By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
Over 100 students and guests attended the 20th annual Kiwanis Academic Achievement Banquet held Tuesday evening at Forrest City Civic Center.
The event, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Forrest City, honors the top 10 percent of high school seniors from Forrest City High School, Calvary Christian High School, Hughes High School and Palestine-Wheatley High School.
The keynote speaker for the evening was Jennifer Hicky Collins who talked to the students about the importance of making mistakes and learning from them. Collins is an attorney with the law firm of Easley, Hicky and Hudson.
"I was sitting right where you are tonight eight years ago," began Collins. "I was in the top 10 percent of my class, and I was getting ready to head off to college. I was told a story once about a businessman who was being interviewed by a reporter. The reporter asked what he attributed his success to, and his response was 'making mistakes.'"
According to Collins, some the mistakes she has made helped her into the career that she has chosen.
"I found out what that story meant when I got to college. I started college intending to be a dentist. I took all of the courses and was preparing to take my dental exams to start my career. After my third year, I realized that I really didn't want to be a dentist, and it was a mistake. It was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I knew I wouldn't be happy.
"In my last year of college, I found out that my true passion was the law," continued Collins. "I began to take law courses and applied to law school. I had started the process late, and it was difficult, but it was the right thing for me.
"I want you to not be afraid of making mistakes, they are a part of life. Mistakes can be great turning points in your life. I would not be where I am today if it were not for the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned from them," Collins said.
There were 41 students honored at the banquet, each receiving $25, coupons and other awards. The largest prize, a $1,000 scholarship to East Arkansas Community College, went to Haley Widby, a senior at FCHS.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City City Council adopted an ordinance Tuesday annexing the Patillo I subdivision.
The first reading of the annexation ordinance had been held at the April 1 meeting. At Tuesday's meeting, the ordinance was read twice under suspension of the rules, and then adopted.
Second reading was held on another ordinance, to allow the mayor to appoint inspectors and code enforcement officers to issue citations for alleged violations of city codes. There was no motion to suspend the rules and have third reading and a vote on the ordinance.
Alderman Cecil Twillie acted as mayor pro tem. Mayor Larry Bryant was attending meetings out of town.
On another matter, the council opened the only bid the city received for repairing the city hall roof. The bid, from Jonesboro Roofing Co., was $18,234. The bid will be forwarded to the mayor.
A bid was also opened from M&T Paving and Construction to provide asphalt to the city during this year's paving season. The bid will be passed on to the mayor.
The council also received two bids for baseball uniforms for this year's season. Wynne Sports World and Mohr Sports submitted bids for jerseys in solid color, and also two- and three-color jerseys in youth, adult and extra large sizes. There were also bids on caps. The bids will be passed on to the Parks and Recreation Department.
In other action, the council voted to have City Attorney Alan Cline represent the city in some upcoming litigation. Before being appointed as city attorney, Cline had briefly represented another party in the suit, and he had told the council that they might want to pick another attorney, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
The council also passed a resolution authorizing the city to apply for a fourth year of funding through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency division of the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant program. The grant would be in the amount of $17,899, and the city will add a 10 percent match.
In other business, Alderman Roger Breeding told the council that he believed council members should make an attempt to attend the early meetings of the Regional Airport Authority, which has begun the process of looking into a regional airport between Forrest City and Wynne.
Breeding said the next meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m. at the Colt Community Center.
"This city council voted 7-1 to pursue the concept of a regional airport in conjunction with the city of Wynne, St. Francis County and Cross County," Breeding said. "I think everyone in this council should make an attempt in the infancy of this commission, to attend those meetings, and make sure the wishes of this council are being followed."
Cline also commented. "Probably the next step in the process is going to be consideration of an ordinance that will be drafted to authorize Forrest City's participation. And part of that ordinance is going to be to establish the basic framework and the authorizations of this commission."
He said it would be important that all the ordinances passed by all the entities are compatible.
"It's going to kind of defeat our purpose if we take off and consider an ordinance that is inconsistent with an ordinance that Wynne or Cross County passes," said Cline.
He said he has been contacted by the Wynne city attorney on the matter, but he said the council needed input on the ordinance.
"I'm going to need all the help I can get from this council to draft an ordinance that this council wants," he said.
For instance, he said state law would allow the regional airport authority to be made up of as few as six people or as many as 24. There are currently eight members.
Breeding reiterated his belief that council members should attend meetings of the regional airport authority.
"The people who have been appointed to this committee are very capable of listening and making intelligent, informed decisions," he said. "But right now, in the infancy of this commission, there are going to be, as the city attorney just told you, things that are going to be coming back to this council, that you are going to need to be well-informed to make an intelligent decision on."
Breeding said he could attend the meetings and try to inform the rest of the council, "But I would really like for you to attend as many meetings as possible. There is stuff that is going to be extremely important to the future of Forrest City, and it's going to impact us for many years to come."
By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
A child's bragging may have prevented a disaster at a local elementary school this week when the eight-year-old boy was told to show the gun he said he had in his backpack.
Michael Long, the Forrest City Police Department's School Resource Officer, said the boy told police he was being bullied by two students at Stewart Elementary School and was taking the gun to school in hopes of scaring the other students into leaving him alone.
During an interview with police, the student was asked what he intended to do with the gun, and according to the police report, the student said, "I was going to show it to them and scare them. If they didn't believe it was a real gun, I was going to shoot and kill them."
The gun was revealed just before 8 a.m. Monday at a bus stop near the Turner Road and West Broadway intersection when he bragged to an 11-year-old Central Elementary School student that he had the gun in his backpack. Calling the younger student's bluff, the 11-year-old told him if he had a weapon then to let him see it.
