Ground was broken this morning at Firemen's Park in Emmet for a pavilion to be built. From left to right are Janet Choate, Senior Vice President at Farmers Bank & Trust; David Spears, Spears Engineering; David Fielding, former state representative; Pastor Wanda Bullock of United Christian Church of Emmet; JoAnn Muldrew, Grant Manager; Mayor of Emmet Dale Booker; Beth Moore, Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Mike Otwell, Nevada County Judge and Deanna Allen, Vice President of Emmet Vision Association.

Soon Emmet residents will have a pavilion in Firemen's Park to use for farmers' markets, family get-togethers, concerts and the like. Thanks to a $100,000 grant from Arkansas Parks, Heritage and Tourism, ground was broken on a pavilion project planned by Spears Engineering of Texarkana, Arkansas.

Speakers at the event included leadership from Emmet and from Nevada County. Pastor Wanda Bullock of United Christian Church gave the invocation. Mayor Dale Booker thanked the Emmet Vision Association (EVA) and JoAnn Muldrew for their work in bringing the groundbreaking day into being and added, "It's going to be a very beautiful building, not just the plain old barn types. I appreciate that."

David Spears, from Spears Engineering told the story of how the design was developed. "It's been fun getting to work with Mayor Booker and Miss JoAnn on the project. We kind of had an idea of what we wanted, a covered pavilion, and Miss JoAnn brought a really nice design by the office, and we discussed ideas, size and materials and things like that. And ultimately came up with the 24 foot by 60 foot awning pavilion."

Spears was asked how long the pavilion would take to construct. "That'd be two months, three months. I think we had four months in the contract ... Once it gets going, it'll go."

Guest speakers were Janet Choate, Senior Vice President of Farmers Bank & Trust of Hope, who said "This space will bring families together and memories will be made." David Fielding, a former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives was there in the stead of State Senator Steve Crowell who is on a family vacation. He said there was no reason a small town like Emmet could not enjoy the facilities and quality of life other towns enjoyed.

Beth Moore, from the Arkansas Department of Agriculture spoke next. "When you think agriculture, you think of corn, soybeans, cotton, right row crops. Oh, no, that's just part of it. When you open this farmers market, you're going to learn a lot about specialty crops that the USDA has grants and loans for," she said. She also said grants will make possible more residential gardens to help defeat food deserts.

Nevada County Judge Mike Otwell said he could not beat what had already been said. "Thank God 30 years ago, EVA got kicked off and then as they've been kicked off, they have gotten members.

The past president and current vice president of EVA spoke next, Deanna Allen. She recognized the presence of founding members of EVA and said, "Today's groundbreaking ceremony marks the first strides towards the creation of the Firemen's Park pavilion that will serve as a pillar of tranquility, recreation and civic pride. As displayed by the breaking of the ground, we are ready to dig deep pulling at the seeds and nurture the vision of growth for our community into reality."

The groundbreaking followed by means of eight golden shovels, some of which will be donated to the eventual farmers market. Refreshments afterward included pink lemonade, lemon water, sandwiches and chips.