By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
By a 5-1 vote, the Forrest City School Board this morning agreed to transfer the current principal of Caldwell Elementary to Lincoln Middle School as principal.
Susan Berry will leave Caldwell to take the Lincoln position.
The board convened in a special teleconference meeting, and all members were accounted for. Superintendent Lee Vent and board member Aubrey Jayroe were present in his office, and the other members took part in the meeting via speakerphone. After the meeting was called to order and the roll called, the board immediately went into executive session.
After the board reconvened, Vent made his recommendation. On the vote to transfer Berry to the post, board members Mallory Nimocks, Sandra Taylor, Wayne Jones, Ronald Williams and Aubrey Jayroe voted yes. Henry Peacock voted no.
There was some controversy over the Lincoln position after the board recently failed to approve Vent's recommendation of Sandra Nicks Mills to the principalship, on a 3-3 split vote. The split vote on Mills was along racial lines, with the three white board members voting for Mills and the three black board members voting no. The black members also expressed support for Estella Shackleford, a long-time teacher and assistant principal at Lincoln, for the principal's job. No recommendation was made on Shackleford, so no vote was taken.
Ironically, although the vote on Mills was along racial lines, Mills and Shackleford are both black while Berry, approved by a 5-1 vote, is white.
The St. Francis County chapter of the NAACP recently held a meeting, in which support was expressed for Shackleford. At that meeting, Marshall James, the retiring principal of Lincoln, also spoke in support of Shackleford.
Both Shackleford and her attorney, Mark Burnett of Little Rock, were at this morning's board meeting but did not address the board. They also declined to comment after the meeting.
In other action, the board also voted unanimously to consolidate the campuses of Caldwell and Stewart schools.
The board recently voted to move Caldwell School into the old Stewart School facility, which is adjacent to the new Stewart School building. Berry would have remained principal of Caldwell under that arrangement.
Under the board's decision this morning, Hazel Wallace, the present principal of Stewart, will become principal of both Stewart and Caldwell. In the meantime, an assistant principal will be chosen for the Caldwell building. Jayroe said interviews are being conducted for that position.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Signs are popping up along Interstate 40 explaining that there are now four exits to Forrest City, but while they may be signs of the opening of the Highway 1 bypass, that actually won't happen as soon as predicted.
Earlier this year, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department Engineer Ray Woodruff predicted the bypass should be ready for use by the Labor Day weekend. According to Woodruff, rain during May and June made that prediction premature.
"Well I don't think we're going to be able to make that Labor Day prediction I made," Woodruff said. "If we can get a pretty good stretch of dry weather, it looks like we'll be ready to open it up in October. We just had a period where it seemed like we were getting rain every day there in May and June, and it never let up. Now, it looks like things have finally dried out and we'll be able to get out there and work full force. We just need to have it dry for a while so that we can finish everything off," he said.
According to Woodruff, over the past two weeks, construction crews have been able to begin laying asphalt on the ramps leading to and from I-40. That interchange is the major portion of the work remaining on the roadway which will cut a path around downtown Forrest City, from near Caldwell, past the Federal Correctional Institute Forrest City, before intersecting with Hwy. 1 South, near the Forrest City Airport.
The wet weather earlier this summer also slowed construction on other projects in the area. Work between Colt and Wynne on Hwy. 1 was reduced to a crawl after almost daily deluges last month. According to Woodruff, bridge work on that project is essentially complete and he is hoping road work will benefit from the normally hot and dry months of July and August.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Caldwell City Council this week accepted the low bid for the replacement of a small bridge on Good Hope Road.
Crisp Contractors of West Memphis submitted the low bid of $12,532. Howard Cranor of Forrest City bid $17,065, with $2,500 more for asphalt. The Crisp bid did not include asphalt, but Mayor Gary Hughes said the bid request did not require a bid on asphalt, although bidders could include an asphalt overlay if they wished. Even without counting the asphalt bid, the Crisp bid was still lower.
Hughes said the bid was specific, including a metal bridge of 20 feet by 56 feet, 240 tons of rip-rap, 240 square yards of filter fabric, and a 30-inch, 24-foot drop pipe.
Hughes said the city has been approved for a grant from the Eastern Arkansas Enterprise Community for $2,700 to help pay for the bridge replacement.
It is expected that the road will be closed for two or three days while the work is being done.
On another matter, the council heard that the city's volunteer fire department has received a $1,000 Volunteer Fire Assistance Grant from the Forestry Commission. The money will go toward the purchase of a portable foam unit, and also some wildland jump suits, which are lighter and cooler than the typical structure firefighting suits.
Hughes also brought up the possibility of the city purchasing a concessions wagon of its own. While he said the cost may be prohibitive, he said it might be necessary eventually.
"Of course, one of the major sources of revenue for our (annual) festival is our concessions," Hughes said. "But it's becoming harder and harder to find concessions trailers when you do something like this. We were looking at the feasibility or the possibility, or the necessity if we're going to continue to do concessions at our festival, to look at possibly purchasing a trailer."
If the city had its own concessions trailer, Hughes said, it could be used for fundraisers on a year-round basis by the fire department. On the other hand, he said a new concessions trailer is pricey, estimated at around $10,000.
He said it looks as if a trailer has been found to borrow for this year's festival.
"But we're still looking at the feasibility of purchasing a concessions trailer," he said.
He added that proceeds earned with the trailer would go to reimburse the city, if a trailer was purchased. However, he added, "As far as I'm concerned, really, as long as...we know... that someone will loan us one, that seems to be the most reasonable way to go."
Over 30 St. Francis County residents have taken advantage of early voting as of this morning.
There have been 33 ballots cast so far in the special election that will determine if $125,000 a year, for four years will be provided to the Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce to recruit new industry into the area and to help hire an executive director/industrial recruiter for the Chamber.
Although the money will only be transferred from Forrest City's portion of the solid waste tax, because the tax was decided by the entire county, this measure also requires a countywide vote.
There will be no increase in taxes if the measure passes.
Early voting is being held Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the SFCounty clerk's office in the courthouse through Monday, Aug. 2. The special election will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 3, with polls open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.