Most of Arkansas has been off the radar of U.S. Rep. John Boozman and he ours, but that has changed since he is running for the U.S. Senate. This week, the Third District congressman sent a news release to central Arkansas media deploring the employment misery of Pulaski County and the metropolitan area. We will be favored with many more releases before the election. We hope they get better.
Congressman Boozman blamed President Obama and by implication his opponent, Senator Blanche Lincoln, for the fact that 20,100 people in Pulaski, Saline and Faulkner counties are out of work and can’t find jobs. He said Arkansas had lost 32,423 jobs the past 24 months. Actually, his number is considerably low.
But Obama has been president a couple weeks more than 17 of those 24 months. George W. Bush was president the previous seven of Boozman’s time period. During that stretch, Arkansas shed 24,031 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the recession was just picking up momentum as Bush left office. Twelve thousand Arkansans lost their jobs in Bush’s last two months in office alone and all the economists were predicting a deeper and longer recession than anyone had experienced since before World War II. Assigning seven months of Bush job losses to Obama does make him look ever so much weaker. A review of labor statistics shows that the vast majority of Arkansas job losses occurred under Bush and in Obama’s first few months in office.
Like other presidents confronted with recessions, including George W. Bush, President Obama proposed a stimulus program to preserve and create jobs. Boozman had voted for the Bush stimulus programs but not the Obama stimulus, which was larger because the crisis was deeper.
Arkansas began to add jobs last summer, six months into Obama’s term, as the stimulus act funded highway and other public works projects across the state and kept many public service workers on the job. Most of the highway and bridge jobs and other public works are wrapping up and employment began a gradual decline again five months ago. There is nothing to replace the stimulus, which now seems to have been as anemic as some economists projected. It helped, but it didn’t get the job done.
Boozman said the stimulus money was all a big waste and that all it did was to add to the national debt. He will get some argument from people who soon will not have to fight the bottleneck at the Interstate 430-630 interchange and will experience the benefits of scores of other highway, water and sanitation projects around the state and from the teachers, policemen and health workers who have stayed on the jobs despite their local governments’ loss of revenue.
His news release also condemned the “Medicare cuts” that the Obama administration was forcing upon the elderly of the state.
That perpetuates a myth that Republicans and some in the insurance industry put out last year. Medicare recipients are primary beneficiaries of the health-care reform that Boozman voted against. They will get immediate assistance in paying drug bills through negotiated reductions in prescription prices and a gradual closing of the coverage gap in the 2003 Medicare drug program. The insurance companies profiting off Medicare, not the elderly that will experience the cuts. There is a difference.
(See Andy Griffith’s TV commercials on the subject.)
Boozman said he was running to change the country’s direction, but he does not say what that would be. The country does need answers to the economic distress, but he doesn’t suggest any. There will be no new stimulus program, but what will create jobs and persuade consumers to spend? He doesn’t say.
Thursday, Republicans blocked a bill pushed by Obama and Democratic leaders to give small businesses the incentive to expand and add jobs by cutting business taxes by $12 billion and creating a $30 billion lending program to small businesses that would be administered by local banks. All 59 Democrats and independents voted to take up the bill, but all 41 Republicans — a phalanx likely to be joined by John Boozman in January — voted against it. It was written with the help of Republicans and supported by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and other business groups but got not a single Republican vote. If the tax and loan incentives worked and jobs were created Obama might get the credit, so it had to be stopped. There will be no more legislative achievements by the Obama administration this year, and maybe not for the next two years.
Congressman Boozman might have been more credible if he had told us that he would support the legislation and not march in lockstep with Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate. McConnell was in Little Rock the other day to raise money for the congressman, and Boozman made it clear that he will be an unswerving member of the team. Maybe he would stray from his party leader now and then, as Lincoln has done? Not a chance.
Friday, July 30, 2010
EDITORIAL >>Boozman’s blame game
Most of Arkansas has been off the radar of U.S. Rep. John Boozman and he ours, but that has changed since he is running for the U.S. Senate. This week, the Third District congressman sent a news release to central Arkansas media deploring the employment misery of Pulaski County and the metropolitan area. We will be favored with many more releases before the election. We hope they get better.
Congressman Boozman blamed President Obama and by implication his opponent, Senator Blanche Lincoln, for the fact that 20,100 people in Pulaski, Saline and Faulkner counties are out of work and can’t find jobs. He said Arkansas had lost 32,423 jobs the past 24 months. Actually, his number is considerably low.
But Obama has been president a couple weeks more than 17 of those 24 months. George W. Bush was president the previous seven of Boozman’s time period. During that stretch, Arkansas shed 24,031 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the recession was just picking up momentum as Bush left office. Twelve thousand Arkansans lost their jobs in Bush’s last two months in office alone and all the economists were predicting a deeper and longer recession than anyone had experienced since before World War II. Assigning seven months of Bush job losses to Obama does make him look ever so much weaker. A review of labor statistics shows that the vast majority of Arkansas job losses occurred under Bush and in Obama’s first few months in office.
Like other presidents confronted with recessions, including George W. Bush, President Obama proposed a stimulus program to preserve and create jobs. Boozman had voted for the Bush stimulus programs but not the Obama stimulus, which was larger because the crisis was deeper.
Arkansas began to add jobs last summer, six months into Obama’s term, as the stimulus act funded highway and other public works projects across the state and kept many public service workers on the job. Most of the highway and bridge jobs and other public works are wrapping up and employment began a gradual decline again five months ago. There is nothing to replace the stimulus, which now seems to have been as anemic as some economists projected. It helped, but it didn’t get the job done.
Boozman said the stimulus money was all a big waste and that all it did was to add to the national debt. He will get some argument from people who soon will not have to fight the bottleneck at the Interstate 430-630 interchange and will experience the benefits of scores of other highway, water and sanitation projects around the state and from the teachers, policemen and health workers who have stayed on the jobs despite their local governments’ loss of revenue.
His news release also condemned the “Medicare cuts” that the Obama administration was forcing upon the elderly of the state.
That perpetuates a myth that Republicans and some in the insurance industry put out last year. Medicare recipients are primary beneficiaries of the health-care reform that Boozman voted against. They will get immediate assistance in paying drug bills through negotiated reductions in prescription prices and a gradual closing of the coverage gap in the 2003 Medicare drug program. The insurance companies profiting off Medicare, not the elderly that will experience the cuts. There is a difference.
(See Andy Griffith’s TV commercials on the subject.)
Boozman said he was running to change the country’s direction, but he does not say what that would be. The country does need answers to the economic distress, but he doesn’t suggest any. There will be no new stimulus program, but what will create jobs and persuade consumers to spend? He doesn’t say.
Thursday, Republicans blocked a bill pushed by Obama and Democratic leaders to give small businesses the incentive to expand and add jobs by cutting business taxes by $12 billion and creating a $30 billion lending program to small businesses that would be administered by local banks. All 59 Democrats and independents voted to take up the bill, but all 41 Republicans — a phalanx likely to be joined by John Boozman in January — voted against it. It was written with the help of Republicans and supported by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and other business groups but got not a single Republican vote. If the tax and loan incentives worked and jobs were created Obama might get the credit, so it had to be stopped. There will be no more legislative achievements by the Obama administration this year, and maybe not for the next two years.
Congressman Boozman might have been more credible if he had told us that he would support the legislation and not march in lockstep with Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate. McConnell was in Little Rock the other day to raise money for the congressman, and Boozman made it clear that he will be an unswerving member of the team. Maybe he would stray from his party leader now and then, as Lincoln has done? Not a chance.
Congressman Boozman blamed President Obama and by implication his opponent, Senator Blanche Lincoln, for the fact that 20,100 people in Pulaski, Saline and Faulkner counties are out of work and can’t find jobs. He said Arkansas had lost 32,423 jobs the past 24 months. Actually, his number is considerably low.
But Obama has been president a couple weeks more than 17 of those 24 months. George W. Bush was president the previous seven of Boozman’s time period. During that stretch, Arkansas shed 24,031 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the recession was just picking up momentum as Bush left office. Twelve thousand Arkansans lost their jobs in Bush’s last two months in office alone and all the economists were predicting a deeper and longer recession than anyone had experienced since before World War II. Assigning seven months of Bush job losses to Obama does make him look ever so much weaker. A review of labor statistics shows that the vast majority of Arkansas job losses occurred under Bush and in Obama’s first few months in office.
Like other presidents confronted with recessions, including George W. Bush, President Obama proposed a stimulus program to preserve and create jobs. Boozman had voted for the Bush stimulus programs but not the Obama stimulus, which was larger because the crisis was deeper.
Arkansas began to add jobs last summer, six months into Obama’s term, as the stimulus act funded highway and other public works projects across the state and kept many public service workers on the job. Most of the highway and bridge jobs and other public works are wrapping up and employment began a gradual decline again five months ago. There is nothing to replace the stimulus, which now seems to have been as anemic as some economists projected. It helped, but it didn’t get the job done.
Boozman said the stimulus money was all a big waste and that all it did was to add to the national debt. He will get some argument from people who soon will not have to fight the bottleneck at the Interstate 430-630 interchange and will experience the benefits of scores of other highway, water and sanitation projects around the state and from the teachers, policemen and health workers who have stayed on the jobs despite their local governments’ loss of revenue.
His news release also condemned the “Medicare cuts” that the Obama administration was forcing upon the elderly of the state.
That perpetuates a myth that Republicans and some in the insurance industry put out last year. Medicare recipients are primary beneficiaries of the health-care reform that Boozman voted against. They will get immediate assistance in paying drug bills through negotiated reductions in prescription prices and a gradual closing of the coverage gap in the 2003 Medicare drug program. The insurance companies profiting off Medicare, not the elderly that will experience the cuts. There is a difference.
(See Andy Griffith’s TV commercials on the subject.)
Boozman said he was running to change the country’s direction, but he does not say what that would be. The country does need answers to the economic distress, but he doesn’t suggest any. There will be no new stimulus program, but what will create jobs and persuade consumers to spend? He doesn’t say.
Thursday, Republicans blocked a bill pushed by Obama and Democratic leaders to give small businesses the incentive to expand and add jobs by cutting business taxes by $12 billion and creating a $30 billion lending program to small businesses that would be administered by local banks. All 59 Democrats and independents voted to take up the bill, but all 41 Republicans — a phalanx likely to be joined by John Boozman in January — voted against it. It was written with the help of Republicans and supported by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and other business groups but got not a single Republican vote. If the tax and loan incentives worked and jobs were created Obama might get the credit, so it had to be stopped. There will be no more legislative achievements by the Obama administration this year, and maybe not for the next two years.
Congressman Boozman might have been more credible if he had told us that he would support the legislation and not march in lockstep with Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate. McConnell was in Little Rock the other day to raise money for the congressman, and Boozman made it clear that he will be an unswerving member of the team. Maybe he would stray from his party leader now and then, as Lincoln has done? Not a chance.
TOP STORY > >Stuthard wants new focus
Tom Stuthard of Jacksonville says it is time for a change on the school board of the Pulaski County Special School District, and he wants to be part of that change. The Air Force veteran, spouse of a district teacher and union member, and parent of two children who have graduated from PCSSD schools, is challenging Danny Gililland for the Zone 5 board seat.
A meeting of the school board on Wednesday was the first one ever attended by Stuthard, who says he has been thinking for several months about challenging Gililland, one of four members who want to oust the Pulaski Association ofClassroom Teachers as the collective bargaining agent for teachers.
“People have seen the papers, seen the news and are saying, ‘Hey, we’ve voted for him before, we’re not voting for him again’ – they are ready for a change,” said Stuthard.
“There has been so much negative stuff in the paper and on television, I wanted to run and see if I could make a positive change. The board has lost sight of the most important thing – the children in the district. The board needs to get back to that,” Stuthard said.
Fiscal stewardship and ac-countability “top to bottom” – for teachers, students and administrators – are important to Stuthard, who says he would like to find ways, if elected, to rid the district of poorly performing teachers and principals.
He wants to see teachers who go the extra mile to support students by attending sporting events, plays and the like to be better compensated.
