The City of Widener received a check for $12,500 from the East Arkansas Economic Community on Wednesday, to help purchase half the land the city wants for the construction of a civic center and city park.
"This is for the purchase of the first half of the property," said Mayor Dot Halford. "We want to put the park on the back half and the community center on the front half. And this is for the community center."
Robert Cole, a consulting coordinator with the East Arkansas Enterprise Community, was on hand for a brief ceremony in which the check was handed over.
"The East Arkansas Enterprise Community would like to see a community center in every small town that needs one," Cole said. "These small towns, some of them don't have any type of meeting place for the community. We know that this is something that needs to be done."
Charlene Sikes, EAEC Board member and chairman of the board's Community Development Committee, was also present. She said small towns like Widener need to grow.
"We envision a point where there will not be any difference other than the formal difference between Forrest City, Widener, Madison etc.," Sikes said. "It should be like it is a lot of other places. . .It will make you not say that you don't want to move to Widener, because you'll find as much in Widener as you'll find in Forrest City."
Also present was Bobby Bell, a circuit rider with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Halford said if all goes as planned, there should be a groundbreaking for the center some time in November, with possible completion in May.
"We went down every avenue we could to try to find money for this property" before turning to the EC. "Finally, I went down that avenue, and there it was."
The estimated cost of the center is about $50,000. The city will also provide some in-kind labor.
By CRYSTAL HOLLIS
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City Public Library computer server, which crashed recently, is up and running again, but patrons will need to bring their library cards with them next time they wish to check out books.
Members of the FCPL board of directors discussed options yesterday to allow library patrons to still check out books while waiting for the back-up disk to come back from Spectrum, the company that services the computer server. Most patrons just give their library card number, but because of the wait, board members feel it would be a good idea to go ahead and re-scan patrons' cards, in case the wait takes too long.
According to DaShaune Roberts, co-head librarian, information on the back-up disk could not be easily retrieved after the server was operational again. "It has been hard for the computer technicians to retrieve the information about circulation on the back-up disk," said Roberts. "They say they can retrieve the information eventually, but it will take some time. The disk has been sent off to Spectrum so they can retrieve the information, but in the meanwhile, we will have to continue to do everything manually and that process is becoming lengthy and time consuming."
Board members discussed assigning new numbers to patrons who checked out books, but came up with what they believed to be a better solution.
Jim McInturf, chair of the FCPL board of directors suggested that re-scanning the patrons' current library cards would make operations run more smoothly while waiting for the disk.
"That way you can have information on hard drive right now and we won't have to change their number back when the information is retrieved," he said.
Board member Brad Beavers agreed saying "We know everything used to be done manually, but until the information is retrieved, the patrons' information needs to be kept on hard disk now and will free up the employees from the manual task of checking books out and in," he said.
Beavers also noted the wait for the retrieval of circulation information will not affect the municipal suits against those patrons with over-due library books. "This will not affect the cases at all. We still have all that information and it will go-ahead as planned, if the books are not sent back," he said.
Figures from the county's insurance company have come in on damages suffered by the County Courthouse during a March fire which was later determined to be arson.
According to figures from Gallagher Insurance, total damages to the building stand at $498,716.45, close to $200,000 more than preliminary figures given at the time of the fire. The estimate for repairs to the first floor are $19,144.93; the second floor, where the fire was set, $139,249.86 and structural repairs, $340,321.66.
According to St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco, these figures may now allow the process of repairing the building to speed up.
"We knew that the numbers were going to be high but I didn't have any idea that they would be this high. The one good that's going to come from receiving these figures is that now the entire process can get going in full force. Metro (the company that has been cleaning and making repairs to the courthouse) has been working and has pretty much finished the roof and now this knowledge will let them move forward with the work that they can do. It's been slow and go with them, but hopefully everything can speed up now," Cisco said.
According to architect Bob Beavers, the process will still be a little slow and go until all of the figures on the insurance settlement can be hammered out.
"I received the estimates yesterday morning and I've been looking them over and they look pretty good but we will have some questions about some things, there always are questions. Once we can get all of those hammered out with the insurance company then we can start to look forward to some advances in the repairs," Beavers said, adding, "With any project like this it takes some time to get a schedule of when the repairs will be complete because you can't really get started until you've reached a settlement with the insurance company. When we had the last school fire, it took us at least six months to know when we could begin to look at a schedule because we didn't know what funds we had to do the work that we had to do."
The St. Francis County NAACP has filed a complaint with the Forrest City Housing Authority, alleging that vehicles were towed from Housing Authority property without proper notification.
