By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City Housing Authority and the St. Francis County NAACP apparently are no closer to settling their differences in a dispute over whether it was proper to have several cars towed on May 19.
The NAACP has held that the vehicle owners did not receive proper warning, and reiterated that position during Thursday's meeting of the authority's board. The claim is that the housing authority did not follow its own policy.
"Allow us to make it very clear that we are not here to dispute the merit of the policy requiring the towing of verified unauthorized vehicles. We feel that it is a good and necessary policy," said Shirley Harvell, who chairs the NAACP Legal Redress Committee. "Our complaint is that the policy was not followed in this particular instance on May 19, 2001."
Vehicles of people who live in authority-controlled housing are supposed to have special stickers. Vehicles which do not have stickers may receive warning tags or stickers and be towed after a certain amount of time. The sticking point is whether the people whose vehicles were towed received proper warning.
Board Member Gazzola Vaccaro said the rules for cars to be tagged and later towed are in the policy and every person who lives there has a contract.
"And in that contract is the outline for what is required," Vaccaro said. "As I understand it, several days or a week before this last week, the rules were put in a newsletter warning everybody that this was ongoing."
Patrolman Billy Andrews with the Forrest City Police Department was at the meeting, and said all the vehicles towed had been targeted for some time.
"The way we warn everyone is, we have a notice we put on the vehicles," said Andrews. "We put out fliers and warning stickers, plus I personally mailed a newsletter to every tenant who lives in the housing authority, stating that this is what we're going to be enforcing...The vehicles we towed were vehicles that we observed as having been there for over a month without a parking permit."
The NAACP disputed the claim that vehicles owners were warned properly. Harvell also said the notice mailed out was undated and only said that vehicles must have a resident permit. "Even this letter that was sent out was misleading," said Harvell.
Vaccaro said some rules might need changing.
Harvell said there were people who were only visiting whose cars were towed. "And they didn't get the warning on the windshield."
Vaccaro said the rules might need changing.
"Maybe we ought to revisit the rules and regulations and make them more stringent...instead of being so lenient...We've been trying to be accommodating, from what I gather," said Vaccaro.
Harvell said the NAACP's position was that the existing rules were not followed.
NAACP President Frank Shaw said the problem was that people's cars had been moved and there was no verification of how long they had been there.
It was mentioned by Vaccaro that the housing authority had received only three complaints. The NAACP representatives would not give an exact number, but said some people were afraid to voice their complaints to the housing authority.
Vaccaro said the matter would be taken under advisement.
Colt residents are being reminded to remove their garbage carts from the curb after pickup.
The Colt City Council has adopted an ordinance requiring the carts to be moved within 24-hours of pickup.
Colt City Manager Bobby Clarkson said garbage pick-up occurs weekly on Monday, and the new law, which will begin being enforced next week, stipulates that any garbage carts that remain on the curb until Wednesday will be picked up by city officials. Homeowners must then pay a $5 fee to get their carts back. The carts will be stored at the Colt City Hall, and may be retrieved during regular business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. "We're hoping that we don't have to pick up anyone's trash cart, but with our current situation, we are faced with traffic hazards because there are those who leave the carts in the road and people have to weave around them to avoid them. That's the problem we are trying to get rid of," said Clarkson.
By CRYSTAL HOLLIS
T-H Staff Writer
Employees at Crowley's Ridge Technical Institute are feeling the effects of computer problems at the state level.
The computer program responsible for computing and issuing payroll checks to all state employees has suffered numerous setbacks in the past few weeks after that system took on the responsibility of also issuing child support checks.
CRTI President Burl Lieblong told board members at this week's quarterly meeting, "It has been a nightmare. About 45 employees were affected this past pay period by this system."
As part of the check process, the system computes the withholdings for each employee in addition to the employee's retirement contribution each pay period.
"Some employees who were supposed to have 6 percent of their income withheld for retirement had up to 24 percent withheld from one paycheck or none at all," Lieblong said. "Twenty-four percent is a huge chunk out of someone's pay. They say they will straighten it out. They even underpaid or overpaid some of the employees."