As for teachers who “barely beat kids to the classroom at the start of the day and are first out at the end of the day, what is that?” Stuthard asks. “Teacher evaluations – do they get looked at to see if they are doing their job and are they taking care of responsibilities?
“It is time to throw aside personal agendas; if there are bad teachers, deal with them.
“We’ve got to curb the spending. They’ve spent a lot of money on PACT. Instead of challenging (teacher grievances), they say let’s just pay them and press on.”
Stuthard, 55, currently works full time as a maintenance mechanic for the postal service. He retired from the Air Force in 2004 as the base equipment- control officer, after serving 21 years.
He also worked in other capacities in telecommunications as well as a seven-year stint in human relations, primarily handling discrimination complaints as well as conducting training in that field.
Stuthard, who moved to Arkansas in the mid-1970s, holds a master’s degree in counseling from Henderson State University.
“I listen and get other people’s input,” Stuthard said. “I see that as something that needs to be done here, with teachers, kids, city leaders and the base – with everybody who has a stake in this. I will take it back; I am more than willing to do that.”
Stuthard’s wife, Sharon, is a long-time PCSSD employee who teaches math at Sylvan Hills High School. She has also taught at Jacksonville High School and years ago, Jacksonville Junior High School South.
Stuthard says the fact that his wife is a PACT member does not mean he would always vote in accord with PACT’s position, if elected. He would not say how he’d vote on a motion to withdraw recognition of the union as collective bargaining agent for district teachers.
“She is the one in the union, not me,” Stuthard said. “I need to hear more stuff and know more about the contract before I could make a call. Both sides have concerns and have a say-so in it.”
The spending for the new Maumelle High School troubles Stuthard. He feels that district funds are being spent inequitably.
“What about old North Pulaski and Jacksonville (high schools) too – and the elementary schools? Why is so much money being spent in Maumelle? Because it is a nicer area, but do you leave out the old schools?”
A separate school district for Jacksonville and north Pulaski County would get Stuthard’s support.
“Because they want to,” he explained. “It would need to be up to a vote of the people. But Cabot has some awesome facilities. With the base here, that increases the likelihood of having a nice school district.”
A meeting of the school board on Wednesday was the first one ever attended by Stuthard, who says he has been thinking for several months about challenging Gililland, one of four members who want to oust the Pulaski Association ofClassroom Teachers as the collective bargaining agent for teachers.
“People have seen the papers, seen the news and are saying, ‘Hey, we’ve voted for him before, we’re not voting for him again’ – they are ready for a change,” said Stuthard.
“There has been so much negative stuff in the paper and on television, I wanted to run and see if I could make a positive change. The board has lost sight of the most important thing – the children in the district. The board needs to get back to that,” Stuthard said.
Fiscal stewardship and ac-countability “top to bottom” – for teachers, students and administrators – are important to Stuthard, who says he would like to find ways, if elected, to rid the district of poorly performing teachers and principals.
He wants to see teachers who go the extra mile to support students by attending sporting events, plays and the like to be better compensated.
As for teachers who “barely beat kids to the classroom at the start of the day and are first out at the end of the day, what is that?” Stuthard asks. “Teacher evaluations – do they get looked at to see if they are doing their job and are they taking care of responsibilities?
“It is time to throw aside personal agendas; if there are bad teachers, deal with them.
“We’ve got to curb the spending. They’ve spent a lot of money on PACT. Instead of challenging (teacher grievances), they say let’s just pay them and press on.”
Stuthard, 55, currently works full time as a maintenance mechanic for the postal service. He retired from the Air Force in 2004 as the base equipment- control officer, after serving 21 years.
He also worked in other capacities in telecommunications as well as a seven-year stint in human relations, primarily handling discrimination complaints as well as conducting training in that field.
Stuthard, who moved to Arkansas in the mid-1970s, holds a master’s degree in counseling from Henderson State University.
“I listen and get other people’s input,” Stuthard said. “I see that as something that needs to be done here, with teachers, kids, city leaders and the base – with everybody who has a stake in this. I will take it back; I am more than willing to do that.”
Stuthard’s wife, Sharon, is a long-time PCSSD employee who teaches math at Sylvan Hills High School. She has also taught at Jacksonville High School and years ago, Jacksonville Junior High School South.
Stuthard says the fact that his wife is a PACT member does not mean he would always vote in accord with PACT’s position, if elected. He would not say how he’d vote on a motion to withdraw recognition of the union as collective bargaining agent for district teachers.
“She is the one in the union, not me,” Stuthard said. “I need to hear more stuff and know more about the contract before I could make a call. Both sides have concerns and have a say-so in it.”
The spending for the new Maumelle High School troubles Stuthard. He feels that district funds are being spent inequitably.
“What about old North Pulaski and Jacksonville (high schools) too – and the elementary schools? Why is so much money being spent in Maumelle? Because it is a nicer area, but do you leave out the old schools?”
A separate school district for Jacksonville and north Pulaski County would get Stuthard’s support.
“Because they want to,” he explained. “It would need to be up to a vote of the people. But Cabot has some awesome facilities. With the base here, that increases the likelihood of having a nice school district.”
TOP STORY > >Gililland says it’s worth it
All four of Danny Gililland’s children have now graduated from high school, but the Pulaski County Special School District school board member says that is no reason for him not to seek re-election for the Zone 5 board seat on Sept. 21.
“I don’t do this for my children; if that were the only reason, that would be the farthest thing from what I’d do,” Gililland said.
“Being on the board has cost me in time I would have gone to concerts, soccer games and other activities with them, with my family. I believe very strongly in public education. I am inthe situation I could put my kids in any school that I wanted them to go to.”
Gililland ran for school board in 2002 and lost, then was elected in 2006. He says he decided to run after years of involvement with his kids’ schools (all attended Cato Elementary, Northwood Middle and North Pulaski High), serving on various committees at the school and district level. A teachers’ strike in the late 1990s, when his daughter was in school at Cato, is what sparked
Gililland’s interest in the school district.
“I started attending board meetings and got very interested in what was going on and how things were working,” said Gililland, who has doubts about his opponent, Tom Stuthard, who before Wednesday had never attended a school board meeting.
“I am sure he will do a fine job if elected, but I attended board meetings and was active in the district for eight years before running,” Gililland said. “You don’t decide to run and then show up at a board meeting. Picking one issue is the wrong motivation.”
Gililland, 52, owns a Popeye’s franchise. He and his wife, Lynda, have lived in north Pulaski County for more than 20 years.
Gililland said when he came on the board, he was against the idea of a separate school district for Jacksonville and north Pulaski County, but has since changed his mind about that.
“I used to think that there were too many small districts and that a bigger district would have more to meet the needs of the kids, but a bigger district is also a bigger bureaucracy,” Gililland said. “The longer I have been involved, the more I understand the need for community-based schools, especially for Pulaski County. There are so many communities it is hard for the district to care for all of them. A separate district would be good for the community, not too small, but small enough to be a good community-based district.”
Gililland said that he hoped to bring some “common sense and business sense” to the board and “voted consistently against new schools for Maumelle and Sherwood.
“The schools needed to be replaced, but I believe we spent way too much money. We could have had very nice schools for way less money.”
One thing Gililland has not waivered on since joining the board is his belief that the district’s students would be better served without Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers (PACT) representing the teachers in collective bargaining. As Gililland sees it, the union uses its power to fight over petty issues that wind up costing the district money that should go to directly benefiting the students.
Gililland recalled a battle with teachers at Sylvan Hills Middle School a couple of years ago.
“The principal had asked teachers to stand in their doorways during class change to make sure students got to class and greet their students,” Gililland said. “We paid over $100,000 to pay those teachers for that time. That is just wrong. This is one thing that sticks in my craw so badly it just bothers me.”
In another instance, the North Pulaski High School site-based committee, on which Gililland served, had come up with a plan to add remediation and enrichment time to the school day, but for the added period to be long enough (a minimum of 20 minutes), the school day would need to be lengthened by five minutes.
“The teachers balked, saying that they should have union pay,” Gililland said. “One union member on the committee spoke up, saying ‘what about the kids?’ and I stood up and applauded her.”
In the end, the idea never did get off the ground, because central office administration nixed it. But to Gililland, that is a prime example of why the union should go.
“Things like that drive me crazy – having to pay people to greet the bus in the morning and make sure they get on the bus in the afternoon,” Gililland said. “It wound up costing us $1.2 million a year for bus duty, recess and lunch duty.”
He said that the proposed teachers’ contract would have not gotten his vote last December if it had come to that. The agreement had been signed off on by chief negotiators for both sides and ratified by teachers and only needed a board vote on Dec. 8 to be official.
“Of the about 70 finally recommended changes to the final (contract), four were changes that the board had asked for. That is not give and take, and I wouldn’t accept it. Anytime we give PACT an inch, they run with it as far as they can, and they are hard to stop.”
Instead of voting on the tentative agreement, the board voted to immediately withdraw recognition of the union. That vote was declared “null and void” in April by Judge Tim Fox of the Sixth Division of Pulaski County Circuit Court. Fox ruled that the board had the authority to withdraw recognition of the union, but had failed to adhere to the process mandated by state statute. A subsequent decertification vote by the board was also thrown out by Fox for the same reason. In his July 12 ruling, Fox ordered the district and union to engage in mediation to resolve their differences.
Gililland says he had concerns months ago that the district’s second attempt to meet state requirements to decertify the union and establish a personnel-policies committee (PPC) to take its place might fail. The committee, as it turns out, was not set up in time prior to the end of the fiscal year on June 30, so that non-negotiated teacher contracts could replace those currently based on the professionally negotiated agreement between the district and PACT.
“I saw that the PPC was not getting formed quickly enough,” Gililland said. “(Former Acting Superintendent) McGill and the attorneys said that we have no control over that, that we move forward with what we control. I was under the impression we were okay with that.”
Gililland said although he hasn’t been happy with the way events have unfolded in the almost eight months since the sudden vote to withdraw recognition of the union, he doubts things would be any different if the district adhered to every requirement of state law and the contract with teachers in its effort to sever the relationship.
“The union would still file a lawsuit and all of this would just be at a later time,” Gililland said.
Gililland said he might have a more positive attitude about PACT if the leadership would cooperate with the district in dealing with teachers who are bad apples. His requests to Marty Nix, PACT president, to rein in those who use personal-leave time for vacations during the school year – rather than for purposes of personal business as spelled out in the teacher contract – have been rebuffed, he said.
“She told me her job is to defend the teachers,” Gililland said.
Despite his differences with union leadership, Gililland says he has no animosity toward the union or teachers. He is troubled by the characterization being promoted in a petition calling for his resignation that his desire to cut ties with the union is out of malice.
“I have no personal agenda or personal vendetta,” Gililland said. “I have been an advocate for the children in everything I’ve done. If the union issue weren’t on the front burner right now, I would be really surprised to have an opponent. I just haven’t had people complain.”
“I don’t do this for my children; if that were the only reason, that would be the farthest thing from what I’d do,” Gililland said.
“Being on the board has cost me in time I would have gone to concerts, soccer games and other activities with them, with my family. I believe very strongly in public education. I am inthe situation I could put my kids in any school that I wanted them to go to.”
Gililland ran for school board in 2002 and lost, then was elected in 2006. He says he decided to run after years of involvement with his kids’ schools (all attended Cato Elementary, Northwood Middle and North Pulaski High), serving on various committees at the school and district level. A teachers’ strike in the late 1990s, when his daughter was in school at Cato, is what sparked
Gililland’s interest in the school district.
“I started attending board meetings and got very interested in what was going on and how things were working,” said Gililland, who has doubts about his opponent, Tom Stuthard, who before Wednesday had never attended a school board meeting.
“I am sure he will do a fine job if elected, but I attended board meetings and was active in the district for eight years before running,” Gililland said. “You don’t decide to run and then show up at a board meeting. Picking one issue is the wrong motivation.”
Gililland, 52, owns a Popeye’s franchise. He and his wife, Lynda, have lived in north Pulaski County for more than 20 years.
