WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Arkansas City hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday at Lovie Watson Park.

The ribbon cutting was hosted by the Arkansas City Chamber of Commerce and marked the culmination of extensive efforts by Arkansas City’s Parks Department to renovate the park.

The renovations were made possible through a grant that was secured in Nov. 2023 from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Health Pathways program.

The grant funding helped install new equipment and establish a tobacco-free policy within the facility.

The Pathways initiative, known as Pathways to a Healthy Kansas, is the largest community grant initiative funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. It combines community-wide, evidence-based solutions and practices to help Kansas communities improve active living, healthy eating, and tobacco prevention.

The initiative provides community coalitions the tools and resources to engage their communities and remove barriers to healthy living.

Cory Cox of Perryville was sworn in as a member of the Arkansas Tech University Board of Trustees by Pope County Judge Ben Cross on Thursday, June 20.

Cox will complete the term previously assigned to Michael Lamoureux. Lamoureux resigned from the board effective March 31, 2024. The term Cox has been appointed to will expire Jan. 14, 2027.

A 1996 graduate of Arkansas Tech with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science, Cox was active in ATU Student Government Association and ATU Student Activities Board during his time as an undergraduate student.

After graduating from the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Cox was legal counsel in the Arkansas Office of the Governor during the administration of Mike Huckabee (2000-05), director of the Arkansas Insurance Department Criminal Investigation Division (2005-08) and a partner at Hiland, Thomas and Cox (2008-10).

Cox also has experience as government affairs liaison and legal counsel for the Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands (2010-14), deputy general counsel for the Arkansas Department of Human Services (2014), legislative director for the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General (2014-17) and chief of staff for the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General (2017-21).

Since 2021, Cox has been employed by health care insurance provider CareSource. He is the company’s state director of government relations.

Cox joins Len Cotton of Dardanelle (chairman), Bill Clary of Conway (vice chairman), Stephanie Duffield of Russellville (secretary) and Jim Smith of Fayetteville on the ATU Board of Trustees.

Nearly a year ago I warned that if Oklahoma doesn’t get moving on income tax cuts it would be left behind. The year 2024 arrived with 14 states having a cut to their personal income tax rate take effect.

Three of these states—North Carolina, Mississippi, and Arkansas—previously had a higher rate than Oklahoma and have now moved to a lower rate. Missouri is right behind, having gone from 4.95 percent to 4.8 percent.

While Arkansas cut its rate from 4.9 to 4.4 percent, that still wasn’t good enough for Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Yesterday she signed legislation cutting the rate to 3.9 percent, retroactively, beginning Jan. 1, 2024.

Oklahoma, meanwhile, chose massive government spending hikes in 2024 (“We overspent again,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said) instead of income-tax reduction.

The question used to be what can Oklahoma do to stay in front? Now the question is: What do we need to do to keep up?