By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
The St. Francis County Quorum Court's personnel committee upheld the firing of an at-will employee Tuesday night during a hearing filled with finger-pointing and accusations.
Justices held the hearing at the request of Bettye Proctor, the former chief deputy for St. Francis County Treasurer Ann Harbin. Harbin fired Proctor, who is also a county election commissioner, in June, claiming she had embarrassed her during a May incident in which Proctor threw a glass of tea on Steve Hollowell, the Republican election commission representative, while on duty in the treasurer's office.
According to county policy, chief deputies are considered at-will employees and may be terminated without reason. However, in a June 17 letter, Harbin told Proctor she was being terminated because she had embarrassed her and her office.
Proctor said Hollowell had provoked her actions.
While pleading her case, Proctor claimed that Hollowell had been harassing her for some time, and the final straw came when he accused her and fellow Democratic election commissioner Joe Young of a meeting to set polling locations without notifying him. She said the argument centered over the polling site at Christ Church School, which she claimed, Hollowell wanted to do away with.
Defending the move, Proctor said, "I'll never do away with Christ Church until the black people tell me they want me to do away with Christ Church. I believe these people deserve something in this community." Proctor did not comment on whether or not she and Young had met, without proper notification, to set the polling sites.
"I had a glass of tea, and I threw it at him. You better believe I did, and I'll do it again. I know it was wrong, but I did it anyway," Proctor said. After throwing the tea, Proctor went to the sheriff's department, and was accompanied back to her office by Sheriff Dave Parkman who asked Hollowell to leave.
Harbin said that after hearing the commotion, she came out of her office to see Hollowell soaked with tea. "It was all over the office," she said. "He talked to me a few minutes, and I apologized to him."
Proctor said that following the incident, she asked Harbin, who was preparing to leave for vacation that day, if she was planning to fire her, and according to Proctor, Harbin told her 'no.'
Hollowell, who could not attend the meeting, submitted a letter to committee members outlining the May 22 incident.
In response to Harbin's claim that she had been embarrassed by Proctor's conduct, Proctor said, "I may have embarrassed her, but there's been things she's done in our office that embarrassed me. You talk about embarrassing, it goes both ways, gentlemen. If I embarrassed anyone, I'm sorry, but a human can only take so much. This is my story, and I've got a side too."
Harbin said she had not documented the things Proctor was accused of doing because she had been told documentation was unnecessary for at-will employees.
"At-will is legal, but human relationships should also come into play," said Justice Author Witherspoon.
"I concur with you, Mrs. Proctor is an at-will employee," said County Attorney Fletcher Long. "The bottom line is that we can't order two adults to get along. Here, we have an elected official and an at-will employee. If somebody's got to go, obviously it is not going to be the elected official."
Upon returning from executive session, committee chairperson Earline Hardrick Smith said, "Our decision does not reflect the personal feelings of the personnel committee."
Justices then approved a motion to "uphold the procedures of our personnel manual." Smith said Harbin and Proctor will each receive a letter from the committee outlining the decision.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The completion of a new facade at East Arkansas Community College is still anticipated for the end of July, the EACC Board was informed Tuesday. Work on parking will continue after that.
EACC President Dr. Coy Grace also reported that there are several other projects scheduled for sometime in the future, which he called Phase II. Some of these include awnings for the Administration Building and Hodges Building, a covered walkway from the Lecture Hall to the student parking lot, and a renovation of Classroom Building One.
The board also received an enrollment update from Catherine Coleman, vice president for Student Affairs. The Summer I session had an enrollment of 525, up from 454 last year, a 16 percent increase. Summer II, for which enrollment is still underway, has a preliminary enrollment of 321, up from 242 at the same time last year. Also, fall enrollment stands at 457, up from 320 at this point last year, a 42 percent increase.
Grace pointed out that this does not necessarily mean that there will be a 42 percent enrollment increase this fall. He said it could mean that students are more aware of early enrollment than they have in the past. He did say, however, that an enrollment increase was to be desired.
On another matter, Grace told the board that a state publication might give some figures that could be confusing, and he wanted to try to clear up the matter.
The board recently increased EACC's tuition by 13.8 percent for the coming year. However, the board also increased the tuition cap to 15 hours. It had been at 12 hours. That is the maximum number of hours for which tuition is charged. Grace said that by state figuring, the tuition increase plus the increased cap resulted in an increase of 40 percent.