Gililland said when he came on the board, he was against the idea of a separate school district for Jacksonville and north Pulaski County, but has since changed his mind about that.
“I used to think that there were too many small districts and that a bigger district would have more to meet the needs of the kids, but a bigger district is also a bigger bureaucracy,” Gililland said. “The longer I have been involved, the more I understand the need for community-based schools, especially for Pulaski County. There are so many communities it is hard for the district to care for all of them. A separate district would be good for the community, not too small, but small enough to be a good community-based district.”
Gililland said that he hoped to bring some “common sense and business sense” to the board and “voted consistently against new schools for Maumelle and Sherwood.
“The schools needed to be replaced, but I believe we spent way too much money. We could have had very nice schools for way less money.”
One thing Gililland has not waivered on since joining the board is his belief that the district’s students would be better served without Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers (PACT) representing the teachers in collective bargaining. As Gililland sees it, the union uses its power to fight over petty issues that wind up costing the district money that should go to directly benefiting the students.
Gililland recalled a battle with teachers at Sylvan Hills Middle School a couple of years ago.
“The principal had asked teachers to stand in their doorways during class change to make sure students got to class and greet their students,” Gililland said. “We paid over $100,000 to pay those teachers for that time. That is just wrong. This is one thing that sticks in my craw so badly it just bothers me.”
In another instance, the North Pulaski High School site-based committee, on which Gililland served, had come up with a plan to add remediation and enrichment time to the school day, but for the added period to be long enough (a minimum of 20 minutes), the school day would need to be lengthened by five minutes.
“The teachers balked, saying that they should have union pay,” Gililland said. “One union member on the committee spoke up, saying ‘what about the kids?’ and I stood up and applauded her.”
In the end, the idea never did get off the ground, because central office administration nixed it. But to Gililland, that is a prime example of why the union should go.
“Things like that drive me crazy – having to pay people to greet the bus in the morning and make sure they get on the bus in the afternoon,” Gililland said. “It wound up costing us $1.2 million a year for bus duty, recess and lunch duty.”
He said that the proposed teachers’ contract would have not gotten his vote last December if it had come to that. The agreement had been signed off on by chief negotiators for both sides and ratified by teachers and only needed a board vote on Dec. 8 to be official.
“Of the about 70 finally recommended changes to the final (contract), four were changes that the board had asked for. That is not give and take, and I wouldn’t accept it. Anytime we give PACT an inch, they run with it as far as they can, and they are hard to stop.”
Instead of voting on the tentative agreement, the board voted to immediately withdraw recognition of the union. That vote was declared “null and void” in April by Judge Tim Fox of the Sixth Division of Pulaski County Circuit Court. Fox ruled that the board had the authority to withdraw recognition of the union, but had failed to adhere to the process mandated by state statute. A subsequent decertification vote by the board was also thrown out by Fox for the same reason. In his July 12 ruling, Fox ordered the district and union to engage in mediation to resolve their differences.
Gililland says he had concerns months ago that the district’s second attempt to meet state requirements to decertify the union and establish a personnel-policies committee (PPC) to take its place might fail. The committee, as it turns out, was not set up in time prior to the end of the fiscal year on June 30, so that non-negotiated teacher contracts could replace those currently based on the professionally negotiated agreement between the district and PACT.
“I saw that the PPC was not getting formed quickly enough,” Gililland said. “(Former Acting Superintendent) McGill and the attorneys said that we have no control over that, that we move forward with what we control. I was under the impression we were okay with that.”
Gililland said although he hasn’t been happy with the way events have unfolded in the almost eight months since the sudden vote to withdraw recognition of the union, he doubts things would be any different if the district adhered to every requirement of state law and the contract with teachers in its effort to sever the relationship.
“The union would still file a lawsuit and all of this would just be at a later time,” Gililland said.
Gililland said he might have a more positive attitude about PACT if the leadership would cooperate with the district in dealing with teachers who are bad apples. His requests to Marty Nix, PACT president, to rein in those who use personal-leave time for vacations during the school year – rather than for purposes of personal business as spelled out in the teacher contract – have been rebuffed, he said.
“She told me her job is to defend the teachers,” Gililland said.
Despite his differences with union leadership, Gililland says he has no animosity toward the union or teachers. He is troubled by the characterization being promoted in a petition calling for his resignation that his desire to cut ties with the union is out of malice.
“I have no personal agenda or personal vendetta,” Gililland said. “I have been an advocate for the children in everything I’ve done. If the union issue weren’t on the front burner right now, I would be really surprised to have an opponent. I just haven’t had people complain.”
TOP STORY > >Battles of WWII still fresh in mind
By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
Second World War veteran Samuel Laird was a 19-year-old Army mortarman on the front lines blasting artillery shells at the Germans in the snowy Vosges mountains of France in the winter of 1944-45.
He spoke last week about his war experience during the Jacksonville Museum of Military History’s lecture series.
Laird, 85, of Hot Springs Village was a private first class with the 100th Infantry Division, 399th Regiment, I-Company.
He arrived in France in November 1944 to enter the war.
Laird, a mortar-squad leader, was a member of the American forces who pushed the German army east out of France and back into Germany.
As a mortarman, Laird fired artillery shells at the enemy to support the riflemen advancing the front lines forward.
Laird was born on Jan. 18, 1925 in Pawnee, Okla. He was 17 years old when he graduated from Perry High School in Oklahoma in 1942.
Laird attended a year at Oklahoma City University on an art scholarship before being drafted for the war by the Army in June 1943.
“I always wanted to be an artist,” he said.
Laird went to basic training a Camp Hood, Texas, then was sent to New York University for the Army’s specialized training program.
He was placed in the engineering program and was put in higher-level math classes. In high school, the highest level he had taken was 10th-grade math.
Laird said he tried but flunked out and was put into the infantry.
He said, “The men were all sent to Army units in preparation for the big push and D-Day.”
Laird left the U.S. in October 1944 from New York on the USS George Washington. He landed at Marseilles and went through the Alsace-Lorraine area and the Vosges Mountains in eastern France.
Laird battled frigid temperatures while fighting alongside the rifle companies in the pine and hardwood forests of the French mountains.
The weapon Laird fired was a 60-millimeter mortar. He carried over his shoulder a 40-pound mortar tube, which was three inches in diameter and two-and-a-half feet high. The legs were attached to the tube.
Soldiers would set the tube onto the base, set the legs, take aim, drop the shell and fire at the target.
A second gunman carried the steel base plate. Two ammunition carriers hauled eight rounds.
“I don’t remember ever having a dud,” Laird said.
Laird said that during the first attack outside Epinal, the company of 187 soldiers had lost 32 men. More soldiers were killed as the replacements were not trained properly.
“We lost more ‘green’ soldiers standing up, climbing over a hill and exposing themselves to the enemy,” he said.
Laird said, “The best defense was a foxhole or lying down flat on the ground. You walked bent over, ready to hit the ground.
“Most of the time we were fighting in snow up to our knees. Many got trench foot. My feet were nearly frozen,” he said.
The soldiers wore shoepacs, high-top leather boots with rubber bottoms that kept the water out but held the perspiration in.
They carried a change of socks under their arms to keep the socks dry.
Laird said, “Now, I can’t stand being in the cold.”
The soldiers wore long underwear, a wool shirt, pants, a sweater and then field jacket or a raincoat. When it snowed, they wore a parka. Laird carried a .45-caliber pistol.
The soldiers dug foxholes in the frozen ground. If they had time, they cut limbs and branches to place to cover the top of the fox- hole to keep the sharp German artillery fragments from raining down on them. Three people were to a foxhole.
“We would dig in overnight and moved on,” Laird said.
Laird said the German 88-millimeter heavy artillery had a high velocity. It could do a lot of damage. Soldiers had no warning when the artillery was coming in.
“Heard a ‘whish’ and an explosion. The German 88s were tearing up the mountain,” he said.
Laird recalled on New Year’s Eve 1944, the Americans were going to shoot some artillery shells into the air at midnight to celebrate, but the Germans beat them to it.
“The Germans made a last big push, called Operation Nordwind, Hitler’s last push to the south in France. They were dressed all in white. Their helmets were covered with white materials. They wore white parkas and trousers.
“They were either drunk or on drugs. They kept on coming and yelling,” Laird said.
He continued, “We pulled back to our former position and we held, and they didn’t break through. We were the first army to defeat another army in the Vosges Mountains in the war in that area.”
Laird received a concussion during the war from the artillery fired outside the French border town of Bitche. Laird spent a week in the medical area behind the lines to recover.
“The Germans came around the hill with a flak wagon, fired into the hillside and drew back,” Laird said.
“Harry Lampert, a fellow soldier, carried me up a big hill and put me on a Jeep with the litter,” he added.
The 100th Infantry Division liberated Bitche in March of 1945 from German occupation. This was important as it allowed American troop lines to move into Germany.
Laird said, “At the end of the war, the German general opposing us wrote a letter to the command, commending the 100th Division for the way they conducted themselves in battle to defeat them.”
The town of Bitche erected a monument to commemorate that victory. The soldiers of the 100th division were known as the Sons of Bitche.
Laird talked about what the Army diet during the war.
“We would get a hot meal one to three times a week depending on the terrain.”
He said soldiers carried K-rations that contained non-perishable pre-packaged meals eaten during combat.
“Breakfast ration contained a small can of scrambled eggs with mystery meat in it. A wafer type dried toast, candy and always cigarettes. Everyone learned how to smoke,” Laird said.
The second type of ration was a dinner containing a potted meat, powdered lemonade, which was very bitter and a waxy chocolate candy bar that would not freeze or melt. Both breakfast and dinner ration contained Nescafe powered coffee.
“All were welcomed. We were happy to get what we could get,” Laird said.
Laird contracted hepatitis in the spring of 1945 from a bad needle while getting a booster shot. He was sent to a hospital in England and learned about the war ending in Europe. Laird received a medical discharge.
“My skin was yellow, my eyes were yellow, my liver swollen,” he said.
Laird returned to the U.S. in June 1945 and was discharged from an Army hospital in Palm Springs, Calif., in September 1945.
He was awarded the Bronze Star and the European Theater ribbon with two battle stars.
“I lost so many close friends. I didn’t want the memories that come back from being there,” he said.
Laird has preserved his story for his family’s history. He still has his uniform. “I wrote a small booklet about my war experiences with pictures and letters for a record of what I had done for my grandchildren,” he said.
After the war, Laird went to the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in commercial arts. He was a commercial artist and then purchased a printing company, which did printing, design and advertising.
In 1984, Laird and his wife Betty and close friends took a trip to Europe. They went to the towns, but he did not go to the actual battlefield areas.
Attending the Jacksonville Museum of Military History war-stories lecture were students from Alma High School’s Naval Junior ROTC.
The group toured the museum earlier in the day.
Leader staff writer
Second World War veteran Samuel Laird was a 19-year-old Army mortarman on the front lines blasting artillery shells at the Germans in the snowy Vosges mountains of France in the winter of 1944-45.
He spoke last week about his war experience during the Jacksonville Museum of Military History’s lecture series.
Laird, 85, of Hot Springs Village was a private first class with the 100th Infantry Division, 399th Regiment, I-Company.
He arrived in France in November 1944 to enter the war.
Laird, a mortar-squad leader, was a member of the American forces who pushed the German army east out of France and back into Germany.
As a mortarman, Laird fired artillery shells at the enemy to support the riflemen advancing the front lines forward.
Laird was born on Jan. 18, 1925 in Pawnee, Okla. He was 17 years old when he graduated from Perry High School in Oklahoma in 1942.
Laird attended a year at Oklahoma City University on an art scholarship before being drafted for the war by the Army in June 1943.
“I always wanted to be an artist,” he said.
Laird went to basic training a Camp Hood, Texas, then was sent to New York University for the Army’s specialized training program.
He was placed in the engineering program and was put in higher-level math classes. In high school, the highest level he had taken was 10th-grade math.
Laird said he tried but flunked out and was put into the infantry.
