By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
With jury selection set to begin this afternoon, the morning was taken up with a hearing and motions in the Alex Ware trial.
Ware, 35, of Memphis, is charged in the deaths of his two sons, Alexander Harrell, 1, and K-Von Harrell, 2. It is alleged that Ware abandoned the children to die in rural St. Francis County in June of 1999.
This morning's hearing centered on certain statements alleged to have been made by Ware and others, and whether they should be entered into evidence.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Gary Mitchusson called several witnesses to the stand before Circuit Judge Harvey Yates.
The witnesses included the two arresting officers, Billy Smallwood and Max Howard of the Memphis Police Department, who arrested Ware on Sept. 2, 1999. They both stated that Ware asked them unsolicited questions in the patrol car.
Ware's defense team consists of Jerry Coleman of West Memphis and Raymond Abramson of Clarendon. They tried to get Smallwood and Howard to admit that they deliberately steered their conversation in a way to get Ware to make a statement. They both denied it.
Also called to the stand was Sgt. Marcus Worthy of the Memphis Police Department, the detective who interviewed Ware after his arrest. Worthy also escorted Ware to St. Francis County, where Ware allegedly showed where the children had been left.
Testimony was still going on at 11 a.m.
It is alleged that Alexander was abandoned on June 16, 1999, and that K-Von was thrown into Old Blackfish Lake near Heth a few days later.
Extensive searches for the remains of the children were conducted several times in the areas where they were believed to have been abandoned. Police did find what is believed to be the remains of Alexander. No trace of K-Von has been found.
Chantilly Harrell, 21, the mother of the children, was originally charged with murder. According to testimony by Worthy, Ware originally accused Harrell of the murders. However, charges were later dropped against Harrell and she was released.
If convicted, Ware could be sentenced to death, or life in prison without parole.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Planning for the rest of the school year isn't easy after December, especially with January and February coming up.
An ice storm caused Christmas vacation to begin early for students in St. Francis County.
Dr. Randy Crowder, superintendent of the Hughes School District, said there weren't any "snow days" figured into the school year.
"You have to go 178 days, regardless of how you slice the pie," said Crowder. "When you build in snow days, you add them to the schedule, and if you don't use them you take them off. We didn't have any, but I'm thinking about putting some in next year, for psychological reasons."
Crowder said district officials have not figured out exactly how they are going to handle the rest of the schedule.
"We're going to have to see," he said. "Winter is just starting. January and February are usually the months when you worry about how many days you're going to miss. We're just going to wait and see what happens. The deal is, you have to go 178 days."
Forrest City Superintendent Lee Vent agreed that there may be even more days lost.
"That's always the question," said Vent. "Even the first part of March has been a major problem for us in the past."
Vent said it has been calculated that if the missed days so far are simply added onto the end of the school year, students would be attending through June 8.
"We have a policy in place which says we automatically attach days to the end of the year," he said. "However, that policy could be modified."
He said there is spring break and other holidays, "but the state Department of Education would have to give us permission, for example, to go to school on Memorial Day."
He said the school district may ask for a waiver from the state, but may run afoul of the North Central Accrediting Association if the required school attendance days are reduced.
"We hope to get some sort of direction from the state," said Vent. "It is a universal problem -- at least it is in 52 counties. And since Pulaski County is experiencing major problems, it will probably lend some impetus to our getting something."
Jimmy Allen, superintendent of the Palestine-Wheatley School District, said he is taking a wait-and-see attitude, because there is still a lot of winter left. He said he had been in contact with the Education Department.
"There will be a memo coming to us," said Allen. "From all indications, no decision will come out of them (the Education Department) until the March state Board of Education meeting because winter's not over.
"I think waiting is the only thing we can do at this point," he said.
A generator to support the Colt water system in the event of another wide-spread weather-related power outage was discussed during the regular Colt City Council meeting Thursday night.
Councilmen agreed that when an outage occurs, that the water supply and sewer system are crippled. City officials had already taken steps to back up their water supply by linking their system with Cross County Rural Water. This move allows Colt the ability to purchase water from Cross County Rural by simply opening a valve.
However, since Cross County Rural also lost power, the Colt Water System was unable to rely on that source, prompting the need for an emergency generator.
Mayor Virgil Keeler recommended purchasing the same generator the city had been renting during the ice storm. This diesel generator would provide enough electricity to power city hall, the fire department and the community center, as well as the water well pump.
City Manager Bobby Clarkson mentioned that they would like to have the generator set up to start itself automatically once a week to keep the batteries charged. The generator will also start automatically when an outage occurs. The city water patrons would not be able to tell when the generator takes over, even in the case of a power outage, according to Clarkson
After concerns regarding whether or not the city would be able to acquire diesel were put to rest, the council voted to purchase the generator.
In other business, councilmen voted to give city employees a 4 percent cost-of-living pay increase effective Jan. 1.
Also at Thursday night's meeting, returning council members Rita McGee and Joe Kerr were sworn in along with the newest councilman, Charles Ward.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The main issues facing the legislative session, which begins today, will come down to money as usual.
"I think by far the biggest issue of this session is going to be the budget and revenue forecasts, especially teamed up with efforts to give public school teachers the ($3,000) raise," said state Rep. Danny Ferguson.
"For the last couple of months, revenues have come in under projections, and there is a lot of feeling on the part of legislators that the governor's projections are too rosy, based on some of the things we have heard about," he said.
According to Ferguson, the economy is slowing down, and there are a lot of things that are going to be needed.
"Increased staffing is going to be needed for the Department of Corrections," he said as an example. "The correctional facility at Malvern is going to be coming on line."
