This story ran on the Talk Business & Politics website on April 13, 2026 and is the culmination of several local articles I wrote for Arkansas newspapers owned by Newsroom Ventures LLC.
Third graders at Centerpoint Elementary School in Amity, Ark., like other students in the state, will be required to demonstrate a basic reading proficiency to advance to the fourth grade as part of the LEARNS Act. Photo: Michael Hibblen
Three years into the implementation of the LEARNS Act, Arkansas educators are bracing for a new reading proficiency requirement that takes effect this year and will determine which third graders can be promoted to the fourth grade.
Standardized tests will be administered in the coming weeks at all public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to provide a high-stakes assessment that will inevitably involve some students having to repeat third grade.
Watson Chapel Superintendent Keith McGee says it’s the culmination of a hectic school year that has involved teachers and administrators assessing students’ abilities and providing interventions to those who aren’t reading as proficiently as they need to be.
“We’re just making sure that what we call the core instruction is at grade level and monitoring their progress, monitoring that daily instruction, and by making sure that we track kids’ daily work and their progress,” McGee said.
Through that data, he says the district, which covers parts of Jefferson County in southeast Arkansas, knows “a high percentage” of its third graders will pass the reading portion of the Arkansas Teaching & Learning Assessment System (ATLAS) test, while some will not. For those who are struggling, teachers have been reaching out to parents, while also working to convey the importance of passing the test to third graders.
“Our kids know that there’s a sense of urgency of their score, their grade level,” McGee said, “not where it’s an anxiety, but just an awareness that we’re going to get through this together, so that kids know that we’ve got to take this test seriously.”
Requiring a basic reading ability is vital at this stage for students, Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said in an interview with Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock.
“If students aren’t able to be proficient readers by fourth grade and you start getting deeper into content and explicit instruction on how to read isn’t as prevalent, then school’s not fun. We don’t want kids to just go to school and not have fun because you’re struggling to read,” Oliva said.
While it can be difficult socially for students to be held back as their peers advance to a higher grade, the state Department of Education identifies third grade reading proficiency as a “pivotal predictor of future academic success,” including whether they will graduate from high school.
Oliva says the LEARNS Act now provides strategies for teachers and parents to implement an Individual Reading Plan (IRP) to try and avoid having to repeat third grade.
“If we see a student is not making grade level, well, what we’re able to do this year is maybe they need some short-term high impact tutoring, maybe they need to be in a summer program,” Oliva said. “So now we come together with a plan. You’re not automatically retained. What you’re required to do is have a plan on how we’re going to fill those gaps — and retention may be part of that plan — but it’s not the absolute.”
If the new reading requirement had been in place last year, test results show only 36% of Arkansas students would have been promoted to the fourth grade. But educators hope the new assessments and interventions will ensure that won’t be the result this year.
At Centerpoint Elementary School in Amity, which serves students from parts of Pike, Garland, Clark and Hot Spring counties in southwest Arkansas, Principal Erica Doster says reading is still being taught the same way as before the LEARNS Act was enacted. But she says new processes during this school year allowed teachers to do a better job of tracking which students were at risk of falling behind and provided time to offer extra tutoring when needed.
“What we did change is the way that we document those interventions and keep up with the monitoring of their progress throughout the year,” Doster said. “I feel pretty confident that we will not have very many kids — if any — that we have to retain.”
Doster says the school has been sending letters to parents notifying them if their children are at risk of being held back and what steps teachers are taking to try and prevent that. Strategies are also given to parents on how they can support reading at home.
“We have been keeping a close eye on a lot of kids, making sure that we’re providing the interventions that they need in order to be successful,” Doster said. “We have an idea of who is at risk, but of course we don’t know for sure until they take that end of the year summative test,” she said.
The state allows districts to administer the ATLAS test any time between Monday (April 13) and May 22. Students will need to score at Level 2 or higher in reading to advance to fourth grade unless they qualify for a “good cause exemption.” That includes students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, those with less than three years of formal English instruction, students who have previously been retained and those who have experienced an isolated traumatic event that directly impacted their assessment.
Doster has mixed feelings about the prospect of having to retain some third graders.
“It could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing,” she said. “I think what the LEARNS Act is requiring of schools, just to make sure there’s some accountability on providing those interventions and that extra help along the way to prevent that is what I feel like the purpose is. And so I do feel like that’s a good thing.”
Hazen School Superintendent Andy Barrett says he recently met with the staff of the elementary school in his district and was told no third graders appear to be on track to be retained because of the new reading requirement. Despite some hesitation from educators and parents about the potential for students to be held back, he says the change is needed.
“There’s been a lot of criticism of this requirement, but nobody can argue that reading isn’t a foundational skill we have to have across the board in education,” Barrett said. “And I think that obviously from where we stand in our state right now, we’re not doing a very good job.”
Arkansas consistently ranks near the bottom in national education studies. Barrett said he’s confident the process and options put in place by the state will be beneficial for school districts.
