Members of the El Dorado Works Board will consider two funding requests when they convene for a regular meeting at 5:15 p.m. today in the Council Chamber of City Hall.
The El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce is on the agenda to present a proposal to fund its annual contract for services to act as the economic development arm of the city of El Dorado.
Under the contract, the chamber provides a number of economic development services, with a scope of work that includes planning, marketing and advice/counsel to the city on such topics as job/business/industry recruitment, development, retention and expansion.
Chamber officials have also said they work closely with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission on behalf of the city's economic development interests, noting that the AEDC requires a designated individual and single point of contact in each county in the state.
The annual contract has been funded at a level of $45,000 since the late 2010s and earlier this year, chamber and Union County Industrial Board officials spoke with city officials about possibly requesting an increase in the contract for 2024.
SouthArk is also on the EWB's agenda with a funding request for Manufacturing Day activities in El Dorado and Union County.
Each year, the community college teams up with the chamber of commerce, the city, schools and local businesses and industries to host Manufacturing Day, which targets Union County ninth-graders, parents and educators about job and career opportunities that are available in the manufacturing sector.
The local event is an extension of national and statewide events that are held each fall in recognition of Manufacturing Day.
Manufacturing Day in El Dorado and Union County is a two-day event -- one day is set aside for ninth-graders in El Dorado and the second, for ninth-graders in other schools around Union County --, during which students are introduced to manufacturing-based career options through a series of general and breakout sessions and a career fair activity to visit with and pick up information from participating industries, all held in the El Dorado Conference Center.
The 2024 event in El Dorado is scheduled for late February.
In other business, the EWB is also looking to fill a vacancy.
Former board member Mumtaz MF resigned from the five-member board last July.
The EWB is a public facilities board that administers a one-cent city sales tax of the same name.
The tax initiative is dedicated to economic development, municipal infrastructure and quality-of-life projects.
Board members vet funding proposals, and if approved by the EWB, the proposals are forwarded to the El Dorado City Council for consideration.
Board members are appointed to five-year terms.
MF was appointed to the EWB in 2020 to a term that expires in 2025, the same year the El Dorado Works tax sunsets.
El Dorado voters approved the tax during a special election in April of 2015 and the tax went into effect on Oct. 1, 2015.
The El Dorado Works tax followed the El Dorado Forward tax, also a temporary one-cent city sales tax whose purpose was similar to the El Dorado Works tax.
The El Dorado Forward tax was dedicated to economic development projects and funded the construction of the El Dorado Conference Center, the lead and largest project that was undertaken with the tax initiative.
The El Dorado Forward tax spawned the formation of the public facilities board -- then known as the El Dorado Economic Development Board -- and was good for seven years, expiring on June 30, 2015.
The El Dorado Works tax and its corresponding facilities board were the successors of the El Dorado Works tax, which is nearing the end of its 10-year effective period.
City Clerk Heather McVay has forwarded to EWB members several applications from candidates who are interested in serving on the board and had previously submitted applications that remained on file in the city clerk's office.
The candidate pool also includes new applications that rolled in after MF stepped down.
EWB members are expected to hear from candidates during the regular meeting today.