Jonesboro leaders briefed on $2M site grant, airport EDA award and $88M workforce effort

Mark Young, reporting for Jonesboro Unlimited and the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce, told a City Council committee that Jonesboro received $2,000,000 from an Arkansas Economic Development Commission site-development pilot to extend water service to the 612-acre Craighead Technology Park South.

"Back in the summer, we held a groundbreaking for a waterline extension in the Craighead Technology Park South," Young said, adding that the waterline work will support the property acquired roughly 3 1/2 years ago and make the site more competitive for industrial users.

The chamber representative said the state pilot originally totaled $10,000,000 and that Jonesboro’s award represented a significant share. Young also said the legislature has allocated another $50,000,000 for site-development grants over the next two years and that Jonesboro is preparing a sewer-service application for the same property; the sewer application was described as about 90% complete with a Nov. 7 deadline.

Young highlighted other infrastructure and grant activity, including a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant of $5,000,000 toward a $6,000,000 project for a new terminal at the Jonesboro Municipal Airport. "Having the new terminal, the grant from EDA of $5,000,000 for a total of 6,000,000 project is incredibly important," Young said, adding that runway and taxiway strength and related improvements will help accommodate larger aircraft.

On workforce, Young discussed the CREST Center (career readiness, education and skills training), which he said is part of a statewide deployment of about $88,000,000. "Arkansas State received a little over $10,000,000 as part of this project. And the first cohort class actually started in August with 35 people," Young said. The committee was told the board approved phase 1 of construction for the CREST facility.

Young described multiple local talent and entrepreneurship programs. He noted Jonesboro Unlimited's "Always Jonesboro" talent-attraction campaign recently won a bronze award from the International Economic Development Council; he also summarized teacher externships, a Techstars program, and a SHRM Foundation initiative called "Keeping it Local: Employers Driving Good Jobs in Rural Arkansas," in which Jonesboro is a participant.

As part of the SHRM-related work, Young said Jonesboro Unlimited will receive a $100,000 grant to identify a local barrier to work and implement a pilot project; he said the chamber has identified three focus areas for that grant: transportation, child care and upskilling. Young also announced "Here to Hired," a career fair planned for March 12 at Nettleton Public Schools with about 40 employers expected to participate.

On entrepreneurship, Young said an EDA "Jump Start" grant will fund a centralized website for entrepreneurs, local networking events and, later in the three-year grant period, a planned angel-investor network to provide early-stage capital. He described the angel network as an "early stage" goal and said it would likely come later in the three-year timeline.

Young also presented Federal Reserve labor-market data showing the civilian labor force in Craighead County grew roughly 9% between August 2020 and August 2025 and that employment rose from 49,725 to 55,456 (about an 11% increase).

Committee members asked questions during a brief Q&A. Dr. Coleman asked whether airport upgrades would allow larger aircraft; Young replied that runway length exists but that pavement strength on taxiways and runways matters for larger aircraft. Another member asked about placing utilities underground; Young referred that technical question to City Water & Light. On the angel network, Young said the initiative is planned toward the later stages of the three-year grant and emphasized leveraging university research labs and other local assets to help entrepreneurs commercialize products.

Committee members asked Young to present the full slide deck to the full City Council; Young handed materials to staff and said he would make the presentation available.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved the minutes from the Oct. 14, 2025 meeting after a motion and second; the clerk announced the minutes were "Approved." A motion and second were recorded to forward Resolution 25,160 (a municipal lien related to a demolition at 1500 Danny Drive) to full council and members were asked to record their votes; the transcript records the motion and a request to record the vote, but the audio does not include the vote outcome.

Questions and clarifications recorded in the committee exchange were procedural or technical and did not change the projects announced; Young cited specific deadlines and grant amounts during his remarks and identified Nov. 7 as the sewer-application deadline and Oct. 30 as the community-survey deadline.