City, school district unite on purchase

PEA RIDGE — City and school officials worked together to purchase 55 acres northeast of town for future development.

The land is at the corner of East Pickens and Guthrie roads. The city purchased 40 acres, while the school district bought 15.

“This will be a future park space and a third fire station,” Mayor Nathan See said about the city’s plans for the site, adding the vision is to provide amenities for the public along with open green space.

The Pea Ridge School Board in July approved buying 15 acres contingent upon the city purchasing the 40 adjacent acres.

“We had the opportunity to purchase 15 acres from Carroll Electric for $28,614 an acre, which is a really good price,” Superintendent Keith Martin said, adding the district did not finance the purchase. The district treasurer said the money was available in the building fund.

“We’re growing and need to have options of ways to grow the district,” Martin said. It’s one of the district’s goals to plan ahead to make sure the district is growing alongside the community, he added.

“This will give us a parcel of land that is not connected to what we have in the center of town. It will allow us to grow east of town and possibly help with traffic out there,” Martin said. “It can sit there for two years or 15. I feel very strongly we may not be able to purchase land for that price in the future.”

In June, the Pea Ridge City Council authorized the mayor and city clerk to offer to purchase 40 acres from Carroll Electric for $28,614 per acre. The purchase agreement was signed March 28.

This is not the first time the city and school district have worked together.

From 2015 to 2016, the city and school district joined efforts to build the City Hall/school Administration building on Weston Street. The 15,500-squarefoot building cost $2.5 million — a cost shared equally by the city and district. The building is on 16.2 acres purchased by the school district in January 2015 for $200,818.