El Dorado in that it is also expected to create a new local industry based on entertainment.

“Festivals and Events has invested in what’s going on in the city. We’re all invested, and there are thousands of people who are going to merge on our city for what’s going on,” Alderman Willie McGhee sad during a recent El Dorado City Council meeting. “I think first impression is a biggie. This will be a diamond, not only for Arkansas, but for the United States.”

The Ward Three alderman said the city needs to be prepared for a crush of visitors who are expected in town for the MAD grand opening.

MusicFest, the annual festival presented by Main Street El Dorado, also will be held on Sept. 29 — Oct. 1 in conjunction with the MAD opening.

McGhee encouraged local residents and businesses to help make out-of-towners feel welcome.

“We’ve got to sell this, not only for the grand opening, but we’ve got to convince people to come back again,” McGhee said. “If someone turns on the wrong street, we need to have our best face on.”

Gateways and side streets McGhee called on the Department of Public Work to spruce up the city’s gateways and “side streets.”

“There’s already a lot going on behind the scenes,” Mayor Frank Hash said. “I think (Robert Edmonds, director of public works) has already contracted out to get the main thoroughfares cleaned up and trimmed and edged up, and we’re going to do some tree planting.”

McGhee emphasized that the city’s side streets deserve equal attention.

He again pointed to an example of an out-of-town visitor possibly getting lost en route to a MAD event downtown.

“What will the rest of the city look like to someone from the outside?” McGhee asked.

Yancy Kyle, security supervisor for MAD, agreed.

“We applaud all the steps you’ve taken. It’s a communitywide effort, not just the work we’re doing in one little area of town, although that’s the focal point,” Kyle said.

Keep El Dorado Beautiful Additionally, McGhee asked local residents to clean up their homes and neighborhoods to help invite visitors into town.

Alderman Judy Ward suggested

the city council pass a resolution to “encourage the community to clean up and be hospitable.”

Alderman Billy Blann asked city code enforcement officers to make contact with local property owners and ask them to tend to overgrown lots, whether occupied or vacant.

“Do it in a nice way,” McGhee stressed.

For its part in preparing for the MAD opening, Keep El Dorado Beautiful is calling on each household in the city to “sweep off your own front porch” with an informal community cleanup set for Sept. 23.

“We’re asking every person to clean up their yards — your yard and your neighbor’s yard if they can’t do it themselves — to get the neighborhoods clean the Saturday before everything kicks off,” said Janis Van Hook, president of Keep El Dorado Beautiful.

The Sept. 23 campaign will focus on individuals cleaning their own properties and will be separate from the annual, communitywide cleanup that is held each fall in conjunction with the Great Arkansas Cleanup.

Van Hook said the communitywide cleanup will be scheduled at a later date, likely in October.

For the MAD opening, she said

KEB will also press the city speed up curbside collections of household and yard waste.

The issue has previously been addressed by KEB and the department of public works, which has cited limited manpower and mechanical problems with the city’s knuckle boom trucks as issues that contribute to delays in curbside collections for household trash and yard clippings.

“We’re going to do our part to encourage citizens to cleanup, but once we cleanup, the city has got to pick up,” Van Hook said.

McGhee said the city should engage in a promotional campaign to help spread the word and encourage El Dorado residents make a good first impression for visitors.

“Maybe we can do a couple of commercials or something,” he said.

Alderman Mary McAdams also asked Hash to consider a proclamation recognizing the work MAD has done to champion the Festival City branding idea for El Dorado.

“I think anything we can do. It doesn’t have to be one thing,” Ward added.