Chamber Names Business, Citizen Awards

FARMINGTON -- Sonic Drive-In was named Business of the Year and Farmington teacher Mary Jane Silva was named Citizen of the Year by the Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce last week.

The awards were announced at the Chamber's annual banquet, held Thursday night at Randall G. Lynch Middle School. About 55 people attended the banquet.

Board member Diane Bryant spelled out the many ways Sonic helps the community. The restaurant has been in Farmington for 20 years.

The Drive-In donates money to Farmington athletics, donates water for the Walk to Cure Diabetes, provides merchandise to the Chamber golf tournament and Lincoln rodeo and provides fundraiser cards to help organizations raise money. Sonic also donates gift cards and provides paper goods for cookouts.

"They are never too busy or put us off when we ask for help," Bryant said.

Jake DeVault with Sonic Drive-In accepted the Business of the Year award.

Silva was recognized on behalf of the Farmington Back to School Bonanza. Each year, the Bonanza provides free shoes, backpacks, haircuts, socks and shoes to hundreds of children. Silva started the Bonanza at Farmington United Methodist Church and coordinates the event each year, with the help of about 100 volunteers.

"I have known this person for almost 10 years," Bryant said in presenting the Citizen of the Year award to Silva.

Bryant described Silva as the epitome of the hymn that says, "They will know we are Christians by our love."

Silva has "such a loving presence and that presence is visible each year at the Back to School Bonanza," Bryant said.

Phillip Taldo, an Arkansas Highway commissioner, was the featured speaker for the banquet and he brought along Chad Adams, District 4 engineer with Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.

Taldo, broker and co-owner of Griffin Company Realtors commercial division and Weichert Realtors The Griffin Company, gave an overview of the highway department and Adams updated those at the Chamber banquet on specific projects in the area.

Adams said almost $400 million has been spent, is being spent and will be spent on state highway and interstate projects. Projects include improvements to 28 miles of Interstate 49 from Mountainburg to U.S. Highway 62 for $22 million.

The Porter Road-Highway 112-Highway 71B project underway is about 30 percent complete and the highway department hopes it will be finished by the end of the year.

Locally, Adams said the highway department is partnering with Farmington on a project to widen about 2 miles of Highway 170 from Main Street past the new high school. He said Melissa McCarville, city business manager and a member of Chamber board, has stayed on top of the project on behalf of the city. He commended McCarville's diligent work on the project.

Design work for Highway 170 is about 60 percent complete. The next stage is acquiring rights of way for utilities. After that, utilities will be relocated and finally, actual construction to widen the highway. The project is being paid for with 80 percent federal funds and 20 percent local funds.

Quick facts about the highway department, Taldo said, are that it is the third largest state agency with 3,634 employees. The highway department maintains 16,418 miles and 7,335 bridges.

In addition to roads, the Highway Department is responsible for a multitude of other projects, such as state aid for counties and cities, public transportation projects and Arkansas Recreational Trails. It maintains Game and Fish roads, state park roads and manages welcome centers.

Arkansas is 12th in the nation for number of miles in a state but ranks 42nd in the nation in revenue per mile.

"That's not a good combination," Taldo said.

He talked some about funding, noting that any increases in revenue must be approved by the Arkansas Legislature.

Taldo presented a chart that showed state highway revenues have remained flat for years while general revenues increase every year.

He said he was not presenting a case to increase taxes for roads but wanted to give a clear picture of the funding situation.

In 1995, the Highway Department could build 33 miles for $100 million. Today, $100 million will build 15 miles, he said.

"It costs $6.5 million per mile for a four-lane highway and that doesn't include any bridges and special drainage projects," Taldo said.

Taldo said a breakdown of the state budget shows that K-12 gets 21 percent of the budget, higher education gets 21 percent, Medicaid has 23 percent and transportation receives 6 percent. The balance goes into other areas.

The department's goal, Taldo said, is to "deliver the best and safest roads at the cheapest cost we can." And the department's primary challenge, he added, is "finding enough money to pay for roads."