By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
St. Francis County Election Commission decided Friday with representatives of the Forrest City School District on the polling locations for the Tuesday, Sept. 16, school board elections. The superintendents from both the Palestine-Wheatley and Hughes School Districts were also invited to the meeting, but did not attend.
The meeting began with member Bettye Proctor explaining some of the changes in election procedure that will take place. "We can't have voting on Saturday for early voting," said Proctor. "The new laws say that we can't. The laws also say now that a person can bring in only two people to vote. That means we can't have carriers like in years past." Proctor then announced that early voting will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 2, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until election day.
Proctor also stated that she was not sure in the ballots could have stubs due to the law. Commission member Ed Chauvin said he thought the law "said that we can have stubs, just not numbered ones. We can't have the stubs made to where you can find out how someone voted, just that they did. I think we should have the stubs in case there is a question about vote numbers. That way, we can count the amount of stubs verses the amount of ballots."
Superintendent Lee Vent was on hand and was presented the proposed polling locations for the upcoming election. They are: The Forrest City Civic Center for Wards 2,3, and 4; the St. Francis County Courthouse for Courthouse East and West, Bonair and Tuni; Christ Church for Ward 1; Forrest Chapel Methodist Church for Newcastle and Parrot; Madison City Hall for Madison, Widener, Round Pond and Moseley; and the Colt Community Center for Colt, Caldwell and Pine Tree. Vent approved and the locations were accepted.
Locations for both the Palestine-Wheatley and Hughes districts were also announced. The location for voters in Palestine will be the Twin Assembly Church. Wheatley voters will need to go to the Wheatley Community Center. In Hughes, three locations were announced. Voters living in Hughes will vote at the Hughes Civic Center. Voters in Blackfish will vote in the Heth Community Center and those in Horseshoe will vote at Bonds Marina.
In other news, the subject of ordering ballots was decided. Vent suggested that 10 percent more ballots should be ordered than last school board election, stating that he believed that was the state law. The commission agreed.
Also, after the meeting, ballot positions were drawn. In Forrest City, Pat Flanagin drew the first position over the incumbent Dr. Wayne Jones. Aubrey Jayroe, Forrest City School Board member for Position 1 is unopposed. Palestine-Wheatley district has one contested race and Vickie Hawk drew first position over Randall Holman for the Zone 3 seat. The other position, Zone 2, will see Rodney Hicks run unopposed.
Three positions were available in Hughes and two of those are
being contested. The Hughes Position 6 (at large) seat will be
decided between Melinda Patrick, who drew the first position,
and Edward Watt. A third candidate for the position, Norris Latham
Jr., was disqualified due to his petition being ruled incomplete.
In the other contested race, Charles Smith drew first position
over incumbent Hudie Hardaway. In the third race, Earnestine Jackson
is unopposed for the Zone 3 seat.
An Arkansas woman faces four counts of negligent homicide in St. Francis County, after a traffic accident Saturday left four people dead.
Janice Moore, 43, of Gurdon, has been charged in the deaths of Mablevale resident, Dana Roberts, 23, and three Mississippians, Earl Prentiss Ratliff, 55, and twins Rita Jo Ann Brown and Christa Ratliff, all of Baldwyn, Mississippi. According to a report from Arkansas State Police Troop D, in Forrest City, The accident occurred Saturday afternoon, at 3:39 p.m. when Moore, who was traveling westbound in I-40 in a 2000 Freightliner, lost control of her truck and crossed the median striking the 1993 Ford Taurus that the four were traveling in, the driver of the Taurus has not been determined.
According to an Associated Press story, Moore told Troopers that she may have choked on coffee which caused her to lose control of her vehicle. According to the report, the force of the collision split the Taurus in half and both vehicles burst into flames. According to Cpl. Lowry Astin with Troop D, Roberts, Earl Ratliff, Christa Ratliff and Brown, all died on impact. Moore was transported to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Forrest City where she was treated and released.
New building projects in Forrest City came in at an estimated $217,143 for the month of July, according to figures provided by the mayor's office.
The July figure was a drop of over $700,000 from figures for June of this year when totals reached $962,109.
With only three commercial projects, the bulk of the month's permits were for private homes, either new construction, improvements or repairs which came in with a total of $125,850.
The three commercial projects were: Renovation at the St. Francis County Community Development Center, 700 Choctaw St., valued at $20,000; a code location for Verizon Wireless, at 1700 Indian Hills Rd., $63,793 and blocks for the corner of the Grant Street Alley owned by Mayor Larry Bryant valued at $7,500.
The remaining projects included, a new home, two siding projects, two roof repairs, one new fence project, a pair of remodeling jobs, a room addition and a storage building.