Renée Hunter

The Conway City Council approved on Tuesday a commitment to become an Arkansas City of Excellence.

ACE is a state program with the purpose of preparing communities for economic development, according to Brad Lacy, executive director of the Conway Development Corporation.

Mayor Tab Townsell said he believes the commitment will enable the city to turn around a recent downswing in industrial growth in Conway.

The program has four required components: Strategic planning, marketing, site development and an established business and industry program.

Conway is already ahead in the strategic planning area because of the Action for Conway's Tomorrow process, Lacy said.

The city must choose five to eight components from two other areas, economic development and community development, for a total of 15 components. Economic development includes such items as manufacturing, agriculture and agri-related businesses, commercial development and area partnerships. Community development includes education, health care, housing, law enforcement and fire protection.

When established in 1992, the ACE program focused primarily on industrial development. Lacy, who was with the Arkansas Department of Economic Development until recently, helped revamp the program in 1998 to increase its scope. The refurbishing was based on input from about 80 ACE cities about what was good and what was bad about the program, Lacy said.

The program now allows cities to look at such growth opportunities as retiree relocation, tourism and movie making, Lacy said. It also allows cities to go after "knowledge-based" industries such as Acxiom Corp. and Alltel.

Conway already has a good base in these "industries of the mind," which traditionally offer higher salaries than manufacturing, Lacy said.

"But the nation doesn't know that," he said. The ACE program should help Conway get the message out, he added.

The employees of such companies are younger and more interested in active recreation than in the arts. They also prefer cities with more employment options so they can change jobs without relocating if they choose to.

About 40 cities are ACE certified now, Lacy told the council, with 26 more working to obtain certification.

(Staff Writer Renée Hunter may be reached by phone at 505-1266 or by e-mail at rhunter@thecabin.net)