By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Officials with the City of Palestine are taking steps to alleviate what has become a problem with late-paying customers of the city's water and sewer department.
According to a letter from the department, customers that have not paid the balance of their bills by the 25th of each month now face a $25 reconnection fee and possibly a bench warrant for their arrest.
According to Palestine Mayor Willetta Carroll, a current city ordinance allows the $25 reconnection fee to be charged to past due customers even if the services have not been disconnected.
"The charge is a reconnection and late payment fee. That way even if the services haven't been cut off we can still charge the late payment. We're trying to crack down on people that just refuse to pay their bill each month, and this will hopefully slow some of that down," she said.
Palestine Water Department Director Derrick Boileau said that the enforcement should make his job easier because now he has a means of enforcing the billing system.
"We don't have that many people going out to disconnect folks, so we had to do something because people were taking advantage of the system. We couldn't get to all of the people that were past due in a month, and it might take us a couple of months to get people disconnected. Then they would pay their bill or just go out and turn their water back on. So, something had to be done to control that," said Boileau.
Carroll commented that the added threat of prosecution had to be done because of the problems that the utility has faced with people reconnecting their services without the utility even knowing.
"We had people that would go out after their water was disconnected and simply turn it back on. With some of those people we would go back out six months later to check the system and find out they had turned the water back on and that's theft. I spoke with our city attorney, Jerry Roberts, and he said that we could actually charge those individuals with theft of property, and that's what we're doing," said Carroll.
Carroll also said that the reason the notation was put at the bottom of the letter was to let people know that the law is now going to be enforced.
"Sometimes it's necessary to let everyone know the rules just to get at those that abuse the rules. If a person is trying to pay their bill and doing the right thing then we will be happy to work with them, but if they're not, then we want to get them in line," Carroll said.
Three men have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery Sunday afternoon at a local convenience store.
The Forrest City Police Department reported the robbery occurred about 1:25 p.m. at the Handy Foods location at 1333 W. Broadway in Forrest City.
According to police, the three black male suspects entered the business wearing masks and surgical gloves and demanded money from the register.
Following the robbery, the suspects fled on foot toward railroad tracks located north of the business. According to the report, an officer in the area saw the suspects running east on the tracks and began chasing them. Other officers arriving on the scene surrounded the area and captured the suspects a short time later without incident, police reported.
Watell Hare, 20, 3752 Hwy. 339; Harold Shannon Jr., 20, 723 Dangeau and Clifford Wilson, 21, 1314 Culley Dr., all of Forrest City, were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery and fleeing. They were scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Forrest City Municipal Court.
St. Francis County Sheriff's Department personnel seized equipment from a suspected methampheta-mine lab and arrested six people on drug charges in an unrelated incident recently.
The first incident took place late Wednesday night on Tuni Road. A pickup truck was observed traveling at a high rate of speed and officers began chasing it. During the chase the officers began to notice that things were being thrown out of the truck.
The officers retrieved the articles that were thrown from the truck, and found them to be articles used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
No arrest has been made.
The second incident took place on Thursday at about 5:30 p.m. Members of the Sheriff's office, the First and Third Judicial District Drug Task Force, the Palestine Police Department and the Arkansas State Police executed a search warrant at the residence and shop building of Brad Holman in Palestine.
During the search, about four pounds of marijuana were found, along with a small amount of Methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
According to the report, both the residence and the shop had been under surveillance by the Sheriff's Office and Drug Task Force.
Arrested on numerous drug charges were: Brad Holman, 46; Paula Mauppin, 29; Donnie Jarrett, 39; Tonya Colbert (Taylor), 23; James Henry Hooker, 35; and Clarence Baker, 25.
The St. Francis County Circuit Court's current term of civil court begins Tuesday.
Circuit Clerk Bette Green reminds jurors in Jury Panel Group B to call her office for more information after 5 p.m. today. The juror call-in numbers are 633-2035 or 1-800-570-5885. Green said the message on the phone will instruct jurors as to when they should appear in court.
Civil court on Tuesday will be held in the Municipal Court building located behind the main courthouse.
The current criminal case term will begin on May 14.
The Forrest City High School Mock Trial team will benefit from meals sold at Oscar's on Thursday, May 3.
The restaurant will feed the team members, coaches and sponsors. In addition, the restaurant has arranged for a portion of that night's sales to go to the team.
"Anybody who comes with them or comes as a result of them being there -- we're going to give the mock trial team 10 percent," said Roger Breeding, one of the owners.
Team members have been giving out coupons which people can show on Thursday to insure that 10 percent goes to mock trial.
"Or if people tell us they're there for the mock trial team, we'll still honor it," Breeding said.
The team, which won the state championship, is raising money for a trip to national competition.
St. Francis County received $122,364.24 in sales tax revenue for March.
In addition, cities within the county received the following from the county sales tax: Hughes, $22,480.64; Forrest City, $165,984.14; Wheatley, $5,564.26; Palestine, $8,830.80; Madison, $15,686.76; Caldwell, $4,148.36; Colt, $4,148.36; Widener, $4,732.10.
Also, cities with their own sales taxes collected the following during March: Forrest City, $134,895.05; Hughes, $7,500.10; Madison, $2,130.47; Palestine, $3,953.79; Wheatley, $4,323.46.