The Craighead County Fair Association is seeking bankruptcy protection. According to the Sun Newspaper, the association has filed for Chapter 11 protection in United State Bankruptcy Court. The move will halt a trial that is scheduled for the end of the month and will allow for the organization to get its debt obligations in order. The association is almost ten million dollars in debt resulting from its move to a larger site on East Johnson Avenue. Unexpected expenses and cost overruns were factors in the debt. More than two dozen contractors filed liens on the property, which includes the Northeast Arkansas Exposition and Conference Center…the claims amount to more than three million dollars. Fair Board Association President Michael Cureton says the goal is to make sure that all creditors are paid in full, which includes the three million dollars to the contractors and more than six million dollars owed to Focus Bank. The commercial development that is taking place at the old fairground location has involved selling pieces of property, with Focus Bank getting the proceeds of the sales. Cureton says everyone will get paid, but how it will all happen is still being figured out.
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.