The Mena weekly star., 1922-02-16
Western Assembly
 Notes

One of the finest assets possessed
 by Mena in relations to the location
 of the Western Assembly of the M. F.
 Church. South. is the fact that adja'
 cent to the proposed site is the Forest
 Reserve with approximately 2o,OOe
 acres available for recreational pur.
 poses. Chas. A. Plymale, Forest Sup
 ervisor at Hot Springs, in writing
 about this feature says among other
 things, tbat little has been done m re-
 gard to recreational development n
 the Arkansas National Forest. He
 adds that forest reserves in the east as well as west are being rapidly de-. veloped along recreational lines, and the same will be done in the Arkansas
 National Forest when once there IS q
 demand for recreational privileges.
 Mir. Plymale. speaking more particu- larlv about Mena's race for the As sembly. says: "In my opinion, there IS not another city in the state of Arkan- sas that has as many advantages 10 offer to the Western Assembly of the M E Church. South, as Mena. l am sure, also, that no other state can offer A location more desirable and with more advantages than can be found m Mena. The great out-of-doors sur rounding Mena, especially on the north and northwest, will remain practically as it is at present except such changes as recreational uses may make necessary.
 It should be noted also that Mir, Plvmale gives the assurance that a trail building crew will be at work bv the time the Commissioners meet on March 2.
 A subscription of $35,000 of the capital stock of the Western Method ist Assembly corporation was made Wednesday afternoon at meeting of the soliciting committee held at the Commercial Club office. This sub- scription represented an average of Si .OOO for each member of the com mittee in attendance. This was given a good boost early Thursday morning before the committees started out for work. when the report came that the directors of the Planters State Bank had subscribed S5,000. Soon after that came the report that the same ac- tion had been taken by the directors of the Farmers & Merchants Bank. These two subscriptions, together with these made Wednesday afternoon, m de good start toward the goal of { .000
 Dr. Forney Hutchinson, pastor of St. Luke's Methodist Church at Okla homa City, Ok, and Assembly Com missioner of the West Oklahoma Con- ference, has written Mena friends that he is delighted the final meeting of the Commission has been called for Mena. Rev. Mfr. Hutchinson is one of the men to whom the two, lone Mena representatives were indebted for a hearing before the Assembly Commis sioners at Fayetteville, August 25. He is a friend of Mena, and in turn has many friends in this community.
 Approximately seventy-tive thou sand dollars in cash or notes was the result of the drive made Thursday for subscriptions of stock in the Western Methodist Assembly Corporation, and in addition to this there was sub- scription of over five hundred acres of land and other properties. Nine teams were at work, six having been assigned to the residential part of the city, and team of five having been given the business district of the city. None of the committees completely covered the territory assigned, and this is especially true of the commit tee in the business district. This team is on the job again today, and will re- main on the job until every man has been given an opportunity to have part in over the Assembly project. All day Thursday, the general committee consisting of R. Golf, c. w. Petty and D. M. Watkins, made headquarters at the Commercial Club office, ready to answer any phone inquiries from the solicitors, assisting in the canvass wherever necessary, and then sending out words of encouragement whenever a good report came in from any of the committees. Here are the teams at work Thursday: Fred C. Embry and w. A. Warrington, w. A. Finks and w. E. Holt, w H. Morden and r. W. Tomlinson, V w. St. John and H. w. 1 Finger, w. s. MacLafferty and A Mitchell. Fred Duke and J. c. Jack son. W. A. Wilson and UrieI Thack- CT. and then the team in the business