"We were one of the last remaining schools with a 12-hour cap," Grace said later. "In fact, some schools do not have a cap at all."
In other action, there was a report on new hires and resignations. New employees include Claudia Farr as custodial worker II and Tommie Lamb as an office clerk. Resignations included:
Sharlot Starks, custodial worker II; Debra West, director of Institutional Research and Development; Cedric Macklin, director of Recruitment and Student Activities; Carmen Williams, administrative secretary, Student Affairs; Rebecca Dowd, coordinator, Cross County Literacy; Annie Walker, Family Literacy coordinator.
The board was also informed that Bob Beavers has been chosen again as the college's on-call architect. Also, in the annual rotation of banking, First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas received the college's accounts.
The board also agreed to seek an employee for a one-year position, whose job would be fund-raising. The college is trying to secure funds to build a Fine Arts Center. Grace told the board that after studying proposals from several professional fund-raising firms, he felt that the school could do as well with its own fund raiser, and save money at the same time.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
New parking spaces for the Forrest City Public Library were discussed during the board's regular monthly meeting this week.
Board member Brad Beavers gave board members copies of a drawing outlining the proposed parking area for the corner of Davis Street and North Washington, across the street from the library.
"Several months ago, we purchased the lot to expand our parking," said Beavers. "It should add 30 more spaces if we use this diagram. We will also have to build a privacy fence as a buffer from the residential area behind the lot." The board gave Beavers permission to seek bids for the paving of the new lot.
Memorial money left to the library by Billy Mills was earmarked for the purchase of three new computers to be placed in the children's reading room. The computers will be dedicated for the children's use and have programs installed that are appropriate for them.
Sarah Jumper recapped for the board the recent success of the library's summer reading program.
"We had about 50 kids at each program," said Jumper. "We also have printed bookmarks that the children made for a contest that was a part of the program, and will hand them out soon at the front desk."
The board also said farewell to Wilma Delaney, a long time member of the board. She served on the board for 10 years and was presented with a plaque from the board in appreciation for her years of service. Replacing Delaney on the board is Eva Lou Pickett. A reception was held after the meeting in honor of Delaney's departure and Pickett's addition to the board.
The board concluded the meeting by voting to cancel the August meeting and hold its next meeting on Sept. 9.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
The director of this year's Mightymite again appeared before the Advertising and Promotions Commission this week to discuss this year's event.
The race is scheduled for Saturday, July 20.
According to Robertson, things are moving forward as far as volunteers and participants for the race are concerned.
Robertson gave no exact numbers on volunteers, but said, "Things are falling into place with the volunteers," and that he would "contact church groups and other organizations in the next few weeks."
When asked how the volunteers would know how to run the race without training, Robertson said he will bring in people who have worked with him before and have them stationed along the race to guide the other volunteers.
Robertson did, however, have statistics on the number of racers signed up for the event.
"As of Sunday, we had 175 people sign up for the race," Robertson told the commission. "About 150 of those signed up on the website, and the other 25 are mail-in applicants. I still hope to have about 300 runners signed up by the deadline (Friday, July 19)."
Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Danny Ferguson presented the commission with a proposal on a celebration to be held on July 29.
"The Forrest City National Guard unit will be returning July 29 through 31 and then will ship off again to Colorado. We want to hold a welcome home celebration for the guardsman and their families at the Civic Center on July 29 at 6:30 p.m.," Ferguson said.
"It will be a fish fry, and we will provide music and entertainment for them and the general public. Tickets will be $10 for the public, and we hope for a good turn out," added Ferguson.
Ferguson told the commissioners that the Civic Center wants to charge rent for the event, and that the event would cost roughly $2,500 to fund. The commission voted to fund the event up to $3,000.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
A change in the way grant money will be used was approved at the Caldwell City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Mayor Gary Hughes told councilmen the city had requested an energy grant for $10,000, but was approved for a lesser amount.
"The grant was approved, but it was approved at the amount of $2,000 instead on $10,000," Hughes said. "The money was to go towards buying a generator for city hall, but I suggest we put the money towards the purchase of a new heating and air unit for city hall." The council passed the proposal unanimously.
Hughes also updated the council members on the fire truck situation, stating that while they are waiting on grants to be processed for the purchase of a new fire engine, the Forrest City Fire Department is loaning them an engine for an indefinite period.
In other news, the council voted to take bids on the 1978 Chevy pickup that is owned by the fire department and is no longer needed.