By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Parents and the general public will get a chance to tour the fully operational Forrest City Junior High facility on Sunday, April 18.
An open house will be held, beginning with a ribbon cutting at 1:45 p.m., followed by remarks. The open house will then continue with tours, conducted by student council members.
"It's finally happening," said Billy Ferguson, principal of FCJHS. "We've been wanting to have an open house all year. But we've been unable to, because we've had construction workers in here, all up until the last two or three weeks, really."
He said that although there is still some minor work going on, it won't affect the open house.
"We wanted to make sure that when we did have our open house, that everything would be in tip-top shape. You know -- no mud, all the ceiling tiles in and things of that nature."
One of the focal points of the new facility is the auditorium. It is now up and running, and Ferguson said it has up-to-date lighting and sound equipment. The auditorium will be where everyone gathers after the ribbon cutting, for a few words from officials, and music by the band and choir.
The auditorium will also be the site of a concert by the Beach Boys in May, being underwritten by David Cohn and Forrest City Grocery Co., to help raise money for a Center for Fine and Performing Arts at East Arkansas Community College.
There is more to the new junior high, though, than just the auditorium. The north end of the building, the cafeteria and the gym, are all parts of the old building, and have been renovated. The rest of the building is new, including rooms for the band and chorus.
"One of the best improvements, from my standpoint, has been the addition of the band hall and the choir room," said Ferguson. Up until this year, the band and choral students had to walk back and forth to the high school every day.
"That was a security issue with us, a safety issue. And of course, you had inclement weather that you had to take care of. I'm really tickled with it. It has helped so many problems that we had, it's almost unbelievable," Ferguson said.
There are two fully-equipped science labs and a third being outfitted. Every teacher has computers in the classrooms. Most classrooms have "smart boards," which allows a large projection from a computer.
There is a lab where teachers and students can do computer research, and there are classes in keyboarding. The auditorium is also Internet-capable.
Ferguson said everyone at the school is looking forward to the open house.
"We're really excited about it," he said. "The teachers love it, the kids love it. We've had very little damage this year. Kids have taken care of it."
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The proposed 27-hole golf course at Village Creek State Park took a step forward last week as officials with the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department and attorneys with the developer building the course worked to finalize the lease agreement.
According to Parks and Tourism Director Greg Butts, meetings with attorneys for the Wellington Group, Inc., went well last week and the lease could move forward as early as this month.
"Negotiations on the lease agreement are still ongoing, but they are moving well. We had another meeting with their attorneys last week to finalize the terms and conditions of the land lease. If all goes as planned, we're tentatively hoping to get that in front of the legislative council by the end of the month," Butts said.
Getting the lease agreement completed will then allow Wellington to move on to the next stage of the project, according to Butts.
"Once we get that completed, then Wellington will be able to move forward and begin talking with banks and lending institutions so that they can look at all of their financing options to get this completed," he said.
While the project is moving forward on the negotiating end, Butts said that Wellington officials have not yet given any indication as to where exactly the project will be located. The Wellington Group could benefit from government tax breaks if the 110-room lodge, convention hall and restaurant are located in the St. Francis County portion of the park due to the county's designation as an Enterprise Zone. But higher infrastructure costs for construction in St. Francis County could move the lodge to Cross County.
"Really, it's still too early to tell. A lot has to do with the existing infrastructure at the park. When they came in earlier to look at possible locations, they looked at areas in both counties, and they haven't made their decision yet. For them, it will come down to weighing the costs for additional infrastructure work against the tax benefits that could be gained by having the lodge in St. Francis County," said Butts.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
After several months in its new building, the Forrest City Senior Citizens Center is up and running and happy in its new home.
According to Center Director Willie Mae Smiley, the new building is giving area seniors opportunities that they didn't have before.
"We now have a computer center and an activities room and we are starting computer classes for people age 60 and older and they love it. The new building has just been great," said Smiley.
After many years in a building in Grobmyer Circle, the City of Forrest City opened the center at the Forrest City Municipal Sports Complex last year and Smiley said that the new location has been great for the seniors.
"In the old building, we had those steps that everyone had to use and there were other issues that we had to deal with, but this new building is just great. We're in a location where the seniors just have to get off of the van and walk in, and there are no steps to deal with and they just love that. We also can offer more programs out here now. We're just looking forward to the mayor (Forrest City Mayor Larry Bryant) getting the pond stocked so everyone can go fishing," she said.
Saying he did so reluctantly, Mayor Larry Bryant this morning vetoed the amended Forrest City budget passed by the city council at its last meeting.
"It is a very difficult decision," said Bryant. "On the one hand, I would rather not, on principle, veto it...I'm pretty much tired and run down, fighting with the city council. But I feel that the people of Forrest City elected me to be a good steward of finance for the City of Forrest City."
He then read from a prepared statement:
"On this day, I formally veto the 2004 amended budget ordinance as passed by the Forrest City City Council on last Tuesday," he read. "After much deliberation, I feel that the 2004 amended budget as passed does not reflect the economic conditions of today, and could hurt the viability of the city of Forrest City in years to come."
