By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City City Council heard first reading Tuesday of an ordinance which, if passed, will amend the city's existing law on itinerant vendors, making it tougher.
The ordinance will amend the present law in two ways if it passes in its present form. First, it will increase the permit fee for itinerant vendors and reduce the times in a year that those vendors can set up shop in town. Presently the fee is $25. Under the new ordinance, the fee will be $50 for the first day, and $25 per day after that, to a maximum of seven days only. Vendors could purchase permits only twice a year.
Second, itinerant vendors will be required to have an Arkansas Sales Tax Certificate.
During discussion, Mayor Larry Bryant said there might be other ways to deal with itinerant vendors. He said the city might want to set up a specific area, and charge a flat fee for anyone who wants to sell.
Farm-produced items are excluded from the law.
Second reading on the ordinance will be held at the next meeting.
On another matter, the council granted permission to Fire Chief Dan Curtner to seek bids for a new rescue truck. Curtner said the current truck is a 1991 model, and has begun developing mechanical problems. He said it is also not large enough to carry all the latest rescue equipment. The truck he said he wants to bid on has the capacity to carry everything, including haz-mat equipment. It also has a pumper, giving it some firefighting capacity.
On a related matter, Bryant asked the council for some guidance on pursuing funds from Rural Development to help build a fire substation. No one was opposed to the idea. However, after some discussion, it was decided that any motion should come from the fire committee, made up of council members A.L. Harris, Chris Oswalt, Cecil Twillie and Glenn Ford. The matter will be addressed at the next meeting.
Bryant also submitted a list of proposed personnel policy changes for the aldermen to study. They include an Internet and e-mail policy, which is new; an unlawful harassment section; and uniformed service (military) leave.
Finally, Bryant said the city-wide cleanup, held last Saturday, was a success. He said the cook-out afterwards was also a success, and added that there are plans for a similar event in the fall.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
A crackdown on traffic in work zones along Arkansas Interstates produced over $1 million in drugs in three drug arrests on I-40 in St. Francis County Tuesday.
The saturation effort by Troop D in Eastern Arkansas involved helicopters, fixed-wing speed enforcement aircraft and 29 highway patrol radar units, including marked and unmarked cars.
According to Lieutenant Tommy Wicker, assistant commander with Troop D, three stops along I-40, two involving marijuana and one involving cocaine, netted the large busts.
Wicker said an officer with Troop D stopped a pickup truck driven by Jesus Mendoza Hernandez, 20, of Chihuahua, Mexico, at the 244 mile marker on I-40. During a search of the vehicle, close to 150 pounds of marijuana, with a street value of about $225,000 was confiscated from inside the tires of the vehicle. Hernandez was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Troopers also confiscated close to $800,000 in cocaine yesterday when a 1996 extended cab pickup, driven by 50-year-old Rodney Ellis Pittman of Blythe, Calif., was arrested with eight kilos of cocaine hidden in the quarter panels of the truck on both the driver and passenger sides.
A second marijuana arrest occurred when six pounds of the narcotic was found in separate bags in the rear of a van traveling on I-40. No arrest records were available on this traffic stop.
"Things went very well during our saturation yesterday," Wicker said. "We were able to get traffic slowed down, and we were able to get a lot of drugs off he street," he added.
In total, Troop D members made 499 contacts, including warnings. Troopers issued 320 citations and made the three drug arrests. Tuesday's operation was the first of many which will be conducted sporadically throughout the state, at least until the construction is completed.
Charges have been filed in connection with a drug-related fire that damaged a residence in the Stuart Springs Trailer Park in March.
Jimmy D. Laws, 26, 755 SFC 707, Forrest City, was arrested Tuesday on charges of manufacturing a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver near certain facilities, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of anhydrous ammonia in an unlawful container, reckless burning and endangering the welfare of a minor.
The house fire was reported at 1000 Spring Street Lot 96 in Forrest City on March 24.
The Forrest City Fire Department responded to the fire which was extinguished prior to the department's arrival, according to the police report. One occupant of the house, however, was injured during the fire. Police reported in March that David Like, 26, was treated and released at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City for burns he received during the fire.
An investigation into the cause of the fire by the Forrest City Police Department and Arkansas State Police revealed there was a clandestine meth lab at the residence. Police officers seized articles used to manufacture crystal methamphetamine and about one pound of methamphetamine. Two other occupants, one being a minor child, were not hurt in the fire.
A $25,000 cash-only bond was set Tuesday by Circuit Judge Harvey Yates for Laws. He is being held in the St. Francis County Jail, and was scheduled to appear in St. Francis County District Court today.
More arrests are expected in connection with the case.
The Board of Trustees of East Arkansas Community College will meet Thursday, May 9 in the administration building.
Included on the agenda is an enrollment update. Also to be approved is the academic calendar and holiday schedule for the 2002-2003 school year.
The St. Francis County Branch Youth Council of the NAACP will host a "Meet the Candidates" event on Tuesday, May 14, at 6 p.m at the Forrest City Community Voices Center on Division Street. Candidates in the upcoming primaries are invited to attend this event.
The youth will also be available to register new voters and to help those needing to update addresses to the correct precincts or wards.
A Palestine man was killed in a single-car accident three miles northwest of Palestine Tuesday morning.
Jeremy D. Huckaba, 29, of Palestine, was traveling eastbound on St. Francis County Road 130 yesterday morning when, according to officials with the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department, he lost control of his 1990 Corvette, hit a telephone pole and overturned. According to SFC Deputy Mel Dickerson, Huckaba may have been speeding when he lost control, slamming the driver's side of the vehicle into the pole.
"He was probably traveling at a high rate of speed when he lost control. He veered off the road, and then basically slid into the pole sideways, hitting the driver's side of his car," Dickerson said.