By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
After a long discussion, the Forrest City City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night, by a 7-1 vote, in favor of pursuing a regional airport between Forrest City and Wynne.
Most of the discussion centered on whether the resolution should be passed immediately, or whether the council should wait until the Forrest City Airport Commission could have a face-to-face discussion with a representative of the Federal Aviation Administration. There was only one speaker who outright opposed the idea altogether.
Buzz Haven, chairman of the St. Francis County Transportation Committee, was the first to speak. He read a prepared statement, in which he encouraged the council to pass the resolution.
"I come before you today with some exciting news," he said. "What seemed so far off can now be a reality in less than five years (a claim later disputed). I bring you a simple resolution that will allow our community, and our neighbors to the north, to bond together for a regional airport. We are at a crossroads."
He said the present Forrest City Airport is inadequate.
"Therefore, let us put aside our present agenda on plans for our local airport, and pull together for something that will far better meet the needs of our community."
He reminded the council of a public meeting held about 18 months ago, in which expansion of the existing airport was opposed. Haven, who has land that would have been taken as a result of the proposed expansion, was one of the main opponents, but he was not the only person protesting at the time.
"Many businessmen and women and area farmers were deeply concerned about the expansion in a less than desirable location," he said.
"Think of the impact that your decision to pursue, or not to pursue, a regional airport could have on our city, county and region for years to come."
Dr. John Kerr, chairman of the Cross County Transportation Commission and also chairman of the Wynne Airport Commission, also spoke at length.
Kerr recognized that there is a proposal, under a scaled-back plan, to lengthen the Forrest City Airport's runway from 3,000 to 3,800 feet.
"That's not even putting a Band-Aid on the problem. We already have an airport with a 4,000 foot runway in Wynne...And I will go on record as saying that will probably be inadequate for future growth. So 3,800 feet is not complementing anything here," Kerr said. He added that working to increase the size of the Wynne airport would also be a Band-Aid type approach.
Alderman Roy Hancock sharply questioned Kerr on the approach taken by the various transportation committees. He said it seemed as if plans were being made and then Forrest City was being asked to join in.
"Don't you think you should have come to the city?" Hancock said. "If we're going to do something, we need to do it together, not come in on the tail end."
Kerr responded that, "This is very much on the front end." He said all the Wynne Airport Commission has done is to advertise for engineering firms to submit their qualifications for the possibility of putting together a master plan.
Alderman Roger Breeding said he could understand that the Forrest City Airport Commission, having worked so hard on first a large expansion and then a scaled back plan to expand the airport, would want to see the project come to fruition. He also said, however, that "if someone hands me the keys to a Volkswagen and the keys to a Mercedes, I think it would be understandable if I took the Mercedes."
Breeding, while favoring a regional airport, also said he believed it would take eight or nine years, rather than five, to get a regional airport built.
Alderman Cecil Twillie said he believed the idea of whether or not to support a regional airport is a "no-brainer," because of the potential for economic growth.
Randy Pearson spoke for the board of the Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce, in favor of the regional airport.
Mayor Larry Bryant said he is not opposed to the regional facility. However, he said that he felt the city has not been consulted properly.
"Here in St. Francis County, the Airport Commission wasn't brought in on the front end," Bryant said. "Matter of fact, no one on the Airport Commission was initially placed on the Transportation Commission. And I think that, in a nutshell, has been the problem. Partnership-- sure we'd like to partner...but they (the airport commission) should not have been left out of the loop."
Bryant said the Forrest City Airport Commission members want to speak to an FAA representative to make sure that the plans for improvements to their airport will not be hurt by the focus on a regional airport. He said that meeting would take place in late February or early March.
Kerr disagreed that Forrest City had been left out of the loop. He said that Haven had been instructed by the mayor to approach the Forrest City Airport Commission. That meeting was held.
"We waited for some feedback and we never got any feedback," Kerr said.
Vester Wroten, a member of the Forrest City Airport Commission, was present. He confirmed that a meeting had taken place.
"They met with us at the Airport Commission and pretty well the same things were discussed," Wroten said. "We kept putting it off and waiting, while Mr. (Bill) Hays (chairman of the airport commission) has been trying to get with the FAA."