But the biggest issue will be the teacher raises.
"What the governor is proposing now is that school districts pick up 20 percent of the raise," he said. "The fear is that you've got some school districts that could be strapped for money due to loss of students or some other reason. And the (mandated expenditure for) teacher raises might affect things already budgeted for. Things like buildings, maintenance and repairs. All those things would have to be pulled out and used for the raises. There is a possibility that in some districts, it would present a hardship."
Ferguson said a lot of things would have to be worked out, and legislators are not necessarily against teacher raises.
"Everyone I've talked to in the Legislature is in agreement that there is a need to address teacher salaries, not just for recruiting, but for retention of the teachers we have," he said. "The real question is, can we fund a $3,000 raise?"
While the teacher raise issue will probably overshadow the rest of the session, Ferguson said there are some other big issues.
"One is looking at delaying the implementation date on electric deregulation, and fine-tuning the legislation," Ferguson said. "There is a feeling right now that the infrastructure is not completely in place for Arkansas to enter a totally unregulated market at this time. I think some of the things that have happened out in California has caused people to think again about deregulation.
"Deregulation is a good proposal, and it should stay on the table. But, I think there is a chance we may move the implementation date back."
And back to education, Ferguson said there is something else hanging over everyone's head -- a lawsuit that came out of the Lakeview District, challenging whether Arkansas adequately funds public education.
"Kentucky recently lost a similar case," said Ferguson. "If this happens here, it's anybody's guess how many hundreds of millions it will cost. If the state loses this, we'll have to come back in special session and totally revamp the state's budget process."
Also hurting the state's budget, according to Ferguson, are tax cuts from the last legislative session, coupled with an economic slowdown.
"When former Gov. Frank White, now head of the Banking Commission, did the Banking Commission's Budget, he made the comment that this would be one of the toughest legislative sessions, budget wise, that Arkansas has seen in 30 years. He cited the number of incidents dealing with banks bordering on financial trouble."
Ferguson said it takes a while for the Legislature to "crank up," but said it won't be long before things start happening.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce recently named its new board of directors for the year.
Tom Machen of Machen Ford and Chrysler was named as the new Chamber president. Bill Baxter of Baxter, Horner, Devereux will continue to serve as secretary/treasurer. The new board members are Steve Lawrence of Forrest City Bank, Alice Barnes of the Forrest City School District, Judy Nash of Judy's Antiques, Arliss Cummings of Service Experts and Rausch Hodges of Stevens Funeral Home.
Sharon Stallings, CEO of the Crowley's Ridge Girl Scout Council, and Marie Moore, membership and field director for the Crowley's Ridge Girl Scout Council in St. Francis County were the guest speakers at Thursday's monthly Chamber luncheon.
Stallings spoke to the group on the three things that girls need to help them realize their dreams. The first topic that Stallings spoke to the group about was being a dreamcatcher for today's girls.
"Dreammcatchers were designed to hang over the beds of infants so that they could catch all of the bad dreams and allow the good dreams to come through. Even though we don't believe that really happens, it's very analagous to what we want to do. Young people have a lot of bad behaviors or traits -- the things that we don't like to see or hear them do-- but usually if we allow them the time and maturity to get past those things, they turn out to be more positive people," Stallings said.
"We need to focus on the positive things that children do and let some of the bad traits slip on through. We feel like we do that for our girls by allowing them an all-girl environment that allows them to articulate their feelings. It allows them to focus on caring about themselves, what they might become and what their responsibilites are. We try to give girls the tools to reach their dreams," Stallings added.
Stallings discussed how Chamber members might be involved in becoming Dreammakers and establishing a Dream Team for the St. Francis County area.
Moore also addressed the group and thanked the Forrest City School District for its help with the Girls Scouts In-School Day program. According to Moore, the In-School Day program began in 1996, and has included 645 girls. The focus for this year's program is science and will include a weather watch, shadowing and the space explorer program.
Relocation work on pipes for the Forrest City Water Utility should begin soon, Jim Beazley, manager of the FCWU told commissioners during a special called meeting of the Forrest City Water Commission on Friday.
"This relocation of water and sewer lines is really a good, good thing. First, the Highway Department will foot almost the entire bill for the project. Second, every time we have a relocation, a lot of things get cleared up and we end up with a better water system. The only bad thing is that we have to do it," said Beazley.
The low bid of $1,239,174 was accepted for the work from Roberts Construction of Forrest City. The only other bid received was from Diamond Construction of North Little Rock. That bid was for $1,624,764.
According to Beazley, 90 percent of the work will take place in an area near the Highway 70 and Yocona Road intersection. This work will include the relocation of sewer pipes, water lines and gravity sewer pipes.
Commissioners also elected to increase the size of existing pipes from 10-inch to 12-inch pipes on a section of the relocation work. The increased pipe work will be the only cost incurred by the utility for the relocation. According to Beazley the line in question is located near Boar's Head Inc. The cost to the utility for the pipe work will be $20,655.
"Increasing this line would be a definite boost to our system. They'll put the 12-inch in for us, and we just have to foot the bill," said Beazley.
The project is expected to take four months to complete.
Numerous meetings are scheduled for tonight throughout St. Francis County.
The Forrest City Civic Center Commission will meet at 5 p.m. at the Civic Center.
The Forrest City School Board is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. in the administration building. Board members will discuss make-up days for the district.
The St. Francis County Quorum Court will hold an organizational meeting at 7 at the courthouse.
The Widener, Madison and Hughes city councils are also scheduled to meet tonight. Widener will meet at 6 p.m. Madison and Hughes will meet 7 p.m. Each meeting will be held at that city's city hall.