The City of Rogers is planning to put 25 roundabouts in various places throughout Rogers and is seeking artists to submit floral designs to beautify the projects. 

• Street art: The deadline for applications is Friday, Jan. 7 for artists to submit five designs a piece, which will potentially go in the center islands of newly constructed roundabouts. The medium will be stamped, colored concrete installed by construction teams and engineers, so a simplistic design is encouraged.
• Community project: The compensation for selected artists will be an agreed upon price and will be available upon the final approval of designs. The final design review date is Feb. 2 and will take place after two rounds of feedback. 

For application details and project examples, click HERE. 

In the last 12 months, the “Big Four” in Northwest Arkansas — Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, and Rogers — have each reported a record year in sales tax revenue. 

• Growth: From January to December 2021 the cumulative revenue reported from the four cities is $91m, which is up 17.17% from 2020, and 22.86% from 2019. Sales tax revenue goes toward local budgets and helps fund road construction and institutions like schools and fire departments.
• Gains: The December reports from each city showed double digit gains from last year, and a double digit gain from 2019 collectively. The December receipts’ cumulative revenue totaled $7.7m. Rogers saw the highest gains with a 22.64% increase in the December report, and Fayetteville the lowest with a 15.32% increase. 

Read the full Talk Business & Politics report HERE. 

With the holidays over, people have loads of decorations to dispose of, so Northwest Arkansas cities are offering free drop offs for string lights and live Christmas trees to be recycled. 

• Fish houses: Christmas trees make for great fish habitats, so until the end of January people can take live trees clean of decoration to boat access points at Beaver Lake, Lake Elmdale, Bob Kidd Lake, and Crystal Lake. 
• Clean up: The week of Jan. 10, Rogers and Fayetteville residents can place their live, clean trees on the curb for the city to pick up, and Benton County will accept trees at the Brookside Road facility. Lights can be dropped off at the Marion Orion Recycling Center 24/7 through January. 

For more info about lake drop offs, click HERE.

Northwest Arkansas National Airport (XNA) had many big wins in 2021 after a tough year in 2020.

• The seats: Not quite reaching the record breaking 922k passengers in 2019, the last count was set to be over 600k for 2021 with over 30 flights a day -- a major jump from the 360k passengers in 2020.
• Best of 2021: XNA is celebrating its low cost carriers and their contributions to regional opportunity. Last year, a total of 10 routes were added by low cost carriers. Frontier started flying to Las Vegas, Allegiant Air added Florida flights, and the runways welcomed Breeze Airways. 

For more info, click HERE. 

The Arkansas Razorbacks took home another trophy, winning the Outback Bowl game against Penn State on New Year's Day. 

• The road: It has been a season of comebacks and successes for the Razorbacks finishing with 9 wins for the first time since 2011. The team started off hot with a 4 win streak, faced a few losses, then finished strong, picking up the Golden Boot, winning the Battle Line Rivalry, and now the bowl game.
• Finale: The Razorbacks' 24-10 win in the Outback Bowl marks both the beginning of the year and a grand finale to the Razorback football season, which will return September 3. 

For more info, click HERE.