By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The president of Crowley's Ridge Technical Institute expressed pleasure this morning at Monday's failure in committee of a bill to merge CRTI with East Arkansas Community College.
Burl Lieblong said he believes the final vote was four against and two for, with the chair not voting.
"We were very pleased with the vote that was taken in the Senate Education Committee yesterday," said Lieblong. "Some of the higher education institutions in our area that used to have technical training no longer have it. Technical education has traditionally suffered when such an institution is merged with an academic institution."
Administrators at EACC were in support of the merger while those at CRTI were against it.
"We thank everybody who supported us in our endeavor," said Lieblong. "We now look forward to getting back full time to serving the area we were created to serve."
Lieblong said especially critical was testimony by two senators, Mike Everett, D-Marked Tree and Alvin Simes, D-Helena.
Speaking this morning, Simes said he had expected the vote to be close.
"But I believe those who voted against the merger were persuaded that the concerns of the people who live in Forrest City were greater than those who were on the study panel," Simes said.
A special task force had recommended the merger. One argument against the merger was a claim that eastern Arkansas was not properly represented on the panel. There were strong differences in opinion on how the merger would affect technical training. Supporters of the bill said he merger would not result in lost programs or jobs, but would save the state money. Opponents argued that it should be a local decision, and said, as Lieblong argued, that technical training suffers under an academic institution.
"I think it was very significant that both Mike Everett and I agreed on this," added Simes. "There have been other issues on which we have disagreed. But we both spoke against the merger, going more for the interests of the community."
EACC President Dr. Coy Grace was still out of town and could not be reached for comment this morning.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The St. Francis County Quorum Court will meet in a special session Thursday night to levee millage taxes for the third time.
County Assessor Craig Jones said a mistake made by the State Department of Education caused the error. Jones said his office was notified Friday of the need for a change in the millage rate by the Department of Finance and Administra-tion.
"The Forrest City School District millage was miscalculated on the state level and therefore had to be changed. The rate on the millage is still going down, now it will be dropping a mill instead of a mill and 2/10 which will put it at 27.2 mills instead of 27 mills. It just so happened that we were getting everything together to open the tax books and the error was found. That helped us avoid some potential problems down the road," said Jones.
Emily Holley, Chief Deputy Collector, said that the delay in opening the books is not a major problem.
"This delay will not hold up the books considerably. We've got everything ready to go on them now. We just have to get everything approved by the quorum court, and then we have to get the computer situation taken care of in the assessor's office," said Holley.
According to Jones most counties across the state are facing minor delays in opening the tax books due to the computer transition caused by a recent tax rebate amendment. Jones said technicians are currently updating the computers at the local courthouse and anticipates that project being finished by next Friday.
Pat Flanagin with the Forrest City School District offered praise for county officials for working swiftly to remedy the mistake made by the state.
"It was an unfortunate error by the Education Department, but I would like to praise the county officials for the teamwork they displayed in fixing this. County Judge Carl Cisco, Assessor Craig Jones, Sheriff Dave Parkman and County Clerk Elizabeth Smith all pitched in to correct the errors. We had to go back through the entire chain of command, and they helped make that process smoother," said Flanagin.
A Memphis man was arrested Monday night after allegedly setting fire to a West Broadway building while trying to keep himself warm.
The Forrest City Fire Department responded to a call at the old Handy Foods building at 1823 W. Broadway just after 7 p.m. After extinguishing the small fire, officials found the suspect inside the structure.
Forrest City Police Officers arrested James A. Ensco, 33, of Memphis on charges of criminal trespassing and criminal mischief.
According to the report, Ensco told firemen he set the fire because he was trying to "thaw his eyes out."
No damage was reported to the building.
The Forrest City City Council will meet in regular session tonight at 7 in City Hall.
Several speakers are on the agenda on subjects ranging form a proposed multi-purpose facility to the Humane Society.
There will also be readings of several ordinances.
A final enrollment report for the spring semester will be one of the items discussed at the regular Board of Trustees meeting at East Arkansas Community College, set for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8 in the EACC Conference room.
Other agenda items include a status report on the distance learning and Media Center facilities at the new Learning Resource Center a Foundation Board appointment, a resignation and a recommendation for employment.