Friday, July 25, 2008

TOP STORY > >Price of paper on newsstands now 50 cents

The Leader’s newsstand price has been increased to 50 cents to help cover rising newsprint, ink and energy costs.

This is the first increase in 20 years.

The cost of newsprint has gone up about 40 percent in recent months, and energy costs, as our readers know, have increased almost as much.

But the cost of a Leader subscription still remains $18 a year and $15 for students, teachers, military and retirees — a real bargain for 102 issues a year, or just pennies an issue and savings of at least $31 a year.

Call 982-9421 or 941-5132 for a special $15 rate to subscribe to the award-winning Leader, which was recently named the best large weekly in the state.

TOP STORY > >In hard times, many more need subsidized housing

By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer

Last week, the Jacksonville Housing Authority sent off its annual self-assessment for management of Section 8 housing a month early in hopes of getting a performance score back as quickly as possible from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency.

The federal program provides affordable housing to lower-income persons by subsidizing rents on qualifying, privately owned properties.

A “high performer” score is what housing authority director Phil Nix and the housing authority board of directors are shooting for as a way to open doors to opportunities that could expand low-income housing in Jacksonville.

“We want a housing authority that is proactive, looking down the road and expanding where we can, because there is a big need,” said Jim Durham, chairman of the housing authority board of directors.

The need in Jacksonville for low-income housing is so desperate that on the two days out of the year that new applications are taken for Section 8 rentals, people are lined at the door before dawn hoping to get a spot.

“They are here at five-thirty, six in the morning, and the doors don’t open ‘til eight,” Nix said. “Generally we have to have a police officer close by. We could easily have a waiting list of a thousand people. We get calls daily from people wanting Section 8.”

By law, the Section 8 waiting list can be no longer than the number of new applicants served in the previous year, currently at 215 slots. When the number dwindles down to 30 or 40, Nix sets a date for taking applications. He thinks that may come in September.

The housing authority oversees 362 Section 8 properties in Jacksonville as well as the Max A. Howell public-housing complex.

The waiting list for that program also stays full. Right now, 98 of the 100 apartments are rented with the other two under repair.

In 2006, the Jacksonville Housing Authority’s performance rating was upgraded to “standard” from “troubled.” The poor rating was in effect for two years under the previous director and board due to failure to follow budgetary and reporting guidelines required by HUD.

One way to alleviate Jackson-ville’s shortage of affordable housing is to build some more. The housing authority board is considering hiring a consultant to advise them on the feasibility of taking on such a project, which they say has already generated some interest from investors.

If the Jacksonville Housing Authority earns the top performance rating, it will be the first time since 1992.

When the board met last week to sign off on the report, members were optimistic about the chance of getting a high score because the Little Rock HUD office has been referring other housing authority agencies around the state to Nix for technical assistance.

“Evidently HUD is thinking we have gotten straightened out and can help other people,” Nix said.

TOP STORY > >In hard times, many more need subsidized housing

By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer

Last week, the Jacksonville Housing Authority sent off its annual self-assessment for management of Section 8 housing a month early in hopes of getting a performance score back as quickly as possible from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency.

The federal program provides affordable housing to lower-income persons by subsidizing rents on qualifying, privately owned properties.

A “high performer” score is what housing authority director Phil Nix and the housing authority board of directors are shooting for as a way to open doors to opportunities that could expand low-income housing in Jacksonville.

“We want a housing authority that is proactive, looking down the road and expanding where we can, because there is a big need,” said Jim Durham, chairman of the housing authority board of directors.

The need in Jacksonville for low-income housing is so desperate that on the two days out of the year that new applications are taken for Section 8 rentals, people are lined at the door before dawn hoping to get a spot.

“They are here at five-thirty, six in the morning, and the doors don’t open ‘til eight,” Nix said. “Generally we have to have a police officer close by. We could easily have a waiting list of a thousand people. We get calls daily from people wanting Section 8.”

By law, the Section 8 waiting list can be no longer than the number of new applicants served in the previous year, currently at 215 slots. When the number dwindles down to 30 or 40, Nix sets a date for taking applications. He thinks that may come in September.

The housing authority oversees 362 Section 8 properties in Jacksonville as well as the Max A. Howell public-housing complex.

The waiting list for that program also stays full. Right now, 98 of the 100 apartments are rented with the other two under repair.

In 2006, the Jacksonville Housing Authority’s performance rating was upgraded to “standard” from “troubled.” The poor rating was in effect for two years under the previous director and board due to failure to follow budgetary and reporting guidelines required by HUD.

One way to alleviate Jackson-ville’s shortage of affordable housing is to build some more. The housing authority board is considering hiring a consultant to advise them on the feasibility of taking on such a project, which they say has already generated some interest from investors.

If the Jacksonville Housing Authority earns the top performance rating, it will be the first time since 1992.

When the board met last week to sign off on the report, members were optimistic about the chance of getting a high score because the Little Rock HUD office has been referring other housing authority agencies around the state to Nix for technical assistance.

“Evidently HUD is thinking we have gotten straightened out and can help other people,” Nix said.

TOP STORY > >Sherwood set to pay $5M for golf course

By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer

The city of Sherwood will pay $5 million, plus fees, for the North Hills Country Club and in turn the owners, Club Properties, will drop all lawsuits against the city.

The Sherwood City Council approved the agreement, reached late last week, at a special meeting Monday afternoon by unanimous vote.

There is, however, still a public hearing at noon Monday in the city’s council chambers, on the public facilities board’s agreement to obtain up to $6.1 million, at 6 percent, in short-term financing from Twin City Bank to cover the cost of the 106-acre golf course property.

The public facilities board would be the entity that actually buys the acreage and then will lease it to the city for the amount of the monthly payment, which would be about $39,000 if the board borrowed the entire $6.1 million. Payments are based on an amortization of 25 years at 6 percent.

The council, at its regular meeting 7 p.m. Monday, will then approve the facilities board’s actions and give it the go ahead to purchase the golf course, culminating almost two years of deliberations over the green space.

“I’m glad that we have a resolution,” said Mayor Virginia Hillman, “and it will be a very nice place, but I’m still very concerned about the financial liability.”

Hillman said what will become of the 106-acre property will be decided in the city’s ongoing park study which is looking at all parks and green space in the city, including the recently annexed Gravel Ridge. She said once it officially becomes city property, the city would go in and deal with the overgrowth and see if the clubhouse, with some work, can be used as a rental facility for meetings and other activities.

The ordinance approved by the council authorizes the settlement of the litigation for $5 million, plus “ ancillary expenses of closing, including sums and fees required for financing and title insurance and closing service.” The ordinance says payment will be made within 45 days.

The ordinance also states that the property “should be preserved as a public park, including green space, and for other public purposes to be developed, including without limitations—parks, recreational facilities, hiking and biking trails and other purposes for the betterment of the city.”

Stuart Hankins, attorney for the owners of the golf course, issued this statement after the properties agreed to the settlement,
“Club Properties, Inc. confirms that it has agreed to accept the sum of $5,000,000 in return for the conclusion of the state court condemnation case and the dismissal of the federal court civil rights case subject to the city’s ability to complete its financing arrangements.”

Hankins went on to say, “While the principals of Club Properties, Inc. are not particularly happy about this resolution, they believe that it is in their best interests to bring an end to this expensive and time- consuming litigation process.”

Sherwood, which condemned the property earlier this year through eminent domain, would have been in court this week and next week to haggle over the fair market value of the property, but the agreement makes that trial moot.

The city has had the property appraised at $2.2 million, but the owners have a $5.5 million appraisal and had a valid offer of $5.1 million before the city put a building moratorium on the property in May 2007.

Club Properties also had a federal lawsuit against the city for the building moratorium placed on the property by the city, which was a catalyst in a $5.1 million deal the owners had with a developer falling apart. The judge put that trial on hold, pending the outcome of the condemnation trial. Club Properties, according to the agreement, will now drop that suit.

Current plans call for the city to pay the facilities board through franchise fees the city collects from various utilities.

Last year, the city collected $481,000 in franchise fees. It will need up to $468,000 a year to cover the cost of the bank note.

Franchise fees collected from North Little Rock Electric are currently frozen and a point of contention in a lawsuit between Sherwood, North Little Rock and First Electric. That amount of franchise fees, according to City Clerk Angela Nicholson, is not included in the $481,000 amount. Earlier this year, Alderman Becki Vassar said the aldermen decided using its eminent domain authority and condemning the property was the “fastest, most economical and most beneficial for all of Sherwood if we were going to have to spend the money anyway.”

The use of eminent domain and the facilities board also prevented any sort of public vote on the issue.

“This way we are not looking at 203 homes on the property, but probably not a golf course either, but desired green space. We just need to save it,” the alderman said earlier this year.

On Friday she said she was delighted with the settlement. “Court cases are scary as they can go either way.”

Vassar added, “We so desperately need to keep it as green space, not housing. There’s only so much green space available and we need to preserve this special place for generations to come.”

Like the mayor, Vassar wants the city to start a cleanup of the acreage as soon as possible. “I’d also like to see some of the fencing taken down and have it be more city-friendly,” she said

Vassar explained that if a subdivision was built on the property it would cost the city about $2 million or so to upgrade sewer lines, other utilities and area streets. The aldermen agreed that if they were going to have to spend that kind of money the city should just go ahead and buy it, and approved the use of eminent domain to take the property back in May.

Buying the property will not settle a number of questions including what to do with the property and how much those plans will cost.

Vassar, at a recent workshop, suggested turning the acreage, or at least part of it, into a water park like Jacksonville’s Splash Zone. The Splash Zone cost Jacksonville about $2.5 million to build four years ago and was financed through a one-cent sales tax. Since May, the acreage has become unsightly and overgrown with weeds as neither the owners nor the city spent money to keep the grounds in shape.

