In real estate everyone knows the three most important things are Location. Location. Location.
In the real political world up here in this progressive corner of the state, the simple changing of a location may bring on an unforgiving firestorm of protests and hard feelings.
We will watch and see if the move to relocate the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Redemption Center from Springdale to Fayetteville causes anyone political heartburn.
It is bound to.
Remember not so long ago when the Sam's Club, the only Sam's Club in Northwest Arkansas, was in Springdale?
That was, until a project to have sales of demon rum at the Sam's Club site. The state senator was Jim Holt, (remember him?). He ran the Sam's Club in Springdale right into the welcoming arms of State Sen. Sue Madison and the sale-taxing ways of Fayetteville.
That was whispered to be a million-dollar mistake on the part of now former Sen. Holt.
Now, news reports say that Arkansas Lottery Commission is on the move to leave the Springdale Redemption Office location for Fayetteville.
Say it isn't déjà vu all over again?
Besides those facts that were brought forth in the state's largest newspaper this week, Arkansans should be even more concerned about the drooping finances of the scholarship lottery program.
And here is why.
All of us should be outraged at the cost, staffing and even the virtual need for satellite redemption offices in Northwest Arkansas, Jonesboro and Camden.
Surely, the overall cost of these satellite offices will get someone's attention. If I was the parent of a high school junior or senior and worried about my kid, Johnny or Julie, getting an Arkansas Scholarship -- I would be outraged.
In Springdale, for the last five years, the Arkansas Lottery has paid more than $2,250 a month in rent or $27,000 a year for a nice-sized office in a strip mall. That is more than $135,000 just for rent of all four lottery satellite redemption centers.
How many scholarships could that have been for students, if those dollars were used for scholarships, rather than rent?
But it gets better.
That Springdale office is staffed 40 hours a week by a manager and an assistant. Fair enough. The office cuts an average of 2.9 checks per day or 14.5 checks a week, or 754 checks in a typical year.
What?
Two people on the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery payroll cut 2.9 checks on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, or less than 15 checks a week?
But there is more.
The store, the Springdale Division of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, does sell lottery tickets.
But back to the impending political melt-down in Northwest Arkansas.
The Arkansas Lottery Commission began the motions to move the Springdale office to less expensive, i.e., cheaper digs.
After two straight years of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery revenues dropping, maybe a little financial trimming might be prudent.
Arkansas Scholarship Lottery finished the 2014 fiscal year with total sales of $411 million, generating more than $81 million dollars in scholarships for Arkansas students, according to its news release on July 11.
Don't you think if you scratched off a big winner on a scratcher ticket, you could get to Little Rock to redeem your winnings?
I have a better idea. I am sure the chancellors at the campuses at Fayetteville, Jonesboro, East Camden and even UALR could find space, rent free, for the Scholarship Lottery Redemption Centers.
It is, after all, what is fueling their enrollment increases.
You can't win if you don't play.
If you don't play little Johnny and Julie might not be on the campus.
Let's end the Regional Redemption Centers all together and not erupt another Sam's Club fiasco which in urban NWA lore will never go away.
MAYLON RICE, A FORMER JOURNALIST HAVING WRITTEN BOTH NEWS AND COLUMNS FOR SEVERAL NWA PUBLICATIONS, HAS BEEN WRITING FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
Editorial on 07/30/2014