Alderman Louise Fields remarked that even if both the existing airport improvements and the regional airport cannot both be had, the regional airport would be more desirable.
Shirley Harvell, a citizen, asked to speak. She said she opposed the idea of building a regional airport between Forrest City and Wynne. She said if there was to be a regional airport, it should be located in Forrest City. She accused Twillie of having a conflict of interest because he is on both the Forrest City City Council and the St. Francis County Transportation Committee. She said Haven also has a conflict of interest because his land would have been taken in the original expansion plans for the Forrest City Airport.
After some more discussion, a motion was made to adopt the resolution. The vote was 7-1, with Roy Hancock voting no.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City City Council on Tuesday granted a setback variance to a business and heard second reading of an ordinance accepting a strip of land to extend a street.
Kevin Thomas, of Jackson Used Cars at 204 Deaderick, was at the meeting requesting a variance from the 20 foot landscape buffer. Instead, he offered to build a six foot privacy fence. The Forrest City Planning Commission had given a positive recommendation to the request at its Jan. 28 meeting.
The variance passed with little discussion.
The ordinance, if passed, will accept a strip of land from the Bridgforth family. The land would extend Ophelia Street to Martin Luther King Drive. There is still one reading remaining on the ordinance.
Mayor Larry Bryant also Stold the council that the city has been awarded $150,000 from the state for improvement to South Side Pool. He said the city did not get all it had asked for ($250,000) because of budget constraints.
A Texas man was arrested Tuesday after allegedly robbing a service station.
According to the arrest report, a call came in from the owner of the Citgo at Shell Lake, stating that he was following a rental truck, the driver of which had just stolen $49.19 from the station.
The truck was pulled over at the 242 rest area. The driver, Michael Colclough, 32, of Carrollton, Texas was taken into custody. In the truck there was a toy gun and a note, which stated, "We can do this the easy way, (quietly, peacefully) put the money in the case zip it and hand back. Or the hard way."
According to the report, Colclough had to be physically restrained. He is charged with theft of property under $500, theft by receiving auto, attempted robbery theft of property, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
After a two year wait on a building, officials with the Arkansas Child Support Division now have to wait again, this time to see if Gov. Mike Huckabee's budget will allow for the construction of a new facility to be located in Forrest City.
According to Ann Laidlaw, administrator of Real Estate Services with the Arkansas State Building Services department, officials with ASBS gave the bid for the facility to the second lowest bidder, West Helena contractor Jim Frasier, after Forrest Citians Scott and Johnnie Nell Carroll were unsuccessful in their attempt to build a facility on Highway 1 South. According to Laidlaw, ASBS officials put the project on hold in January after Huckabee's State of the State address where he discussed consolidating state services as well as cutbacks in state government.
"We were moving forward on the project until the Governor's State of the State Address and his proposals to consolidate some state offices and make cutbacks in state government. At that point, we put the project temporarily on hold until we could see what was going to happen with his Senate bill. We spoke with Jim Frasier and he said understood our situation, so we're basically on hold on the project. Child Support still wants the facility, and we're still looking forward to its construction. We're just waiting," Laidlaw said.
Laidlaw also said that the child support project could see several offices moving into one facility.
"We're going to look to see what services could be consolidated in that area and what services would be offered in the Forrest City area and at what facility. We'll also have to look to see what size facility we would offer and what state services could coexist in one facility," she said.
According Dan McDonald, director of the Arkansas Child Support Enforcement Unit, the St. Francis County Child Support office has already taken on an additional county's caseload. McDonald said the Woodruff County cases were recently transferred to the Forrest City office.
"We made the move so that each office can handle as many cases as they're capable of. The Forrest City office was capable of taking on the cases, so we moved them over there. In the future, we may move more counties into that location but that hasn't been determined yet," McDonald said.
According to McDonald, the office did not take on any new employees for the new cases. Officials with ASBS granted the original contract for the construction of a facility to the estate of Herman Young in October of 2001. The contract was canceled in November after a number of extensions, granted on the project by ASBS, were not met.