(Baitshop?) Is there a "Fort Smith/Barling Eastside HS" in the future?

[Brian G]

Has-been's.

[Baitshop]

The NotYets...

[Pr8hd]

The VietCubans.....

Yours is a little more direct and to the point, in a politically correct world of hyper-sensitivity that may create some controversy. The Elvii are not going to offend anyone, everybody loves Elvis. The kids won't have a clue likely but , the possibilities of cheerleader outfits with turquoise and sequins are unlimited. 

[OPoraquê]

"the Bensons".  (That way they could also be known as the "Fort Smith Bennies".    )

[Baitshop]

Benson's already has a baseball team that we sponsor at the Boys Club...

We call them the Benson's "Grillers"....

Free pancakes for the players when they win....(hmmm, 3 pancakes x 120 players...no, no, no...lets not sponsor the Eastside football team)

Perhaps BG would be interested in sponsoring them and calling them the "Oreo's....

[OPoraquê]

*Sigh*, since I started it.

1. Here's a Channel 5 story tonight on an I-49 meeting today (held at the new AHTD district HQ in Chaffee Crossing.  Pavement is being applied this very week.  Dig the guy in the I-49 necktie!

2. ..and here's a story from the City Wire on it with this lulu of a quote:

Gard Wayt, the Shreveport, La.-based executive director of the I-49 International Coalition, said having officials like Whitaker and others from the city and county level on up to the federal level participate in today's meeting was designed to get all sides thinking and working together to figure out how to finish I-49 at an accelerated rate, a rate at which the interstate could be done in less than a decade.

"If I were going to be safe, I'd say (the Arkansas portion would be complete in) 10 years," Wayt said. "But what we're trying to do is cut that in half."

If he means "the WHOLE Arkansas section (including Greenwood to Texarkana)" I'd guess Bentonville would have a better chance of beating Euless Trinity 77-25 (with Trinity going on to win their Texas 5A state championship thereafter a la South Panola '12) than this highway being built in less than 10 years, let alone 5, especially with us about to possibly do God knows what in the middle east with all that oil.

Hope I'm wrong, though.  No word on their thoughts about the 3rd Fort Smith high school or its mascot name. 

[josh_sec33]

ok, here. Some info.

Currently I-49 is built all through Missouri north (except for a few pieces going up right near canada) and almost all complete through Louisiana, minus the part where they angle the road to match where Arkansas puts it.

Which Arkansas has mentioned a few paths, but nothing set in stone.

The I-49 elephant in the room is the Arkansas River Bridge that I-49 will require. It's going to cost as much money as the entire piece from Fort Smith to Shreveport. If the feds fund that bridge, the road gets built quickly. Highway 71 has a much larger right of way than it appears. the pieces through the national forests? Right of ways are already there, they just chose to leave it forested. Just bypasses around towns and better lines towards texarkana to sort out.

Currently, there are two pieces under construction in Arkansas, the aforementioned Fort Smith eastern bypass, and portions of the Bella Vista bypass, which is even being subdivided into smaller pieces while it's being built. (yay BV making a cluster of something else)

The FS bypass will allow for GW to have a second way into town, hopefully easing the fiasco that currently is Highway 71 just south of town in the mornings.

As for a third high school, nothing official beyond that the district has two pieces of land in town they haven't built on yet, a large field next to Cook Elementary, and the land in Chaffee Crossing that is signed as the future site of "Eastside" or whatever it gets called.

The handwriting is on the wall. Both high schools are packed. Not as many students as Bennie U has (at least FS doesn't have students transferring out to other districts because of overcrowding) but for the size of the buildings, they are full. Many teachers are at or over their max count, and the elementaries and junior highs are on a rotating schedule of construction and expansion to try to find space for the slowly grown elementary population.

One story I've been told is that the 3rd high school also signals a shift to 9-12 HS's with 6-8 junior highs. Just that move opens up space in the elementaries and the 5th junior high may or may not even be needed. of course a long time ago, I had heard the original plan was to build a total of 6 junior highs so that two went to each high school. I haven't heard that piece in a while.

Anyway, there's been news stories that the board of education is doing visits to newly built high schools to look at potential architects. They call it the research phase. but as for official expansion....nothing yet.

but it's a matter of time.

Rumor is the mascot will be the mustangs.

[OPoraquê]

In today's FSM paper: "Architects tapped to build new high school and other projects."

So in the future we have:

Benton County Central (working title)
Bentonville
Rogers
Rogers Heritage
Springdale
Springdale Har-Ber
Fayetteville
Fort Smith Northside
Fort Smith Southside
Fort Smith Eastside
Van Buren
Greenwood
Alma (yes, I know they're smaller, but when I-49 is linked this will be a junction point and I expect it to grow).

Fascinating.  Almost enough for two separate districts.