Northwest Arkansas Times; December 7, 2002.

By Matt Wagner

The Mount Sequoyah Assembly Board of Trustees voted unanimously to sell 70 wooded acres east of the United Methodist retreat center's main campus Friday, and speakers who addressed the panel said the board appeared sympathetic to their concerns about preserving the urban forest.

Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody said he beseeched the board to find a buyer who intends to leave the greenspace - known to locals as Sequoyah Forest - undeveloped.

"My comments were that this land has been relatively untouched for a long time," the mayor said. "That Fayetteville's grown up around it, and that's going to continue to happen. And that we have a one-time opportunity to preserve this for everyone's benefit. ... I really believe the board has a sincere interest in doing what's best for Fayetteville."

In April, 36 of the 40 trustees met to evaluate the center's financial assets and determine whether they could be realigned to keep the facility economically viable. Trustees discussed the prospect of selling the property - situated between the Cliffs apartment complex and Happy Hollow Road and agreed to have the parcel formally appraised, said Charles Wallace, the center's director.

Wallace told the Northwest Arkansas Times in October that the value of the property was appraised at $1.3 million.

According to a news release, the board unanimously favored selling the property at its meeting Friday. The information was released by Bishop Bruce Blake, who chairs the board of trustees. Bank of Fayetteville CEO and President John Lewis and Ward 3 Alderman Bob Davis, owner of Eason Insurance, also serve on the board.

"The reason for the sale of this property is to utilize the value of this asset for the mission of Mount Sequoyah as the conference and retreat center of the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church," the statement read.

The jurisdiction was formed by the Uniting Conference of 1939 in Kansas City, Mo., according to its Web site. Seventeen annual conferences and 118 districts are included in the jurisdiction, which spans Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Eleven active bishops preside over the jurisdiction, which contain about 1.83 million United Methodists belonging to 6,400 churches, the site stated.

Wallace said representatives from a local conservation group, the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association, were also given an opportunity to address the board Friday. FNHA co-founder Dr. Pete Heinzelmann and member Kay DuVal told trustees that the group has applied for nonprofit status and is gearing up for a fund-raising campaign. Heinzelmann said he's optimistic about the preservation effort.

"We also have talked with the director of the Ozark Regional Land Trust, who's very interested in this property and seemed to be willing to work with the parties involved to see that it's preserved for public use," he said. "I don't know how much we'll be able to raise. We'll be able to raise some, but we're talking about a big figure."

DuVal told the board that 67.5 percent of the 1,200 residents surveyed for Fayetteville's 10-year master parks plan indicated they would like the city to set aside public areas strictly for preservation purposes.

"We didn't know when we went in what the mood what would be, but we were really pleased," she said. "I felt so good about it. I could tell the questions (trustees) were asking Dan showed their interest in keeping it a natural spot."

Wallace said the board also formed a four-person task force to deal specifically with the eventual sale of the property. Bruce will chair the task force, which also includes Wallace and trustees Davis and Lewis.

Heinzelmann said anyone interested in touring Sequoyah Forest should show up at 9 a.m. today at the Southwestern Electric Power Co. tower atop Mount Sequoyah. The public is invited, he said.