UA Priorities: Streams or Softball?

A 13-year University of Arkansas project on Mullins Creek, a high sediment-load watershed of the White River beginning at Carlson Terrace, will not be getting any attention or UA funding anytime soon.. The Audubon Society received a $150,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to aid in the renovation of the creek. Although the plans for the grounds fall under what Chancellor John White calls his Sustainability Initiative, the UA says it lacks the $900,000 for the project.

"It's a matter of priorities," said Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor for Facilities Management. "There is always a prioritization. We are always trying to find the best way to meet the need and the need always supercedes the demand," explained Don Pederson, vice chancellor of Finance and Administration.

Other UA priorities will affect the creek before anything can be done to restore it. Midstream of the creek the UA plans to install two 42-inch culverts from the new women's softball field. While the stream project has languished for 13 years, the UA has been planning for the softball field for two years.

The price tag for the completed softball stadium is $6 million compared with the $900 thousand it would cost to restore and protect the adjacent stream. Priorities, as they say.