The moratorium the Sherwood council approved that generated the federal lawsuit came after businessman Ray Campbell had submitted plans to build a high-end gated community of 200 homes on the property. The homes would have sold in the $300,000 to $400,000 range.

The city’s moratorium thwarted Campbell’s efforts to finance the deal.

In early January, Club Properties presented a subdivision plan to the Sherwood Planning Commission to have 92 acres of the golf course property rezoned to allow the company to build 203 homes on the property. The plan met fierce opposition from the commission and was tabled indefinitely. The commissioners also tabled a public hearing on Club Properties’ request to rezone 14 acres of the golf course property bordering Highway 107 from R-1 (residential) and C-2 (shopping center) to C-3 (general commercial).

“We needed to do something,” Rodgers explained back in December, “rather than just sit here on the property.”

The financing obtained by the facilities board through Twin City Bank is for three years, and the agreement contains penalties for an early pay-off. Twin City Bank was the only facility to submit a proposal to the facilities board. Chairman Linda Napper said that Simmons bank officials had told her that the current climate was not conducive to their institution submitting a bid.

The facilities board will also continue to look for longer-term financing as in a bond issue. “We don’t want to wait until the three years is almost up and not be able to secure funding,” Napper said.

After the public hearing and the council approval Monday, state law requires a 30-day referendum or waiting period. After that time the board can have access to the funds and pay the owners of the golf course the agreed upon $5 million.

TOP STORY > >Austin must act on water source

By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer

Members of Austin City Council will have two water-purchase agreements to consider when they meet Monday, one from Cabot and one from North Pulaski Water Association, which has merged with Highway 319 Water Association.

Bill Cypert, secretary and spokesman for Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission, told the full commission Thursday that the six-month, renewable agreement he delivered to Austin Mayor Bernie Chamberlain on Monday had to be signed by Aug. 29.

He said he told Chamberlain that if the city chooses another provider, emergency water, if it is ever needed, could be at a higher rate than the $3.70 per thousand gallons Austin currently pays.

“The ball is in their court,” Cypert said.

Austin has no wells and buys all of its water, about half from Cabot. Cabot supplies the down town area while North Pulaski covers the area west of the freeway. The summer average is 50,000 gallons a day from Cabot and 45,000 gallons a day from North Pulaski.

Although the two parts of the Austin water system are connected by a six-inch pipe under the freeway, that pipe is too small to allow either supplier to be the sole water provider to the city at this time.

However, the city is upgrading the system now and one improvement will be an eight-inch pipe under the freeway that will allow the city to buy from a single source.

Chamberlain said it is not possible to give up either Cabot or North Pulaski at this point, so the council will likely agree to the terms of Cabot’s purchase agreement, especially since it is for a six-month period.

The purchase agreement North Pulaski has asked the city to sign is for 20 years, but there is no pressure to sign it, she said.

“We’ll probably continue to buy from both. That’s what I told Bill,” Chamberlain said.

Currently, North Pulaski charges Austin $4.05 per thousand gallons because that is how much Austin was paying Highway 319 Water Association when it merged with North Pulaski.

Chamberlain said Austin doesn’t have a contract with North Pulaski and never did.

Austin’s contract was with Highway 319 Water Association, which bought its water from Cabot for $3.70 per thousand and marked it up 35 cents.

Austin did have a contract with Cabot, but it ended when Stubby Stumbaugh was mayor during the transition period when Cabot’s water and wastewater departments were being taken over by the commission.

Chamberlain said she had considered buying all the water Austin needs from Cabot because North Pulaski had difficulty supplying Austin last summer.

But improvements in the North Pulaski system has remedied that problem and now North Pulaski is prepared to sell Austin all the water it needs for almost one dollar less per thousand gallons than Cabot sells it.

Cabot’s rate for wholesale customers was set by council ordinance in 2004 before the commission took over water and wastewater and the commission has no authority to change it.

However, the council does entertain proposals submitted by the commission and has passed ordinances at its request.

TOP STORY > >Austin must act on water source

By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer

Members of Austin City Council will have two water-purchase agreements to consider when they meet Monday, one from Cabot and one from North Pulaski Water Association, which has merged with Highway 319 Water Association.

Bill Cypert, secretary and spokesman for Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission, told the full commission Thursday that the six-month, renewable agreement he delivered to Austin Mayor Bernie Chamberlain on Monday had to be signed by Aug. 29.

He said he told Chamberlain that if the city chooses another provider, emergency water, if it is ever needed, could be at a higher rate than the $3.70 per thousand gallons Austin currently pays.

“The ball is in their court,” Cypert said.

Austin has no wells and buys all of its water, about half from Cabot. Cabot supplies the down town area while North Pulaski covers the area west of the freeway. The summer average is 50,000 gallons a day from Cabot and 45,000 gallons a day from North Pulaski.

Although the two parts of the Austin water system are connected by a six-inch pipe under the freeway, that pipe is too small to allow either supplier to be the sole water provider to the city at this time.

However, the city is upgrading the system now and one improvement will be an eight-inch pipe under the freeway that will allow the city to buy from a single source.

Chamberlain said it is not possible to give up either Cabot or North Pulaski at this point, so the council will likely agree to the terms of Cabot’s purchase agreement, especially since it is for a six-month period.

The purchase agreement North Pulaski has asked the city to sign is for 20 years, but there is no pressure to sign it, she said.

“We’ll probably continue to buy from both. That’s what I told Bill,” Chamberlain said.

Currently, North Pulaski charges Austin $4.05 per thousand gallons because that is how much Austin was paying Highway 319 Water Association when it merged with North Pulaski.

Chamberlain said Austin doesn’t have a contract with North Pulaski and never did.

Austin’s contract was with Highway 319 Water Association, which bought its water from Cabot for $3.70 per thousand and marked it up 35 cents.

Austin did have a contract with Cabot, but it ended when Stubby Stumbaugh was mayor during the transition period when Cabot’s water and wastewater departments were being taken over by the commission.

Chamberlain said she had considered buying all the water Austin needs from Cabot because North Pulaski had difficulty supplying Austin last summer.

But improvements in the North Pulaski system has remedied that problem and now North Pulaski is prepared to sell Austin all the water it needs for almost one dollar less per thousand gallons than Cabot sells it.

Cabot’s rate for wholesale customers was set by council ordinance in 2004 before the commission took over water and wastewater and the commission has no authority to change it.

However, the council does entertain proposals submitted by the commission and has passed ordinances at its request.

TOP STORY > >District gets green light from state

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

“It’s not the state’s intention to stand in the way of a separate Jacksonville school district,” Chief Deputy Attorney Gen. Justin Allen said Thursday.

The state attorney general’s office is the lead party in negotiations between Pulaski County Special School District, Little Rock School District, North Little Rock School District and the original plaintiffs, the Joshua Intervenors.

An early draft of the attorney general’s proposal that would have prohibited carving a Jacksonville district from PCSSD was outdated and in error, Allen said.

Federal District Judge Bill Wilson already has declared the Little Rock district unitary and dismissed it from the desegregation agreement, but the Joshua Intervenors have appealed his decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

Wilson said he would not hear other motions for unitary status until the Little Rock appeal is resolved.

Allen said Assistant Attor-ney General Scott Richardson has met with John Walker, attorney for the Joshua Intervenors, and “is encouraged.”

In the past, Joshua has been a difficult impediment, Allen said, but the group has been “very amenable to (current) discussions.”

State Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville, is author of Act 395, which brought desegregation negotiations to the forefront. He said Thursday that he thought Pulaski County’s action at the most recent board meeting was “very positive.”

Bond repeated his prediction that Jacksonville would have its own school district by 2010 or 2011.

Although the required local match money—about 85 percent of the total $40 million cost—isn’t yet available, the district had architects visit the sites of two new proposed Jacksonville schools, one where the girls middle school stands, the other on Air Force property to replace substandard buildings, one on Little Rock Air Force Base, the other nearby.

The architects are to draw up some very preliminary plans to secure Jacksonville’s place on the district’s 10-year facilities master plan.

The state’s draft proposal, which Jones shared with the PCSSD board recently, said there could be no district boundary changes for at least five years, but Allen said Thursday that Jones had been sent an old draft.

He said if the PCSSD board approves a Jacksonville district, the attorney general’s office didn’t mean to be an impediment.

“The bill specifically states that the settlement can envision a Jacksonville district,” Allen said. “That has to be done through PCSSD and the state process. The attorney general doesn’t want to block that.”

Allen said all parties were cooperating, but that PCSSD is “probably further along and working a little more diligently than the other two.”

“This has been going on 20-some years,” Allen said. “It’s as close to ending as it has ever been.”

“He’s been given the authority to negotiate,” Bond said of Jones. Bond said Jacksonville activists hope to be on the PCSSD agenda for the August meeting to bring the Jacksonville issue before the board again.

“We still want a vote that says the board is not opposed to a Jacksonville district,” Bond said. “The board members are realizing that it’s in everyone’s best interest to split a Jacksonville-North Pulaski County district off from PCSSD.

“We’ve been running the financial numbers,” he added. “The county will be better off financially and so will Jacksonville.

“We’ll have sufficient state funding and be able to compete directly with Cabot and other school choices.

“We want to have control of our own destiny and curriculum,” Bond said.

TOP STORY > >Many check cashers here are still holding on

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

Although nearly half of the payday lending businesses located in Arkansas have closed under pressure in the last two years, nearly all the lenders based in Jacksonville, Gravel Ridge, Sherwood, Lonoke, Cabot and Searcy remain open, according to a study released on Wednesday by Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending.

Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel served notice that his office would not tolerate usurious loans many times the state’s 17 percent usury limit, sending cease-and- desist letters to 156 storefront operations March 18.

Since then, 101 lenders have closed their doors.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one lender predicted “all stores will be closed in 12 to 18 months.”

The attorney general’s action followed two Arkansas Supreme Court decisions (one in January 2008 and another in February 2008) indicating that payday lenders charging triple-digit interest rates were violating the Arkansas Constitution’s usury limit for consumer loans; the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act; and the rules and regulations of the Arkansas State Board of Collection Agencies.

Overall, the number of payday lenders in Arkansas has shrunk by 43 percent since McDaniel’s March order—from 237 to 136.

The 136 still in operation include the 55 operating in defiance of Attorney General McDaniel’s order, and 81 that currently operate outside of state regulation.

McDaniel and his staff have said these 81 will face scrutiny and potential action given the Attorney General’s long-term goal that all payday lenders in Arkansas cease operations.

“We certainly commend him for deciding to crack down on these lenders,” said Michael Rowett, a consumer advocate. “Of the 156 (outlets sent letters), 101 have stopped making loans.” I’m disappointed that the industry leaders refuse to recognize the clear, unmistakable signals that it’s no longer business as usual in Arkansas.”

“We’re pretty satisfied,” said Justin Allen, chief deputy attorney general Friday afternoon. “It could be better but it could be a lot worse. The vast majority have at least quit that operation, but there’s still plenty to be done.

“As a general matter, those who surrendered their licenses have quit working,” he said. “Most are out of business.”

Allen said there would be more lawsuits in the next few weeks targeting the lenders who got letters but are trying to skirt the law. Typically, a customer would write a $400 postdated check to a payday lender, then receive $350 cash, with the lender keeping the balance. The $50 interest on a two-week, $350 loan is equivalent to 371 percent annual interest rate.

SHAPESHIFTING LENDERS

“Many of these stores call what they’re doing ‘restructuring’; we call it a masquerade,” Rowett said. “We are confident that like the 101 others targeted by the attorney general, these 55 eventually will be shut down, but unfortunately, more consumers will be victimized in the meantime.”

The 55 defiant payday-lending stores are using four business models in an effort to evade the attorney general’s order.

Forty of them are using the money order scheme, said Rowett. Loans are issued as a corporate check or money order, with borrowers coerced into cashing it at the payday lender’s for a 10 percent fee, which translates into a triple-digit annual interest rate.

Eight more stores pose as credit-services organizations where, in Rowett’s words, “A payday lender, for a large fee, “finds” a loan from another lender to “fund” the loan for the borrower. Usually, the payday lender that “finds” the lender and the lender that “funds” the loans are owned by or affiliated with the same individuals or corporate entities.”

Six stores, owned by Jay Breslau and Kelly Breslau, use a model used by 53 unregulated payday-lending outlets operated by W.
Cosby Hodges of Fort Smith and Robert Srygley of Fayetteville.

In this model, Arkansas payday lenders obtain a payday lender license from South Dakota and attempt to export that license into Arkansas to grant payday loans to Arkansas consumers in stores located in Arkansas, Rowett said.

The last of the 55 noncompliant stores, owned by Dan Hughes, takes applications in Hope and then drives to Stateline Road in Texarkana, Texas, to complete the transaction.

Those payday lenders not sent cease-and-desist letters by the attorney general’s office were operating without a license and will be targeted later as McDaniel works to close down all payday lenders in the state, according to Allen.

LOCAL LENDERS

In Sherwood, Partners Check Service, 8000 Hwy. 107, surrendered its license April 2.

Cash Now of Arkansas, 3301 E. Kiehl Ave., is making so-called “credit services organization” loans, while nearby Cash Advance, 3901 E. Kiehl Ave., was sent an order to cease and desist by the attorney general.

In Jacksonville, three of the four payday lenders were not sent letters by the state Attorney General’s Office, and remain open.

They are First American Cash Advance, 2126 North 1st St, American Check Cashers, 912 West Main St., and American Check Cashers, 509 J.P. Loop Road.

Advance America, 2021 1st St., remains open, listed as servicing money-order payday loans. There are two lawsuits pending against it.

The only Gravel Ridge payday lender, Cash Mart, 14208 Hwy. 107 North, surrendered its license April 16.

In Lonoke, Simpson’s Buy and Sell, 405 North Center St., surrendered its license on April 28.

The only Cabot lender, Cash Now of Arkansas, 100 Northport Drive, is operating as a credit-services organization making payday loans.

Of the four payday lenders in White County, all of them in Searcy and all on Race Street, Advance America, 2502 E. Race St., is open, as a money-order payday lender.

Payday Now, at 2137 E. Race street, surrendered its license April 14.

The attorney general’s office didn’t send letters to the other two—First American Cash Ad-vance of 3511 E. Race St. and American Check Cashers, 2714 E. Race St.

SPORTS>>Bruins’ battle goes to Red team in a rout

By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor

It was American Legion’s version of the Civil War and for a while, and it seemed it would last just as long.

But despite getting just five hits, the Sylvan Hills Red team mercy-ruled their Sylvan Hills Blue brethren with a 13-2 win in the opening round of the Zone 3 tournament at Burns Park on Thursday afternoon.

Receiving eight walks, six hit batsmen and two errors, Sylvan Hills Red didn’t really need to put their bats on the ball too many times to do their damage. One of the five hits was a decisive one – Mark Turpin’s third-inning grand slam during Red’s 6-run third that broke the game wide open and extended a 5-0 lead to 11-0.

Turpin’s slam over the fence in left-center, though only Red’s second hit of the game, put them up 9-0, and followed walks to Garrett Eller and Justin Treece and a hit-by-pitch to Cody Cormier. Turpin drove in six runs.

After D.J. Baxendale walked following the slam, Blue starter Blake Rix’s day came to an end. Ross Bogard greeted reliever Mike Lock with a single and Clint Thornton followed with a 2-run double.

Rix allowed only two hits over 2 2/3 innings, but walked seven and hit three. Lock finished the game off for Blue, and gave up three hits over 4 1/3 innings. He walked only one, but hit three more Red batters.

Brandon Chastain went the distance with seven innings of 4-hit ball. He recorded nine strikeouts and no earned runs, while walking just one.

Sylvan Hills Red advanced to the second round of the winner’s bracket and played Russellville yesterday in a game concluded after Leader deadlines. Blue’s season came to an end when they lost a late 8-4 lead to fall to Gwatney 16-12 in an elimination game on Friday morning.

Red took advantage of three walks, a hit batsman and a dropped fly ball to score three runs without benefit of a hit in the first inning, then added two more runs without a hit in the second, though Ross Bogard picked up their first hit with a 2-out triple in the inning.

Red scored their final two runs in the sixth to invoke the 10-run-after-7-inning mercy rule. Zone tournament games are nine innings. Eller reached on an error, Matt Rugger walked and Cormier was hit with a pitch to load the bases. Treece’s sacrifice fly and Turpin’s double made it 13-2.

Blue’s two runs were both unearned. An error, a Korey Arnold single, another error and Lock’s sacrifice fly plated two, but Blue had only two more base runners the rest of the way – Ryan Dillon singled and Rix reached on an error in the fifth. Chastain set down the final eight Blue batters in order.

SPORTS>>Bruins’ battle goes to Red team in a rout

By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor

It was American Legion’s version of the Civil War and for a while, and it seemed it would last just as long.

But despite getting just five hits, the Sylvan Hills Red team mercy-ruled their Sylvan Hills Blue brethren with a 13-2 win in the opening round of the Zone 3 tournament at Burns Park on Thursday afternoon.

Receiving eight walks, six hit batsmen and two errors, Sylvan Hills Red didn’t really need to put their bats on the ball too many times to do their damage. One of the five hits was a decisive one – Mark Turpin’s third-inning grand slam during Red’s 6-run third that broke the game wide open and extended a 5-0 lead to 11-0.

Turpin’s slam over the fence in left-center, though only Red’s second hit of the game, put them up 9-0, and followed walks to Garrett Eller and Justin Treece and a hit-by-pitch to Cody Cormier. Turpin drove in six runs.

After D.J. Baxendale walked following the slam, Blue starter Blake Rix’s day came to an end. Ross Bogard greeted reliever Mike Lock with a single and Clint Thornton followed with a 2-run double.

Rix allowed only two hits over 2 2/3 innings, but walked seven and hit three. Lock finished the game off for Blue, and gave up three hits over 4 1/3 innings. He walked only one, but hit three more Red batters.

Brandon Chastain went the distance with seven innings of 4-hit ball. He recorded nine strikeouts and no earned runs, while walking just one.

Sylvan Hills Red advanced to the second round of the winner’s bracket and played Russellville yesterday in a game concluded after Leader deadlines. Blue’s season came to an end when they lost a late 8-4 lead to fall to Gwatney 16-12 in an elimination game on Friday morning.

Red took advantage of three walks, a hit batsman and a dropped fly ball to score three runs without benefit of a hit in the first inning, then added two more runs without a hit in the second, though Ross Bogard picked up their first hit with a 2-out triple in the inning.

Red scored their final two runs in the sixth to invoke the 10-run-after-7-inning mercy rule. Zone tournament games are nine innings. Eller reached on an error, Matt Rugger walked and Cormier was hit with a pitch to load the bases. Treece’s sacrifice fly and Turpin’s double made it 13-2.

Blue’s two runs were both unearned. An error, a Korey Arnold single, another error and Lock’s sacrifice fly plated two, but Blue had only two more base runners the rest of the way – Ryan Dillon singled and Rix reached on an error in the fifth. Chastain set down the final eight Blue batters in order.