He continued, "Some members (of the city council) believe that we must and should pay the same comparative salaries as cities of like size in order to keep our employees. But thus far during my tenure of mayor...we haven't lost employees due to salaries. We had approximately three police officers to leave, but two came back and one went to the Arkansas Highway Police."
Bryant said there is currently some $4.4 million that is either allocated or may soon be allocated out of the reserve fund, for special projects, not in the current budget, including a multi-purpose facility at the sports complex, ditches, a new animal shelter, a fire substation to name a few. There is also the possibility of the city purchasing the Union Planters Bank building, and new vehicles (police cars, dump truck, etc.)
"We don't have as much room for failure on the economic side," Bryant said. "As mayor I've always tried to stay within a certain conservative confine of numbers. So that if we had emergencies like snow storms, ice storms, tornadoes...that we'd have the funds available.
"The city council spoke unanimously, and I hope that this will not be a fight, especially when the facts are that employees got raises that ranged from a high of 11 percent over and beyond the 3 percent I had projected for them, down to 4.5 percent above the projections...I don't feel that we need to be comparing our salaries with cities like Searcy, Mountain Home, Harrison, Camden or Blytheville, based on the fact that ...Forrest City's economic base here in the Delta is not the same as some of those cities. Our tax structure is different. In a lot of instances we don't have as much money in our budget for those types of expenditures," he said.
Bryant said city employees have received regular raises during his tenure, plus Christmas bonuses.
"It's not that this mayor has been against the employees. It's just the opposite," he said. He said the fire department employees are now getting the same money for certification and training, as the police department gets. But he said the budget as approved by the council contains some inequities.
"With this budget, the rate of pay for a fire captain will exceed the pay for my lieutenants at the police department. And I feel that giving over a $3,000 raise, above and beyond the 3 percent I recommended, is far too much. And it could cause problems within the police department when they look at it. And they're already talking, when they look at the salary increases for one set of people versus them.
"So, I think the council needs to go back to the drawing board and try to make that more equitable," Bryant said.
"I veto this based on principle. And I don't want to fight with the council. I didn't want to do this."
After he finished reading the statement, he said he had also written another statement in which he would have stated, "The city council members spoke, and I have singularly run out of the energy to fight for what's right when the citizens who elect them stand by and say nothing or do nothing. In short, I surrender to the city council, which couldn't pass a budget for over four months."
However, he said he changed his mind and vetoed the budget.
He said the 3 percent pay increase he originally proposed, to be paid retroactively, is still there as far as he's concerned.
He was asked if the veto was completely because of salaries.
"I vetoed the budget based on the fact that it was out of balance, and salaries played a part in it."
Bryant repeated that he had a hard time coming to the conclusion to veto, and changed his mind more than once.
"I tussled over this, even while you all were sitting out there (waiting for the announcement) I scratched out and went back and started over. It's not something I wanted to do...Actually, when I did the 3 percent raise, I was squeezing, in order to try to give our employees a bit more incentive to stay. And I was taking a risk with the 3 percent.
He said that if the economy improves, "at the end of the year, at that time, we can give larger bonuses. But if we get into a position where we give pay raises, they are locked in. You can't take a pay raise back....Then if we run short, what do we do? Do we lay people off?...We're in a very tenuous situation...At this time, by my conservative estimate, we'd be better off giving the 3 percent."
He said the city could end up using up all its reserves.
It is not known at this time whether the city council will move to override the veto.
The Forrest City School Board will meet at 5:30 this evening in the administration building.
Board members will consider changes to the district's personnel policy. In addition, the board will review the 2004-05 school calendar, a salary schedule and a parent/student/ teacher contract.
The Forrest City Civic Center Commission is also scheduled to meet today. That meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at the Civic Center.
The Madison City Council will meet at 7 tonight, and the Hughes City Council will meet at 7:30. Each meeting will be held in the city's city hall.
The Widener City Council has changed its regular monthly meeting from the second Monday to the third Monday of each month. The Widener Council will meet at 6 p.m. next Monday.
The identity of the person driving a vehicle rented to former Sen. Bill Lewellen of Marianna that was found in the median on Interstate 40 in February remains a mystery as St. Francis County Prosecuting Attorneys await the results of a blood sample sent to the Arkansas Crime Lab in Little Rock.
According to Deputy Prosecutor Chris Morledge, the result of the sample, which was submitted several weeks ago, could take several weeks to return due to the backlog at the crime lab.
"It's going to take awhile to get those results back because it takes awhile to get any results that we submit to them back. The only thing that we get a relatively quick turnaround on are urine samples for DWI charges. We always have a lengthy wait on blood evidence and gunpowder evidence and such," said Morledge.
In February, Arkansas State Police responded to a one-vehicle crash on Interstate 40 only to find the driver of the vehicle had left the scene prior to the their arrival. State Police later reported that Lewellen, who practices law in Marianna and is a lawyer in the Lake View School District case, had rented the vehicle.
According to State Police officials in March, alcohol was found inside the wrecked vehicle, but there were no open containers.