According to police, the eight-year-old took the gun from his backpack and handed it to the older student and told him to shoot it. The student then pointed he weapon at a nearby carwash and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not discharge. Long said the younger student grabbed the gun, "worked the slide action" on the 9mm weapon in order "to put a live round into the chamber" and handed the gun back to the older student, telling him the gun would then work.
"The (older) boy pointed the gun in the direction of the car wash, but the gun was too heavy for him and when he pulled the trigger, the bullet went into the ground," Long said. "He then put the gun on the ground, from where an older student picked it up and took it to his mother's home on Union Street. The parent called police who retrieved the gun from outside the residence.
Police said the child told authorities he found the weapon inside a box at a relative's home in Little Rock where he had been visiting during a weekend. He allegedly hid the gun in his suitcase until he returned home where he then transferred the gun to his school backpack.
The 11-year-old is charged with minor in possession of a handgun and discharging a firearm in the city limits. The eight-year-old will not be charged due to his age. According to police, The Supreme Court has ruled that children under the age of 10 cannot formulate a criminal thought, therefore, not allowing police to charge the youngest suspect with a crime.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Increasing numbers of stray dogs in Madison neighborhoods are beginning to cause problems, and city leaders may have found a solution at Monday's regular meeting of the Madison City Council.
Council members questioned Madison Mayor James Brooks during last night's meeting regarding what the city could do to halt the growing numbers of dogs seen throughout the town.
"There's really not a whole lot that we can do because we don't have a shelter for the animals. It's difficult for us to hand out citations for not obeying the ordinances because people say that the animals are not theirs. The dog may sleep on their porch and hang around their yard, but when asked, folks will say that it just wandered up and hasn't left," Brooks said.
City employee Eugene Nalls volunteered to collect the animals if an arrangement can be reached with the Forrest City Area Humane Society to shelter the animals.
"I have a major in biological sciences, so I'm qualified to humanely capture the animals and keep them as healthy as possible until they can be transported to Forrest City, but we have to have some type of arrangement that they will house them before I can even do that because there are certain things you must do with stray animals," Nalls said.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
With finances continuing to run tight, St. Francis County Quorum Court Justices approved a two-month budget Tuesday, appropriating over $611,000 for the months of May and June.
By unanimous vote, justices approved the budget which allocated funding for the next two months of $611,146.27, but did not discuss the projected $177,761.76 deficit the county is facing in May and June.
According to figures from St. Francis County Clerk Elizabeth Smith's office, projected revenue for May and June stands at $433,384.51. In March and April, funds were transferred from the county trust accounts to help ease deficit issues.
In other business, justices appropriated $6,200 to the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department for the purchase of a sobriety testing machine. The funds, which will come from the sheriff's drug control fund will be repaid to the fund through another ordinance justices passed which will pay $5 of every DWI fine in District Court to the drug control fund. Justices also agreed to a pay increase for SFC Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy H.N. Green.
The on-going garbage issue in St. Francis County reared its head again last night when St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco told justices that efforts to collect the garbage carts from B&B Disposal were once again stalled.
According to Cisco, last month, B&B was given a deadline of April 15, to have collected all of their carts from throughout the county.
"We've given them an opportunity to get their carts and our new carrier has even been dumping some of their carts when he goes out because residents are still using the B&B carts. I was nice and tried to go about this as easily as possibly, but it doesn't look like that's done any good," Cisco said.
Cisco told justices that county crews would begin retrieving the remaining garbage carts today and storing them at NEARCO. He also told justices that B&B would only be able to take possession of the carts after paying a fee to the county for collecting them.
"Throughout this whole ordeal, the county has been the only party that has attempted to be nice, and I think its about time that we toughened up," said Justice Regan Hill.
Justices also agreed to allow Cisco to pursue purchasing the carts used by King Disposal currently. By an 8-to-3 margin, the court gave Cisco the authority to seek measures to attempt to insure that the county doesn't have a similar problem with garbage pickup in case there are future problems with King.
"First, I'd like to say that King Disposal has done a wonderful job since taking over as the county's garbage carrier. What I would like to be able to do is simply purchase the carts so that we can have some insurance in case there are problems down the line. This will allow us to own the carts so that we can then seek another carrier without any delays to the citizens or for us to even pick-up the trash ourselves if there were problems," Cisco said.
Cisco also received approval last night to form a committee to begin studying guidelines for any businesses interested in opening along the bypass. Last week, members of the budget committee denied a request for $70,000 in tax relief from Forrest City native Ellis Bell. Cisco told justices that the committee, which would consist of justices and community members, would study a variety of issues.
"This is something that we should have done a long time ago. I can remember the county granting tax relief to Halstead (now Rubatex) when they first came in because of the benefits that would be provided in the long run. This could be much the same type situation (Bell's proposal), and we need to take a long look at this so that it will be fair to everyone," Cisco said.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
The deadline for applications to replace retiring Superintendent Jimmy Allen was extended during Monday night's meeting of the Palestine-Wheatley School Board.
After an hour-long executive session on the matter, board members voted unanimously to extend the application deadline from April 18 to April 30.
An insurance issue was brought before the board by Allen, who will continue as superintendent until his contract expires in June.
"We need to talk about uncertified personnel on sports fields," said Allen. "Our insurance will not cover uncertified personnel if they are injured on the playing field. If we have a teacher who is coaching, they will be covered. But if someone is a volunteer and doesn't have a contract with us, we are negligent and can be sued."
The board agreed to table the issue until the May meeting so the district can request a statement on the matter in writing from the insurance company.
Before adjourning, the board agreed to hire three new teachers. Erin Sheffield will teach English and Steven Friede will teach social studies at Palestine-Wheatley High School, and Vivi Hall was hired to teach English at the junior high campus. According to Allen, Hall is also qualified to teach elementary school.