By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Voters planning to cast their ballots today, during the first day of the early voting time period, were turned away this morning when poll workers informed them that ballots for the election were not yet available.
St. Francis County Election Commissioner Bettye Proctor blamed the lack of ballots on redistricting and problems with the ballot printer.
"The ballots are supposed to be in the air from the printers as we speak. This redistricting that we've had to do has caused us some problems, and we're not the only county facing problems today. In Little Rock, they've got new machines, but some of their ballots left the names of candidates off, and that's a problem that we won't have," Proctor said.
Proctor also said that problems with a sole printer being available contributed to the delay.
"I've tried getting in contact with the printer all weekend to find out when the ballots would be here. They are the only printer that we've been able to find that could do the ballots for us, and they're in Omaha, Neb., having to ship the ballots here. It's a shame that you have to do business with just one person, but that's what we're facing. We're shooting for the ballots to be here by tomorrow to start, but we're hoping they get in some time today," Proctor said.
According to election coordinator Judy Armstrong, information from the printer, ES&S, of Omaha, leads her to believe that ballots would be in by 8 a.m. Tuesday.
"I've talked to them finally this morning, and they are telling me that the ballots would be sent out overnight today, and we hope to get them by tomorrow morning. They are being flown in from Des Moines, Iowa, and we should have them by 8 a.m. from what they told me this morning," Armstrong said.
This is the third occurrence of late ballots in the last two years for the commission.
In May of 2001, for the special election to increase the millage in the Forrest City School District, absentee ballots were not presented to the county clerk's office within a required 25-day time period before the June election.
In October of 2000, a set of ballots for a justice of the peace election were not available for the opening of early voting in the general election.
Attempts to contact ES&S were unsuccessful today.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The weather wasn't cooperative, but just about everything else was for the 12-hour Relay for Life, which began Friday night and ended Saturday morning.
"It went wonderfully," said this year's chairman, Phyllis Autry. "Everybody worked really hard. We had a great time, we got to do some really good things and lots of people stayed really late."
Rain forced the walk from Sam Smith Stadium into Mustang Arena, but the walk still came off well, she said.
"We had good audience participation in our games, and sold a lot of good food."
The paper bags which would have been used for luminarias were displayed in a unique manner in the arena. Autry said this could be done because there was plenty of warning that the Relay would have to move indoors.
"Since we knew ahead of time that we'd be inside, we played with the idea of how we could have a good special service (for the luminarias, purchased in honor of or in memory of cancer patients)," she said. "We came up with the idea of using the sacks, and we taped them up on the rails, so when people walked around the course they could still see the names."
Also, elementary school children bought "stars" at a quarter each. The stars were put on the wall of the arena.
Money-wise, the total was short of the goal of $50,000, but the drive isn't over.
"This year's fund raiser ends June 30," said Autry. "We'll still be collecting funds on this year's totals, and then start again. We were short of our goal, but we always want to put our goals high and we still have through June 30."
She said the total raised was "in the vicinity of" $32,000, with more money yet to be turned in.
She reported that, for the fifth year in a row, Yale was the top fund-raiser by about $90. She said Yale raised over $3,000, followed closely by Gamma Theta Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi.
She said that Yale also won the "Best Grub" award, while Musketeers for Life took the "Best Campsite" award.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
People driving through construction zones would be well-advised to pay attention to the law, according to members of the Arkansas State Police and Highway Police.
No one traveling Arkansas' highways needs to be told there are a lot of construction zones. There are 41 miles of construction in Troop D alone, which serves St. Francis, Crittenden, Phillips, Lee, Woodruff and Prairie counties.
According to the Arkansas State Police, since July of 2000, these construction zones have been the cause of travel delays, along with an increase in personal injuries and fatalities, not to mention incidents of "road rage."
As an answer to the problem, the ASP has announced the formation of a Traffic Enforcement Task Force, designed to saturate specific areas and strictly enforce traffic laws. The Troop D area will be the focus of such a saturation on Tuesday, May 7, focusing mostly along Interstates 40 and 55. The Arkansas Highway Police will also be taking part.
"We're going to commit about 30 units to this operation," said Captain Steve Gray, commander of Troop D, at a press conference held at the Forrest City Airport Monday. "Plus a helicopter, and a fixed-wing aircraft for monitoring speed on the Interstate. There'll also be some unmarked cars out there."
Gray said the saturation will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until 6 p.m.
Also attending the press conference was Col. Don Melton, director of the State Police. Melton said he believes the saturation can be affective.
"You can't be everywhere at one time with this much resource," said Melton. "So what we're trying to do is, hit an area for a while, go hit another area, and spread it around the state, and maybe come back over here, maybe sooner than later."
Melton said the objective isn't to write tickets.
"Our objective is to reduce the severity of accidents and save lives," he said. "We hope people will heed us. In this year, two-thirds of the Interstates in Arkansas will be under construction. Our objective is not to create revenue or write a lot of tickets. And for those who don't heed the warning, we're going to have resources out there to catch them."
All kinds of traffic violations will be targeted, included speeding, DWI, following too close, unsafe lane changes. "Following too close will probably be the main one," said Gray, "along with inattention, people looking off in other lanes."
The Forrest City City Council will meet in regular session Tuesday, May 7, at 7 p.m. at city hall.
On the agenda are bid openings for a sidewalk projects engineer, and first reading on an ordinance to amend the city's current law on itinerant vendors. Also to be discussed are some personnel policy changes, including Internet and e-mail policy, unlawful harassment, receipt of an employee handbook page and military leave.
There will also be a discussion of fire department rules and regulations. On another fire department matter, Fire Chief Dan Curtner will address the council, asking permission to seek bids for a new rescue truck.
About 3,500 Woodruff Electric customers were without power for about an hour Sunday morning.
Glenn Shepherd, Woodruff Electric District Manager for Forrest City, said consumers in the Forrest City, Palestine, Moro and Pine Tree areas were affected by the outage which lasted for up to an hour in some areas.
The outage occurred just before 10 a.m. at the Palestine substation involving a 69-kilovolt transmission line. This in turn, caused a loss of power to the substations in Forrest City, Moro and on Military Road, Shepherd reported, adding that the cause of the outage is still being investigated.