Plumerville / Morrilton, AR area (Little Rock, North Little Rock: relocation, housing, crime)

[ruralgirl]

Is anyone familiar with Plumerville, AR - Conway County? We are relocating to Arkansas in the next couple of weeks and there is a property in the area we are interested in. From what I can tell - it is Morrilton school district. It looks diverse and rural. Anyone have any insight on crime stats? On schools? On the area in general? Any information on the area would be most appreciative. Thanks much. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

[rackensack]

Morrilton is one of the places college kids from UCA and Hendrix in Conway (in Faulkner county -- dry county) go to buy booze (the other being Morgan, about the same distance southeast of Conway that Morrilton is to the northwest). I'd say "rural" is a reasonable description. There's a certain amount of property crime and drugs as there is anywhere, but no more so than many other places of similar size in Arkansas. University of Arkansas Community College - Morrilton (nee Petit Jean Vo-Tech, aka Petit Jean Technical College and later Petit Jean College) is there. Petit Jean State Park atop Petit Jean Mountain is nearby.

As for Plumerville, there used to be an old Stuckey's on the north side of the exit for Plumerville off I-40, and not a whole lot else. Now IIRC even the Stuckey's building is gone. Think there's another gas station across the freeway, and a Dairy Queen downtown. Oh, and a sawmill.

[strumpeace]

There's a seafood buffet place in Plumerville (right off I-40) that my mom used to insist we eat at everytime I would visit her. (She lived in Perryville, not far from Morrilton.) It was ok if you're into that sort of thing.

[Sam I Am]

If you want rural, good schools, little crime, and a small town atmostphere...Morrilton, Oppelo or Perryville are just right for you. However, on reading your other posts, I don't know that a family of racial diversity will be accepted in any of those towns. There's every possibility I'm wrong, and I hope so. I'm not trying to be harsh, those are just the facts. I note you've also asked about Fayetteville, which would be my personal first choice. Little Rock will also be pretty accepting, as will Conway (probably to a lesser degree). All that being said, when you leave the very heavily populated areas of Arkansas and get into the truly rural areas you could run up against some cold shoulders. I wouldn't want your arrival in Arkansas to be marred by anything that could be discouraging so I just want to give you a heads up. Most all of the areas just outside of Conway in any direction and west toward the state line will be primarily Caucasian communities, with an older population as well.

[rackensack]

Sam I Am's advice is generally sound, as usual. I would modify the comment that the areas immediately around Conway are all predominantly white. That's true for most, but there are a few communities that are overwhelmingly African-American -- Menifee, for instance, between Conway and Plumerville, is about 85% African-American. This is in contrast to Plumerville, which is only a few miles away but is over 70% white. This is indicative of the degree to which de facto segregation has historically been reality in this area, and actually reinforces Sam's point -- there's less interaction between races than you might expect. More now than there used to be, to be sure, but each keeps to its own to a very large extent.

[ruralgirl]

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate them.

Sam I Am - in response to your reference to Fayetteville... Yes, that was the original relocation city and I visited there twice to secure housing and so forth. It was a wonderful place. I loved it immediately. However, much to my disappointment, the location was switched to North Little Rock and I am now looking at Plumerville as a place to set up residence. However, I have visited the North Little Rock area twice now and looked at property in Conway - outside city limits - and also Vilonia. I liked both those areas and found everyone we encountered to be very friendly - just as I did in Fayetteville. Overwhelmingly so actually - in both places. Vilonia school districts made me quite nervous - the lack of diversity, so we moved on. So - now I am looking at Plumerville. I have looked at the schools website and there seems to be a fair amount of integration - what photos I could find. I am hopeful :-).

Again - thank you all for your responses. It is always a bit unnerving when you move to another state. Being from Ohio (NE) tho..... we tend to be pretty cold up here

And just for the record -- Plumerville and Morrilton seem to have a substantially higher black population than where I am from. I never really thought of this area of Ohio as so white - it is a hippie college town. But the stats say differently....

[Sam I Am]

You are surely headed into this in the right frame of mind. Sometimes I think the best plan is to give people no other option than to like you, and that's for true what you're doing! Let us know if the move is going to happen and we'll do all we can to assist you.

[undertheironsea]

Originally Posted by ruralgirl

Overwhelmingly so actually - in both places. Vilonia school districts made me quite nervous - the lack of diversity, so we moved on. So - now I am looking at Plumerville. I have looked at the schools website and there seems to be a fair amount of integration - what photos I could find.

Just because a school is rural and mostly white doesn't mean the kids are going to be eaten, or anything.

I'm interning in a school district right now that is only about 3-5% black and 5-7% hispanic, and I've never noticed any problems between white, black, and hispanic students.

This is the only problem I have when thinking about these things--if I said I was nervous about about going to a majority minority school because I was white (my schools in Mississippi were over 60% black), wouldn't people find that a bit racist? But if it's the other way around, isn't that the same thing? It shouldn't matter either way.

[Tuzzie]

I grew up in Plumerville. Yes, the kids in Plumerville do go to school in Morrilton as do many of the surrounding towns (Morrilton, Plumerville, Menifee, Blackwell, Oppelo, Springfield, and more.) The school itself is diverse and by diverse I mean majority white but a good share of blacks. There isn't much to do in Plumerville itself. There's an awesome catfish house, two gas stations (one keeps going out of business), a baseball field, and a race track. But it's pretty close to Conway, Little Rock, and Russelleville, so it's not that big of a deal plus Morrilton has some of your basics stores like Walmart and Krogers. As for crime, you don't really have too much to worry about.

[ecloebl]

Originally Posted by Sam I Am

If you want rural, good schools, little crime, and a small town atmostphere...Morrilton, Oppelo or Perryville are just right for you. However, on reading your other posts, I don't know that a family of racial diversity will be accepted in any of those towns. There's every possibility I'm wrong, and I hope so. I'm not trying to be harsh, those are just the facts. I note you've also asked about Fayetteville, which would be my personal first choice. Little Rock will also be pretty accepting, as will Conway (probably to a lesser degree). All that being said, when you leave the very heavily populated areas of Arkansas and get into the truly rural areas you could run up against some cold shoulders. I wouldn't want your arrival in Arkansas to be marred by anything that could be discouraging so I just want to give you a heads up. Most all of the areas just outside of Conway in any direction and west toward the state line will be primarily Caucasian communities, with an older population as well.

With my experience of living in Arkansas almost thirty years, I would suggest you heed the warnings in this posting. Racism is alive and well in Arkansas.