He said, “The men were all sent to Army units in preparation for the big push and D-Day.”
Laird left the U.S. in October 1944 from New York on the USS George Washington. He landed at Marseilles and went through the Alsace-Lorraine area and the Vosges Mountains in eastern France.
Laird battled frigid temperatures while fighting alongside the rifle companies in the pine and hardwood forests of the French mountains.
The weapon Laird fired was a 60-millimeter mortar. He carried over his shoulder a 40-pound mortar tube, which was three inches in diameter and two-and-a-half feet high. The legs were attached to the tube.
Soldiers would set the tube onto the base, set the legs, take aim, drop the shell and fire at the target.
A second gunman carried the steel base plate. Two ammunition carriers hauled eight rounds.
“I don’t remember ever having a dud,” Laird said.
Laird said that during the first attack outside Epinal, the company of 187 soldiers had lost 32 men. More soldiers were killed as the replacements were not trained properly.
“We lost more ‘green’ soldiers standing up, climbing over a hill and exposing themselves to the enemy,” he said.
Laird said, “The best defense was a foxhole or lying down flat on the ground. You walked bent over, ready to hit the ground.
“Most of the time we were fighting in snow up to our knees. Many got trench foot. My feet were nearly frozen,” he said.
The soldiers wore shoepacs, high-top leather boots with rubber bottoms that kept the water out but held the perspiration in.
They carried a change of socks under their arms to keep the socks dry.
Laird said, “Now, I can’t stand being in the cold.”
The soldiers wore long underwear, a wool shirt, pants, a sweater and then field jacket or a raincoat. When it snowed, they wore a parka. Laird carried a .45-caliber pistol.
The soldiers dug foxholes in the frozen ground. If they had time, they cut limbs and branches to place to cover the top of the fox- hole to keep the sharp German artillery fragments from raining down on them. Three people were to a foxhole.
“We would dig in overnight and moved on,” Laird said.
Laird said the German 88-millimeter heavy artillery had a high velocity. It could do a lot of damage. Soldiers had no warning when the artillery was coming in.
“Heard a ‘whish’ and an explosion. The German 88s were tearing up the mountain,” he said.
Laird recalled on New Year’s Eve 1944, the Americans were going to shoot some artillery shells into the air at midnight to celebrate, but the Germans beat them to it.
“The Germans made a last big push, called Operation Nordwind, Hitler’s last push to the south in France. They were dressed all in white. Their helmets were covered with white materials. They wore white parkas and trousers.
“They were either drunk or on drugs. They kept on coming and yelling,” Laird said.
He continued, “We pulled back to our former position and we held, and they didn’t break through. We were the first army to defeat another army in the Vosges Mountains in the war in that area.”
Laird received a concussion during the war from the artillery fired outside the French border town of Bitche. Laird spent a week in the medical area behind the lines to recover.
“The Germans came around the hill with a flak wagon, fired into the hillside and drew back,” Laird said.
“Harry Lampert, a fellow soldier, carried me up a big hill and put me on a Jeep with the litter,” he added.
The 100th Infantry Division liberated Bitche in March of 1945 from German occupation. This was important as it allowed American troop lines to move into Germany.
Laird said, “At the end of the war, the German general opposing us wrote a letter to the command, commending the 100th Division for the way they conducted themselves in battle to defeat them.”
The town of Bitche erected a monument to commemorate that victory. The soldiers of the 100th division were known as the Sons of Bitche.
Laird talked about what the Army diet during the war.
“We would get a hot meal one to three times a week depending on the terrain.”
He said soldiers carried K-rations that contained non-perishable pre-packaged meals eaten during combat.
“Breakfast ration contained a small can of scrambled eggs with mystery meat in it. A wafer type dried toast, candy and always cigarettes. Everyone learned how to smoke,” Laird said.
The second type of ration was a dinner containing a potted meat, powdered lemonade, which was very bitter and a waxy chocolate candy bar that would not freeze or melt. Both breakfast and dinner ration contained Nescafe powered coffee.
“All were welcomed. We were happy to get what we could get,” Laird said.
Laird contracted hepatitis in the spring of 1945 from a bad needle while getting a booster shot. He was sent to a hospital in England and learned about the war ending in Europe. Laird received a medical discharge.
“My skin was yellow, my eyes were yellow, my liver swollen,” he said.
Laird returned to the U.S. in June 1945 and was discharged from an Army hospital in Palm Springs, Calif., in September 1945.
He was awarded the Bronze Star and the European Theater ribbon with two battle stars.
“I lost so many close friends. I didn’t want the memories that come back from being there,” he said.
Laird has preserved his story for his family’s history. He still has his uniform. “I wrote a small booklet about my war experiences with pictures and letters for a record of what I had done for my grandchildren,” he said.
After the war, Laird went to the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in commercial arts. He was a commercial artist and then purchased a printing company, which did printing, design and advertising.
In 1984, Laird and his wife Betty and close friends took a trip to Europe. They went to the towns, but he did not go to the actual battlefield areas.
Attending the Jacksonville Museum of Military History war-stories lecture were students from Alma High School’s Naval Junior ROTC.
The group toured the museum earlier in the day.
SPORTS>>Summertime and the livin’ is pigskin-free
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
What’s all this rush to start football season?
A friend of mine in the media added a link to his publication’s football preview issue on his Facebook page the other day.
Being a good employee, my friend was of course promoting his magazine to drum up business, but when he asked the time-honored question, “Are you ready for some football?” I knew immediately what my answer was.
No.
Football season, the one in which they actually play games, begins for us around here on Aug. 31, when Cabot and Jacksonville square off at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Just over five months later, on Feb. 6, 2011, it will come to a halt with Super Bowl XLV in Dallas.
But does football ever really end?
In March, less then a month after the Super Bowl, colleges and high schools begin spring practice. In April comes the NFL draft, and I know I can’t get enough of athletes in street clothes getting cheered on by out-of-shape guys in jerseys — sort of the reverse of how it is on game days.
The draft is followed immediately by NFL rookie mini-camps, followed by a series of team mini-camps. By then Arena Football is under way, and soon come the high school 7-on-7 leagues, then the start of NFL training camps, followed by high school and college two-a-days.
And all across the country the fantasy leaguers are preparing for their drafts.
I’ve never played fantasy football, but I know whom I would want in my draft. My fantasy team starts with Scarlett Johansson at quarterback and we proceed from there.
Now the NFL is making noise about an 18-game season when it already can’t get a 16-game season and playoffs done by the end of January. The best parties always seem to end too soon and football is acting like the rude guest who won’t leave.
“Ready for some football?”
Are you kidding?
It’s hot enough to melt Dick Cheney’s heart out there.
It won’t be football weather until mid to late October, if then. But not to worry, there will still be 3 ½ months of the NFL season left to go, plus bowl games and high school playoffs.
That’s plenty of time to break in that stadium blanket.
“Ready for some football?”
Please.
Most kids are still on summer break and the pools are all open. The Chicago Cubs aren’t even mathematically eliminated yet.
Look, I love football. It’s the only sport I played with any real success in high school and I think it had a lot to do with bringing me out of my shell and teaching me something about accountability, goal setting, physical fitness and personal health.
But, not to get too biblical, there’s a reason why things have a season. It’s not football I object to but the rush to get it here before its time, and what it means when it finally arrives.
It means buying school supplies and breaking out clothes with sleeves and long legs you actually have to iron. It means keeping track of a jacket.
It means Halloween decorations in August, Thanksgiving decorations in September and Christmas decorations in October.
It means cold, wet weather, like the kind that nearly drowned us and got deep into our bones last year. It means setting the clocks back and the dying of the light.
Soon enough we will tailgate and warm our hands over the grill and call the Hogs. Soon enough we will gather in someone’s living room or the local sports bar for chips, salsa and to root against the Cowboys and Packers.
“Ready for some football?”
First give me another month of high skies and lingering sunsets the color of those pushup pops you get from the ice cream truck.
Give me extra innings at Dickey-Stephens Park on a night when the beer garden is humming along at its strapless best and I have absolutely nothing better to do.
Give me the smell of chlorine and sunscreen, the sound of cicadas and gently lapping water, the clink of ice in a cold, fizzy beverage.
It’s summer. Relax. There’s no rush.
Football isn’t going anywhere.
Leader sports editor
What’s all this rush to start football season?
A friend of mine in the media added a link to his publication’s football preview issue on his Facebook page the other day.
Being a good employee, my friend was of course promoting his magazine to drum up business, but when he asked the time-honored question, “Are you ready for some football?” I knew immediately what my answer was.
No.
Football season, the one in which they actually play games, begins for us around here on Aug. 31, when Cabot and Jacksonville square off at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Just over five months later, on Feb. 6, 2011, it will come to a halt with Super Bowl XLV in Dallas.
But does football ever really end?
In March, less then a month after the Super Bowl, colleges and high schools begin spring practice. In April comes the NFL draft, and I know I can’t get enough of athletes in street clothes getting cheered on by out-of-shape guys in jerseys — sort of the reverse of how it is on game days.
The draft is followed immediately by NFL rookie mini-camps, followed by a series of team mini-camps. By then Arena Football is under way, and soon come the high school 7-on-7 leagues, then the start of NFL training camps, followed by high school and college two-a-days.
And all across the country the fantasy leaguers are preparing for their drafts.
I’ve never played fantasy football, but I know whom I would want in my draft. My fantasy team starts with Scarlett Johansson at quarterback and we proceed from there.
Now the NFL is making noise about an 18-game season when it already can’t get a 16-game season and playoffs done by the end of January. The best parties always seem to end too soon and football is acting like the rude guest who won’t leave.
“Ready for some football?”
Are you kidding?
It’s hot enough to melt Dick Cheney’s heart out there.
It won’t be football weather until mid to late October, if then. But not to worry, there will still be 3 ½ months of the NFL season left to go, plus bowl games and high school playoffs.
That’s plenty of time to break in that stadium blanket.
“Ready for some football?”
Please.
Most kids are still on summer break and the pools are all open. The Chicago Cubs aren’t even mathematically eliminated yet.
Look, I love football. It’s the only sport I played with any real success in high school and I think it had a lot to do with bringing me out of my shell and teaching me something about accountability, goal setting, physical fitness and personal health.
But, not to get too biblical, there’s a reason why things have a season. It’s not football I object to but the rush to get it here before its time, and what it means when it finally arrives.
It means buying school supplies and breaking out clothes with sleeves and long legs you actually have to iron. It means keeping track of a jacket.
It means Halloween decorations in August, Thanksgiving decorations in September and Christmas decorations in October.
It means cold, wet weather, like the kind that nearly drowned us and got deep into our bones last year. It means setting the clocks back and the dying of the light.
Soon enough we will tailgate and warm our hands over the grill and call the Hogs. Soon enough we will gather in someone’s living room or the local sports bar for chips, salsa and to root against the Cowboys and Packers.
“Ready for some football?”
First give me another month of high skies and lingering sunsets the color of those pushup pops you get from the ice cream truck.
Give me extra innings at Dickey-Stephens Park on a night when the beer garden is humming along at its strapless best and I have absolutely nothing better to do.
Give me the smell of chlorine and sunscreen, the sound of cicadas and gently lapping water, the clink of ice in a cold, fizzy beverage.
It’s summer. Relax. There’s no rush.
Football isn’t going anywhere.
SPORTS>>Team Elite hits Junior Olympics with high hopes
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Team Elite, the local AAU track club, is headed to Norfolk, Va., today for the AAU Junior Olympics.
The Olympics, already under way, are based in Hampton Roads, Va., but events will be held in Chesapeake, Va.; Hampton, Va.; Newport News, Va.; Norfolk, and Virginia Beach through Aug. 7.
“These kids have overcome a lot,” Team Elite coach Walter Harris said during a break in Thursday’s workout at Jacksonville High School. “The thing is, most of the ones I’ve got are either champions in the state or they came in one and two in the next level so they’ve got a pretty good chance at the national Olympics to do pretty good.”