“If you have done all of the things that the state asks you to do, especially with the remediation and interventions throughout the year, and then some sort of growth,” Barrett said, there will be an improved outcome. “We’ve got to figure it out. It’s going to be a learning curve for most of the schools, including us, trying to figure out when and how to do things to get [students] to that level.”
Reforming education was a priority for Gov. Sarah Sanders when she came into office three years ago. The most controversial component of the LEARNS Act has been using public funds to create Education Freedom Accounts (EFA), which can be used to pay for private, parochial or home schools.
The Arkansas Legislature approved the plan in 2023 and will need to increase funding for the EFA program during a fiscal session that began on April 8. Sanders’ budget proposal would set aside up to $379 million for the program.
Veteran reporter, editor and manager at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
I wrote this story for The Glenwood Herald, which ran in the March 20 edition. The newspaper is one of six purchased recently by Newsroom Ventures LLC, which is owned by Roby Brock.
The Glenwood Revitalization Group is trying to find a tenant for the first floor of the historic Alford building. Photo: Michael Hibblen
Walking through the Alford building, Kayla Hartsfield, president of the Glenwood Downtown Network, imagines the possibilities while acknowledging what’s at stake. She hopes to find an ideal business that will move into the 4,000-square-foot first floor of the historic building, becoming an anchor in the revitalization of the city’s two-block downtown area.
Respondents to a survey conducted last fall overwhelmingly said a restaurant is the kind of business most needed to fill a void in dining options for the many visitors who come to the city for its outdoor recreation, she said.
”We need a tenant and would love to have dining. We have a shortage of a variety of dining.”
Maybe it could be a steakhouse, perhaps a restaurant that features live music — there are many possibilities, she said. Second in the survey was a business that provides family entertainment, while tied for third was having an event space or a fitness/wellness center.
Kayla and her husband Ki Hartsfield, an executive vice president at Southern Bancorp, are among six couples in their 30s and 40s who are part of the Glenwood Revitalization Group. All were raised here, then after most had attended college, came back and opened businesses or took over family businesses. They’re wanting to improve the community by rejuvenating the downtown, which she says in recent decades had become a “ghost town” and an “eyesore.”
The Alford, which is the largest building downtown, was constructed around 1915 at the corner of Broadway and 2nd Street. The bottom floor was originally a general store while the second floor was a hotel.
Until work began a couple of years ago, the brick structure had a weathered whitewashed look with the second-floor windows boarded over while an awning hid the original arched front entrance. Now the exterior has been restored with walls that are painted dark green while the architectural features are tan. A mural painted on the side says “Welcome to Historic Downtown Glenwood Arkansas.” Inside the first floor, the brick walls are now exposed and the original ornate tin ceiling tiles are bright and clean.
The Alford building as it appeared on Nov. 12, 2011 can be seen across the street at the corner of Broadway and 2nd streets in Glenwood, Ark. Photo: Chris Litherland/Creative Commons
Kayla Hartsfield inside the Alford building, with construction waiting to be completed when a tenant is selected for the first floor. In the back is an entrance that leads up to the second floor. Photo: Michael Hibblen
For two years the group has been actively seeking a tenant for the first floor, while the plan for the second floor is to again house visitors to the city.
“We would love to eventually — longterm — be able to have nightly rentals up there to help feed our downtown district,“ she said. “The boarding rooms are still intact on the top floor. We still have some of the original doors intact. It’s a really cool place.”
For the business on the first floor, rent will be decided based on several factors, Hartsfield said. Most important will be the cost to complete the renovation.
“We’re building out to suit our tenant’s needs, so we haven’t completed the inside or the outside yet because we’ve been still trying to find that perfect tenant.”
Hartsfield said the goal isn’t about profitability, but finding a tenant who will be successful and a good fit for the downtown. About 10 entities have inquired with some sending business proposals, but she says none have worked out.
Since November 2024, several businesses have opened or relocated to downtown. Hartsfield said they include Mercantile on Broadway, which she manages selling gifts, baked goods and seasonal produce, while a cafe in the back is run by a third-party vendor.
Caddo River Realty and Jackson Title Company moved a few weeks ago to a building on a corner. Legacy Boutique sells women’s clothing, while the Beauty Haven salon offers high quality facials and other skin treatments. Next door to Hartsfield’s shop, Fillabulous Aesthetics has begun moving in. When it opens soon it will provide weight loss management, IV therapy and lip filler treatments.
“So, just a variety,” Hartsfield said. “Its been great because we’re all different types of businesses, so we’ve been able to really feed each other. They send people to us, we send people to them.”
While speaking about the overall downtown project earlier this month at Henderson State University, Ki Hartsfield estimated that at least $1.6 million has been invested in the area by the Glenwood Revitalization Group.
It’s hoped that finally landing a tenant for the Alford building will help achieve the group’s goals for the downtown.