SPORTS>>Gwatney still alive after rally vs. Bruins

By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor

The Jacksonville Gwatney Chevrolet senior American Legion season stayed alive after a 16-12 comeback win over Sylvan Hills Blue in an elimination game in the Zone 3 Tournament Friday morning at Burns Park.

The Chevy Boys rallied from an 8-4 deficit in the seventh inning and will take on Friday’s Maumelle-Morrilton winner in another elimination game today at 4.

About 24 hours earlier, Gwatney opened the Zone 3 Tournament with a 14-4 walloping at the hands of Russellville in a game in which the Chevy Boys managed only three hits and committed six errors.

Gwatney had only one hit through the first five innings off Russellville starter and winner Trevor Holt. Yet they were able to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a walk to Adam Ussery, a stolen base, an error and Patrick Castleberry’s sacrifice fly.

But Gwatney returned the favor in the bottom half, giving up an unearned run as Russellville knotted the score 1-1.

The bottom fell out for Gwatney starter Michael Harmon in the second inning, when Russellville busted open the game with six runs on six hits. The first five reached before Harmon recorded a strikeout. But Eric Sanchez delivered the big blow with a 3-run double that made it 6-1. Mack Pickering continued the onslaught with a run-scoring double with two outs.

Gwatney had a promising start to its fourth when Castleberry and Jason Regnas drew leadoff walks. A wild pitch and Daniel Henard’s sacrifice fly narrowed the gap to 7-2, but that was all the damage they could do in the inning.

Russellville, a stout-hitting club, kept pouring it on in the fourth and fifth, adding four more runs to make it 11-2.

Two walks, a hit batsman, Henard’s ground out and Ricky Tomboli’s single in the sixth closed the gap to 11-4.

Russellville benefited from two more errors and a hit batsman, adding a double and a single to score three runs in the sixth to make it 14-4.

Gwatney had a chance to extend the game and avoid the 10-run rule when it put two on with one out in the seventh after Jared Toney reached on an infield single and Terrell Brown was hit with a pitch. But reliever Derrick Pledger got the next two to end it.

Harmon walked only one and hit a batter, but gave up 10 hits over five innings. Seven of 11 runs he yielded were earned.

Harmon struck out four.

Tyler Wisdom gave up two hits and two earned runs in one inning of relief.

Despite going 0 for 2, Henard drove in a pair of runs, while Castleberry drove in a run and scored two. Brown, Tomboli and Toney got the only hits for Gwatney — all singles.

SPORTS>>Community Bank rolls over Maumelle

By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor

It may seem hard to believe there would be any anxious moments in a 17-3 win, but when Cabot Community Bank fell behind 3-0 after half an inning, head coach Jay Darr admitted to some uneasy moments.

“I didn’t really know because Maumelle had beaten us the first two times,” Darr said. “But once we got it back to 3-3, the kids settled down.”

Settled down and began to mash.

Community Bank answered a 3-run homer by Daniel Short with a 3-run home run by Sam Bates in the bottom of the first to tie it, then scored the game’s final 14 runs to advance to the second round of the Zone 3 Tournament at Burns Park. They took on top-seed North Little Rock last night after Leader deadlines.

Shayne Burgan went 5 for 5 and drove in three runs, Bates added four RBI, and Matt Evans was 3 of 4 with three RBI as Cabot pounded out 16 hits.

“Our kids came out aggressive, hitting the ball well,” Darr said. “We got great pitching … after the first inning. Our lineup, one through nine, is pretty strong.”

Darr said he couldn’t remember another 5-hit performance in his three years in Cabot baseball.

“It helps when you’re sandwiched in between Matt Evans, Drew Burks and Sam Bates,” Darr said. “You’re going to get some pitches to hit.”

Evans settled down after surrendering that first-inning bomb, allowing only two more hits the rest of the way before Andrew Reynolds took over and pitched one-hit scoreless ball for the final two innings.

“When you’re playing 9-inning games in these tournaments, it’s big to get (a run-shortened game),” Darr said. “It was big for us to have someone like Reynolds come out of the bullpen and not give up any runs so we didn’t have to play the full game.”

After falling behind 3-0, Cabot got a one-out single from Burgan and a walk to Burks in the bottom half of the first. Bates then sent his first offering the opposite way over the fence in left-center to tie it.

In the second, Chase Thompson singled, Powell Bryant doubled, Evans singled and Burgan lined a 3-2 pitch for a 2-run single as Community Bank added three more runs to make it 6-3.

They put another 3-spot on the board in the third on three walks, a wild pitch, a sacrifice fly by Bryant and Evans’ RBI double.

Whatever drama remained was erased when Cabot plated eight in the fourth, sending 13 batters to the plate and collecting six hits. Three walks, followed by singles by Thompson and Bryant, a triple by Evans, singles by Burgan and Burks and a double by Bates did all the damage.

It finally came to an end when Ben Wainright, who made the first out of the inning on a line shot to the third baseman, lined out hard to left.

With a possible five more games ahead over the next four days, Darr was able to pull Evans for possible Sunday relief or even a Monday start should Community Bank still be playing.

Reynolds celebrated his 16th birthday by striking out the first three batters he faced and recording four strikeouts in seven batters.

In addition to Burgan’s five hits and Evans’ three, Bates, Thompson and Bryant each recorded two hits. Thompson scored three times.

SPORTS>>Trey’s legacy

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

Tragedy can help build character and shape human beings.

In some cases, it can shape an entire community.

The Heye family of Sherwood is one such example after a decade of commitment to the Sherwood Sharks’ youth swimming program.

With another dominating season, the Sharks clinched their fifth-straight Central Arkansas Swim League title and Meet of Champs overall win over the weekend.

Today, the Sharks have become far and away the team to beat on any given Saturday morning meet in June or July, but Paul and Mary Jo Heye’s introduction to youth-league swimming came almost a decade ago with the promising ability of the first of
their five children.

Trey Heye became a member of the Sharks swim team at the urging of a family at their church. Though he had little experience, he managed to qualify for the annual year-end Meet of Champs event in every event … to the amazement of his mother.

“He was one of those kids that was really smart,” Mary Jo said. “And I just didn’t think he was really going to be very athletic.

And the first season, he went to the Meet of Champs in every stroke. I was blown away by it.

“He is the reason our family got into swimming. And then they each just grew up around the pool watching their older brother compete. So now we have four who eat, sleep and breathe swimming, I mean, they absolutely love it.”

Trey’s love and talent for swimming inspired Mary Jo, who became much more than a poolside mom. She took over as parent representative for the fledgling team, a title she holds to this day.

“When Trey was on this team, we were one of the smallest teams in the league,” Heye said. “Whenever we won a meet, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we won a meet.’ The thing that was so neat though, was the way this team has always been, if we lost meets, it wasn’t a big deal. It was mostly about, ‘well, did the kids improve?’ And that’s what it should always be
about.”

Trey quickly made his way through the ranks to become one of the Sharks’ strongest swimmers, and was on the roster to compete in a USA League swim meet on Dec. 6, 2000. But a few days prior to the Arkansas Dolphins event, he was admitted to a local children’s hospital with a severe sinus infection. It was not initially viewed as life threatening, but an allergic reaction to a sulfur-based antibiotic caused swelling in his liver. Trey died on the day of the meet.

“It’s just one of those things that you have to put in God’s hands,” Mary Jo said. “Because otherwise, how could you deal with something like that?”

Trey was the oldest of four boys for Paul and Mary Jo. Christopher, now 12, Thomas, now 10, were both preschool age, and 8-year-old Ian was not yet a toddler. Since then, youngest son Nicholas was born, and all four have followed in their oldest brother’s footsteps.

Thomas has proven to be the breakout star of the group, but all four have flourished as Sharks. Christopher won three of his events at the Meet of Champs last Saturday, including the freestyle, breaststroke and individual medley. Ian competed in two gold and two silver events, winning first in the butterfly, along with two second-place finishes and a third place finish in the gold breaststroke event. He was also part of the first-place relay team in the 8-under division.

Nicholas took second place in the 6-under gold breaststroke and third in the butterfly event.

Thomas, expected to dominate at the event, did not disappoint, winning five competitions. Three other Sharks captured four event wins, but Thomas’ wins in the freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and IM were tops for the meet, and a big part of Sherwood’s 519 total points, which was more than double the total for second-place Cabot and third-place Maumelle.

The passing of Trey was not only devastating for his immediate family, but for his Sharks family as well. Accomplished swim coach Keith McAfee was a coach for the Sharks when Trey first signed up, and is still a primary coach for the squad, along with his duties as a head coach for the USA League Dolphins.

McAfee said that Mary Jo and her family are an inspiration to the group, and for the kids, they manage to inspire in more ways than one.

“It was a really tough time for all of us,” McAfee said. “The shock of someone so young passing away like that. He was a great kid, really coachable — a lot like his brothers. He was potentially going to be a great swimmer. He liked to race a lot.

“I can’t imagine how hard it would be to lose a son and a brother. His brothers have followed in his footsteps and have just done great, all of them. It is an inspiration to see them and how hard they work. But as good as they are, the other kids can also learn a lot from watching them, their technique and their work ethic.”

Former Air Force pilot and current Air National Guardsman Paul Heye said that his family’s involvement with swimming has been very important.

“Trey got us into the sport of swimming,” he said. “It’s just something that we’ve done. Neither one of us are the kind of people that can sit around and watch; we’re always jumping in and trying to help. It seemed like the thing to do and the time to do it.”

While Christopher, Thomas, Ian and Nicholas continue their brother’s legacy, Trey’s spirit continues to live on via several programs named in his honor, including the Trey Heye sportsmanship award. Bank of the Ozarks also sponsors the Trey Heye Memorial Fund, which provides scholarship money to the Texas A&M 12th man Foundation.

