By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
With demand high for flu shots across the country, Arkansas distributed nearly 60,000 flu shots Wednesday to residents in the state's 75 counties.
In St. Francis County, 710 doses of the flu shot were set to be issued on Wednesday at the Wiley T. Jones Fairgrounds. Bonnie Dodson, public health nurse with the St. Francis County Heath Unit, said a few doses were still available this morning, but they are expected to be gone before the day is over.
"We were originally sent 630 adult doses and 80 of the child doses," said Dodson. "As of this morning, we had administered approximately 560, including 70 of the child doses. We are distributing the remaining shots at the St. Francis County Health Unit today. Our normal closing time is 4:30 p.m., but we will stay open until we exhaust our supply. I believe we will do that today."
Dodson said she believes the cold and damp weather contributed to the low turnout for the shots on Wednesday.
"The weather posed a problem, I believe," continued Dodson. "No matter what the weather was like it would have posed a problem when you have people outdoors, but it was part of the low turn out. If the day had been sunny and warm, we would have had more people, but we had what we anticipated due to the conditions."
Dodson also stated that even with weather problems, the fairgrounds was a predetermined site for handling massive amounts of people.
"We held the mass distribution at the fairgrounds because that was the site that we had secured to accommodate the large number of people and staff and space for parking," added Dodson. "Where we distribute shots is determined by what we are distributing. If we were dispensing many different vaccinations, we might have chosen a different location. The fairgrounds are one of the locations that we have in our mass distribution plan, and it had the space necessary to handle a large amount of people and traffic."
For more information about the availability of flu shots, contact the SFC Health Unit at 870-633-1340.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
There will be a challenge to the unofficial outcome of one of the Forrest City Alderman races, the St. Francis County Election Commission learned Wednesday.
In Tuesday's general election, the unofficial vote count in the Ward 3, Position 1 race was 603 for the incumbent, Steve Hollowell and 494 for challenger Danny Capps.
The election commission met Wednesday to hear any complaints and also to discuss the provisional ballots which had been cast in the election. Capps was there, and said he believed there could have been an error in programming which might have given his votes to Hollowell and vice-versa.
"I would like to challenge the Ward 3 box at the civic center," Capps said, "on the grounds that I spoke to Ron Cockmon (who worked with the machines during the election) this morning, and the software that is used in the machines out there could possibly have flaws."
Capps said he wanted the ballots to be re-counted by hand. He also said he was willing to pay the cost, which could be 25 cents per ballot, up to $2,500. If the recount changes the outcome, the challenger does not have to pay.
Hollowell was also present, and was given the chance to speak.
"Do you claim to count all the other wards that used that same equipment?" he asked. "Or is he requesting it? Or is he just asking you all to do it? Or is he willing to pay for it?"
"I think I addressed all that," said Capps. "I'm requesting for the Ward 3 box at the center, and I will pay for a recount."
Commission members said they would go over the formal procedures for challenging with Capps.
Hollowell also asked if the law did not say that if an election is counted by machine, it should be recounted by machine.
Commission member Pat Flanagin, reading from the law, said that ballots are to be recounted in the same manner as the initial count, "unless the county board of election commissioners determines a possible malfunction...in which case the ballots may be recounted in any manner prescribed by law."
Flanagin said since there is an alleged malfunction of software, it would be more logical to do a hand recount.
Hollowell asked if the equipment had been tested before the election. Commission chairman Frederick Freeman said the hardware is tested but not the software.
Cockmon, who was present, said a backup disc was used to test some of the programming, but he said not all the components were tested.
It was brought out that ES&S, the company in Nebraska which prints the ballots and programs the tabulators, could read the disc in question. Capps said he would still prefer a hand count.
"I don't know this company. I'm not saying they wouldn't say if they've got problems," he said. "I'd just be more satisfied with a hand count."
Also, Widener Mayor Dot Halford was there to question the number of absentee ballots in Widener. She said that more absentee votes were counted than apparently were on the list of those who voted absentee. She was answered that she might have gotten a older list, because as the election drew near and pressure mounted to get all the boxes ready, names were not added to the list, although the votes were counted.
Halford said there was a potential problem, because two races in Widener -- the recorder clerk race and one alderman race -- were extremely close.
As of this morning, Freeman confirmed that there will be a challenge from Capps. He said it is still not known whether there will be a challenge in any of the Widener races.
The Election Commission also discussed the provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are ballots which have been challenged or, as in the case in St. Francis County, people were allowed to vote in boxes where their name did not appear on the voter lists. The ballots are to be studied and decisions made on them after the election.
The commission decided on Wednesday, after studying the locations of where the ballots were filled out, that the provisional ballots would not affect any of the races.
Freeman said this morning that the commission would meet again at 10 a.m. Monday in the quorum court room at the courthouse, to address challenges and also to decide whether it is necessary to study all the provisional ballots, since no races would be affected by them.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Heavy rains for the past two weeks may have drowned any plans for the St. Francis County Road Department to stay within its budget for the remainder of the year.
According to County Judge Carl Cisco, the recent rainy weather has damaged county roads, causing the additional need for gravel, stone and piping to bring some roads back up to standard.
"We've had quite a bit of damage, not severe damage, but enough to the point that we're going to need to do major repairs. We've had washouts on several roads, and in other areas we've had pipes washed out. It has just been too wet to run the graders," Cisco said.
Cisco said he plans to meet with the county's budget committee to discuss the problems with the roads and his desire to go over his current budget of $72,600 for the months of November and December to order materials that are needed to repair the roads.
