McD’s gets upgrade

Batesville’s McDonald’s restaurant on Highway 6 will close at midnight Sunday — with plans to reopen in a big new restaurant building to be constructed on the same site, tentatively by July 12.
“I’m ecstatic for the community!” Batesville McDonald’s owner Don McDuffy, who said that he has been waiting on the go-ahead for the new restaurant construction for four years.
Demolition of the existing building will begin after the April 2 closing.
“It will be state-of-the-art, one of the show-stopping McDonald’s with new, digital menu boards inside and out, new equipment from ice cream machines to frappe makers,” he said.
The new building will be constructed over the present lot and the adjacent lot where a Chinese restaurant was formerly located at the intersection of Highways 6 and 51. The building will be larger with more parking, according to McDuffy. It will feature double drive-in lanes with three windows and will be open 24 hours a day.
Eighty-five to 100 employees will be hired for the new restaurant, the restaurant owner continued. About 65 percent of the location’s present employees will be laid off during the construction, eligible for unemployment compensation if otherwise qualified and for rehiring once the building is complete. The remainder will be transferred to McDuffy’s second Batesville location at the Love’s Travel Center. He said that local contractors are being hired for much of the work. “That was one of my stipulations,” he said.