“We’re ultimately wanting to do something that the community can be proud of again. So just community pride and then economic development,” Kayla Hartsfield said. “We have all of these tourists come and they’re driving to Hot Springs. They’re driving to other towns for shopping and dining and entertainment and things to do, so [we’re] trying to change that and get them to stay here and then spend their money here.”
Veteran reporter, editor and manager at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
Michael Hibblen at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York as snow was coming down on Dec. 5, 2002.
I’ve been grappling with the reality that CBS News Radio will be shutting down in May. Even though I haven’t worked for the network in decades, the announcement Friday — nonchalantly noting it was part of a 6% reduction in the news division’s workforce — was heartbreaking. I spent 10 years reporting for CBS, first from radio affiliates when local stories were big enough to warrant national coverage, then about four years of reporting directly for the network while based in Miami.
It was a time before corporate radio companies had dismantled local station newsrooms and the broadcast schedules of most stations still had local talk shows and news blocks.
I learned so much while reporting for CBS and experienced a level of professionalism like nothing I had experienced before. Looking at social media posts this past weekend from former colleagues has been difficult, to say the least.
The 99-year legacy included Edward R. Murrow during World War II essentially creating modern broadcast journalism as it still exists today through the way he and the reporters he hired provided first-hand storytelling with the sound and voices of the events they covered. Before then, radio news was primarily summaries of news headlines.
While working in the 1990s for CBS radio affiliates KARN in Little Rock and WRVA Richmond, Virginia, I reported for the network every chance I got. There were tornadoes, the Whitewater-related convictions of former associates of President Clinton — including the forced resignation of Gov. Jim Guy Tucker — and many executions which I reported from inside Cummins Prison. The first time one of my reports was the lead story on a CBS newscast was May 14, 1994 with Correspondent Dav Raviv anchoring.
AUDIO: My first report to lead a CBS News Radio newscast, May 14, 1994, on Arkansas executing two inmates on the same night.
AUDIO: A June 8, 1995 report on the sentencing of Webster Hubbell as part of Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr’s investigation.
The editors in New York who would record my reports didn’t hesitate to sometimes rip apart my scripts and help me reword them in the most succinct and impactful way possible. That’s what a young reporter needs to get better.
In Miami, I worked for WIOD — which was an ABC affiliate — but continued filing for CBS because I felt a sense of loyalty and appreciation for CBS, which at that time didn’t have a radio affiliate station in the market. I kept expecting my bosses at the Clear Channel station would tell me I should be reporting for ABC, but I guess they didn’t give it much thought. CBS also paid better than ABC because in addition to taking a report, they would pay for several additional soundbites.
AUDIO: My report for CBS on the trial of a company charged in connection with the 1996 Valujet crash that killed 110 people.
I would be rewarded for maintaining that relationship when an international custody fight over six-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was brewing in 2000 and CBS News Radio Executive Producer Charlie Kaye essentially assured me I could get enough freelance work to more than cover what I was making at WIOD. I ended up tripling my salary that year, thanks to the Elian saga stretching out for six months, then the 2000 presidential election being decided by Florida after five weeks of recounts in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
When news would break elsewhere in the region, I would get calls at all hours telling me flight arrangements were being made, get my stuff together and head to the airport. Correspondent Peter King in Orlando was the other person CBS News Radio had in the state. He told me the importance of always having a to-go packed and ready with a few days worth of clothes and supplies. If I got these calls during regular hours, desk assistants would often hand the call over to Kaye who would be so amazingly calm amid major breaking news as he instructed me what to plan on doing.
Among the stories I covered was a plane crash on Abaco Island in the Bahamas that killed R&B singer and actress Aaliyah, a shark attack in Pensacola that killed an eight-year-old boy, an anthrax attack that killed a photo editor at a tabloid publisher based in Boca Raton and South Florida’s connections to the men who carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
AUDIO: A montage of my reports for CBS on the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida.
AUDIO: Reporting from Abaco Island in the Bahamas on the August 2001 plane crash that killed R&B singer Aaliyah for CBS News Radio and the Westwood One program America in the Morning.
I know it’s advised that people put up boundaries between their professional and personal lives, but that wasn’t for me. I considered being a reporter a lifestyle, maybe to a fault.
To celebrate our first anniversary in 2001, my wife Susan and I decided to spend the weekend at a beachfront hotel in Fort Lauderdale. We had checked in, were having dinner and on our second round of drinks when my phone rang and it was CBS. I answered and was told NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt had just died at Daytona International Speedway and could I start heading that way. I explained it was our anniversary and the desk assistant apologized for interrupting us. I knew nothing about racing, but knew who Earnhardt was and that this was a huge story. After having this bouncing around in my head for a few minutes and talking with my wife, she reluctantly agreed I could leave to drive up to cover the story, where I arrived around midnight and immediately started reporting for the hourly newscasts. She spent the rest of the weekend in the hotel by herself. Needless to say that was not good on my part.
