Grants, loan to fund new effort at local BRAD HeadStart Center

Those on hand in Little Rock for the awarding of grant monies for the BRAD HeadStart project included, from left: Front--Rhonda Ahrent, assistant HeadStart director, Jeffery Spencer, USDA area director, Rep. Billy Gaskill of Paragould, Gov. Mike Beebe, Barbara Sisco, program director for HeadStart and Early HeadStart and Andrew Pumphrey, AEDC grants manager. Back--James Jansen, executive director for BRAD, Clay County Judge Gary Howell, Rep. Mike Patterson of Piggott and Dee Walker, Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education.
(photo provided)

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In September, Gov. Mike Beebe awarded grants to 11 communities, including Piggott, through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant Program. The total of that grant was $325,000. The effort also benefitted from a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The total amount of funding earmarked for the project is $615,000.

That funding will be used to expand the current BRAD Head Start Center, with work expected to begin sometime early next year.

"This funding will allow us to construct what is referred to as an Early Head Start Center," noted regional program director Barbara Sisco. "When completed we'll have the capacity for 16 infants and toddlers for year-round services and expand over time to serve a total of 32," she added.

The plans call for the renovation of the current building, and the addition of five classrooms in a new section that will be constructed along the north side and to the rear of the present structure.

"We hope to be able to advertise for bids sometime around the first of the year, and construction will begin later in 2010," Sisco said of the effort.

"This will be a great addition to Clay County," Judge Gary Howell said of the project. Howell was among those on hand for the awarding of the grant monies at a ceremony in Little Rock.