By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Future Forrest City businesses that share a property line with residential neighbors may have to include both a buffer zone and a privacy fence if the Forrest City Planning Commission has its way.
Members of the Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend a 20-foot landscape buffer and privacy fencing for any commercial property which shares a property line with residential property. According to the recommendation, that fencing would have to be masonry or wood.
Commission Chairman Danny Capps said that the buffer and fencing are necessary to protect the privacy of homeowners whose property abuts a business.
"We're just trying to protect our homeowners from problems with headlights and noise. This should give adequate space and the fence should provide privacy," said Capps.
Commission members also voted to recommend rezoning three lots on North Izard Street from residential to commercial.
Attorney Preston Hicky, representing Worley's Lawn and Garden, petitioned the commission to allow Worley's to rezone three lots located near their present location. Commission members approved the request after first discussing whether the business would have to comply with proposed changes mentioned earlier in the meeting. It was agreed that Worley's would have to comply with the city's current landscape buffer codes, and depending on the actions of the city council, might have to make changes to a fence recently placed on their property.
Commissioners also approved a variance request for a Forrest City resident seeking to build a wall on his property.
All three of the recommendations will be heard by the Forrest
City Council on Tuesday, May 4, at 7 p.m.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The Northeast Arkansas Recycling Company is looking for paper -- newspaper, magazines, sensitive documents -- any paper that might need shredding. That's the word from NEARCO manager J.D. Sharp.
According to Sharp, while cardboard business and foam business has been running well, more paper products would be greatly appreciated at the county's recycling facility.
"We've been doing well in cardboard and with the foam, but we need to get people to bring in more paper," Sharp said. "We've got a couple of the banks that bring paper over to us, but we'd really like to see more business. I'm not sure that folks know that we shred paper, but we've got a real efficient machine and we can handle just about anything that they can bring us," Sharp said.
The shredding, along with baling of cardboard, are both taking place in the facility's newly enclosed building which was built last year. According to Sharp, the building has been quite an asset.
"It's really nice. In the old building, there weren't any doors, and it made it really tough to work during really cold or really hot weather. Now we have an enclosed building, and it's kept us working hard and kept us going. The breaks aren't quite as long, and we can keep everything moving," Sharp said.
While Sharp is pushing for more paper, he is very happy with the progress the facility has made with local factories recycling cardboard. According to Sharp, NEARCO workers are currently working with area manufacturers Sanyo, Mulay Plastics and Foam Fabricators, as well as many area small businesses.
"The factories have really helped us out, and we've been able to help them out. Because of the service we provide, we have been able to help them save money because now we take care of their cardboard, which is one of their biggest waste items. In the past, they had to pay to have that stuff hauled down to the dump, and that is a pretty big cost with the amount of cardboard they have. Now we can go out and collect the bins and bring them back here. We pick up the carts and get everything sorted and baled, and we're able to then put it back in the market after we sell it," Sharp said.
The operation may soon become more efficient if a grant from the East Arkansas Solid Waste District and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is approved. According to Sharp, NEARCO is attempting to get a compactor truck which would run the Forrest City route to businesses that do not have a trailer for collections.
"If we get this truck, then we can become more efficient
because we'll be able to handle more volume using less time and
manpower. We'll be able to stop by and pick up the cardboard,
put it in the truck and compress it so that when we get ready
to bale it, everything will already be compact. We'll also save
on manpower and time because we will be able to just back the
truck up to the baler and dump it in instead of having to pull
everything from a truck by hand and load it," Sharp said.
Danny Capps of #1 Forrest Cove announced today that he will be a candidate for Forrest City Alderman in Ward 3.
Capps is currently chairman of the Forrest City Planning and Zoning Commission.
"I would like to have the opportunity to serve the people of Ward 3, and all the residents of our great city, by being elected to the city council," Capps said. "Forrest City is a great city. We have just begun to unlock the potential we all know we have. We will, in the next few years, grow in size and population, increase our businesses, and with work, increase our industrial base.
"We are sitting on I-40, which will bring growth to the city. The bypass will also bring growth, and with an aggressive city council who wants Forrest City to be the best city of its size in the state, we can make it happen.
"I am very active in different civic organizations. I am presently a member and past board member of the Forrest City area Chamber of Commerce. My family belongs to and attends the First United Methodist Church. I have been married to a wonderful woman named Debbie for 30 years. We have two children, Jason and Sandy, who were raised here and graduated from our schools. We currently own Express Dry Cleaners and are partners in Oscar's Restaurant.
"I would appreciate the support and votes of the citizens of Ward 3. I would appreciate the support of all the citizens of Forrest City."
A Little Rock man was arrested on several charges Tuesday night after he led police on a short chase through a Forrest City neighborhood.
According to a report at the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department, Daryl McKenzie, 34, was driving a 1998 Ford Expedition about 8 p.m., when a deputy attempted to stop the vehicle for having a false license plate.
McKenzie was traveling north on Washington Street when the deputy tried to stop him at the Dillard Street intersection. According to the report, McKenzie fled east on Dillard, then north on Forrest Street to Highway 284 where he continued north to Kittle Road. The deputy said McKenzie turned right onto Kittle Road and then left into a driveway where he jumped from the vehicle as it was still moving. The vehicle continued forward, striking a camper trailer parked in the yard of the Kittle Road home.
Deputies reported McKenzie fled on foot into a nearby wooded area where he was caught a short time later by deputies.
McKenzie is charged with fleeing, reckless driving, failure to yield at a stop sign, theft by receiving under $500, false evidence of title and registration, criminal mischief, suspended driver's license, improper passing and no proof of insurance.
A vehicle stolen from Jonesboro is being held in Forrest City while police try to figure out how it ended up wrecked on South Rosser Street early today.
About 1:50 a.m., an officer with the Forrest City Police Department was dispatched to the 600 block of South Rosser where they found Norman Gregory, 44, of Wheatley, who claimed he had been struck by the 2003 Hyundai Sonata.
Gregory told police he was walking along Rosser Street when he was hit by the vehicle's right side mirror. An ambulance was called to the scene, but police said Gregory did not appear to be injured.
When police arrived, the vehicle was sitting in the grass near the roadway, but no one was inside the locked vehicle. The vehicle had struck a tree and suffered damage on the front.
Officers found the vehicle is owned by Albert Watkins of Jonesboro, but the license plate on the car was registered to a 2002 Jaguar owned by a Forrest City woman.
St. Francis County Sheriff's deputies were called to unlock the car, which also had its steering column broken. Police reported the entire trunk of the car had been lined with clear plastic and carried a strong odor of marijuana.
Local police notified the Jonesboro Police Department that the vehicle had been recovered.