By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City School District is complying with a new state law concerning snacks that elementary students are allowed to have.
That is, even though the superintendent is skeptical of the value of such a regulation.
Under the law, soda and snack machines are no longer allowed in the state's public elementary schools. Meanwhile, a Child Health Advisory Committee has been formed under the same law, to develop nutrition and physical activity standards.
"The vending machines have been removed from the elementary schools," said Forrest City Superintendent Lee Vent. "And it's my understanding that the Health Advisory Committee is going to suggest they be removed from the secondary schools within a year or so."
He said that would include all vending machines which contain "anything that may have fat content or sugar in them."
He said he knew of no replacements for these items that are being suggested at this time.
While the law is well-meaning, Vent expressed skepticism over whether prohibiting kids from drinking soft drinks at school would make that much difference.
"I really don't see how it's going to help," he said. "Actually, we only have children 12 to 13 percent of the time. Eating habits and all that come more from the home than from school. And I don't know what kind of control we can have over that situation.
"As far as having schools simply take the soft drink and chip machines out, I don't know if that's going to help very much with the American obesity problem. But some lawmaker thinks it is, and so now we have a law."
He said legislation also requires schools to send home information on the body mass index, or BMI, of every child, to help parents learn if their children are overweight. He said no child would be singled out as long as the BMI report was sent home with every student.
"Every child has a BMI, and parents have a right to know what it is," he said.
According to the Associated Press, Granola bars and pretzels are already replacing candy bars and cookies in some school vending machines across the state. The Child Health Advisory Committee, according to the AP story, will require schools to include in their annual reports how much revenue they make from the machines and the soft-drink contracts and how that money is spent.
The East Arkansas Community College Department of Business & Industry Training and Development will hold a customer service workshop with Paul Vitale of Vital Communications in Little Rock, on Friday, October 3, 2003. The Arkansas Hospitality Association is sponsoring these workshops throughout Arkansas. There will be no charge for attendees.
Since founding Vital Communications in 1996, Vitale has authored multiple books and has delivered his message of affirmation to thousands of people throughout America. He stresses the importance of a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, and other vital concepts. His energetic wit and enjoyable presentation style have made him one of the most popular keynote speakers across the country.
Vitale served as the Director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau in Hot Springs, where he headed the successful sales team responsible for bringing visitors, conventions and trade shows to the Hot Springs area. He was formerly associated with the advertising firm, Cranford, Johnson, Robinson, Woods in Little Rock.
Vitale authored the best selling motivational book, "Are you Puzzled by the Puzzle of Life?" His new book, "Pass It On," is a collaboration of inspirational and motivating quotes from a variety of individuals around the world.
The free customer service workshop will be held Friday, October 3 from 9 a.m.-noon or 1 p.m.-4 p.m. in the EACC Learning Resource Center room B-129. To register for the workshop or for more information, please contact Dr. John Alderson at 870-633-4480 ext. 291.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
St. Francis County is one of several counties across the state happy to be receiving payments for housing state inmates even though those payments may not be as much as jailers are expecting.
According to a state audit, the DOC saved $2 million in the second half of 2002 by cutting down on bookkeeping errors and billing discrepancies with county jails.
The 2002 audit shows improvement in the department's fiscal record-keeping, spurred by a 2001 audit that showed the state was likely spending millions more than records showed was necessary. But the billing errors did not show any signs of deception by jailers, prison officials told the Associated Press.
''A lot of it is just errors,'' said Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the prison department. ''But from our point of view, it's people we shouldn't have paid for. So we didn't.''
According to St. Francis County Chief Jailer Doris Halbert, the problems locally have been in regards to how long prisoners have been held before being sent to state facilities.
"The way that it used to be done when we'd send the inmates to the state, we'd figure up how many days that they'd been here and bill them for it. Now, when they take them into their system, they send us a sheet telling us how many days we've held them. Those numbers don't always add up and that's where the problem is," said Halbert. "We recently had two women we'd been holding and my records said that we'd had them for the state since Jan. 27, when they paid us, their records didn't register them until May 27, and that's a big difference."
From July through December 2002, Pulaski County submitted bills totaling more than $1 million for holding state inmates. The DOC paid a little more than $900,000 after its review.
''We've been going back and forth with them,'' said Randy Morgan, Pulaski County jail chief. ''We've been trying to reconcile (what they pay us).''
Most of the other sheriffs around the state only experienced minor differences in reimbursement, said Joey Potratz, deputy director of the Arkansas' Sheriff's Association. Some are disappointed, but will ultimately follow what the department pays, he said.
Most are just happy that the state is now paying on time, after years in which the state had fallen millions of dollars behind in reimbursing them. That led to budget problems for many sheriffs offices, causing staffing and equipment shortages that prompted safety concerns.
According to Halbert, the problems with the DOC have been minimized by the regular payments the county has been receiving.
"They've been really good about paying since January," she said. "We may not be getting as much as we're expecting, but they have been paying on a regular basis and that had been a problem for the last couple of years."
As of Monday, 1,047 of the states 13,382 prison inmates were
being housed in county jails, at a cost to the state of $28 per
day/per inmate.
In week three's Professor Pigskin Contest, the winner was decided by a tie-breaker between two Times-Herald readers who had perfect scores. And while there were no perfect scores in week three, one reader narrowly escaped a six-way tie for first place honors by missing only two.
In this past week's contest, Darrell Gaskin of Forrest City got the victory, missing only two games out of 20. As the winner, Gaskin gets a cash prize of $50.
Gaskin's losses came from picking Jacksonville to win over Sylvan Hills in high school football, and the favored Green Bay Packers over the Arizona Cardinals in pro football. Five contestants come in just behind Gaskins, each picking only three gridiron contests incorrectly.
This week's Professor Pigskin's list can be found in today's edition of the Times-Herald.
Money awarded to cities and counties in Arkansas through sales taxes has been released for August. The figures were announced by the Arkansas Municipal League.
From the countywide sales tax, St. Francis County received $124,702.86. The amount the cities received from this tax includes: Forrest City, $195,579.64; Hughes, $24,715.52; Wheatley, $4,924.58; Palestine, $9,809.42; Madison, $13,066; Caldwell, $6,155.72; Colt, $4,871.62 and Widener, $4,434.76.
Five cities in the county have city-wide sales taxes. The revenue derived from this tax for each city includes: Forrest City, $150,707.29; Hughes, $10,456.13; Madison, $1,947.93; Palestine, $6,586.45 and Wheatley, $5,021.27.