
Ozarks At Large


Arkansas ends its fiscal year with a surplus of several million dollars, but lawmakers have no firm plans yet of how to spend the money. Ongoing highway improvements mean some road closures and delays over the holiday weekend. And, students at UALR react to the interest rate hike that went into effect this week on Stafford student loans for low income students.



The popular resort town of Eureka Springs is a prime Ozarks vacation spot filled with pretty B&Bs, cottages and cabins for overnight guests. But as Jacqueline Froelich reports, some say a glut of tourist accommodations and vacation rentals are dislocating residents, forcing them to live out of town.
Arkansas home sales are up by 10 percent according to the Arkansas Realtors Association. The half-cent highway sales tax kicks in this month and will continue for the next ten years. The Fort Smith Fire Department honors one of its own who rescued a child from a 30-foot utility shaft. And a familiar term to Fayetteville residents: construction zone.



Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, January 24, 2014
Ahead on Ozarks, the initial payment to insurance carriers in relation to the state’s private option is in the mail today. And the band SX Rex will explain their name and play two songs inside the Firmin Garner Performance Studio
Becca Martin Brown gives us a list she’s checked twice for weekend holiday-related events.
John Jeter from the Fort Smith Symphony gives us a preview of the sold-out Christmas concert next month. He also has some advice on how to at least get on a waiting list for any additional tickets that might become available.
Michael Collins, a research professor of anthropology at Texas State University is one of the leading minds when it comes to information about the first people in North America. He recently came to the University of Arkansas as a speaker in the Robert L. Stigler, Jr. Lecture Series.
"Thanksgiving" by George Winston
Y City is a small town not far from the intersection of highways 71 and 270, it is also the title of a book by Wade Rivers, who came up with the story idea while driving, appropriately, down an Arkansas highway. Ozarks at Large's Christina Thomas spoke with the author about Y City , as well as his most recent book Text’d, also set in Arkansas.
Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers says entertainment no longer takes a holiday around here.
"Turkey In The Straw" by Bill Monroe and Doc Watson