About three times a year I would take a train up to New York and spend a few days at the CBS Broadcast Center alongside people I otherwise only knew by phone, emails and messages. It was fascinating to see how the radio network operated and to meet the legendary anchors I only knew as voices, most of whom had been on the air there for decades. People like Christopher Glenn, Nick Young, Bill Whitney and Steve Kathan, among others. Working remotely, the desk assistants were often my first line of contact, and it was also great getting to know them.
One was Joshua Cook, who by chance married a woman from Arkansas and today lives in Little Rock. We got together for lunch about a month ago and spent much of that visit sharing memories and discussing the evolution in recent years of CBS News Radio. There’s no longer a radio affiliate in Little Rock, so lately I’ve been listening to the top-of-the-hour newscasts on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel. And when driving at night in Arkansas, I still tune in to the amazing AM signal of WBBM in Chicago.
It has been clearly apparent that the CBS radio operation has been much more lean in recent years and isn’t getting as much from its affiliates. Or maybe it doesn’t have the same kind of money to pay for reports.
It is telling that the three commercial radio news stations I worked for while reporting for CBS no longer have active newsrooms. KARN, WRVA and WIOD, like their broadcasting peers, once had a regulatory obligation as well as a sense of civic obligation from local owners to provide strong local news coverage. Ted Snider, who owned KARN and the Arkansas Radio Network for decades, knew that necessitated hiring a full staff of anchors, reporters, editors and producers.
Don’t get me started about what deregulation and distant corporate owners have done to the radio industry. And with a merger approved last Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission, the same thing is now happening to television. Public broadcasters definitely stepped up to fill the void and that’s the direction I took my career.
In 2003, as the build up to the war with Iraq was dominating national news coverage, I was getting less work from CBS. So when the Miami Herald was creating a radio news team as part of a new partnership with NPR station WLRN, I was hired there, starting a wonderful 22-year run in public broadcasting, which eventually included a return home to Little Rock, where I led the news department at KUAR, before three years at Arkansas PBS. But public broadcasting is retrenching after last year’s elimination of federal funding and the simple truth is that fewer people are watching or listening to over-the-air broadcasts.
Some partisans are cheering the demise of legacy media, but the evolving landscape will have fewer fact checkers and less accountability. It’ll be harder for people to know what is true. But at the same time, podcasting is exciting in that it allows anyone with an idea to reach an audience without the need for a broadcast signal.
The demise of CBS News Radio is disappointing in so many ways. The network was started in 1927. Couldn’t the current management at least let it live one more year to celebrate its 100th birthday rather than having the date for its death be planned for May 22? I guess not.
Veteran reporter, editor and manager at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
I reported this story for Talk Business & Politics and The England Democrat. I’m looking forward to covering future Arkansas political events involving candidates of all backgrounds.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Hallie Shoffner speaks to supporters Monday night in England, Ark. Photo: Michael Hibblen.
In her first official campaign event since winning last week’s Arkansas Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, Hallie Shoffner spoke to several dozen people Monday night (March 9) in the city of England, asking for financial support to counter negative attack ads against her.
In a meeting room at the England Fitness Center amid the sound of a nearby pickleball game being played, she thanked those who have given to her campaign, including many who wrote checks that night. To date, she said she has raised $1.3 million, but noted incumbent Republican Sen. Tom Cotton has outraised her campaign 10-to-1.
A quarterly campaign finance report submitted to the Federal Election Commission last month showed Cotton, who is vying for a third term, had $9.6 million cash on hand at the end of last year. $918,000 of that came from political action committees, the report said.
Shoffner asked the group who had seen recent ads running on television and online that interpose images of Shoffner with nationally-known Democrats while a voice says “Hallie Shoffner has the values of radical, liberal elites, not Arkansas families.” Text messages sent to the cell phones of some Arkansas voters described her as a “radical lunatic.”
“That kind of advertising works and that’s why we have to compete against it,” Shoffner said.
In an interview, Shoffner suggested the attacks show Cotton’s campaign is “scared — and they should be,” she said. “Tom Cotton is one of the most unpopular politicians in Arkansas and in DC — both — and they’re very concerned because we’re running a campaign that is all about the people.”
She told the group, which calls itself the England Area Democrats in Lonoke County, that the average donation to her campaign has been $50, “which means this is truly a grass roots campaign. We have thousands of donors, and most of them come from right here in the state.”
Shoffner added, “People know very well where Tom Cotton gets his money, which is corporate PACs, and most of that is from outside of the state. This is about Arkansas and believing we can be one of the most prosperous and healthy states in the country. And that’s the kind of vision I want to bring to the Senate.”
Cotton reported raising $590,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025, with $210,000 of that coming from political action committees. His campaign manager, state Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, has said donations came from all 75 counties in the state.