"I'm going to talk to the budget committee and let them know that we're going to need stone and gravel and some piping so that we can make sure that the roads are safe and passable. This is going to be expensive but it's something that we've got to do," Cisco said.
Before that meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday night, Cisco said that roadgraders are attempting to get back to work today on roads that can bear the weight of the heavy machinery.
"We're out checking roads this morning seeing where we can get the graders out and back to work so that we can pull as much of the rock and gravel back onto the road as possible. The biggest problem areas that we're seeing are up in the hills, and we're trying to get the graders up there. The rain just washes so much of the rock and gravel off of the road that we're having to be careful with where we get started," he said.
Cisco also cautioned the public to be careful traveling along gravel roads in the county.
"We don't have any severe damage, but drivers that are accustomed to driving down roads at one speed need to take it a little easier until we can get out there and get the roads fixed. There are washouts on these roads and they need to be cautious and just slow it down a little," Cisco said.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Heavy rains during the past month have caused losses for Arkansas cotton farmers that experts say conservatively add up to about $45 million.
St. Francis County has not been immune to the rains, and according to Mitch Crow, Extension Agent with the St. Francis County office of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, any further rain will only damage the crops more.
According to Crow, the problems caused by the rain are various ranging from discoloration of the crop to an inability to get this year's cotton crop out of the fields.
"This rain has been especially difficult for our cotton crops, and there are three major problems that area farmers are facing. First, the rain is turning the crop from white to gray, which has a negative effect on the quality of the crop. And with that, it's to the point that for every day that it rains, the crop is going to just get grayer and grayer. On top of that, when you get rain as heavy and as hard as we had this past weekend, you also see the cotton begin to get knocked down, which is another problem for the farmers," Crow said.
With the amount of rain recently and the soaking of the fields it will also be difficult for farmers to get heavy machinery out to harvest the crops.
"The third problem that we're really facing is because in most areas, we can't put the cotton pickers out in the field to harvest the crop because it is just too muddy and the machines bog down. We can't even get our trucks into many of the fields because of the mud," Crow said.
According to a story from the Associated Press, an immediate stoppage of the rain would not help with the current problem. Farmers would need from three to 10 days of low humidity, wind and sunshine before they could harvest cotton or soybeans.
According to Crow, the soybean crop is facing a different set of problems than the area cotton crop. The combination of the rain and warm temperatures over the past few weeks could cause some of the soybeans to begin to seed.
"For our soybean farmers, I'm kind of happy to see the cooler temperatures over the past few days. We were beginning to see signs that seeds were wanting to grow in the buds and that would not be good for the bean crop. Bean farmers are also seeing the same problems with mud, but some of them are checking their fields right now to see if the hard pan area will allow them to get their combines into the fields for harvest. Normally we will have a hard pan area that can hold the weight but if it's been soaked through the combines will bog down," Crow said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 65 percent of the Arkansas cotton crop has been harvested. That's compared to the five-year average of 81 percent.
Robertson said that he estimates Arkansas cotton farmers have lost $150 per acre. Last year's cotton crop brought in $562 million and it looked good this year when farmers were reporting record yields and high quality cotton up until a month ago.
Arkansas' soybean crop is also at risk with 68 percent of beans harvested so far, compared to a 71 percent five-year average.
The rains also hit the state's winter wheat planting season hard. As of Nov. 1, only 28 percent of the state's planned winter wheat crop has been planted. The five-year average is 56 percent, according to the USDA.
St. Francis County government had sales tax receipts in September of $142,553.60.
In addition, cities inside St. Francis County received the following prorated amounts of the county sales tax: Hughes, $28, 253.46; Forrest City, $223, 576.10; Wheatley, $5,629.50; Palestine, $11,213.62; Madison, $14,926.34; Caldwell, $7,036.88; Colt, $5,568.98; Widener, $5,069.57.
Several towns in St. Francis County also have their own sales
taxes, and had the following receipts in September: Forrest City,
$152,622.14; Hughes, $9,314.07; Madison, $1,084.28; Palestine,
$5,834.66; Wheatley, $5,252.05.
A Forrest City man attempted to resist arrest Tuesday when officers tried to arrest him on an alleged parole violation.
Jason Deconte Foster, 25, of 109 Day Street W., was a suspect in an alleged aggravated robbery. Cory Lewis had reported that he was in the Blue Flame Cafe and that Foster had told him he had some marijuana. Lewis said the two had walked to Foster's car, at which time Foster allegedly pulled a handgun and stole $250 in cash, a $114.93 money order and Lewis' ID card.
Officers located Foster at the parking lot of the Shell Superstop at the corner of Division and Broadway.
Foster, who was on parole and is out on four separate suspended imposition of sentences out of St. Francis County Circuit Court, allegedly resisted arrest during the apprehension, but was taken into custody without any injuries.
Foster also allegedly had .5 grams of crack cocaine in his possession.
Foster is being held without bond on charges of aggravated robbery, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver near certain facilities and parole violation.
The Forrest City City Council will meet in regular session at 7 tonight at city hall.
The meeting was postponed from the regular meeting day of Tuesday due to the general election.
Councilmen will consider amending the city's curfew hours and will also set the city's millage rate.
The Delta Regional Airport Authority will also meet tonight. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Colt Community Center.
In addition, the Colt City Council has scheduled a meeting for 6 tonight at Colt City Hall.