The Team Elite program, in its sixth year, is sending close to 30 Olympic qualifiers ages 10-17 who qualified in the four-state Area 11 meet at Tulsa on June 25-27. A competitor must finish in the top four of a state event to qualify for area competition and must finish in the top four there to qualify for Junior Olympics.
The Area 11 meet featured teams from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.
“I think we’ve got more this year,” Harris said. “Each year we get better and better. I think we took 22 last year. I think we’ve got about 30 kids this year.”
Team Elite has produced athletes like Newport’s Caleb Cross, currently a hurdler/sprinter at the University of Arkansas; Blytheville’s Whitney Jones, now playing basketball for the Lady Razorbacks; Arkansas sprinter and football receiver Cobi Hamilton, of Texarkana, and Razorbacks running back Dennis Johnson, also of Texarkana.
“We have had great kids through our program,” Harris said.
Of the 16 girls working out Thursday night, nine were from the Jacksonville area, but Harris said Team Elite has athletes from all over the state, including Fayetteville’s Brianna Robinson, a member of the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams.
Harris is also enjoying the added good fortune of coaching his daughters Daijah — who will compete in the 200 meters, the 400 meters and the long jump and has been a Junior Olympics bronze medalist — and Kiarra, competing in the 4x100 and 4x400.
Harris was reluctant to handicap the Olympics but said Team Elite’s steady improvement over the years gives him reason to be optimistic.
“It’s hard to tell because you’re looking at all 50 states, champions from all 50 states coming in,” he said. “These kids competing each year, last year was our first time ever getting a medal in the relays.”
The primary goal for Team Elite, Harris said, is drawing the interest of college recruiters and getting his athletes a good education.
“We have been in existence for six years so far and we have had 95 percent of our kids go to college. That’s our whole purpose,” Harris said.
Leader sports editor
Team Elite, the local AAU track club, is headed to Norfolk, Va., today for the AAU Junior Olympics.
The Olympics, already under way, are based in Hampton Roads, Va., but events will be held in Chesapeake, Va.; Hampton, Va.; Newport News, Va.; Norfolk, and Virginia Beach through Aug. 7.
“These kids have overcome a lot,” Team Elite coach Walter Harris said during a break in Thursday’s workout at Jacksonville High School. “The thing is, most of the ones I’ve got are either champions in the state or they came in one and two in the next level so they’ve got a pretty good chance at the national Olympics to do pretty good.”
The Team Elite program, in its sixth year, is sending close to 30 Olympic qualifiers ages 10-17 who qualified in the four-state Area 11 meet at Tulsa on June 25-27. A competitor must finish in the top four of a state event to qualify for area competition and must finish in the top four there to qualify for Junior Olympics.
The Area 11 meet featured teams from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.
“I think we’ve got more this year,” Harris said. “Each year we get better and better. I think we took 22 last year. I think we’ve got about 30 kids this year.”
Team Elite has produced athletes like Newport’s Caleb Cross, currently a hurdler/sprinter at the University of Arkansas; Blytheville’s Whitney Jones, now playing basketball for the Lady Razorbacks; Arkansas sprinter and football receiver Cobi Hamilton, of Texarkana, and Razorbacks running back Dennis Johnson, also of Texarkana.
“We have had great kids through our program,” Harris said.
Of the 16 girls working out Thursday night, nine were from the Jacksonville area, but Harris said Team Elite has athletes from all over the state, including Fayetteville’s Brianna Robinson, a member of the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams.
Harris is also enjoying the added good fortune of coaching his daughters Daijah — who will compete in the 200 meters, the 400 meters and the long jump and has been a Junior Olympics bronze medalist — and Kiarra, competing in the 4x100 and 4x400.
Harris was reluctant to handicap the Olympics but said Team Elite’s steady improvement over the years gives him reason to be optimistic.
“It’s hard to tell because you’re looking at all 50 states, champions from all 50 states coming in,” he said. “These kids competing each year, last year was our first time ever getting a medal in the relays.”
The primary goal for Team Elite, Harris said, is drawing the interest of college recruiters and getting his athletes a good education.
“We have been in existence for six years so far and we have had 95 percent of our kids go to college. That’s our whole purpose,” Harris said.
SPORTS>>Teams taking field with new coaches, key positions to fill
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
There’s no substitute for the action on the field, but the high school football offseason has been pretty eventful.
Most area teams will begin two-a-days Monday morning as the run up to the season begins. Cabot and Jacksonville will kick things off with the latest installment of “The Backyard Brawl” at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on Aug. 31, a Tuesday, and the rest of the area teams will have their Friday night openers Sept. 3.
Wind sprints and the pop of the pads will soon become everyday happenings, but local programs have been far from quiet.
Jacksonville and North Pulaski will each debut a new head coach, though neither is a stranger to his program.
Rick Russell is the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator who has returned — after one year leading North Pulaski — to take over the program where he spent 14 seasons.
To replace Russell, North Pulaski has named youthful offensive coordinator Terrod Hatcher, 23, to his first head coaching assignment in his second year on staff.
Russell and Hatcher will be trying to reenergize programs that have struggled. Under Mark Whatley, who departed to become offensive coordinator at Springdale and was 6-4 in 2008, Jacksonville dropped to 2-8 last season. North Pulaski was 1-9 under Russell, winning just one game for the third straight year.
Jacksonville will compete in the 7A/6A-East after playing in the 6A-East last year. North Pulaski is a member of the 5A-Southeast.
North Pulaski’s fellow 5A-Southeast member Sylvan Hills, under Jim Withrow, will be trying to recapture the momentum it had at the end of last year. After starting 0-5 and battling injuries, the Bears won four of their last five and claimed a playoff berth, though they lost 48-13 to Greenwood in the first round.
Withrow’s Bears need a new quarterback after all-state selectee Jordan Spears, a UALR baseball signee, graduated.
That puts Sylvan Hills in the same boat as Cabot, which just missed a trip to the 7A state championship thanks to a late touchdown pass by Springdale Har-Ber in the playoffs, and Lonoke, the 4A state runner-up that fell to Shiloh Christian in the championship at War Memorial Stadium.
Cabot, which won the 7A-Central and was edged by Har-Ber in the playoffs for the second straight year, must replace departed senior Seth Bloomberg as the signal caller in the Panthers’ punishing Dead T offense. Bloomberg is one of 13 graduated starters, a group that includes Leader defensive player of the year Spencer Neumann, who will play linebacker at Central Arkansas this fall.
Lonoke, of the 2-4A Con-ference, won five straight to close out the regular season and took three of its four playoff victories on the road. But the Jackrabbits must not only replace scrappy quarterback Michael Nelson, but all-state running back and Leader offensive player of the year Brandon Smith as well.
Searcy will be trying to improve on its four victories under second-year coach Tim Harper, who led the Lions to as much success as they had in the previous four years total, and returns junior quarterback Dezmond Stegall. This year the Lions are in the 7A/6A-East with Jacksonville.
Beebe, of the 5A-East, lost by one point to Sylvan Hills in the season finale and missed the playoffs for the first time in three years under John Shannon. The Badgers hope returning quarterback Scot Gowen can continue to grow in the option.
Harding Academy is favored to win the 2-3A Conference with returning all-state quarterback Seth Keese, who passed for 2,480 yards and 22 touchdowns. The Wildcats have won seven conference championships and four state championships the past 10 years and look like contenders again after bowing out to eventual state champion Fountain Lake.
Harding Academy opens the season with a home game rematch against Fountain Lake.
Harding Academy’s crosstown and conference neighbor Riverview enters its third season of varsity football and returns Grafton Harrell, who provided 1,336 offensive yards and 16 touchdowns despite a broken thumb suffered early in the season against Carlisle.
The Raiders were 6-4 but missed the postseason after qualifying in their first year in 2008.
Leader sports editor
There’s no substitute for the action on the field, but the high school football offseason has been pretty eventful.
Most area teams will begin two-a-days Monday morning as the run up to the season begins. Cabot and Jacksonville will kick things off with the latest installment of “The Backyard Brawl” at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on Aug. 31, a Tuesday, and the rest of the area teams will have their Friday night openers Sept. 3.
Wind sprints and the pop of the pads will soon become everyday happenings, but local programs have been far from quiet.
Jacksonville and North Pulaski will each debut a new head coach, though neither is a stranger to his program.
Rick Russell is the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator who has returned — after one year leading North Pulaski — to take over the program where he spent 14 seasons.
To replace Russell, North Pulaski has named youthful offensive coordinator Terrod Hatcher, 23, to his first head coaching assignment in his second year on staff.
Russell and Hatcher will be trying to reenergize programs that have struggled. Under Mark Whatley, who departed to become offensive coordinator at Springdale and was 6-4 in 2008, Jacksonville dropped to 2-8 last season. North Pulaski was 1-9 under Russell, winning just one game for the third straight year.
Jacksonville will compete in the 7A/6A-East after playing in the 6A-East last year. North Pulaski is a member of the 5A-Southeast.
North Pulaski’s fellow 5A-Southeast member Sylvan Hills, under Jim Withrow, will be trying to recapture the momentum it had at the end of last year. After starting 0-5 and battling injuries, the Bears won four of their last five and claimed a playoff berth, though they lost 48-13 to Greenwood in the first round.
Withrow’s Bears need a new quarterback after all-state selectee Jordan Spears, a UALR baseball signee, graduated.
That puts Sylvan Hills in the same boat as Cabot, which just missed a trip to the 7A state championship thanks to a late touchdown pass by Springdale Har-Ber in the playoffs, and Lonoke, the 4A state runner-up that fell to Shiloh Christian in the championship at War Memorial Stadium.
Cabot, which won the 7A-Central and was edged by Har-Ber in the playoffs for the second straight year, must replace departed senior Seth Bloomberg as the signal caller in the Panthers’ punishing Dead T offense. Bloomberg is one of 13 graduated starters, a group that includes Leader defensive player of the year Spencer Neumann, who will play linebacker at Central Arkansas this fall.
Lonoke, of the 2-4A Con-ference, won five straight to close out the regular season and took three of its four playoff victories on the road. But the Jackrabbits must not only replace scrappy quarterback Michael Nelson, but all-state running back and Leader offensive player of the year Brandon Smith as well.
Searcy will be trying to improve on its four victories under second-year coach Tim Harper, who led the Lions to as much success as they had in the previous four years total, and returns junior quarterback Dezmond Stegall. This year the Lions are in the 7A/6A-East with Jacksonville.
Beebe, of the 5A-East, lost by one point to Sylvan Hills in the season finale and missed the playoffs for the first time in three years under John Shannon. The Badgers hope returning quarterback Scot Gowen can continue to grow in the option.
Harding Academy is favored to win the 2-3A Conference with returning all-state quarterback Seth Keese, who passed for 2,480 yards and 22 touchdowns. The Wildcats have won seven conference championships and four state championships the past 10 years and look like contenders again after bowing out to eventual state champion Fountain Lake.
Harding Academy opens the season with a home game rematch against Fountain Lake.
Harding Academy’s crosstown and conference neighbor Riverview enters its third season of varsity football and returns Grafton Harrell, who provided 1,336 offensive yards and 16 touchdowns despite a broken thumb suffered early in the season against Carlisle.
The Raiders were 6-4 but missed the postseason after qualifying in their first year in 2008.
SPORTS>>Benton stops Cabot, ends state run
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
It was a bad time to have a losing streak.
Cabot Centennial Bank bowed out of the Senior American Legion State Tournament as Benton held on for a 4-3 victory at DeSalvo Stadium in Burns Park on Tuesday.
Cabot, which tore undefeated through district play and won its first two games of the state tournament, squandered a quality start by Chase Beasley as it committed five errors and stranded eight runners in losing its second straight in the double-elimination tournament.
“We’ve been playing excellent defense for most of the year,” Cabot coach Jay Darr said. “It’s just one of those days the defense kind of let us down and the hitting didn’t really show up.”
It was the second straight loss for Cabot, which dropped a game to Texarkana on Sunday to fall into the losers bracket, then endured Monday’s rainout before getting back onto the field against Benton.