However, the director of the Housing Authority said the actions taken were proper.
The alleged incident occurred early on Saturday, May 19.
The NAACP is charging that the Housing Authority did not follow its own guidelines in having the vehicles towed.
"Our position is, you have a procedure. Follow the procedure," said Shirley Harvell, who chairs the local NAACP's Legal Redress Committee.
"If the procedure had been followed, we would have no complaint to file. We applaud them for trying to remove anyone who is not supposed to be there, or any unsavory characters. We have no problem with that. The only thing we ask them to do is to be consistent and follow their procedures."
Janet Duncan, director of the Housing Authority, said proper procedures were followed.
"The people did have warning," Duncan said. "They had knowledge of the policy as far as it is in their lease agreement. And they all have a copy of their lease which they sign."
Duncan said residents are required to have parking stickers. The stickers are free, and gives residents the right to park on a continuous basis, she said.
"The police monitor the area, and when they see vehicles parked here night after night without a sticker, many times it is an indication that someone is living here who is not legal."
The NAACP is asking that those whose vehicles were towed be reimbursed for their towing costs. Harvell said she did not have actual figures on how many vehicles were towed. However, she did say, "Some people still have cars that are being held in impound. And we feel that those cars should be released back to their owners."
Duncan said the purpose of towing the vehicles was to help the legal residents.
"The purpose was to help the residents who do live here and who do pay rent, and yet come home and cannot find a parking place near their apartment," she said. "We were getting complaints from our residents. We know many people who live in these developments do not even own a vehicle, so there should never be a parking problem. But we have a lot of outside company coming in and staying in apartments illegally."
She said it was not a new practice. "We've been doing it since 1997."
Frank Shaw, president of the St. Francis County chapter, reiterated that the policy was not the problem.
"We're not questioning the policy. It's a good policy," said Shaw. "All we're asking them is to correct the procedure from now on so it doesn't happen like that again."
Shaw said it has been frustrating trying to talk to the Housing Authority.
"We've been trying to explain to them that some innocent people got hurt in this process. What we're trying to do is help rectify the situation early on, without a lot of rip-roar about it. It looks like a violation of these people's Fourth Amendment (against unreasonable search and seizure) rights."
The St. Francis County Farm Family of the Year, the Terry McGraw Family, will be honored in today's edition.
The Farm Family of the Year program is sponsored locally by the Times-Herald, and state-wide by Entergy and the Arkansas Press Association, with the cooperation of the Arkansas Department of Workforce education, the Arkansas Farm Bureau, Cooperative Extension Service, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and USDA Rural Development.
The special section is also sponsored by the following advertisers:
A-1 Tint & Communications, The Antique Rose Flowers & Gifts, Arkansas Concrete, Bobby Henard Tire Service, Brothers Implement Company, Bull Motor Company, Chez Weenie, City of Palestine, Clark Oil Company, Colony Shop.
D & H Irrigation, Debbie's Flowers, Diamond D Wrecker Service, Dr. James T. Meredith, Edward Jones, East Arkansas Equipment, East Arkansas Insurance, East Arkansas Seeds, Inc., Entergy, Erwin Keith Inc., Farm Credit Mid-South, ACA.
First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas, First National Bank of Wynne, Food Giant, Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce, Forrest City Bank, George Chiropractic Clinic, Gray's Service Center, Hagger Well Service, Hardwick Well Supply Inc., Harvey Tire Inc.
Heartland Equipment, Hobbs Farm Implement, Honda of Forrest City, Howard Miller Insurance, Ray Houser, Hunton Office Supply, Hurley and Associates, Judy's Antiques & Gifts, Lawhon Farm Services, Littlefield's, Machen Ford and Chrysler.
McGraw Sales and Service, Mike's Family Foods, NAPA Auto and Truck Parts, NuWay Cleaners, Oscar's, Producers Rice Mill Inc., Producers Tractor, Jim and Betty Reeves, Riceland Foods - Wheatley, Ridout Lumber and Home Center, William M. Ripper, Ross Ford Toyota.
Ruby's Flowers and Gifts, Sanyo, Sears, St. Francis County Farmer's Association and Hutcherson Flying Service, St. Francis County Farm Bureau, Southern Furniture Company, Staci's Styling Studio, Synergy Gas, Times Herald Printing and Office Products.
Ungerank Chiropractic Center, Union Planters Bank, Vel-Rich Jewelers, Western Auto, Wholesale Metal Supply and Woodruff Electric Cooperative Corp.