Shoffner asked each person in the room Monday to go out and find five people to talk to about her campaign and to ask each of them to make a donation. Then each of those people should also find five additional people to spread the word and give to her campaign, she said.
“We don’t want to get to November and wish we had done more, which is why I’m asking for your help,” Shoffner said. “We don’t have to outraise him, we simply have to outwork him. That’s not going to be hard — he doesn’t really go to work, and I’m a farmer — I can definitely outwork him. But we do have to bring in as much money as possible so that we can go on the air.”
Shoffner said this will be a shoe-leather campaign with her visiting as many communities and shaking as many hands as possible between now and the November election. But money will be necessary to effectively compete.
“This kind of feels like a fight now, as people may know,” Shoffner said. “If you’ve gotten certain text messages or seen certain ads, I’m really fighting. I am fighting on behalf of the state of Arkansas.”
Shoffner, a sixth-generation farmer from Newport, said her message about the damage being done to agriculture by President Donald Trump’s tariffs is resonating with people who had never previously voted in a Democratic primary. She shared the story of being at a friend’s campaign event Sunday in Waldenburg and talking with farmers who are facing similar dire situations as what forced her family farm to close.
Cotton posted on social media on March 4, the day after the primary election, that he had met that day with leaders of the Arkansas Farm Bureau to discuss agricultural interests and headwinds being faced by the industry.
“I’m honored to represent farmers across Arkansas and will keep fighting on their behalf,” Cotton wrote.
He has also backed the attacks on Iran by U.S. and Israeli forces, writing on X Tuesday, “I commend President Trump’s decision to mitigate the threat Iran has posted to the United States for 47 years.”
Shoffner said Monday she feels momentum heading into the general election.
“The numbers on primary night were very strong. We turned out more Democratic voters than we have in a long time and I’m really pleased with that,” Shoffner said. “I believe people are feeling the pain and I think that they believe they deserve representatives who will do better for them, who really represent them and I’m honored that they have put their faith in me in this race.”
Shoffner called Cotton a “resident of Virginia” who is out of touch with the challenges facing Arkansans. She said voters are tired of the rhetoric of the left and right and want a senator who will stand up for everyday Arkansans rather than corporate, political interests.
Shoffner is also challenging Cotton to participate in a debate with her. In his first reelection campaign for Senate in 2020, the Democratic Party did not field a candidate to challenge Cotton and the incumbent skipped a debate with Libertarian Party candidate Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. which was organized by Arkansas PBS. All other congressional incumbents and their opponents took part in that year’s debates.
Monday’s event was Shoffner’s second time to campaign in England. She had previously spoken to the group shortly before formally announcing her candidacy in July, “so we have come full circle,” she told its members.
Little Rock attorney Bob Edwards, who attended England High school and later served as president of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association, said he helped create the England Area Democrats in 2024 to fill a void in political activity there. Edwards said he’s encouraged by the excitement being generated by Shoffner’s campaign.
“I don’t think either party really understands farming,” he said. “Its been the backbone of this state’s economy since its inception. I don’t care if you’re a Republican or Democrat, we need somebody that understands that and Hallie understands that.”
Veteran reporter, editor and manager at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
A new phase of restoration work will begin in the coming weeks on the Rock Island Railroad Depot in Perry, Arkansas. A retired architect known for his expertise in historic preservation is planning to restore the original wooden windows of the 108-year-old building. It’s also expected that soon we can place the iconic semaphore train order signal back alongside the telegrapher’s bay which will help restore the classic look of the depot.
Perry County Rock Island Depot Museum Board of Directors members Jimmy Middleton and Buford Suffridge in front of the depot on Nov. 14, 2025. Unless otherwise noted, photos were taken by fellow board member Michael Hibblen.
The signal has been in storage since the depot was moved about 150 feet from its original location in 2018 to keep the building from being demolished. In the years since, a cinder block foundation was built at a height determined based on flooding in the area in 2019, while the roof was replaced in 2020. The nonprofit board overseeing the project, which I serve on, has determined the most pressing need now is to repair 14 windows in the depot, some of which are extremely deteriorated and falling in.
A westbound passenger train approaches the Perry Depot in 1960. Photo: Ed Wojtas/Rock Island Railroad
A key factor is making sure the work is done in a way that maintains the historical integrity of the depot, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. We can’t simply have modern windows installed but need someone to repair or rebuild the existing windows. The board was concerned about being able to complete that at a reasonable cost. I’ll get into financial considerations a little further down.
After having difficulty finding someone who could do that as needed, I reached out for advice in November from Rachel Patton, executive director of Preserve Arkansas. The group had encouraged us to launch a campaign to save the depot in 2017, and the following year included it on its annual Most Endangered Places list. Patton suggested we contact Steve Hurd, a retired architect from Conway who has been involved in several notable historic preservation projects and was described by Patton as a talented woodworker and expert on historic wood windows.
