Governor, Wal-Mart Exec to Speak at Arkansas Good Roads Meeting

Asa Hutchinson

Gov. Asa Hutchinson will be the featured speaker at Thursday’s meeting of Arkansas Good Roads, a nonprofit dedicated to surface transportation issues.

The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. from the headquarters of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives in southwest Little Rock.

Hutchinson is expected to give an update on the recently appointed Governor’s Working Group on Highway Funding, as well as an overview on the economic development incentives approved in the recent special legislative session.

Craig Douglass, interim director of Arkansas Good Roads, said the group is a statewide organization promoting economic development and private-sector job creation through the adequate funding of a safe and efficient highway system.

“By supporting the mission of the Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department and the Arkansas Highway Commission, Arkansas Good Roads provides an added voice for the proper allocation of dedicated funding sources designed to advance the maintenance and construction of Arkansas’s highways, roads, streets and bridges,” he said.

Also scheduled to speak at Thursday’s meeting are Dick Trammel, chairman of the Arkansas Highway Commission; Jeff Hammonds, vice president of Private Fleet at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; and Randy Ort, deputy director of administration at the Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department.

The group will also discuss its rebranding into the Arkansas Good Roads Foundation to further the goals of its predecessor, the Good Roads League of Arkansas. The original group was formed in 1896 to stimulate interest in improved public roads and encourage state and federal legislation favoring road improvements.