Hendrix's Village, the next best thing since sliced bread

A new "urban lifestyle" for the city of Conway or a lack of space for Hendrix College is the question we need to be asking. Hendrix College has been steadily increasing its enrollment and is running out of space. This isn't a new issue but it is the impetus for the new village. Just like many other colleges across the state Hendrix's enrollment is quickly growing, so much so that the need to expand is a must for the college. But what kind of expansion will they need? One that offers the most efficient use of the land they own. Hence the Village, the new urban lifestyle.

The designers of this project have come up with a plan that emphases pedestrian traffic thereby reducing the need for parking. The idea here is to have shops, living space, and the college campus all within walking distance of each other. This way students have access to everything they could need while at school. The designers have done a masterful job with the village concept but have a slight problem, Hwy 64 better know as Harkrider.

Harkrider, the great divide, separates the campus from its visionary village concept. With traffic speeding by it will make it difficult to integrate the campus with its village via the one lone footbridge. So designers had an idea, why not make the highway part of the village, this way it would create a nearly seamless transition from campus to village. But how do you sell that idea to a city? Why you overload their senses with highly graphical presentations and tantalize them with visions of prosperity. Let's add a roundabout and sell this as an integral part of the design. Not only will it effectively take over Harkrider, it also will make it great focal point and draw much attention to our changing campus.

This all sounds great, if you are on the board of directors of Hendrix College, but for the average citizens of Conway who live, work, or travel by the campus it stinks. Now we cannot fault Hendrix for wanting to make the best of its property, the village sure does that, but the integration of Harkrider into the plan and passing it off as needed for the plan to succeed goes beyond being good neighbors to its city. What I fail to understand is why the Mayor would cast the deciding vote that allowed Hendrix to proceed without seeing the final plan. It was a very irresponsible decision on his part, he obviously was swayed by all the pretty details and could not see past the dollar signs swimming in his eyes.

Does Hendrix need this Village? Absolutely. Will the city benefit from Hendrix's Village? Again the answer is yes. Does the city and state have to sacrifice Harkrider for this Village? Absolutely Not. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Hendrix College is the only one who will benefit from a roundabout on Harkrider, not the city, not the state, and not the taxpayer. So people call your state representatives and have the roundabout idea rejected. We do not need to spend any of our tax dollars to fund a private venture. . .

RHTO Neighborhood Association’s Event

The Rolling Hills and Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association recently invited the candidates who are running for Alderman, Ward 2 to their regular scheduled meeting. Log Cabin reporter Jessica Bauer also received an invitation and wrote this story, [link]

At this meeting the would-be alderman discussed topics that ranged from the much debated sign ordinance to how much work and research there is involved in being an alderman to making public information more readily available, yawn…

While these are all good topics it seems to us that these pale in comparison to the real challenges that face the city. Challenges like the increasing population that brings with it increased criminal activity, increased traffic, and decreased green space with new construction.

Over the next 10 years Ward 2 will see some dramatic changes in the construction Hendrix’s Village project. This project, for example, will be another of the many challenges the city will face. It will be up to these potential aldermen to guide the city through this time of transition while ensuring that the city’s police, fire, and infrastructure departments have enough money and manpower to accommodate ventures such as these. It is this project that has already caused controversy when Mayor Tab Townsell’s vote approved the inevitable destruction of traffic flow on Harkrider by allowing Hendrix College to pursue the planned roundabout construction. This approval was given with very little research and without a finalized plan.

It would appear that these candidates have failed thus far to consider these challenges and are destined to repeat the mistakes of the current city council. Let us all hope that these candidates step up to the plate and talk about the more important issues facing the future of Conway in their next little soiree.

On a side note: Score one for Candidate Mark Vaught, he drew first blood so to speak. You see Mark Vaught was the president of the RHTO Neighborhood Association until this year when he stepped down. However he remains involved with the group serving as secretary for the association. Way to go Candidate Vaught that was a good move getting your opponents on your turf and essentially agreeing with their views. That should win you some votes from your neighbors. After all who wouldn’t want an alderman as a neighbor.