Hurd came to the depot on Nov. 14 to determine what the work would entail. He walked through it with board members Buford Suffridge, Jimmy Middleton and myself, carefully studying the windows, taking measurements, photos and notes. He used a floor plan of the depot to number each window, then on Nov. 24, sent an itemized total estimate of $11,900. Some windows will need significantly more work than others, Hurd noted, with the cost per window ranging from $700 to $1,250.
Steve Hurd and Buford Suffridge look at windows in the telegrapher’s bay of the depot on Nov. 14, which we’re planning will be the first windows to be restored.
Much of the labor will involve repairing window sashes, which are the movable frames that hold glass panes within windows allowing them to open and close. There are also four window transoms in the depot. Those are glass panels above doors that can open and were common in the days before air conditioning to allow air to circulate within buildings.
“While the windows are, generally, in fairly bad shape, they are repairable,” Hurd said in his email. “I have looked at each window and tried to best evaluate what will be required for each one. This is why you’ll see several different amounts for each window listed.”
At a meeting of the Perry County Rock Island Depot Museum Board of Directors on Dec. 5, held at Perry City Hall, the six of us discussed Hurd’s estimate. We agreed it was reasonable given his expertise and the amount of work that would be involved, and by a unanimous voice vote, decided to proceed with Hurd.
“It’s kind of a specialized thing to restore windows like these and there are not many people around to do it anymore,” Suffridge said. “We were actually fortunate to find this fellow that apparently enjoys doing them, as well as having the know-how about how to restore these windows.”
Steve Hurd used a floor plan of the depot to number each window that was included in his itemized estimate.
Hurd noted that three of the four windows most in need of repair are windows 4, 5, and 6. Those are in the telegrapher’s booth which extends beyond the front of the depot toward the tracks, providing views in both directions so employees could watch for approaching trains. That proximity and the intense vibrations of frequent, fast-moving trains likely caused accelerated degradation compared to the other windows.
Danny Majors, the son of longtime depot agent Joe Majors, grew up visiting the depot daily in the 1950s and ‘60s. Responding to a Nov. 25 post of mine on Facebook, he wrote that he had “memories of looking out those windows and them shaking as the trains made a run at Copperas Gap,” which is an area at a higher elevation east of Perry along the Arkansas River.
Another factor that might have contributed to the wear and tear of the windows was having a house-moving company twice relocate the depot. In September 2018 it was moved off property owned by the Little Rock & Western Railway which wanted to expand a locomotive servicing shop that was located directly behind the depot. We were given an ultimatum of moving the depot or it would be torn down. It was placed on a trailer, then sat in a temporary location until a foundation was built to put it on in January 2020.
The three windows in the projecting telegrapher’s booth, as seen on Nov. 14, have crumbling frames and broken glass.
Beyond the windows in the telegrapher’s bay, Hurd said window 10, along the back of the depot closest to the east side, should also be prioritized. We forgot to show him one window, which at some point was boarded up by the Rock Island and is easy to overlook. It’s the lone window in the freight room on the west side of the building and is the only window that has bars in it, I assume to protect items stored in the room from being stolen.
We eventually want to use the depot as a community meeting space for events and to house a museum telling the history of the community and its connection to the Rock Island. A Rural Community Grant of $9,970.70 was awarded to the city in 2019 by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Division of Rural Services and specified those goals. With the freight room being the largest room in the building, it could be the busiest and most functional room.
Glass is no longer inside the freight room window. We don’t know why, though Majors recalled an incident when a kid “was doped up” and throwing rocks at the depot, speculating that it might have been broken then. Given the financially precarious situation of the Rock Island in its final years, fixing it was probably not a priority.
The most recent photo I can find showing glass in the window is from May 1967. Six months later on Nov. 10, 1967, the last regular passenger train was run on this part of the Rock Island, which provided service between Memphis, Tennessee and Amarillo, Texas.
The Perry Depot in May 1967, six months before passenger service ended for the Rock Island. The window for the freight room is visible here, which would eventually be boarded up. Photo: Bill Pollard
Photos from the mid-1970s, after the railroad was rebranded as “The Rock” and the depot was painted in a new blue and white color scheme, show the window covered and painted over. Railroad historian Bill Pollard, who took the 1967 photo, offered his thoughts on the window:
I feel sure that it was boarded over as no longer necessary when the baggage area became little more than a storage area for maintenance of way forces. Being on the end of the station, somewhat isolated, I suspect it was more of a target for rock throwing than other windows, and the scenario that you and [Danny] Majors suggest sounds reasonable to me. After replacing the glass once or twice, a plywood replacement would be more expedient than more glass.
It seems logical that we will want to restore the window, but that needs to be considered by our board members after consulting with Hurd about the additional cost. The window didn’t open, so it doesn’t have a sash to repair.
Jimmy Middleton, Buford Suffridge and Steve Hurd inside the freight room on Nov. 14. Not having power or lights inside the depot at this point, the room can be very dark so we typically open the front freight door to provide some light.