“I think the kids came out, the second half of the year for sure, determined to make a run,” Darr said. “And they did everything they set out to do. You get to a point where somebody has got to lose and today and Sunday was our turn. We just didn’t get it done.”
Beasley went the distance, striking out nine and giving up his first and only walk in the ninth inning. But Benton, fighting its way through the losers bracket after an opening-round loss to Cabot, got revenge, breaking a 2-2 tie in the sixth and staying a step ahead the rest of the way.
“After an extra day’s rest I thought our pitching was going to be solid,” Darr said. “I was really only expecting Chase to get me into the fifth and sixth and then I had some other fresh guys to come in. But you couldn’t ask a kid to do any better than what he did; we just didn’t play defense behind him and didn’t hit the baseball today.”
Coy Fitzhugh pitched 4 1/3 innings and left with a 4-2 lead in the sixth, and Nathan Birl, who inherited and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the inning, went the rest of the way for Benton.
“We played them the first game and it was 10-7 and we left the bases loaded twice in that game and it could have gone either way,” Benton coach Russell Goodwin said.
Benton opened the scoring with a two-run third featuring a double by Steven Brooks, a single by Ashton Wilson and an RBI grounder by Drew McCurry, who was safe when second baseman Tyler Erickson committed a fielding error that allowed Wilson to score the second run from second.
Cabot got a run back in the bottom of the third when Joe Bryant reached on an error by first baseman Lee Richardson, advanced to third on Ty Steele’s single to right and scored on a double steal to cut it to 2-1.
Cabot silenced Benton in the top of the fourth — with shortstop Matt Evans making a diving stop and the assist on Josh Creel’s sharp grounder for the final out — then tied it in the bottom half. Erickson walked, advanced when Fitzhugh hit Andrew Reynolds and scored from second on Justin Tyler’s hopper over third for a double.
McCurry reached on Evans’ fielding error to lead off the Benton sixth, Austin Pfeiffer followed him with a single and Blake Childress got down a sacrifice to advance both runners.
McCurry alertly tagged and scored from third when the third baseman Steele tracked down a difficult pop foul near the stands. Creel then singled to score Pfeiffer and make it 4-2.
Cabot threatened but came up empty in the sixth.
Erickson walked and Reynolds and Justin Goff singled to load the bases with one out. Birl came on to relieve Fitzhugh and struck out Justin Tyler and got Powell Bryant to ground out to end the threat.
“They brought in the little changeup guy and it kept us off balance just enough,” Darr said.
“We outhit them today but we didn’t get the hits when we needed to.”
Erickson tripled with one out in the Cabot eighth and scored on Reynolds’ groundout to make it 4-3, but Goff was stranded at first after reaching on an error.
Leader sports editor
It was a bad time to have a losing streak.
Cabot Centennial Bank bowed out of the Senior American Legion State Tournament as Benton held on for a 4-3 victory at DeSalvo Stadium in Burns Park on Tuesday.
Cabot, which tore undefeated through district play and won its first two games of the state tournament, squandered a quality start by Chase Beasley as it committed five errors and stranded eight runners in losing its second straight in the double-elimination tournament.
“We’ve been playing excellent defense for most of the year,” Cabot coach Jay Darr said. “It’s just one of those days the defense kind of let us down and the hitting didn’t really show up.”
It was the second straight loss for Cabot, which dropped a game to Texarkana on Sunday to fall into the losers bracket, then endured Monday’s rainout before getting back onto the field against Benton.
“I think the kids came out, the second half of the year for sure, determined to make a run,” Darr said. “And they did everything they set out to do. You get to a point where somebody has got to lose and today and Sunday was our turn. We just didn’t get it done.”
Beasley went the distance, striking out nine and giving up his first and only walk in the ninth inning. But Benton, fighting its way through the losers bracket after an opening-round loss to Cabot, got revenge, breaking a 2-2 tie in the sixth and staying a step ahead the rest of the way.
“After an extra day’s rest I thought our pitching was going to be solid,” Darr said. “I was really only expecting Chase to get me into the fifth and sixth and then I had some other fresh guys to come in. But you couldn’t ask a kid to do any better than what he did; we just didn’t play defense behind him and didn’t hit the baseball today.”
Coy Fitzhugh pitched 4 1/3 innings and left with a 4-2 lead in the sixth, and Nathan Birl, who inherited and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the inning, went the rest of the way for Benton.
“We played them the first game and it was 10-7 and we left the bases loaded twice in that game and it could have gone either way,” Benton coach Russell Goodwin said.
Benton opened the scoring with a two-run third featuring a double by Steven Brooks, a single by Ashton Wilson and an RBI grounder by Drew McCurry, who was safe when second baseman Tyler Erickson committed a fielding error that allowed Wilson to score the second run from second.
Cabot got a run back in the bottom of the third when Joe Bryant reached on an error by first baseman Lee Richardson, advanced to third on Ty Steele’s single to right and scored on a double steal to cut it to 2-1.
Cabot silenced Benton in the top of the fourth — with shortstop Matt Evans making a diving stop and the assist on Josh Creel’s sharp grounder for the final out — then tied it in the bottom half. Erickson walked, advanced when Fitzhugh hit Andrew Reynolds and scored from second on Justin Tyler’s hopper over third for a double.
McCurry reached on Evans’ fielding error to lead off the Benton sixth, Austin Pfeiffer followed him with a single and Blake Childress got down a sacrifice to advance both runners.
McCurry alertly tagged and scored from third when the third baseman Steele tracked down a difficult pop foul near the stands. Creel then singled to score Pfeiffer and make it 4-2.
Cabot threatened but came up empty in the sixth.
Erickson walked and Reynolds and Justin Goff singled to load the bases with one out. Birl came on to relieve Fitzhugh and struck out Justin Tyler and got Powell Bryant to ground out to end the threat.
“They brought in the little changeup guy and it kept us off balance just enough,” Darr said.
“We outhit them today but we didn’t get the hits when we needed to.”
Erickson tripled with one out in the Cabot eighth and scored on Reynolds’ groundout to make it 4-3, but Goff was stranded at first after reaching on an error.
SPORTS>>Joslin savors second shot
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Cabot driver Todd Joslin started his career 15 years ago in the hobbies and won the Beebe Speedway track title in 1999, but the growing cost of racing became too much for him, and by 2002, he was out of it completely.
Enter the Bobs.
Joslin’s second shot at racing has come in the E-mod class driving the No. 81 machine. The car is co-owned by Bobby Merkel and Bob Howard, and the trio works on the car out of Howard’s shop in Beebe.
“We’re about to get it figured out,” Joslin said. “We got crossed up there in the first part of the year. We didn’t have everything just right, but we’re about to get it lined out now.”
After sitting out half a decade, Joslin, 47, is content to be where he’s at right now, back behind the wheel of a competitive race car.
The 81 team started in what was still a growing, economy-modified class during the 2007 season. Joslin, who guesses his number of career victories to be somewhere around 50, describes himself as “the old man of the group.”
Young drivers such as McCrory’s Robert Woodard, Blake Jones of Beebe and Greenbrier driver Lane Cullum give the class a young-gun vibe, but it’s Joslin’s experience and maturity that has lent credibility to a class notorious for rough driving and frequent cautions.
“I’ve been trying to help some of them, because it’s beneficial to us not to have so many cautions,” Joslin said. “I’ve been trying to help some of these guys, because people helped me along the way to get me where I’m at. I’m trying to pass a little bit of it on.”
Jones holds a narrow lead over Joslin and Woodard in the points standings. Woodard looked like the driver to beat before he began to struggle in late May, right about the time Joslin got his first of two feature victories this season.
Jones has been on a tear in recent weeks but has faced frequent challenges from Cullum.
While those four cars make up the bulk of the top five on a weekly basis, there are a host of other competitive drivers, such as Searcy’s Joey Gee and Beebe’s Ryan Redmond.
“The competition is tough. I mean, it’s a lot tougher now than it was even 10 years ago,” Joslin said. “There’s just so much more information on the Internet and things of that nature.
“It’s just a lot easier to get information to set your car up. There use to be only a handful of fast cars, now it’s quite a few more people.”
The “Big Red 81 Machine” has its share of sponsors such as Old Cow Fence Company and Ace Signs out of Cabot, along with Bob Underwood Construction and Howard’s own Slow Bob’s Bike Shop. But there are a couple of more peculiar ads on the door panel.
One of them is for Bob’s Bunny Ranch, which claims to be home to “Some fine bunnies,” but perhaps the most humorous ad is a pitch for faux cosmetic surgeon Emerson Biggins, with the motto “size matters.”
“You’ll have to ask these guys about that — it was all their doings,” Joslin said of Merkel.
Merkel is regarded as one of the more colorful characters on the local racing scene, and said the slightly off-color ads were meant only as a joke.
“Just making it fun. It’s all about having fun,” Merkel said. “I was sitting around playing. Like I said, it’s all in fun; that’s all we wanted to do.”
Away from the track, Joslin works railroad construction, is a six-handicap golfer and enjoys other activities like hunting.
He has raced most of his career at Beebe, but Joslin makes the occasional trip to other tracks in Arkansas.
One such trip paid off big for Joslin and crew when he won a $1,000-to-win E-mod race in Centerville back in late May.
“It’s just the benefit from all the hard work,” Joslin said. “You put in all that time, and when you can come away with a victory, it’s all worth it.”
Leader sportswriter
Cabot driver Todd Joslin started his career 15 years ago in the hobbies and won the Beebe Speedway track title in 1999, but the growing cost of racing became too much for him, and by 2002, he was out of it completely.
Enter the Bobs.
Joslin’s second shot at racing has come in the E-mod class driving the No. 81 machine. The car is co-owned by Bobby Merkel and Bob Howard, and the trio works on the car out of Howard’s shop in Beebe.
“We’re about to get it figured out,” Joslin said. “We got crossed up there in the first part of the year. We didn’t have everything just right, but we’re about to get it lined out now.”
After sitting out half a decade, Joslin, 47, is content to be where he’s at right now, back behind the wheel of a competitive race car.
The 81 team started in what was still a growing, economy-modified class during the 2007 season. Joslin, who guesses his number of career victories to be somewhere around 50, describes himself as “the old man of the group.”
Young drivers such as McCrory’s Robert Woodard, Blake Jones of Beebe and Greenbrier driver Lane Cullum give the class a young-gun vibe, but it’s Joslin’s experience and maturity that has lent credibility to a class notorious for rough driving and frequent cautions.
“I’ve been trying to help some of them, because it’s beneficial to us not to have so many cautions,” Joslin said. “I’ve been trying to help some of these guys, because people helped me along the way to get me where I’m at. I’m trying to pass a little bit of it on.”
Jones holds a narrow lead over Joslin and Woodard in the points standings. Woodard looked like the driver to beat before he began to struggle in late May, right about the time Joslin got his first of two feature victories this season.
Jones has been on a tear in recent weeks but has faced frequent challenges from Cullum.
While those four cars make up the bulk of the top five on a weekly basis, there are a host of other competitive drivers, such as Searcy’s Joey Gee and Beebe’s Ryan Redmond.
“The competition is tough. I mean, it’s a lot tougher now than it was even 10 years ago,” Joslin said. “There’s just so much more information on the Internet and things of that nature.
“It’s just a lot easier to get information to set your car up. There use to be only a handful of fast cars, now it’s quite a few more people.”
The “Big Red 81 Machine” has its share of sponsors such as Old Cow Fence Company and Ace Signs out of Cabot, along with Bob Underwood Construction and Howard’s own Slow Bob’s Bike Shop. But there are a couple of more peculiar ads on the door panel.
One of them is for Bob’s Bunny Ranch, which claims to be home to “Some fine bunnies,” but perhaps the most humorous ad is a pitch for faux cosmetic surgeon Emerson Biggins, with the motto “size matters.”
“You’ll have to ask these guys about that — it was all their doings,” Joslin said of Merkel.
Merkel is regarded as one of the more colorful characters on the local racing scene, and said the slightly off-color ads were meant only as a joke.
