by Michael Hibblen | Apr 21, 2026 | Arkansas Business, Arkansas News, Arkansas Preservation
This story, published in The Glenwood Herald on April 17, is a good example of how much I enjoy the unique storytelling opportunities that are available while reporting for small town newspapers.
Building owner Ethan Blackman and Tasha Harris inside the recently cleaned out storefront where she will open her store Farm Fresh Beauty. Photo: Michael Hibblen
Soon the creamy smell of soap being made will be wafting through downtown Glenwood, Ark., emanating from a shop at 223 E. Broadway. It’s the expansion of a business run by Tasha Harris of Kirby who is opening her first brick-and-mortar store.
For 13 years, she has been making small batches of artisan soap from fresh goat milk. It was first intended for a son who had severe baby eczema. Soon she began giving it to other family members and neighbors with some, she said, eventually asking if they could buy it. Thinking she might be able to make a little money, Harris took some bars to sell at a farmers market in Waldron.
“I was so excited that I called my grandmother, my mother-in-law, and I was like, we made $60 today. It didn’t even cover our expenses, but we were so tickled that people would actually want to use our soap,” Harris said. “A lot of the people in the community use our soaps and we’re very grateful for them. Everybody in our family uses them. Our family also drinks goat milk, so, I mean, we’re a goat milk family, that’s for sure.”
She began traveling to events in states throughout the region to sell her soap and eventually launched an online store, shipping soap to customers all over the U.S. But when she recently saw an empty storefront downtown, she decided to end the driving and pursue her dream of putting down roots by opening a soapery called Farm Fresh Beauty.
Earlier this month, a crew spent a few days removing the old interior — things like cheap wood paneling, plaster over walls and lowered ceilings — to get to the bare structure so that she can begin designing how her store will be laid out.
Harris said it’s “exciting and nerve racking. It’s like, it’s all happening really, really fast, but at the same time, it’s just taking forever to get there. So I don’t know how you can feel both, but I totally do.”
She’s working with Ethan Blackmon, who recently bought the building, primarily to use a large warehouse in the back. The storefront, which he estimates is about 1,800 square feet, was just being used for storage.
The two recently walked through the building, marveling at its newly-exposed brick walls and original tin ceiling tiles.
“My crew had a little bit of time on their hands. I was like, yeah, we can go ahead and start on it, but it just worked out perfect,” Blackmon told her.
“I love it, and the best thing is all this natural light is so beautiful,” Harris responded, gesturing toward the front windows.
Looking toward the front of the shop as renovations are underway. Photo: Michael Hibblen
Now visible for the first time in decades is a sign on one wall from the period when this space was a shoe store. It says “self-service,” inviting customers to pick up shoes themselves rather than wait for a salesperson. The sign offers shoes for $2.88 a pair or two pairs for $5.
Blackmon says his family is from Glenwood and has memories of coming to the shoe store.
“My mom grew up, you know, not too well off and so they would come up here and take advantage of the two for $5 shoes. They’d get their new new shoes for school every year,” he said.
Harris and Blackmon looked at the floor and began deciding where to place counters and how she wants her shop to be laid out. Harris is extremely enthusiastic about what’s being planned.
“So we’re going to turn it into a soapery where you can buy all the handmade artisan soaps. You’re also going to be able to get different things like luxury robes, anything spa-like, you’re able to get it there,” Harris said. “We also have an entire men’s line. All kinds of shaving stuff. We’ll even carry the old-timey straight razors and the belts to sharpen it.”
Toward the back of the shop, customers will also be able to watch Harris and her sister-in-law make the soaps.
“We’ll do everything except milk the goats right there. We’re not going to bring goats in, but we are going to make everything back there from the lotions, soaps, everything,” she said.
Harris says her family currently makes 300 to 400 bars of soap a week. On her farm, she has 36 nubian goats and her mother-in-law does the milking. She says the production process has them going through about ten gallons of milk a week.
She’s aiming to open the store by the beginning of July. In the meantime, the key structural work that Blackmon will need to do is replace the roof. Wood that was once used for bowling alley lanes will also be incorporated into the shop. He said one of his hobbies is looking through online marketplaces for old material that can be reused and he found this wood which had been used for a bowling alley in Oklahoma City.
While Harris is excited about her future shop, she’s equally thrilled that it will become part of the revitalization of downtown Glenwood.
“I really feel in five to 10 years it’s going to be even bigger than it is now. So I knew that if I was going to do this, this is where I wanted to be,” she said. “I feel like downtown is really starting to come alive, and it’s just going to get bigger. So if I was going to get in, now is the time to do it.”
Veteran news reporter, editor and manager spanning more than 30 years at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas and hosting a podcast of the same name.
by Michael Hibblen | Mar 26, 2026 | Arkansas News, Arkansas Preservation
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 news reporter, editor and manager spanning more than 30 years at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas and hosting a podcast of the same name.
by Michael Hibblen | Mar 11, 2026 | Arkansas News, Arkansas Politics
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 news reporter, editor and manager spanning more than 30 years at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas and hosting a podcast of the same name.