It would be good for sunlight to be visible inside the room as the only other source of natural light is when either or both of the freight doors are open. Once the restoration is complete, those doors might only be opened when needing to move large things in and out.
Formation of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
To prepare for this next round of work and eventually begin a new fundraising campaign to restore other aspects of the depot, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity organization was created last year. The Perry County Rock Island Depot Museum Inc. is being run by a six-member board of directors. All are volunteers who receive no compensation of any kind. Paperwork was completed by Buford Suffridge and Mike Allison, with an approval letter from the IRS dated April 28, 2025.
Suffridge is the board’s president, while Allison is a member of the board. Other members are Perry Mayor Justin Crain, me (Michael Hibblen), Jimmy Middleton and Tony Roark.
Previous donations for the depot went through the nonprofit Perry County Historical Museum, whose treasurer maintained separate accounting for the depot. As the project has progressed, we were advised to create a 501(c)(3) specifically for the depot. This should help the project qualify for additional grants from foundations and government entities, while donors can receive tax deductions.
When the board met in December, the organization had a balance of $14,149.58. That included a $5,000 donation made last January by a local resident who had memories of things that happened at the depot and wanted to remain anonymous. The most recent work was completed in 2024 when new siding and an ADA-complaint ramp were added, along with power being run to a nearby pole.
We have been eager to start new restoration work while remaining cautious about not overextending ourselves. One concern at last month’s meeting was that the estimate to restore the windows would use most of the existing balance, only leaving about $2,000.
We would still likely need to use our longtime contractor Larry Cates to do additional work around the windows. There are also regular expenses like annual termite treatments, and we need to have funds set aside for unexpected costs that could easily arise. So the decision was made to ask Hurd to do his work in phases and the board would pay for each of those phases individually. Then we got an unexpected donation to cover most of the window work.
Suffridge had spoken with U.S. Rep. French Hill in the Perry County Historical Museum in Perryville during the annual “Christmas on the Square” festival on Dec. 13, giving him an update on the depot project. The 2nd District congressman has been a supporter of the preservation effort since we began fundraising in 2017 to move the structure and he made a $1,000 donation at that time.
Hill is a member of the Historic Preservation Caucus, which includes 66 members of the House of Representatives from both parties. A description of the caucus notes that preserving historic places “is an essential element of creating a community’s sense of place. Through programs such as the Federal Historic Tax Credit, historic buildings help drive economic development. Heritage tourism, downtown commercial revitalization, and the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic properties into housing are a few ways we can appreciate history.”
U.S. Rep. French Hill after walking through the depot on Jan. 20, 2020 as work to build a foundation was about to begin.
Hill has visited the depot at least twice. He met Suffridge there on June 2, 2019 when the building was surrounded by flood water from the Arkansas River while being stored on a trailer. Fortunately, water from that record flooding event didn’t rise high enough to damage the floor of the depot. Then on Jan. 20, 2020, as construction on the foundation was underway, I met Hill there and walked him through the structure.
When they spoke in December, Hill asked Suffridge how much it would cost to replace all the windows and was told about $12,000. Hill said he had been meaning to make another donation for a while and wanted to support this latest phase. On Jan. 5, we learned he had donated $10,000.
In a letter to Hill the following day, Suffridge wrote, “Your donation, my friend, to the Perry Depot project is beyond generous and we appreciate it so much. This was totally unexpected but will allow us to fully restore the windows.” Hill responded to Suffridge by saying he was “proud of your work” and provided a written statement on his donation:
Patsy and Jay Hill in a photo provided by U.S. Rep. French Hill.
This gift is in memory of my parents Jay and Patsy Hill. They loved U.S and Arkansas history and were devoted to historic preservation. The preservation of the Rock Island depot helps preserve the history of our state, the importance of railroads to our nation’s commerce and offers young people hands-on-learning opportunities about engineering, construction and transportation.
Hurd said he expects to begin work restoring the windows by the middle of February. In an email, he added that he’s “excited to get started on the depot.” I know I speak for all the board members in saying how appreciative we are to have someone leading this part of the restoration with his level of skill and enthusiasm.
Having enough money to pay for all the windows to be repaired at roughly the same time rather than in phases will be extremely beneficial. It will make the process easier for Hurd to reuse parts of some windows to repair others, while some of the most deteriorated sashes may need to be completely rebuilt. It will also accelerate the project, which has been moving in slow incremental steps for years.
Hurd says he will remove the first three windows in the next two or three weeks to begin making the restorations in his shop. While he’s hesitant to project how long work will take, writing that “re-working windows is always an adventure,” he estimated four-to-six months.
Hurd helped establish the Conway Historic District Commission and the Asa P. Robinson Historic District, serving as its chairman for most of his 18-year tenure. He is also an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Arkansas’s Interior Design program teaching classes on lighting design and prototyping as well as 3D model building.
