Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — June 17, 2025 — The Jonesboro Advertising and Promotion Commission discussed several potential long-term projects on Monday, including reducing a part of a downtown road to one lane, mosquito abatement, and more.
Among the items discussed were Main Street improvements, specifically converting the 200 to 400 blocks of Main Street into a one-lane street from Washington Avenue to Cate/Burke Avenue.
Jonesboro Connectivity Committee Chairman Andy Shatley said a lot of people have emphasized how the atmosphere dynamics changed during the shutdown of Main Street.
After discussing what could be done to enhance the downtown environment with several people, including the Downtown Jonesboro Association, business owners, patrons, and residents, he said one of the things that continued to come up was potentially one-lane traffic.
“I, just as an exercise this morning, googled ‘pedestrian hit on Main Street in Jonesboro.’ You’d be surprised at how many times that showed up on Google and one time is too many. So, the question is whether or not this is something that needs to be done,” Shatley said. “It just seems like a no-brainer as far as what we’re trying to do here is to create an environment that’s conducive to human interaction and entertainment and safety.”
According to Shatley, they have consulted with Ecological Design Group project manager Martin Smith to see what the project would entail, and that study and potential designs will cost $7,500.
“We’re not asking for it to go one-lane. We’re asking for drawings and a study to be completed, which we would then take to the Public Safety Committee,” he said.
After some further discussion, a motion to approve the $7,500 proposal to fund the study was passed.
Next, the commission discussed completing a clubhouse at the Jonesboro Shooting Sports Complex.
Jonesboro Trap Team coach Shane Bray said that, due to the number of teams in Northeast Arkansas and across the state, the clubhouse needed to be completed. He said while there is a small facility on the rifle/pistol side, there’s nothing on the shotgun sports side.
“This year we have had events with 150 participants plus all their support,” Bray said, noting an event had to be shortened in January due to extremely cold weather. “We have had events with over 150 people numerous times and everybody’s out in the weather.”
He also noted that the project would allow for the complex to host bigger state and national competitions.
Jonesboro chief administrative officer Brian Richardson said the project would around the $4 million range to finish.
“We’re actually going to be applying for a grant this summer to help offset some of that, but it’s a relatively small grant pool. So, I don’t know what our chances are receiving funding for that, but we would definitely like the security from outside commitment, funding from either outside state agencies or federal agencies to help offset some of that cost because like you said, we at the city and the taxpayers have spent a whole lot of money on this facility for it to be sitting there without really one of the key component pieces to it,” Richardson said. “If we want this to be successful, we’ve got to give it a chance to succeed with the clubhouse.”
After more discussion, A&P Commission chair Jerry Morgan said hopefully the commission would have an idea in the next few months on how to move the project forward.
Another project presented by Jonesboro Public Schools Golf Coach by Jeremy Moore who was requesting the funding of a $22,000 a feasibility study for a golf facility on Henson Road at Joe Mack Campbell Park. Since August 2019, Moore has spoken for a potential golf facility.
“You have to have the feasibility study to see if it would even be a possibility for a golf course to work. We all know a lot of golf courses are, are kind of a losing venture for the most part. I’ve spoken to golf courses all around the state of Arkansas, municipal golf courses for that fact. Some make money, some don’t make money, some just try to break even. But for me, it’s all about quality of life. That’s what we talk about constantly. It’s trying to do something for the quality of life for Jonesboro citizens.”
Moore added that the land was already owned by the city.
“I can see people else having baseball tournaments or soccer tournaments and you have four hours in between people coming over here and hitting balls or coming over here for lunch or playing putt-putt golf or whatever it is. It’s already connected,” he said.
In the end, the commission passed a motion to move forward with the feasibility study not to exceed $22,000.
The commission also discussed the need to improve mosquito abatement. Richardson said the city has gotten very aggressive with the neighborhood cleanups and code enforcement.
“A water-filled tire could breed up to 100,000 mosquitoes a year. Through part of this neighborhood cleanup process, we’ve removed well over 1,000 tires last year from neighborhoods, as well as various other stagnant water containing pots and pans and five-gallon buckets and everything you can think of that might breed a mosquito,” he said. “We’re spending pretty notable amount of money cleaning out our waterways to making sure the flow efficiently to help reduce the germination ability of mosquito larva.”
Morgan agreed that more should be done, but other entities needed to be gathered, and at that point bring a formal proposal to the commission.