Focus Bank is urging that the new Northeast Arkansas District Fair should be sold to pay for debts that are owed. The Craighead County Fair Association owns the property and is reportedly almost 10 million dollars in debt. The Sun newspaper reports that relocation of the property to East Johnson Avenue and construction costs led to the debt problems. The Fair Association filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In a March 25th filing in court, Focus Bank, which financed the move, suggested the property be sold in a liquidation sale. Focus Bank is owed 6.2 million dollars, and contractors that worked on the buildings are owed the rest. Fair Board President Michael Cureton tells the Sun he hopes to avoid a liquidation sale. He says attorneys representing the fair association are working on a plan that would pay everyone back what they are owed and keep the fair operating. The plan has not been filed in bankruptcy court yet.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.