Registration is under way for classes beginning this fall, and Lieblong said so far the numbers are good. "We had 125 students register in the early registration, and our nursing and cosmetology classes are already full."
Late registration will begin next week as will assessment testing for students each day at 8 a.m.
Jerry Williams, supervisor of instruction at CRTI, told board members the school has completed the application process for Council on Occupational Education (COE) accreditation and expects to find out the results of that application in September. Williams said the application consisted of 412 pages, and that he and others from the school were impressed by COE when they attended a meeting in Florida this summer.
In other business, the board passed a motion to allow $1,000 to be charged for customized truck driving training instead of the usual $500 truck driving training at the facility. Lieblong told the group a trucking company, Comcar, has approached the school seeking customized training for future employees.
The State Board of Workforce Education and Career Opportunities changed the standards for setting the tuition rate per student semester credit hour during its June 15 meeting this year, and now allows the technical institutes' local board of directors to set the tuition rate per student semester credit hour.
The increase in the price of training for the Comcar employees will cover the hiring of an extra trainer and other expenses associated with the driving classes.
"They will select the drivers, do the drug testing and we'll train them by our standards and add what else they will require," said Lieblong.
The board also approved the hiring of two new instructors, Harold Bailey, an auto mechanics instructor and Charles Thompson, a computer instructor.
Board members were also reminded the annual CRTI Barbecue will be held Friday, Oct. 5, on the school's campus.
By CRYSTAL HOLLIS
T-H Staff Writer
Palestine is seeking a grant to aid in the construction of a new senior citizen center.
The facility will be constructed at the current location of the Palestine Water Department. City councilmen agreed during the group's monthly meeting this week to ask the Arkansas Rural Development Commission for the grant of $325,000 for the center's construction.
Mayor Willetta Carroll said the center will also house the water department and will be rented out to citizens groups and others as a community center.
"What I plan to do is to tear the old water office down. We own that property," said Carroll. "Anyone in the community will be able to use it. How it is run and maintained will be just like any other community center."
In other business, the council voted to table a request for a $1 increase by B and B Disposal Services, and adopt the city's current millage rate for the coming year.
Alderman also agreed to allow the city to take action for the removal of condemned structures inside the city.
City Attorney Jerry Roberts said of the resolution, "This is in case we have a particular structure or a particular address that we need to try and condemn or clean up. Then, we can come back to the council with that particular piece of property and pass a resolution. If the property owner doesn't comply, then we'll proceed to do the work ourselves and seek payment for the services from the property owners."
Roberts said the property owner will be assessed the amount for cleanup through the county tax assessor's office and those costs will appear as a lien against the property.
Council members said they will now gather the addresses of certain property owners whose structures they feel should be condemned.
A Back-to-School Prayer Rally, sponsored by Concerned Citizens For Our Children, will be held Monday, Aug. 27, at 6:30 p.m.
The rally, or rallies, will be held simultaneously in the parking lots at each of the Forrest City school campuses.
"Concerned citizens will unite as a community to pray for our children," said Donna Jayroe, one of the organizers. "A prayer of blessing and protection will be prayed at all schools by the citizens and young people of Forrest City."
According to Jayroe, the prayer focus will be for the school administrators and for the children and teachers. There will also be prayers for protection and peace.
East Arkansas Community College will hold late and evening registration for fall semester 2001 this Saturday and next Monday through Friday.
Saturday, Aug. 18, registration will be from 8 a.m. until noon.
The remaining dates and times are as follows: Monday, Aug. 20, 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 21, 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 22, 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.; Thursday, Aug. 23, 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.; Friday, Aug. 24, 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
During this time, the Registrar's Office will be open, as will counseling/testing. Advisors will be available. The Bookstore will be open. Also open will be the Financial Aid office and the Cashier.
For more information, call the college at 870-633-4480, or toll-free, 877-797-EACC.
The Highway 78 overpass at Interstate 40 in Wheatley will be closed for a 24-hour period next week so that the overpass can be raised in conjunction with an I-40 construction project.
The overpass will be closed from 5 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 23, to 5 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 24.