“Just making it fun. It’s all about having fun,” Merkel said. “I was sitting around playing. Like I said, it’s all in fun; that’s all we wanted to do.”
Away from the track, Joslin works railroad construction, is a six-handicap golfer and enjoys other activities like hunting.
He has raced most of his career at Beebe, but Joslin makes the occasional trip to other tracks in Arkansas.
One such trip paid off big for Joslin and crew when he won a $1,000-to-win E-mod race in Centerville back in late May.
“It’s just the benefit from all the hard work,” Joslin said. “You put in all that time, and when you can come away with a victory, it’s all worth it.”
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
EDITORIAL >>Keet claims he’ll fly less
To Jim Keet we are all indebted for resurrecting the gubernatorial travel follies. Nothing will come of it, but people enjoy reminders from time to time of the rich tradition of keeping the Arkansas’ chief executives safe and comfortable on their travels around the land.
Keet is running for governor and has been searching for issues that show Mike Beebe as a spendthrift and he as a Scrooge with the taxpayers’ dime. So Keet said Monday that if he is elected, he would demand that the State Police sell its 2007 model King Air turboprop and when he or the State Police needed to travel they would lease a privately owned plane at taxpayers’ expense, which he said would be a saving.
The State Police don’t want to sell the plane and start leasing aircraft because it is used for law-enforcement missions as well as hauling the governor and sometimes the flights have to be in the dead of night or at a moment’s notice. Beebe didn’t evince any interest either way. An aide said it was a State Police plane and its call and that Keet was just trying to grab headlines. He did.
Gubernatorial travel has been a political issue off and on for 50 years. Until the 1990s, governors were driven to and from work and to functions around the state in state cars by his State Police-provided security detail. If governors needed to fly someplace, they would find a private plane and reimburse the owner. Bill Clinton was the first governor to do much of that.
Winthrop Rockefeller owned his own Lear jet, which flew him around the state and across the country, and he didn’t charge the state for it. Governors’ use of state vehicles and State Police drivers and bodyguards was frequent campaign fodder.
Gov. Jim Guy Tucker took a few trips in the ’90s on the Army surplus helicopters or small planes that had been donated to the State Police by the federal government for law-enforcement work. The new lieutenant governor, Mike Huckabee, heard about it in 1993 and began using the planes, too. In Gov.Tucker’s last 18 months in office, he flew State Police planes (he was a pilot and often flew them himself) 49 times and Huckabee flew in them 30 times.
When Huckabee became governor in July 1996, he told the State Police to buy a better plane for him and to include it in the State Police appropriation so it would not appear as an expense of the governor’s office. The State Police bought a 1981 model King Air and it was used almost exclusively by Huckabee, his wife Janet and their family, friends and staff. They used the King Air or smaller State Police planes to go to their weekend retreat on Lake Greeson near Murfreesboro. State Police pilots flew Huckabee about 1,500 hours on the King Air — to Republican conventions and conferences and political events around the state and country. Mrs. Huckabee and her friends used it often, several times to visit a friend in Oklahoma City. The State Police log for the plane always said “official travel” and the governor’s office always refused to identify Mrs. Huckabee’s official duties that caused her to need the law-enforcement plane.
When Beebe took office in 2007, the State Police wanted to refurbish the King Air or buy a new one because Huckabee had worn it out. It would have taken $800,000 to renovate it and make it safe and it still would be 25 years old. The agency decided to buy a new one for $4 million. The State Police said it is essential for its criminal work, citing examples this year when the plane was used at a moment’s notice to fly evidence from a shooting of two West Memphis police officers for testing and a quick flight to Washington to interview a suspect in a murder in Cross County.
Gov. Beebe has used the State Police far less often than Huckabee used it. For instance, Beebe in his first year in office flew out of the state only twice compared with Huckabee’s 21 state-paid trips out of the state in his last year.
Keet said he’s not going to offer any particular criticism of the way Gov. Beebe or Mike Huckabee used the planes. We imagine not. Huckabee, now a Florida resident, is supporting Keet for governor, including making a nice donation to his campaign. A protracted discussion of taxpayer-supported travel will not make Huckabee happy.
Keet figured he could lease a plane for $2,500 an hour and save the state some money. But what if Keet traveled as much as Mike Huckabee did instead of the few trips that Beebe takes? That would be almost $4 million in lease expenses right there.
And what if Keet’s wife, like Huckabee’s, wanted to use it for her pleasure as well? The state would be losing some big bucks.
If Jim Keet is elected governor, let’s revisit this issue again a year from now. Mike Huckabee used to talk a good game of tight-fisted budgeting and cutting taxes — in fact, he still does — but he became the biggest spendthrift and taxer in the state’s history. Who can say? His protégé might be different.
Keet is running for governor and has been searching for issues that show Mike Beebe as a spendthrift and he as a Scrooge with the taxpayers’ dime. So Keet said Monday that if he is elected, he would demand that the State Police sell its 2007 model King Air turboprop and when he or the State Police needed to travel they would lease a privately owned plane at taxpayers’ expense, which he said would be a saving.
The State Police don’t want to sell the plane and start leasing aircraft because it is used for law-enforcement missions as well as hauling the governor and sometimes the flights have to be in the dead of night or at a moment’s notice. Beebe didn’t evince any interest either way. An aide said it was a State Police plane and its call and that Keet was just trying to grab headlines. He did.
Gubernatorial travel has been a political issue off and on for 50 years. Until the 1990s, governors were driven to and from work and to functions around the state in state cars by his State Police-provided security detail. If governors needed to fly someplace, they would find a private plane and reimburse the owner. Bill Clinton was the first governor to do much of that.
Winthrop Rockefeller owned his own Lear jet, which flew him around the state and across the country, and he didn’t charge the state for it. Governors’ use of state vehicles and State Police drivers and bodyguards was frequent campaign fodder.
Gov. Jim Guy Tucker took a few trips in the ’90s on the Army surplus helicopters or small planes that had been donated to the State Police by the federal government for law-enforcement work. The new lieutenant governor, Mike Huckabee, heard about it in 1993 and began using the planes, too. In Gov.Tucker’s last 18 months in office, he flew State Police planes (he was a pilot and often flew them himself) 49 times and Huckabee flew in them 30 times.
When Huckabee became governor in July 1996, he told the State Police to buy a better plane for him and to include it in the State Police appropriation so it would not appear as an expense of the governor’s office. The State Police bought a 1981 model King Air and it was used almost exclusively by Huckabee, his wife Janet and their family, friends and staff. They used the King Air or smaller State Police planes to go to their weekend retreat on Lake Greeson near Murfreesboro. State Police pilots flew Huckabee about 1,500 hours on the King Air — to Republican conventions and conferences and political events around the state and country. Mrs. Huckabee and her friends used it often, several times to visit a friend in Oklahoma City. The State Police log for the plane always said “official travel” and the governor’s office always refused to identify Mrs. Huckabee’s official duties that caused her to need the law-enforcement plane.
When Beebe took office in 2007, the State Police wanted to refurbish the King Air or buy a new one because Huckabee had worn it out. It would have taken $800,000 to renovate it and make it safe and it still would be 25 years old. The agency decided to buy a new one for $4 million. The State Police said it is essential for its criminal work, citing examples this year when the plane was used at a moment’s notice to fly evidence from a shooting of two West Memphis police officers for testing and a quick flight to Washington to interview a suspect in a murder in Cross County.
Gov. Beebe has used the State Police far less often than Huckabee used it. For instance, Beebe in his first year in office flew out of the state only twice compared with Huckabee’s 21 state-paid trips out of the state in his last year.
Keet said he’s not going to offer any particular criticism of the way Gov. Beebe or Mike Huckabee used the planes. We imagine not. Huckabee, now a Florida resident, is supporting Keet for governor, including making a nice donation to his campaign. A protracted discussion of taxpayer-supported travel will not make Huckabee happy.
Keet figured he could lease a plane for $2,500 an hour and save the state some money. But what if Keet traveled as much as Mike Huckabee did instead of the few trips that Beebe takes? That would be almost $4 million in lease expenses right there.
And what if Keet’s wife, like Huckabee’s, wanted to use it for her pleasure as well? The state would be losing some big bucks.
If Jim Keet is elected governor, let’s revisit this issue again a year from now. Mike Huckabee used to talk a good game of tight-fisted budgeting and cutting taxes — in fact, he still does — but he became the biggest spendthrift and taxer in the state’s history. Who can say? His protégé might be different.
TOP STORY > >Gravel Ridge gets city council’s focus
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
Making Sherwood a more beautiful place and keeping it that way was a major theme of the city council’s regular monthly meeting on Monday.
The council passed resolutions condemning five properties, four of which are located at Gravel Ridge Trailer Park at 7922 Jacksonville-Cato Road and owned by Milton Quijano. The condemned properties at the trailer park are lots D, G, J, and I.
The other property condemned by the council is a structure that had been an extension built onto a trailer, since removed. It is located at 5600 Caple Lane and belongs to Ruthie Mae Stanfield.
The owners of the condemned properties have 30 days to refurbish or demolish them.
The council agreed to table a proposal to condemn another property – the burned remains of a trailer at 5939 Roundtop Road owned by Michael Goshen – so that the police could finish collecting evidence in the investigation into the fire.
Council members Steve Fender and Sheila Sulcer – who is challenging incumbent Virginia Hillman in the race for mayor – raised concerns about the money being spent by the city to condemn properties.
Sulcer said that more than $90,000 accrued over several years remains uncollected.
“There are other problems, such as drainage” for which the money could be used, Sulcer said.
Hillman said she considers the money a “small price for keeping the city clean” and she is “in favor of continuing to spend the money” to do so.
She added that during the campaign to annex Gravel Ridge, residents said that they wanted help from the city to clean up the area if annexed.
“We are doing what Gravel Ridge residents wanted us to do,” Hillman said.
City attorney Steve Cobb said now that liens are good for 10 years rather than only 18 months as had once been the case, it is more cost effective now for the city to file a lien to collect from a property owner.
“There is a chance that in that time, someone will want to do something with a property, and before they can do anything, they will have to pay us back, if they want clean title.”
Cobb said state statute provides a way to tack costs for property cleanup, mowing or demolition on county property tax bills.
He plans on having a proposal to the city council about that in September.
The council also considered a proposed ordinance with more stringent requirements for maintenance of property. It addresses mowing grass, keeping lots clear of trash and getting rid of items that would hold water and be mosquito breeding grounds.
The new ordinance would require that grass be cut at six inches on lots in residential districts and on industrial and commercial properties with structures.
Dead trees, vegetation or other conditions that pose a hazard to a property or surrounding property would also be in violation of the new ordinance.
According to the proposed ordinance, the city would notify delinquent property owners in writing. After seven days, if an owner did not comply, the city could then enter the property, clean it up and charge the cost against the property in the form of a lien.
In the event of out-of-town owners who cannot be located, the city would post a notice on the premises and send a registered letter to the last known address.
Alderman Charles Harmon proposed adding to the proposed ordinance a measure that would require inclusion in letters to property owners a list of local lawn-maintenance companies’ contact information. That way, out-of-town owners could make arrangements to get the grass cut.
“Let’s make it as easy for them as we possibly can,” Harmon said.
The council heard the first reading of the ordinance. Sug-gestions from residents for revisions to the ordinance, which will be considered again in August, are welcome, Hillman said.
The council approved an emergency request to release $49,278 from the city sewer budget to replace a 600-foot length of sewer main on the east side of Brockington Road. A recent inspection deemed the length in poor condition and unable to withstand widening of the roadway, now under way.
The work will be done by Arkansas Cleaning and Televising of Little Rock. The one other bid for the job was $64,400.
The existing plastic pipe has “a very thin wall” and “actually, rocks are protruding into the pipe,” city engineer Ellen Norvell told the council. “We anticipate collapse or problems,” if the pipe is not replaced.
The sewer main will not be moved so as to not run under the pavement, Norvell explained, because there is no room along the road to put it.
“It is not something we normally would do, but it is a very congested roadway,” said Norvell said, adding that the plastic pipe will be replaced with heavy iron pipe that could last 100 years or more.
