Closure of the west area and pond improvements at the county landfill
Contract dated February 10, 2023. Disclosed as a subsequent event in the FY2022 audit. Source: Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2022 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 32.
County-wide property reappraisal — 60 monthly payments of $13,764
October 2020 contract, payments 2021–2025. $316,572 still owed as of the FY2023 audit. Reappraisal is what sets the assessed values your millage applies to. Context: TASC (formed 2010 from the merger of Mack-Reynolds Appraisal and Arkansas Mass Appraisal Group) serves 80+ counties across five states — most Arkansas counties hire the same firm. Worth knowing: under the Arkansas Real Property Reappraisal Fund (Act 1185 of 1999, § 26-26-1907), the state reimburses counties' actual reappraisal costs up to $7 per parcel per year — so much or all of this contract is likely state money passing through rather than local tax burden. The treasurer's reports would show the reimbursements and complete this part of the trail. Source: Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2022 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 30.
The house lender for both local governments. County: 2020 Mack sanitation truck ($242,900 @ ~3%), two 2021 Mack trucks ($192,500 each @ ~2%), 2023 Caterpillar grader ($151,312 @ ~6%), and the $423,516 irrevocable letter of credit assuring landfill closure (2018). City of Arkadelphia: a $2,000,000 general-purpose line of credit (2019, drawn to ~$439K in 2023) plus financed purchases in 2019 ($278K, $220K), 2021 ($243K), 2022 ($335K), and 2023 ($500K).
2018–2023, per county and city audits. Interest on public debt is income to the lender; the rates track each era's market (2–3% in 2020–21, 4% in 2022–23, ~6% in late 2023). Southern Bancorp is a mission-chartered community development bank founded in 1986 by then-Governor Bill Clinton, Rob Walton, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to counter rural bank failures; among the first Treasury-certified CDFIs (1996); ~$2.8B assets, 66 locations, bank charter rooted in Arkadelphia; announced a rename to Uplift Bank in July 2026. The pieces of this trail not yet public — quote records for the financing and the county's depository agreements — live in county records (Docket #10). Source: Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2023 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 19.
The county pledged a 0.5% sales tax to repay $8,460,000 in road bonds — the Clark County Truck Bypass and related road work. Interest of roughly $1.08M is payable to bondholders through June 2036 at 1.125–2.00%.
Issued October 5, 2021; payable through 2036. Individual bondholders are not named in county records; the bond trustee's identity is in the bond documents (not yet in this corpus). Source: Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2023 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 19.
Health Department remodel and addition — completed May 2024
Balance at end of 2022. The audit names the project and the amount, but not the contractor. The contract award is in quorum court records. Source: Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2022 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 30.
The county's 911 ambulance service contract — a running dispute in 2026. Local reporting says Valor lost roughly $500,000 as provider before the county and Pafford reached terms in April 2026.
2025–2026. Now documented in the OCR'd quorum court minutes (2025–2026, archived in this corpus): two RFQs received, public comment heard from both companies' principals, Valor awarded, the contract stalled in review, Valor closed with staff moving to Pafford, and the court moved to contract with Pafford in 2026. The signed contract's terms are the remaining records request.
Line of credit to the City of Arkadelphia — up to $600,000, dated July 3, 2024, financing the Airport Hangar and Access Taxiway Project. Interest on the draw is income to the bank.
July 2024, per the city's FY2024 audit. Citizens Bank is a Batesville-headquartered, FDIC-insured bank founded in 1953 (~$1.1B assets) that entered Arkadelphia in 2016 by acquiring Parkway Bank. A complete public money trail would also show which institutions hold each government's deposits and under what agreements — that documentation lives in the treasurer's reports, on the records-run list. Source: City of Arkadelphia — Regulatory Basis Financial Statements, December 31, 2024 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 20.
Gum Springs mega-site development — temporary access road, clearing, erosion control. Total project $1,952,337; $1,000,000 covered by an Arkansas Economic Development Commission grant, the remainder from EDCCC's half-cent sales tax fund.
Approved at an EDCCC special meeting March 3, 2025. News lead (the Arkadelphian, March 2025) — the first named recipient of EDCCC-fund spending in any public source. Two similarly named firms exist (a Little Rock LLC and a larger Georgia-based company with a Little Rock office); the executed contract in EDCCC's records identifies which, along with the terms. The structural note this line illustrates: county purchases must be competitively bid under state law, but once tax money passes into a corporation, that requirement may not follow it. Whether more disclosure should be a condition of such transfers is exactly the transparency question this platform exists to put to residents.
Road fund revenue of $715,948 in 'gas and oil company reimbursements' — money flowing TO the county, typically for road use and damage
2023. The reverse trail: which companies reimburse, under what agreements, is also check-register detail. Source: Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2023 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 12.
| Budget line (2026) | Appropriated | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Asphalt | $990,000 | ✖ payees unnamed |
| Fuel, oil & lubricants | $403,000 | ✖ payees unnamed |
| Gravel, dirt & sand | $400,000 | ✖ payees unnamed |
| Road professional services | $350,000 | ✖ payees unnamed |
| Jail maintenance contracts | $351,000 | ✖ payees unnamed |
| Prisoner food | $168,000 | ✖ payees unnamed |
| Sanitation professional services & engineering | $325,000 | ✖ payees unnamed |
| EDCCC incentives | $1,844,538 | ✖ payees unnamed |
These are appropriations — the authorization to spend. The names live in bid records and the check register.
· Arkansas county purchasing law (Ark. Code Ann. Title 14, Chapter 22) requires competitive bids for larger purchases. Bid tabulations — who bid, who won, at what price — are public records held by the county.
· Every payment the county makes appears in the county claims records and check register, kept by the county clerk and treasurer. Public under the Arkansas FOIA; not posted online.
· The quorum court's own minutes record contract approvals. All 38 minutes documents from 2024–2026 are now archived in this corpus — they are scanned images, and an OCR pass is queued to make them searchable.
· Arkansas courts have applied the FOIA to private entities substantially supported by public funds — the principle that makes records of publicly funded economic development activity requestable.
Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, Ark. Code Ann. § 25-19-101 et seq. Any Arkansas citizen may request; no reason needed; response generally due within three (3) business days. Custodian: Clark County Clerk, 401 Clay Street, Arkadelphia, AR 71923.
Dear Records Custodian, Under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (Ark. Code Ann. § 25-19-101 et seq.), I request copies of the following public records: 1. The county check register (or claims register) for calendar year 2025 and 2026 to date, showing payee, date, amount, and fund/account for each disbursement. 2. Bid tabulations and award records for county purchases of asphalt, fuel, and gravel for 2025 and 2026, including the invitations to bid, bids received, and awards made. 3. The current contract for 911 ambulance service, and any incentive or grant agreements funded from the EDCCC sales tax fund (3407) in 2024–2026. I request these in electronic form if available. If any portion is exempt, please release the remainder and cite the exemption for what is withheld. If costs will exceed $25, please contact me before proceeding. Thank you, [name] [address] [phone or email]
When the responsive records arrive, they go in the corpus like everything else — cited, hashed, and navigable. The open requests are tracked on the docket.