The Dolphins also have the Trey Heye Memorial Swim Meet, a USA meet on the first weekend of every December — the very meet Trey was supposed to attend before he became ill.

Mary Jo said Trey would be thrilled with the Sharks’ success over the past five years.

“I have always felt that Trey has watched over this team,” Mary Jo said. “This team has absolutely flourished. It’s such a great group of parents and kids.”

Mary Jo said her family’s decision to continue its involvement with the Sharks after his death was not an easy one, but a conversation with a parent who had gone through something similar helped her put things in perspective.

“I met a parent in our parents’ group,” Heye said. “And one day I asked her how I am supposed to get through this. And she said to me it had been 10 years since her daughter had died — she was seven also. She said she had two choices.

“She said that she could either close up her heart, and live but not really live, or she could try to do things in her child’s memory and make her child proud that she was her mother. So, I went home that night, and completely changed my philosophy about how I was going to live my life and handle that. And so, from that point on, I’ve picked things that I can do in memory of my son.”

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

TOP STORY > >Ray says he’ll fight teachers if he’s elected

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

Reedie Ray, a last-minute challenger to incumbent Gwen Williams on the Pulaski County school board, said Tuesday that he was fully registered. He submitted 21 signatures, with 20 signatures of qualified voters needed.

Ray served one term on the PCSSD School Board when he was elected 14 years ago and lost to Williams after he lost support of PACT—the Pulaski County Association of Classroom Teachers. PACT this week en-dorsed Williams, which he said was no surprise.

To win the election, he has to “beat the teachers,” he said.

Ray said he would champion a stand-alone Jacksonville school district if elected and try to get the district to work harder toward getting unitary status.

“I don’t think they are working hard enough to get it,” he said. “Judge (William) Wilson is going to have to say it didn’t work,” and shut the district down, he said.

Williams, who has worked consistently on behalf of the teachers and the support staff union and members, has served 12 years on the board.

Election commissioner Susan Inman said Ray’s petition had been found sufficient by the Pulaski County clerk’s office.
In Lonoke, there are two school board seats open, but no challengers.

Mike Brown, director of the Lonoke Community Center, seeks reelection without opposition.

Chris James, president of the Lonoke Chamber of Commerce, is running unopposed for the seat held by Miles Lilly in the absence of Jimmy Threet, who moved out of the district and resigned.

James works for Central Arkan-sas Planning and Development District, which is headquartered in Lonoke.

TOP STORY > >Ray says he’ll fight teachers if he’s elected

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

Reedie Ray, a last-minute challenger to incumbent Gwen Williams on the Pulaski County school board, said Tuesday that he was fully registered. He submitted 21 signatures, with 20 signatures of qualified voters needed.

Ray served one term on the PCSSD School Board when he was elected 14 years ago and lost to Williams after he lost support of PACT—the Pulaski County Association of Classroom Teachers. PACT this week en-dorsed Williams, which he said was no surprise.

To win the election, he has to “beat the teachers,” he said.

Ray said he would champion a stand-alone Jacksonville school district if elected and try to get the district to work harder toward getting unitary status.

“I don’t think they are working hard enough to get it,” he said. “Judge (William) Wilson is going to have to say it didn’t work,” and shut the district down, he said.

Williams, who has worked consistently on behalf of the teachers and the support staff union and members, has served 12 years on the board.

Election commissioner Susan Inman said Ray’s petition had been found sufficient by the Pulaski County clerk’s office.
In Lonoke, there are two school board seats open, but no challengers.

Mike Brown, director of the Lonoke Community Center, seeks reelection without opposition.

Chris James, president of the Lonoke Chamber of Commerce, is running unopposed for the seat held by Miles Lilly in the absence of Jimmy Threet, who moved out of the district and resigned.

James works for Central Arkan-sas Planning and Development District, which is headquartered in Lonoke.

TOP STORY > >Local legislators help with state trauma centers

By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer

Seeing the need for a statewide trauma care system is the easy part. Coming up with necessary funding will be the challenge, local lawmakers predict. The $200,000 released by Gov. Beebe earlier this month to pay for a computer system to get the system established is but a fraction of the anticipated total cost.

With injury and heart attack being two leading causes of death in Arkansas, having a system in place that would improve emergency care is essential to public health, state officials say. Although the system could cost as much as $25 million to implement, it could save the lives of 200 to 600 Arkansans every year, according to the state health department.

States with a trauma care system are able to send patients directly to the hospital which has the appropriate services and equipment needed to treat not only a particular type of injury but other medical emergencies, such as heart attack or complications associated with childbirth. It would also avoid delays in transport that can occur when patients are taken to hospitals that are extremely busy.

Arkansas is the only state without a state trauma-care system.

Rep. Sandra Prater, D-Jacksonville, who was a co-sponsor, in the 2007 leg islative session, of a failed bill to fund a trauma system, is excited about the renewed effort to move forward on the idea.

“It is a beginning point to see what is out there in the way of services needed in life and death situations,” said Prater, who is also a registered cardiac care nurse. “These are issues that as a state we must be looking at.”

Prater, who served on the committee where the 2007 bill originated, said that a lot of possible funding sources were explored, including revenues from various types of fines, but no one idea won enough support to get the bill out of committee.

Ideally, the trauma center should be supported by general revenue, says Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, another strong proponent of a trauma-care system.

But, lawmakers are wary of taking on big-budget items, even when there is a revenue surplus, in order to avoid future program cuts in the event of a budget shortfall. Glover says lawmakers in the last session were mindful of five such retrenchments that happened during the Huckabee administration due to expectations that exceeded state revenues.

Glover says lawmakers were generally supportive of the idea of a trauma-care system, but arriving at an agreement on funding was the hard part. Because legislators last session implemented major tax cuts, the climate was not good for a proposal that would require considerable long-term funding.

“We had the biggest tax cut in the state history, $200 million, with $135 million cut in the grocery tax,” Glover said. “We tried and tried and tried to come up with the necessary funding, but every time a proposal would come up, we couldn’t get it out of committee.”

Glover said it was hearing from constituents in his district that had been affected by delivery of emergency care that made him such a supporter of a trauma-care system.

“A number of them who have had family members injured would have benefited if we’d had a trauma center in Arkansas,” Glover said. “Instead they had to send them out of state to get the care they needed. A trauma system is a very, very important step in being able to provide Arkansans with the services they need and are entitled to.”

Glover agrees that the challenge in moving forward on plans for the system, after the initial $200,000 is spent, will be identifying funding in the 2009 legislative session.

“That will be the sixty-four dollar question – coming up with funding for the trauma system,” Glover said. This is something that we are going to have to work on with the governor on in the next session.”

The first step towards achieving a fully functional trauma care system is to inventory existing emergency services available at each hospital in the state. The health department is currently talking with providers of computer hardware and software for setting up a database by the end of the year. This data would also help health officials assist closing gaps in emergency care statewide.

But much more than $200,000 will be needed to then establish a centralized communication center that will make it possible to route patients to the hospital with appropriate services and whose emergency room (ER) is able to accept patients at a particular point in time.

The plan is to eventually establish a statewide network of designated trauma-care centers classified according to level of care.

The highest, a level 1, is generally a hospital engaged in research and medical training that provides a wide range of emergency medical services, including numerous surgical subspecialties, as well as prevention and rehabilitation services.

Currently, the closest level 1 trauma center to central Arkansas is in Memphis.

“In that golden hour” right after a life-threatening event occurs, getting a patient to the best possible place for appropriate care is critical to saving lives, as well as the best long-term prognosis,” said Ed Barham, state health department spokesman.

“The system will help EMTs find out in real time where is the best possible place to take that person.”

Statewide coordination of emergency services will definitely enhance the current system that sorts out where patients go, according to Jon Swanson, executive director of Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS). The greatest benefit for MEMS will be wider monitoring of incoming ambulances from outlying areas into metro Little Rock, which then impacts decisions by MEMS about what hospital to use at a particular point in time.

“The system will provide a more clear and expedited way to get patients to the appropriate care and as quickly as possible, not just trauma, but other significant medical events,” Swanson said. “MEMS already has a very clear set of rules and regulations – a protocol – used on every run, that every paramedic knows, and it works very well. But, a trauma system will make optimal use of existing services and will enhance those services with centers having designated levels of care.”

Swanson hopes that legislation to fund a trauma-care system will include provision for ambulance services which have experienced federal funding costs. Rural areas especially operate with minimal emergency medical-transport services, in some cases, with only two ambulances for an entire county, Swanson said.

TOP STORY > >Local legislators help with state trauma centers

By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer

Seeing the need for a statewide trauma care system is the easy part. Coming up with necessary funding will be the challenge, local lawmakers predict. The $200,000 released by Gov. Beebe earlier this month to pay for a computer system to get the system established is but a fraction of the anticipated total cost.

With injury and heart attack being two leading causes of death in Arkansas, having a system in place that would improve emergency care is essential to public health, state officials say. Although the system could cost as much as $25 million to implement, it could save the lives of 200 to 600 Arkansans every year, according to the state health department.

States with a trauma care system are able to send patients directly to the hospital which has the appropriate services and equipment needed to treat not only a particular type of injury but other medical emergencies, such as heart attack or complications associated with childbirth. It would also avoid delays in transport that can occur when patients are taken to hospitals that are extremely busy.

Arkansas is the only state without a state trauma-care system.

Rep. Sandra Prater, D-Jacksonville, who was a co-sponsor, in the 2007 leg islative session, of a failed bill to fund a trauma system, is excited about the renewed effort to move forward on the idea.

“It is a beginning point to see what is out there in the way of services needed in life and death situations,” said Prater, who is also a registered cardiac care nurse. “These are issues that as a state we must be looking at.”

