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Voters approve tax on second try
HELENA-WEST HELENA – Voters narrowly approved a single, two-cent sales tax increase here just over a year after they rejected two separate proposals to raise the sales tax by 1 percentage point.
The increase – which will raise the total sales tax charged in the city to 10 percent – passed by a 125 vote margin Tuesday, with 1,555 votes for the tax and 1,430 casting their ballots against the tax.
$1.7 Million Affordable Housing Development in Helena-West Helena Has Opened
HELENA-WEST HELENA Southern Place Apartments, one of the largest multi-family housing developments in Phillips County in several decades, has opened.
Southern Community Development Corporation hosted the opening ceremony yesterday. Representatives from the Arkansas Development Finance Authority; the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Rural Development; Congressman Marion Berry’s office; and the offices of Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor spoke at the event.
Supercharging savings starts at an early age
William Thomas Jr. invests in his future every month by bringing his piggy bank savings to First Bank of the Delta. The Phillips County pre-schooler already is saving for college and talks excitedly about going to college, thanks to an innovative program that supercharges his family’s own savings.
Southern Good Faith Fund and Project Deserve Provide Energy Assistance in Arkansas
Southern Good Faith Fund (SGFF) became the administrative agency for Project Deserve, a fund established by Entergy Arkansas to help low-income, elderly, or disabled Arkansas residents pay their electric bills.
Delta Bridge Project Announces $400,000 in Grant Funding
The Delta Bridge Project announced today $400,000 in grants for KIPP Delta College Preparatory School in Helena-West Helena. These funds will provide space to accommodate classes for the next two years while KIPP Delta expands its program to serve students in grades 5 through 12.
Learning From Successes in the Mississippi Delta
The 90-minute drive south from the Memphis airport to Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, takes you through three states “Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas” in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. The horizons are broad, the land is flat, and the small white puffs tumbling across the highway and collecting in clusters at the edge of the road are not escaped styrofoam packing peanuts, but cotton bolls.
Helena Health Foundation and Southern Financial Partners Announce $50,000 in Grant Funding for Delta AHEC
The Delta Area Health Education Center will receive $50,000 in grant funds to enhance the program’s efforts to improve health care delivery. Helena Health Foundation and Southern Financial Partners each granted $25,000.
Southern Financial Partners contributes $10K to SBDC effort
Southern Financial Partners, a nonprofit affiliate of Southern Bancorp, recently contributed $10,000 to Henderson State University’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to provide FastTrac Training to entrepreneurs in 2007. This is the second contribution received as part of a three-year commitment.
Bill matches contributions to college-fund 529 plans
Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Sen. Gilbert Baker and several others on Monday touted Baker’s bill that would create a pilot program to match contributions by low and middle-income families to Arkansas’ college savings plans for their children and grandchildren.
City receives $25,000 grant for cleaning up
A $25,000 grant presented to the City of Gurdon on Friday, March 2, will allow city officials to begin cleaning up abandoned and run-down properties around town.