By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Law enforcement agencies kept busy over the holiday weekend.
The Forrest City Police Department and the Arkansas State Police both made special efforts to crack down on traffic violations. Apparently, the effort was successful, because there were no traffic deaths in the area during the holiday weekend, which began at 6 p.m. Friday and ended at midnight Monday.
FCPD Chief Clarence McNeary said the department had six different safety checkpoints.
"Of that, 39 tickets were issued," he said. "Twenty-seven of those were for no seat belt or no child restraint. The other 11 were for stuff like no certificate of insurance, driver's license suspended, things like that. All told, it was pretty successful."
McNeary said there is a big effort under way to get Arkansans to take seat belts more seriously.
"It's one of the big campaigns," he said. "Arkansans just don't want to buckle up. Nationwide, the percentage of people who buckle up is about 73 percent. Here in Arkansas it's something like 62 percent."
ASP Troop D, headquartered in Forrest City, was also busy over the holiday weekend in its area of Crittenden, Phillips, Lee, St. Francis, Cross, Woodruff, Monroe and Prairie counties.
According to Lt. Tom Wicker of Troop D, there were a total of 825 officer-violator contacts, including arrests and warnings. There were 189 speeding arrests, 39 DWI arrests and two DUI arrests. There were 52 safety belt violations and 12 child restraint violations.
Eight accidents were investigated in the Troop D area, with no fatalities.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The St. Francis County Election Commission was struck a blow last month when members of the State Board of Election Commissioners refused to pay over 90 percent of the submitted costs for the May preferential primary election.
According to a letter from the state commission, of the $7,460.77 in costs submitted by the county commission, only $642.58 would be paid by the state.
SFC Election Commission Chairman Joe Young said county commissioners are unsure of why the state rejected the requests.
"I've got to get with my other election commissioner and the election coordinator and sit down and see if we can figure this out. I think that it may have been a mistake by the state commission, but we're going to get all of our paper work together and resubmit our request," Young said.
If the state commission does not approve the additional funding, the county may end up holding the bag for the remaining costs, and according to St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco, that decision will fall to the quorum court.
"It's my understanding that some of the purchase orders and papers that were necessary to receive the funding were not sent in, and they are supposed to be re-sending that information. That should reduce the costs some, although we're not sure how much. If there is any money left out, then the quorum court will have to make the decision on how that is handled," Cisco said.
According to the state commission letter, there were 11 modifications to the submitted request, including $3,445.40 in reductions to part-time help; a $750 reduction in election commissioner pay; $134.08 removed from supplies for "Vote Here" signs; a second supplies reduction in the amount of $239 for undocumented postage; a pair of $200 reductions, one for set-up and programming of the voting machine and the second for advertising; and two charges in the "other" category totaling $1,849.71.
Over $1,400 of those charges were to be paid to ES&S, the company that handles the ballots for St. Francis County.
According to Young, the resubmitted information should be sent back to the state by early next week.
The recent money woes for the county election commission are in addition to problems with the ballots from the May primary. According to a bill from ES&S, ballots for the May primary were $22,123.37.
However, according to St. Francis County Clerk Elizabeth Smith, that charge has been reduced to just over $11,000. No funding has been requested for the June runoff election.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Late ballots delayed the opening of early voting for the Sept. 17 school elections.
According to St. Francis County Election Coordinator Judy Armstrong, voting, which was to have begun at 8 a.m., was held off until after 11 a.m. because the ballots had not arrived.
"The ballots were supposed to be here today, and they did arrive, just not in time to open early voting. They got here just before 11 a.m., and we got everything started once we had the ballots," Armstrong said.
There are only two contested races, and those are in the Forrest City and Palestine-Wheatley school districts.
In the Forrest City School District, incumbent Sandra Taylor will face off against Tony Morgan and in the PWSD, incumbent Stan Siler is facing opposition from Dow Lee.
Early voting will be held from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., daily in St. Francis County Clerk's Office. Early voting will end on Monday, Sept. 16.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
Three more vehicles were reportedly broken into late Sunday night and early Monday morning, continuing a trend from the weekend during which a variety of items, mostly stereo equipment, were stolen from several other vehicles.
"It looks like they may be related," Forrest City Police Department Det. Sgt. Harold Munn said Monday. "They are mostly in the same area."
FCPD Det. Lt. Dwight Duch said the department is unsure if the break ins on Monday are related to those during weekend, but offered some advice to people wanting to avoid being a target of a vehicle theft.
"The main thing is to never leave valuables in the car," Duch says. "Don't leave purses or cell phones in the car, not even bags. Your car is more likely to be broken into if a thief thinks there is something of value in it. Also, be sure to lock your doors when you leave your car."
The most recent thefts occurred on Water and Division streets. Both Vernon Farr, 34, of Dallas, Texas, and Charlotte Wright, 37, of Nashville, Tenn. had their vehicles broken into at 633 North Water St.
The Farr vehicle was missing a Kenwood CD player, and the Wright vehicle was missing a Sony CD player and several CDs valued at $320, a diamond tennis bracelet valued at $700, a cross necklace valued at $350 and $700 cash. Both vehicles had broken windows as the point of entry.
A third victim, Keith Burgess, 27, 1421 North Division, reported that his passenger side window was smashed and a radio valued at $270, an amp valued at $100 and a 12-inch speaker, valued at $400, were stolen.
An 11-year-old boy was treated and released at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City after being hit by a car Sunday afternoon.
According to the police report, Mark Porter, 33, of 1000 Spring Street in Forrest City, was driving south on Water Street when the accident occurred at the Ash Street intersection. Police said Demarco Peters of 310 W. Franklin rode his bicycle into the path of the car and was struck.
Porter was cited for no driver's license.
The Village Creek State Park will participate in the Great Arkansas Cleanup on Saturday, Sept. 7.
The event is part of the "Federal Lands Cleanup Day" and will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. This will be the fourteenth annual cleanup at the park.
Individuals, groups and organizations are invited to volunteer to help pick up trash at Village Creek. A free picnic is will be held for all participants.
From 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. will be check in at the Visitor Center for trash bags and maps. Starting at 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. will be the cleanup and the picnic will start at 12 p.m.
For more information, call Village Creek State Park at 238-9406.