Prater, who served on the committee where the 2007 bill originated, said that a lot of possible funding sources were explored, including revenues from various types of fines, but no one idea won enough support to get the bill out of committee.

Ideally, the trauma center should be supported by general revenue, says Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, another strong proponent of a trauma-care system.

But, lawmakers are wary of taking on big-budget items, even when there is a revenue surplus, in order to avoid future program cuts in the event of a budget shortfall. Glover says lawmakers in the last session were mindful of five such retrenchments that happened during the Huckabee administration due to expectations that exceeded state revenues.

Glover says lawmakers were generally supportive of the idea of a trauma-care system, but arriving at an agreement on funding was the hard part. Because legislators last session implemented major tax cuts, the climate was not good for a proposal that would require considerable long-term funding.

“We had the biggest tax cut in the state history, $200 million, with $135 million cut in the grocery tax,” Glover said. “We tried and tried and tried to come up with the necessary funding, but every time a proposal would come up, we couldn’t get it out of committee.”

Glover said it was hearing from constituents in his district that had been affected by delivery of emergency care that made him such a supporter of a trauma-care system.

“A number of them who have had family members injured would have benefited if we’d had a trauma center in Arkansas,” Glover said. “Instead they had to send them out of state to get the care they needed. A trauma system is a very, very important step in being able to provide Arkansans with the services they need and are entitled to.”

Glover agrees that the challenge in moving forward on plans for the system, after the initial $200,000 is spent, will be identifying funding in the 2009 legislative session.

“That will be the sixty-four dollar question – coming up with funding for the trauma system,” Glover said. This is something that we are going to have to work on with the governor on in the next session.”

The first step towards achieving a fully functional trauma care system is to inventory existing emergency services available at each hospital in the state. The health department is currently talking with providers of computer hardware and software for setting up a database by the end of the year. This data would also help health officials assist closing gaps in emergency care statewide.

But much more than $200,000 will be needed to then establish a centralized communication center that will make it possible to route patients to the hospital with appropriate services and whose emergency room (ER) is able to accept patients at a particular point in time.

The plan is to eventually establish a statewide network of designated trauma-care centers classified according to level of care.

The highest, a level 1, is generally a hospital engaged in research and medical training that provides a wide range of emergency medical services, including numerous surgical subspecialties, as well as prevention and rehabilitation services.

Currently, the closest level 1 trauma center to central Arkansas is in Memphis.

“In that golden hour” right after a life-threatening event occurs, getting a patient to the best possible place for appropriate care is critical to saving lives, as well as the best long-term prognosis,” said Ed Barham, state health department spokesman.

“The system will help EMTs find out in real time where is the best possible place to take that person.”

Statewide coordination of emergency services will definitely enhance the current system that sorts out where patients go, according to Jon Swanson, executive director of Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS). The greatest benefit for MEMS will be wider monitoring of incoming ambulances from outlying areas into metro Little Rock, which then impacts decisions by MEMS about what hospital to use at a particular point in time.

“The system will provide a more clear and expedited way to get patients to the appropriate care and as quickly as possible, not just trauma, but other significant medical events,” Swanson said. “MEMS already has a very clear set of rules and regulations – a protocol – used on every run, that every paramedic knows, and it works very well. But, a trauma system will make optimal use of existing services and will enhance those services with centers having designated levels of care.”

Swanson hopes that legislation to fund a trauma-care system will include provision for ambulance services which have experienced federal funding costs. Rural areas especially operate with minimal emergency medical-transport services, in some cases, with only two ambulances for an entire county, Swanson said.

TOP STORY > >Crews helped judge’s kin

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman used county material, equipment and labor to chip seal a gas station parking lot that belonged to his family, he said Tuesday in response to an allegation by former Justice of the Peace Bill “Pete” Pedersen.

Troutman said his son Toby wrote the county a timely check for the work, which the judge said he’d have done for free in exchange for use of the property to store materials, load and unload trucks and other work related to road building.

Pedersen accused the judge of the improper use during the public comment section of Thursday night’s quorum court meeting.

Pedersen said the judge’s action was a violation of section 14-14-1202 of the Arkansas Counties Compliance Guide and constitutes a misdemeanor that could cost the judge up to $1,000 and his job as well.

Pedersen said the work was done at the station at the intersection of Hwy. 31 and Hwy. 38, owned by Troutman Oil, US Fuels and Toby, Charlie and Jody Troutman.

Jody Troutman, who is the judge’s daughter-in-law, is also a member of the Lonoke County Quorum Court.

Pedersen alleges that the company then sold the station at a nice profit.

“I took a bunch of pictures,” Pedersen said. He got there too late to see the trucks and work, but “there was still oil oozing out on the ground.”

At the quorum court meeting, Troutman said the county had chip sealed about 250 square feet at the station.

Chip sealing is one of the oldest methods and most successful of road surfacing, according to an industry Web site.

“It’s an illegal thing,” Pedersen insisted. “You cannot do that.”

He said staff at the Arkansas Association of Counties told him “you can’t do that.”

Troutman said it’s been accepted behavior among Lonoke County judges for many years.

Several calls to the Jeff Sikes, a lawyer for the Arkansas Association of Counties, went unreturned. Sikes is also Lonoke County’s lawyer.

“It sounds like a bunch of sour grapes to me,” Troutman said. “Some people always want to make things look sinister. My primary duty is to protect the interests of the county.”

He said it was a service to the county to let the Troutman property be used to as a road construction staging area.

“The county pays its debts,” he said. “This happened a year ago.”

“The county came out smelling like a rose,” the judge added.

“I sent an invoice, probably about $300. It’s simple — there’s nothing to hide.

“It could be in violation of some Arkansas statute,” Troutman said.

“There’s no money missing.”

On a similar matter, JP Lynn Weeks Clarke gave the judge an anonymous letter charging that two county employees have been using equipment on private property. Troutman said he would ask the sheriff’s office to investigate.

Jody Troutman deferred comment to her husband Toby, who had not returned a phone message by press time.

TOP STORY > >Use hospital, doctor urges

By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer

Dr. Alan Storeygard, a longtime family-practice physician and Jacksonville community member, in an interview last week was glad to go on record as “a cheerleader” for North Metro Medical Center. He advocated that anyone else who wants the facility to continue as an acute care provider needs to support the hospital, which currently is struggling financially.

“That means people in our community with other types of insurance need to utilize our hospital rather than going to Sherwood, Little Rock and North Little Rock for types of services North Metro can provide,” Storeygard said.

Hospital CEO Scott Landrum has said that the hospital’s financial struggles stem from the low reimbursement rate by Medicare, Medicaid and TriCare insurance providers. A large proportion of North Metro patients rely on these public rather than commercial insurers, and the hospital has to write off hundreds of thousands of dollars in bad debt.

Storeygard wanted to be clear that he was speaking as a private citizen and a physician, and not as a spokesman for the hospital or the physicians’ hospital organization, for which he has been chairman of the board for 10 years. He has practiced as a family physician in Jacksonville since 1981.

Storeygard does not want to see emergency and acute care services discontinued at North Metro because of the critical time that would add to travel what would be the nearest emergency room six miles away in Sherwood, at St. Vincent Medical Center North.

Having a local emergency room has meant a lot to Storeygard personally on several occasions, when he needed swift medical care.

He credits North Metro doctors and nurses with saving his eyesight when he was nearly blinded in a farm accident in which he got lye in his eyes.

A couple of other accidents resulting in broken bones and lacerations to his hand and wrist left Storeygard, a professional musician, wondering if he would ever play piano again. But both times, care provided at North Metro had “great results,” he said.

Storeygard wants the community to know about the services available at the hospital and its clinic across the street.

Specialty care at the hospital does not include neurosurgery or heart surgery, he noted, but does include many other types of surgery – vascular, chest, urology, orthopedic, and general abdominal.

“The hospital takes care of some of the sickest members of our community with very complex problems, multiple problems,” he said.

The clinic is “one of the largest family-practice clinics in the state with 12 family-practice physicians,” he said.

“People don’t realize what we have here,” the doctor said.

If acute-care services were discontinued at North Metro, Storeygard worries that elderly patients and others on a fixed income would be faced with the expense of longer drives to get access to services.

Then there is the economic impact to the community to consider. North Metro is one of the largest employers in the area, and discontinuing some services may put some folks out of work. And having a hospital is important so that “the community can continue to grow, not be stagnant,” Storeygard said.

“Jacksonville is more likely to attract business and new growth if we have a hospital here,” he said.

Storeygard values the emergency room being right across the street from his practice, too, because at least once a week a clinic patient must be transported to the ER by ambulance.

“A lot of people walk in, thinking what they have is minor, but it is not, like chest pain that turns out to be a heart attack, and they can’t even drive in their own car,” he said.

Storeygard hopes others who live in and around Jacksonville will stop and think what it would mean if North Metro stopped providing emergency and acute-care services.

“If there was ever a time to get behind and support your hospital, it’s now,” the doctor said.

TOP STORY > >Use hospital, doctor urges

By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer

Dr. Alan Storeygard, a longtime family-practice physician and Jacksonville community member, in an interview last week was glad to go on record as “a cheerleader” for North Metro Medical Center. He advocated that anyone else who wants the facility to continue as an acute care provider needs to support the hospital, which currently is struggling financially.

“That means people in our community with other types of insurance need to utilize our hospital rather than going to Sherwood, Little Rock and North Little Rock for types of services North Metro can provide,” Storeygard said.

Hospital CEO Scott Landrum has said that the hospital’s financial struggles stem from the low reimbursement rate by Medicare, Medicaid and TriCare insurance providers. A large proportion of North Metro patients rely on these public rather than commercial insurers, and the hospital has to write off hundreds of thousands of dollars in bad debt.

