Officer Chris Rankin

Public Information Officer

903-798-3187 (office) 903-260-0294 (pager)

903-824-4199 (cell) 903-798-3023 (fax)

Texarkana Arkansas Police Badge

Re: Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative

The Texarkana Arkansas Police Department, in conjunction with other City Departments, is set to begin a Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative that will kick off with a press conference on Tuesday August 13th at 1:00pm at the Iron Mountain Center on Couch Street. The first area of town that will be focused on will be the Iron Mountain Addition north of E.9th Street.

Police Chief Bob Harrison will speak at the press conference along with Interim City Manager Harold Boldt and Public Works Director Jeff Hill. Each of these department heads will be available to answer questions regarding this cooperative effort.

This focus of this project is to identify and address any quality of life issues within the designated area. Officers will conduct door to door surveys of area residents and seek input from citizens regarding criminal and drug activity, city code violations, and areas that can be addressed by the public works department.

In particular, officers will focus on abandoned houses and structures that are not up to city code, overgrown weed lots, junked vehicles and trash, and violations of city noise ordinance from houses and vehicles.

In addition to taking necessary enforcement action the officers assigned to the project will make recommendations regarding long-term solutions to localized problem areas.

Although this initiative will begin in the Iron Mountain Addition of Texarkana Arkansas it will eventually spread to other areas of town based on the necessity for enhanced law enforcement presence.

Thank you and you can visit the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department online at http://www.txkusa.org/arkpolice.