What’s next?
Once repairs to the windows in the telegrapher’s booth are completed, we hope to place the semaphore train order signal back in front of the depot. Hand controls for the two blades are still inside where the telegrapher used to sit. The part connecting the levers to the signal ran through the wall directly below one of the windows. We hope to reattach them so the blades can again be raised and lowered. The last time they were moved was by a worker with the house-moving company in 2018 before the signal was disconnected.
Mayor Crain is talking with a company about doing the work, but details have not been finalized. We don’t yet have a cost estimate, but hope that can be covered by the organization’s remaining funds after the windows are restored. A concrete foundation will be needed and the signal precisely positioned so it can be connected with the interior controls.
We also plan to repair one of the semaphore blades that has been broken for decades. We will use the existing blade to ensure the other looks exactly like it. Board member Tony Roark has a metal working shop that might be used to make it. We also still have the glass lenses inside the signal that showed different colors based on the position of the blades. Roark is also an electrician who can rewire the signal so the lights can be illuminated.
The top of the Perry train order signal on August 19, 2017, with one of the two blades broken.
The signal once played an important role in the operation of Rock Island trains through this area by telling crews how to proceed, as Dr. Bill Pollard explained in an email:
The boards were almost never placed in the 45-degree position — in operation, I never saw any train order board in that ‘call on’ position. Proper positioning would be vertical (green displayed) meaning no orders or office closed, or horizontal (red displayed) indicating orders to be picked up either by stopping or by grabbing them ‘on the fly’ as the agent held up a train order fork.
As work on the windows is wrapping up, we will make sure any needed repairs to the exterior doors are completed so they can seal shut and protect the interior. Preservation work can then finally begin on the inside of the depot, likely starting with the wood flooring. There are some areas where the floor has rotted or is completely missing.
Levers that controlled the semaphore train order signal are at the windows while a rotted section of the flooring has been removed.
Contractor Larry Cates has stripped away things that were added inside the depot, including cheap wall paneling and linoleum flooring. Shelves for equipment had been added in the two waiting rooms after passenger trains stopped running, along with makeshift work areas. We still need to take down a false ceiling that was added in the depot office. For the most part, he has gotten to the core of the original structure.
We have been getting great advice from people knowledgeable about the restoration of historic buildings. Key has been Rachel Patton with Preserve Arkansas, who wrote this in an email on Wednesday, Jan. 21:
I am excited to see the next phase of restoration begin at the Perry Depot! Steve Hurd will do a wonderful job on the windows, and I was thrilled to learn about Congressman Hill’s generous contribution to the project, which will allow the nonprofit board to tackle all of the windows at once. Hats off to the dedicated board members who continue to pursue their vision for this important historic property, and thank you to the donors who share their enthusiasm and see the value of this work for the community.
In the future, board members will begin working on an overall cost estimate to complete the goal of turning the depot into a museum and community meeting space. It will take continued financial support. We are looking for new grants that the project can qualify for. Many require matching donations to show support from the local community. We will also eventually launch another campaign on Go Fund Me. Our original campaign, launched in 2018 to raise money to move the depot, generated 117 donations totaling $10,390.
In the meantime, checks can be sent to the address below and made payable to: Perry County Rock Island Depot Museum Inc.
Perry City Hall P.O. Box 36
Perry, AR 72125
The depot as seen on Nov. 14 from the tracks of what is today the Little Rock & Western Railway.
We are extremely excited knowing how far we’ve come, but there is still much work ahead. Background information and details on how the restoration project has progressed over the years can be found at the link below. Thanks to everyone who has donated to preserve the depot!
If you have questions about the project, media inquiries or can provide additional historical information about the depot, including photos, stories, comments or corrections, contact me: michael@hibblenradio.com.
Veteran reporter, editor and manager at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
This is the online home of Michael Hibblen, managing editor of Newsroom Ventures, which publishes six Arkansas newspapers. I've worked as a reporter, editor and manager for newspapers, radio and TV stations for more than three decades, with this website telling the story of my career. Also featured are outside interests I've researched. The views expressed here are my own and might not reflect those of my employers.
Preserving the Rock Island Depot at Perry
Since 2017, I've been part of a group working to preserve the former Rock Island Depot at Perry, Arkansas. To keep it from being demolished, we raised money to move the depot to an adjacent lot, still alongside the tracks, which is now owned by the city. The building has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and our group has become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PRESERVATION OF THE DEPOT.
My Book
Released by Arcadia Publishing in 2017, Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas delves into the history of the railroad, which once had a huge footprint in Arkansas. The book features historic photos and tells the story of the Rock Island, which was shut down in March 1980. READ MORE ABOUT MY BOOK.
For 13 years, from May 2009 to December 2022, I worked for NPR station KUAR-FM 89.1 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That included 10 years as News Director while continuing to anchor and report. You can read and hear reports from that time on Little Rock Public Radio's website.