Storeygard wanted to be clear that he was speaking as a private citizen and a physician, and not as a spokesman for the hospital or the physicians’ hospital organization, for which he has been chairman of the board for 10 years. He has practiced as a family physician in Jacksonville since 1981.

Storeygard does not want to see emergency and acute care services discontinued at North Metro because of the critical time that would add to travel what would be the nearest emergency room six miles away in Sherwood, at St. Vincent Medical Center North.

Having a local emergency room has meant a lot to Storeygard personally on several occasions, when he needed swift medical care.

He credits North Metro doctors and nurses with saving his eyesight when he was nearly blinded in a farm accident in which he got lye in his eyes.

A couple of other accidents resulting in broken bones and lacerations to his hand and wrist left Storeygard, a professional musician, wondering if he would ever play piano again. But both times, care provided at North Metro had “great results,” he said.

Storeygard wants the community to know about the services available at the hospital and its clinic across the street.

Specialty care at the hospital does not include neurosurgery or heart surgery, he noted, but does include many other types of surgery – vascular, chest, urology, orthopedic, and general abdominal.

“The hospital takes care of some of the sickest members of our community with very complex problems, multiple problems,” he said.

The clinic is “one of the largest family-practice clinics in the state with 12 family-practice physicians,” he said.

“People don’t realize what we have here,” the doctor said.

If acute-care services were discontinued at North Metro, Storeygard worries that elderly patients and others on a fixed income would be faced with the expense of longer drives to get access to services.

Then there is the economic impact to the community to consider. North Metro is one of the largest employers in the area, and discontinuing some services may put some folks out of work. And having a hospital is important so that “the community can continue to grow, not be stagnant,” Storeygard said.

“Jacksonville is more likely to attract business and new growth if we have a hospital here,” he said.

Storeygard values the emergency room being right across the street from his practice, too, because at least once a week a clinic patient must be transported to the ER by ambulance.

“A lot of people walk in, thinking what they have is minor, but it is not, like chest pain that turns out to be a heart attack, and they can’t even drive in their own car,” he said.

Storeygard hopes others who live in and around Jacksonville will stop and think what it would mean if North Metro stopped providing emergency and acute-care services.

“If there was ever a time to get behind and support your hospital, it’s now,” the doctor said.

TOP STORY > >Candidates finish filing for school board races

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

The race for Position 5 on the Cabot School Board this year is between Alan Turnbo, the executive director of Cabot Housing Authority, who has served two five-year terms, and Dean Martin, an instructor pilot with the Arkansas Air National Guard.

Voting is Sept. 16.

Tommy Vanaman, owner of Synergy Gas, is completing his first five-year term on the Beebe School Board in Position 2 and would like to serve a second, but at press time Vanaman didn’t know if he was opposed because the county clerk’s office had been closed since Friday for relocation and was not expected to open until Wednesday morning.

Turnbo, the current board vice president, says 10 years has taught him how to be a good board member. “Institutional knowledge is important to continue,” he said.

Turnbo says it’s important for board members to know they must always keep in mind that their job is policy and budget. And even if they want to, they can’t get involved in the day-to-day running of the schools.

“It’s hard to balance your personal feelings with what’s best for the kids,” he said. “You have to be a team builder. You’re not there to fix any individual problem.”

But he says he has taken on at least one major problem – low hourly wages for non-certified employees.

“It was a real balancing act to get raises for all employees not just the teachers,” he said, adding that there was a time when hourly employees were viewed as expendable. The prevailing attitude was that if they didn’t want to work for what the district wanted to pay, someone else would.

As the son of the first female school bus driver in Lonoke County, Turnbo said he disagreed and worked for increases that made it worthwhile to cook in the school cafeteria or clean the grounds, for example.

“I think everyone should make a living wage,” he said.

But Turnbo says he is also an advocate for teachers.

“Ultimately if you are an advocate for the teachers, you’re an advocate for the kids,” he said.

Martin says his interest in the education of his own two sons as well as the children he teaches in Sunday school and those he coaches in basketball and soccer prompted him to run for the school board.

“I’m passionate about putting our kids first in the quality of education they get,” Martin said. “But I also want to make sure that we’re fiscally responsible district wide.”

Martin says his work in the military has prepared him to serve on the school board.

“I’ve been in the military of 17 years and learned to work with people from varying backgrounds,” he said. “I’m used to bringing people together.”

In addition to his work as an instructor pilot, Martin also manages a $3.1 million budget for the operations group of the Arkansas Army National Guard.

Although Martin has the rank of major, he says if elected to the school board he would not volunteer for deployment and would not be deployed unless he volunteered.

“I will be there,” he said. “I am not subject to deployment with the job I have.”

Vanaman says he has helped work through a lot of changes in the Beebe School District and he wants to be around for whatever comes next.

Vanaman was on the board when McRae merged with Beebe and when Dr. Belinda Shook was hired as superintendent. He was there for the expansion of the middle school and junior high and he said he wants to see the new early childhood building completed.

“I’ve still got a son in school; Cole, he’s 15 and I’d like to see him through. I just enjoy it,” Vanaman said.

TOP STORY > >Candidates finish filing for school board races

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

The race for Position 5 on the Cabot School Board this year is between Alan Turnbo, the executive director of Cabot Housing Authority, who has served two five-year terms, and Dean Martin, an instructor pilot with the Arkansas Air National Guard.

Voting is Sept. 16.

Tommy Vanaman, owner of Synergy Gas, is completing his first five-year term on the Beebe School Board in Position 2 and would like to serve a second, but at press time Vanaman didn’t know if he was opposed because the county clerk’s office had been closed since Friday for relocation and was not expected to open until Wednesday morning.

Turnbo, the current board vice president, says 10 years has taught him how to be a good board member. “Institutional knowledge is important to continue,” he said.

Turnbo says it’s important for board members to know they must always keep in mind that their job is policy and budget. And even if they want to, they can’t get involved in the day-to-day running of the schools.

“It’s hard to balance your personal feelings with what’s best for the kids,” he said. “You have to be a team builder. You’re not there to fix any individual problem.”

But he says he has taken on at least one major problem – low hourly wages for non-certified employees.

“It was a real balancing act to get raises for all employees not just the teachers,” he said, adding that there was a time when hourly employees were viewed as expendable. The prevailing attitude was that if they didn’t want to work for what the district wanted to pay, someone else would.

As the son of the first female school bus driver in Lonoke County, Turnbo said he disagreed and worked for increases that made it worthwhile to cook in the school cafeteria or clean the grounds, for example.

“I think everyone should make a living wage,” he said.

But Turnbo says he is also an advocate for teachers.

“Ultimately if you are an advocate for the teachers, you’re an advocate for the kids,” he said.

Martin says his interest in the education of his own two sons as well as the children he teaches in Sunday school and those he coaches in basketball and soccer prompted him to run for the school board.

“I’m passionate about putting our kids first in the quality of education they get,” Martin said. “But I also want to make sure that we’re fiscally responsible district wide.”

Martin says his work in the military has prepared him to serve on the school board.

“I’ve been in the military of 17 years and learned to work with people from varying backgrounds,” he said. “I’m used to bringing people together.”

In addition to his work as an instructor pilot, Martin also manages a $3.1 million budget for the operations group of the Arkansas Army National Guard.

Although Martin has the rank of major, he says if elected to the school board he would not volunteer for deployment and would not be deployed unless he volunteered.

“I will be there,” he said. “I am not subject to deployment with the job I have.”

Vanaman says he has helped work through a lot of changes in the Beebe School District and he wants to be around for whatever comes next.

Vanaman was on the board when McRae merged with Beebe and when Dr. Belinda Shook was hired as superintendent. He was there for the expansion of the middle school and junior high and he said he wants to see the new early childhood building completed.

“I’ve still got a son in school; Cole, he’s 15 and I’d like to see him through. I just enjoy it,” Vanaman said.

TOP STORY > >Funding declines for road projects

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

As Arkansans respond to $4-a-gallon gasoline by driving fewer miles, both the state and federal governments collect less gas tax and have less to spend on maintaining, repairing or building highways, local experts say.

The gas tax—or excise tax, as it’s known—is tied not to the price of gasoline, but to the gallon.

Whether gas is $4 a gallon or $2 a gallon, the federal government still collects its 18.4 cents a gallon.

So when motorists in Arkansas drove about 7 percent fewer miles in April 2008 than the preceding April, that represented a 7 percent decline in the revenues collected that month for state highways, according to Randy Ort, spokesman for the state Highway Department.

The amount of diesel purchased in April was nearly 11 percent less that the preceding April.

It’s less clear what the effect will be on federal highway dollars sent to Arkansas, because there’s not a direct correlation between excise tax revenues col lected from a particular state and the revenues returned to that state, according to Ort.

But the federal highway trust fund already was in trouble, Ort said. “Congress has committed more than the trust fund currently has in it,” he said. “Unless Congress takes action, all the states will see a significant decrease.

COMPLICATES NORTH BELT

Locally, this is not good news for completion of the North Belt Freeway from Hwy. 67/167 to I-430 at Crystal Hill. The job is estimated to cost $347 million and virtually no money has been secured for it.

A portion of the new natural gas severance tax, which will eventually bring the state more than $100 million a year in revenue, is dedicated to the highway department. That tax, although it will be first collected in October, should be enough to make up the shortfall in this year’s Highway Department budget from declining gasoline and diesel purchases, Ort said. So the department’s budget is not threatened this year by the decline in miles driven and fuel purchased.

Ort said the department could get as much as $65 million when the Fayetteville Shale natural gas production peaks in a few years. But with construction materials becoming more expensive, each dollar will do less work.

ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION

The increase in gas prices has grown enthusiasm for mass transit, car pooling, bicycling and other alternative modes of transportation, according to Jim McKenzie, executive director of Metroplan. But he said prices could recede or people could acclimate to paying the higher prices and cool the public’s ardor, for now.

McKenzie said that long-range, prices are only going up. The amount of oil is finite, production may have peaked and India and China are competing for oil to satisfy their growing middle classes.

Citing T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire oilman, McKenzie said the U.S. is sending about $700 billion a year out of the country—much of it to the Middle East. That’s a problem for national security and for the economy.

Meanwhile, without an influx in revenues, the existing roads, highways and bridges will continue to deteriorate.

In the U.S. the main revenues are from “per-gallon motor fuel tax.”

“As long as it’s based on consumption, we’ll have trouble, he said.

REVENUE SOURCES

McKenzie said there are several potential ways to increase revenues.

Among the possibilities are user fees—sales tax on the sale of new and used vehicles, tires and parts — that go into a highway trust fund instead of general revenues.

Another alternative is some sort of vehicle-mile travel tax, which could be collected at registration- renewal time or billed according to the results of a radio-sending device that would alert officials to the amount each vehicle is driven.

There could even be time-of-day pricing, which would charge more for miles driven during rush hour than during more lax periods of the day.

Of the radio-transponder idea, he says, “When you get Hell’s Angels to go along, then you know the country is ready.”

More likely, Congress could simply raise the gasoline excise tax to a higher level and index it to construction inflation.

McKenzie said the degradation of the nation’s infrastructure is already underway, and some places, like Little Rock, haven’t had a road-overlay program or capital-road improvement program for years.

“Stuff lasts a long time, but not forever without maintenance,” he said.

McKenzie said people can cut energy fuel costs by conservation at home—insulation, more efficient lighting—and by buying hybrid cars, living close to work or telecommuting.

EDITORIAL >>Dobbins must not serve

The state Democratic Party took steps over the weekend to shed the embarrassment of having a convicted sex offender serve in the state House of Representatives under its imprimatur. It refused to certify former state Rep. Dwayne Dobbins for the ballot.

Something tells us that this is not enough and that the House itself will have to kick Dobbins out of the chamber when the new legislature assembles in January. That presumes that the voters of North Little Rock overlook his crime and the chicanery that won him the nomination this spring and elect him again. That sounds improbable but it’s not. If he gets his name on the ballot as the Democratic candidate, his opponent will be an unfamiliar man from an unfamiliar party, the Greens.

Dobbins was accused of fondling a child in 2005 and reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in which he resigned from the legislature and pled guilty to a misdemeanor in exchange for not being tried on the felony charge. His wife then ran for his vacant seat and won. The couple pulled a fast one on the voters and the party in March. She acted like she would run again but waited until the closing minutes of the filing period. Then she demurred and Dwayne filed for the position, too late for anyone else to contest the seat.

Faced with the prospect of being the party of child molesters, the Democratic State Convention adopted a rule barring nomination for any office to anyone who has previously resigned from public office to avoid felony prosecution. Then it declared Dobbins to be disqualified on that ground.

That may not be enough. It smacks of ex-post-facto lawmaking and, besides, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled several years ago that a party could not kick a duly qualified nominee from the ballot without good and legal cause and that the courts, not party officials, had to settle what was a good and legal cause. The Republican Party had tried to de-nominate Dan Ivy, a nutty cowboy lawyer who was the only Republican to file for attorney general that year. Ivy had been convicted of beating his wife. The state Supreme Court restored his name to the ballot.

Dobbins indicated that he would sue to reverse the party’s action.
So Dwayne Dobbins may well be the Democrat on the ballot in North Little Rock and voters will have to discern which would better represent them, a child molester or a man who professes somewhat left-of-center views on the issues of the day. The Green’s name, incidentally, is Richard Carroll.

We can all take some comfort in the reassurance that Dobbins is not likely to serve. The House of Representatives is the final arbiter of the qualifications of its members. Other House members don’t want the obloquy of having a sex offender in their club, and there is talk of the House caucusing next month and adopting the new Democratic Party rule as a disqualification for the House. Then when the legislature convenes in January, the House would vote to deny Dobbins seating. North Little Rock would have to hold a special election to get representation.

So much effort, so much expense, so much embarrassment and in the end so futile. You would think that a man bent on serving the people and not his private ambition might want to save them from all that.

EDITORIAL >>Dobbins must not serve

The state Democratic Party took steps over the weekend to shed the embarrassment of having a convicted sex offender serve in the state House of Representatives under its imprimatur. It refused to certify former state Rep. Dwayne Dobbins for the ballot.

Something tells us that this is not enough and that the House itself will have to kick Dobbins out of the chamber when the new legislature assembles in January. That presumes that the voters of North Little Rock overlook his crime and the chicanery that won him the nomination this spring and elect him again. That sounds improbable but it’s not. If he gets his name on the ballot as the Democratic candidate, his opponent will be an unfamiliar man from an unfamiliar party, the Greens.

Dobbins was accused of fondling a child in 2005 and reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in which he resigned from the legislature and pled guilty to a misdemeanor in exchange for not being tried on the felony charge. His wife then ran for his vacant seat and won. The couple pulled a fast one on the voters and the party in March. She acted like she would run again but waited until the closing minutes of the filing period. Then she demurred and Dwayne filed for the position, too late for anyone else to contest the seat.

Faced with the prospect of being the party of child molesters, the Democratic State Convention adopted a rule barring nomination for any office to anyone who has previously resigned from public office to avoid felony prosecution. Then it declared Dobbins to be disqualified on that ground.

That may not be enough. It smacks of ex-post-facto lawmaking and, besides, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled several years ago that a party could not kick a duly qualified nominee from the ballot without good and legal cause and that the courts, not party officials, had to settle what was a good and legal cause. The Republican Party had tried to de-nominate Dan Ivy, a nutty cowboy lawyer who was the only Republican to file for attorney general that year. Ivy had been convicted of beating his wife. The state Supreme Court restored his name to the ballot.

Dobbins indicated that he would sue to reverse the party’s action.
So Dwayne Dobbins may well be the Democrat on the ballot in North Little Rock and voters will have to discern which would better represent them, a child molester or a man who professes somewhat left-of-center views on the issues of the day. The Green’s name, incidentally, is Richard Carroll.

We can all take some comfort in the reassurance that Dobbins is not likely to serve. The House of Representatives is the final arbiter of the qualifications of its members. Other House members don’t want the obloquy of having a sex offender in their club, and there is talk of the House caucusing next month and adopting the new Democratic Party rule as a disqualification for the House. Then when the legislature convenes in January, the House would vote to deny Dobbins seating. North Little Rock would have to hold a special election to get representation.

So much effort, so much expense, so much embarrassment and in the end so futile. You would think that a man bent on serving the people and not his private ambition might want to save them from all that.

SPORTS>>Offense goes silent as Cabot campaign concludes in loss

By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor

BATESVILLE — Andy Runyan couldn’t explain it two days later.

After erupting for 52 runs over five games in the Zone 3 tournament a week earlier, the Cabot Community Bank bats went strangely and fatally silent at the state tournament last weekend.

A top seed and a tourney favorite heading in, Cabot went quietly in three games at the Batesville North Sports Complex, and an otherwise spectacular season came to a disappointing end in a 4-3 9-inning loss to Batesville on Saturday.

“I have zero explanations,” said Runyan, head coach of Cabot’s second junior American Legion team. “I mulled it over all evening and I really don’t know. We averaged nine runs a game coming into the tournament.”

Cabot scored only eight runs in three games and, though the pitching is clearly superior at the state tournament level, Runyan wasn’t inclined to use that as an excuse.

“Not to discredit any of the pitching we saw because they all did a great job, but you look at the stuff they were throwing and it was nothing we hadn’t seen all year,” Runyan said, noting the difficulty of his team’s schedule, which included several older teams, and a tough zone. “Sometimes you hit a cold spot and baseball is one of those games.

“We had one of those funky weekends and we just picked the wrong time to go cold. We had good defense, outstanding pitching. We just couldn’t get a timely hit. When your kids are hot, they feed off each other. It works the other way, too.”

Community Bank survived after opening with a 3-2 loss to Little Rock Continental by sneaking past Bryant, 3-2, on Friday morning on Powell Bryant’s seventh-inning walk-off single.

Doubles by Matt Evans and Powell Bryant staked Community Bank (25-8-1) to a 1-0 lead in the third. Batesville tied it in the bottom half off starting pitcher Cole Nicholson, who allowed only one run and seven hits over his six innings.

The game remained knotted at one until Community Bank broke through for two runs in the ninth on Evans’ 2-run home run.

Evans, who relieved Nichol-son in the sixth, got the first out of the ninth, but a single, a double and a walk made it 3-2.

Dalton Carpenter, who pitched all nine innings for Batesville, then came through with the game-ending — and for Cabot, the season-ending — single that brought home the tying and winning runs.

Disappointed as Runyan was with his team’s showing at state, he wouldn’t allow it to get in the way of what was a special season. It was only the second year that Cabot has fielded a younger Legion team, making their accomplishments even more impressive to Runyan.

“That’s the major thing I hit on with the kids,” he said. “Only our second year, and we won our zone. Naturally, with the talent we had and the ball we played over the summer, your goal is to win a state championship.

“But that doesn’t mean nothing was accomplished.”

First and foremost, Runyan said, the season provided a great springboard for the high school season.

“With the games we won and the competition we played against, it bodes well for the future,” he said. “But the thing I was proudest of was the bond they formed over the summer. About mid-June, this became a close-knit team that learned about the team concept.

“That will pay dividends in high school.”