By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Warm weather and longer days give area children more time to play outside, which means some basketball goals across the city are being placed next to city streets, causing problems for motorists.
Forrest City Police Chief Clarence McNeary said the problem is an annual one that police officers have to fight.
"It seems like every year, just like the flowers spring up, so do the basketball goals. The problems come when the goals are put near the street so that the street can be used as a court. We get complaints from motorists who aren't let through and from neighbors who get tired of hearing the ball at all hours of the day and night. So that means that we have to come out," McNeary said.
According to McNeary, many instances only take a warning to be corrected, but there are instances where sterner punishment is necessary.
"When officers go out the first time, they issue a warning and talk to the children and their parents if the parents are available. The next time we have to come out then a ticket is issued if anyone lays claim to the basketball goal. But, it's kind of like an officer walking up on a craps game. You see the dice and the money, but if no one claims it then we just have to confiscate the paraphernalia and that's what we do with the goals," McNeary said.
McNeary said two goals have been taken so far this spring. McNeary also said that games present a more dangerous problem when you have children playing constantly in the street.
"It's really an accident waiting to happen. When they get to playing, they get so into the game so much that they don't notice what's going on around them, and that could lead to someone getting hit by a car. Then, we have a whole other problem," McNeary said.
McNeary suggested that people utilize city courts at Stuart Springs Park and Southside Park.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
For everyone who has ever wished they could listen in on other people's conversations, "The Foreigner" should be a treat.
The play, by Larry Shue, will be presented by the East Arkansas Community College Drama Department this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the EACC Lecture Hall.
The scene for the comedy is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia. "Froggy" LeSeuer (Jeff DeBuhr), a British demolition expert who is occasionally in the area running training sessions at an army base, frequents the lodge. On one of his visits to the lodge, Froggy brings a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie (Keith Johnson).
Charlie is terrified at the thought of making conversation. So to protect his friend from having to talk to people, Froggy tells the folks at the lodge that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Froggie then leaves Charlie at the lodge, and that's when the fun begins.
With everyone around him thinking that Charlie can't understand a word that's being said, Charlie soon overhears more than he ever would have otherwise. He gets a fly-on-the-wall insight into the goings-on around the lodge. For one thing, a local minister's fiancé (Brooke McGill) is pregnant. But there's more than simple gossip to hear. Charlie learns that the minister (Chad West) is a two-faced villain, involved in a sinister plot with a local redneck (Michael Westmoreland).
The evil plot grows around Charlie until things actually start getting dangerous for the basically good, if not terribly sharp, folks at the lodge.
In the end, Charlie uses his wits and manages to turn the tables on the bad guys, without anyone ever finding out that he really understands what people are saying.
Friday and Saturday performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Sunday will be a matinee performance, at 2 p.m. Admission will be $5. Students with an EACC ID will be admitted free.
The play is directed by Tammy Freligh.
A kidnapping and aggravated robbery suspect was arrested this week when he tried to use a stolen credit card at a Wynne business.
Jermaine Johnson, 26, 1947 Williams St., Forrest City, was arrested at a store in Wynne Tuesday as he attempted to buy a pair of shoes with a credit card taken during a kidnapping incident Friday. According to police, Johnson went back to the store Tuesday and when he tried to use the credit card, store personnel contacted Wynne police who arrested him.
Johnson had used the credit card for purchases on Friday at a stores in Forrest City and Wynne, according to a report at the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department.
Johnson is charged with fraudulent use of a credit card, aggravated robbery and kidnapping in connection with the Friday kidnapping of Bob McKenzie, 87, and Sammy Wilson, age unavailable. The two men were kidnapped about noon when Johnson allegedly jumped into their car at Lock's Food Center on Highway 79 and directed them to drive into the county. The suspect then reportedly fled in McKenzie's car.
Johnson was arraigned Wednesday in St. Francis County District Court and bound over to circuit court on a $50,000 bond.
Sheriff's Department Chief Investigator Glenn Ramsey said more arrests are expected in the case.
Scott Edwin Carroll has announced that he is a candidate for mayor of Forrest City.
Carroll, 58, and a conservative Democrat, said he is running to be "a leader for all citizens -- to grow Forrest City, providing good jobs with good wages."
He is married to Johnnie Nell Carroll, and they have two children -- Kellen, a student at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and John-Scott, a ninth grade honor student at Forrest City Junior High School.
Carroll is a member of First United Methodist Church of Forrest City, where he is a member of the Chancel Choir. He is a member of the Razorback Club.
A graduate of Forrest City High School, Carroll is also a graduate of the University of Arkansas with a BSBA degree, and a graduate of Memphis State University with a master of science degree in marketing. He is owner of the edwin houston clothing store.
Carroll is a graduate of Leadership Arkansas, a two year leadership training program. He is president of the Forrest City Merchant's Association.
He is also past chairman of the East Arkansas Private Industry Council, past president of the Forrest City Rotary Club, past vice president of the Forrest City Kiwanis Club, past treasurer of the Forrest City Chamber of Commerce, past chairman of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City. He served two terms on the Forrest City School Board, and served as vice president.
There will be a class for poll workers on Thursday, April 25, at 6:30 p.m., in the upstairs courtroom of the St. Francis County Courthouse.
This is a required class for poll workers, according to St. Francis County Election Commission member Bettye Proctor.
Police are investigating an alleged rape that occurred Friday night behind a local elementary school.
According to a report at the Forrest City Police Department, a 17-year-old girl was knocking on a friend's house when a male subject approached her and asked her to walk to a nearby park with him. The victim told police she had been drinking at a party before she went to her friend's house and that she had also told the suspect she had been drinking before he allegedly raped her.
The incident occurred behind Stewart Elementary School at 400 Dawson Road, police reported. The rape was reported to police on Wednesday by the victim's mother. According to the report, the father, who has custody of the girl, did not want the incident reported.