"We are on Cloud 9 now. We got our ACE community award, and we are moving on," stated Dean Fladager, Mayor of Gravette, a city in northwest Arkansas with a population of 2003. "On September 16, the Governor came up and presented the award in the civic center, with about 100 people present."

ACE, which stands for Arkansas Communities of Excellence, is a program of the Arkansas Department of Economic Development (ADED), a VISION 2010 Partner. To be certified, communities must complete a strategic plan that describes their desired future with an action plan to realize that future. "Becky Rheinhardt and Pam Christie from ADED were very helpful," stated Fladager.

Projects undertaken in Gravette include:

• A downtown development process, spearheaded by Patrick Hall
  
  
• A 1-cent sales tax passed to support renovation of the old civic center, water and sewer improvements, sidewalks, and other projects. "We had workshops and all kinds of input from the citizens for the sales tax," commented Fladager.
   
• Development of the Gravette Historical Museum. A team came up with $30,000 to match with two others, and purchased the Kinley House, built by one of the founders of Gravette.
   
• A grant for $60,000 to fix up the house, making it one of the best museums around
   
• A new walking trail was built, funded by a grant
   
• Hiring the only full-time parks and recreation director for small towns in northwest Arkansas, and she has attracted several grants for parks and recreation

"VISION 2010 is like a golden thread through all of these projects," stated Fladager. "We used the ten step community development process for each project. The most helpful element of VISION 2010 is the formalized approach to goal setting and following through on the goals. We could have sputtered along, but without VISION 2010, we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what we have."

VisionWorks is thrilled to see this kind of progress in Gravette. It is a testimony to the leadership of Mayor Fladager, to the other community leaders and citizens of Gravette, and the top-notch work of the Arkansas Department of Economic Development and other VISION 2010 Partners.