Norvell said that the emergency appropriation was needed to keep the road work on schedule. The project is to be completed by Nov. 1, 2010.
The council passed a resolution creating a military-liaison committee and appointing Alderman Lex “Butch” Davis as its chairman.
The purpose of the committee, Davis explained after the meeting, would be “military appreciation” and other activities to support past and present members of the military, especially those with disabilities.
Davis plans to meet with members of similar groups in other cities, including Jacksonville and North Little Rock and Gov. Beebe, before setting an agenda for the committee or making recommendations to Hillman for committee appointees.
“Military experience is not necessary” to serve on the committee, Davis pointed out.
Davis, a Vietnam War veteran, said that he wants to be sure those who have served their country in the military receive the proper recognition.
“Having gone through Viet-nam and not being thought very kindly of, I don’t want anybody in the military to go through that; it is totally unnecessary,” Davis said.
Leader staff writer
Making Sherwood a more beautiful place and keeping it that way was a major theme of the city council’s regular monthly meeting on Monday.
The council passed resolutions condemning five properties, four of which are located at Gravel Ridge Trailer Park at 7922 Jacksonville-Cato Road and owned by Milton Quijano. The condemned properties at the trailer park are lots D, G, J, and I.
The other property condemned by the council is a structure that had been an extension built onto a trailer, since removed. It is located at 5600 Caple Lane and belongs to Ruthie Mae Stanfield.
The owners of the condemned properties have 30 days to refurbish or demolish them.
The council agreed to table a proposal to condemn another property – the burned remains of a trailer at 5939 Roundtop Road owned by Michael Goshen – so that the police could finish collecting evidence in the investigation into the fire.
Council members Steve Fender and Sheila Sulcer – who is challenging incumbent Virginia Hillman in the race for mayor – raised concerns about the money being spent by the city to condemn properties.
Sulcer said that more than $90,000 accrued over several years remains uncollected.
“There are other problems, such as drainage” for which the money could be used, Sulcer said.
Hillman said she considers the money a “small price for keeping the city clean” and she is “in favor of continuing to spend the money” to do so.
She added that during the campaign to annex Gravel Ridge, residents said that they wanted help from the city to clean up the area if annexed.
“We are doing what Gravel Ridge residents wanted us to do,” Hillman said.
City attorney Steve Cobb said now that liens are good for 10 years rather than only 18 months as had once been the case, it is more cost effective now for the city to file a lien to collect from a property owner.
“There is a chance that in that time, someone will want to do something with a property, and before they can do anything, they will have to pay us back, if they want clean title.”
Cobb said state statute provides a way to tack costs for property cleanup, mowing or demolition on county property tax bills.
He plans on having a proposal to the city council about that in September.
The council also considered a proposed ordinance with more stringent requirements for maintenance of property. It addresses mowing grass, keeping lots clear of trash and getting rid of items that would hold water and be mosquito breeding grounds.
The new ordinance would require that grass be cut at six inches on lots in residential districts and on industrial and commercial properties with structures.
Dead trees, vegetation or other conditions that pose a hazard to a property or surrounding property would also be in violation of the new ordinance.
According to the proposed ordinance, the city would notify delinquent property owners in writing. After seven days, if an owner did not comply, the city could then enter the property, clean it up and charge the cost against the property in the form of a lien.
In the event of out-of-town owners who cannot be located, the city would post a notice on the premises and send a registered letter to the last known address.
Alderman Charles Harmon proposed adding to the proposed ordinance a measure that would require inclusion in letters to property owners a list of local lawn-maintenance companies’ contact information. That way, out-of-town owners could make arrangements to get the grass cut.
“Let’s make it as easy for them as we possibly can,” Harmon said.
The council heard the first reading of the ordinance. Sug-gestions from residents for revisions to the ordinance, which will be considered again in August, are welcome, Hillman said.
The council approved an emergency request to release $49,278 from the city sewer budget to replace a 600-foot length of sewer main on the east side of Brockington Road. A recent inspection deemed the length in poor condition and unable to withstand widening of the roadway, now under way.
The work will be done by Arkansas Cleaning and Televising of Little Rock. The one other bid for the job was $64,400.
The existing plastic pipe has “a very thin wall” and “actually, rocks are protruding into the pipe,” city engineer Ellen Norvell told the council. “We anticipate collapse or problems,” if the pipe is not replaced.
The sewer main will not be moved so as to not run under the pavement, Norvell explained, because there is no room along the road to put it.
“It is not something we normally would do, but it is a very congested roadway,” said Norvell said, adding that the plastic pipe will be replaced with heavy iron pipe that could last 100 years or more.
Norvell said that the emergency appropriation was needed to keep the road work on schedule. The project is to be completed by Nov. 1, 2010.
The council passed a resolution creating a military-liaison committee and appointing Alderman Lex “Butch” Davis as its chairman.
The purpose of the committee, Davis explained after the meeting, would be “military appreciation” and other activities to support past and present members of the military, especially those with disabilities.
Davis plans to meet with members of similar groups in other cities, including Jacksonville and North Little Rock and Gov. Beebe, before setting an agenda for the committee or making recommendations to Hillman for committee appointees.
“Military experience is not necessary” to serve on the committee, Davis pointed out.
Davis, a Vietnam War veteran, said that he wants to be sure those who have served their country in the military receive the proper recognition.
“Having gone through Viet-nam and not being thought very kindly of, I don’t want anybody in the military to go through that; it is totally unnecessary,” Davis said.
TOP STORY > >Gravel Ridge gets city council’s focus
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
Making Sherwood a more beautiful place and keeping it that way was a major theme of the city council’s regular monthly meeting on Monday.
The council passed resolutions condemning five properties, four of which are located at Gravel Ridge Trailer Park at 7922 Jacksonville-Cato Road and owned by Milton Quijano. The condemned properties at the trailer park are lots D, G, J, and I.
The other property condemned by the council is a structure that had been an extension built onto a trailer, since removed. It is located at 5600 Caple Lane and belongs to Ruthie Mae Stanfield.
The owners of the condemned properties have 30 days to refurbish or demolish them.
The council agreed to table a proposal to condemn another property – the burned remains of a trailer at 5939 Roundtop Road owned by Michael Goshen – so that the police could finish collecting evidence in the investigation into the fire.
Council members Steve Fender and Sheila Sulcer – who is challenging incumbent Virginia Hillman in the race for mayor – raised concerns about the money being spent by the city to condemn properties.
Sulcer said that more than $90,000 accrued over several years remains uncollected.
“There are other problems, such as drainage” for which the money could be used, Sulcer said.
Hillman said she considers the money a “small price for keeping the city clean” and she is “in favor of continuing to spend the money” to do so.
She added that during the campaign to annex Gravel Ridge, residents said that they wanted help from the city to clean up the area if annexed.
“We are doing what Gravel Ridge residents wanted us to do,” Hillman said.
City attorney Steve Cobb said now that liens are good for 10 years rather than only 18 months as had once been the case, it is more cost effective now for the city to file a lien to collect from a property owner.
“There is a chance that in that time, someone will want to do something with a property, and before they can do anything, they will have to pay us back, if they want clean title.”
Cobb said state statute provides a way to tack costs for property cleanup, mowing or demolition on county property tax bills.
He plans on having a proposal to the city council about that in September.
The council also considered a proposed ordinance with more stringent requirements for maintenance of property. It addresses mowing grass, keeping lots clear of trash and getting rid of items that would hold water and be mosquito breeding grounds.
The new ordinance would require that grass be cut at six inches on lots in residential districts and on industrial and commercial properties with structures.
Dead trees, vegetation or other conditions that pose a hazard to a property or surrounding property would also be in violation of the new ordinance.
According to the proposed ordinance, the city would notify delinquent property owners in writing. After seven days, if an owner did not comply, the city could then enter the property, clean it up and charge the cost against the property in the form of a lien.
In the event of out-of-town owners who cannot be located, the city would post a notice on the premises and send a registered letter to the last known address.
Alderman Charles Harmon proposed adding to the proposed ordinance a measure that would require inclusion in letters to property owners a list of local lawn-maintenance companies’ contact information. That way, out-of-town owners could make arrangements to get the grass cut.
“Let’s make it as easy for them as we possibly can,” Harmon said.
The council heard the first reading of the ordinance. Sug-gestions from residents for revisions to the ordinance, which will be considered again in August, are welcome, Hillman said.
The council approved an emergency request to release $49,278 from the city sewer budget to replace a 600-foot length of sewer main on the east side of Brockington Road. A recent inspection deemed the length in poor condition and unable to withstand widening of the roadway, now under way.
The work will be done by Arkansas Cleaning and Televising of Little Rock. The one other bid for the job was $64,400.
The existing plastic pipe has “a very thin wall” and “actually, rocks are protruding into the pipe,” city engineer Ellen Norvell told the council. “We anticipate collapse or problems,” if the pipe is not replaced.
The sewer main will not be moved so as to not run under the pavement, Norvell explained, because there is no room along the road to put it.
“It is not something we normally would do, but it is a very congested roadway,” said Norvell said, adding that the plastic pipe will be replaced with heavy iron pipe that could last 100 years or more.
Norvell said that the emergency appropriation was needed to keep the road work on schedule. The project is to be completed by Nov. 1, 2010.
The council passed a resolution creating a military-liaison committee and appointing Alderman Lex “Butch” Davis as its chairman.
The purpose of the committee, Davis explained after the meeting, would be “military appreciation” and other activities to support past and present members of the military, especially those with disabilities.
Davis plans to meet with members of similar groups in other cities, including Jacksonville and North Little Rock and Gov. Beebe, before setting an agenda for the committee or making recommendations to Hillman for committee appointees.
“Military experience is not necessary” to serve on the committee, Davis pointed out.
Davis, a Vietnam War veteran, said that he wants to be sure those who have served their country in the military receive the proper recognition.
“Having gone through Viet-nam and not being thought very kindly of, I don’t want anybody in the military to go through that; it is totally unnecessary,” Davis said.
Leader staff writer
Making Sherwood a more beautiful place and keeping it that way was a major theme of the city council’s regular monthly meeting on Monday.
The council passed resolutions condemning five properties, four of which are located at Gravel Ridge Trailer Park at 7922 Jacksonville-Cato Road and owned by Milton Quijano. The condemned properties at the trailer park are lots D, G, J, and I.
The other property condemned by the council is a structure that had been an extension built onto a trailer, since removed. It is located at 5600 Caple Lane and belongs to Ruthie Mae Stanfield.
The owners of the condemned properties have 30 days to refurbish or demolish them.
The council agreed to table a proposal to condemn another property – the burned remains of a trailer at 5939 Roundtop Road owned by Michael Goshen – so that the police could finish collecting evidence in the investigation into the fire.
Council members Steve Fender and Sheila Sulcer – who is challenging incumbent Virginia Hillman in the race for mayor – raised concerns about the money being spent by the city to condemn properties.
Sulcer said that more than $90,000 accrued over several years remains uncollected.
“There are other problems, such as drainage” for which the money could be used, Sulcer said.
Hillman said she considers the money a “small price for keeping the city clean” and she is “in favor of continuing to spend the money” to do so.
She added that during the campaign to annex Gravel Ridge, residents said that they wanted help from the city to clean up the area if annexed.
“We are doing what Gravel Ridge residents wanted us to do,” Hillman said.
City attorney Steve Cobb said now that liens are good for 10 years rather than only 18 months as had once been the case, it is more cost effective now for the city to file a lien to collect from a property owner.
“There is a chance that in that time, someone will want to do something with a property, and before they can do anything, they will have to pay us back, if they want clean title.”
Cobb said state statute provides a way to tack costs for property cleanup, mowing or demolition on county property tax bills.
He plans on having a proposal to the city council about that in September.
The council also considered a proposed ordinance with more stringent requirements for maintenance of property. It addresses mowing grass, keeping lots clear of trash and getting rid of items that would hold water and be mosquito breeding grounds.
The new ordinance would require that grass be cut at six inches on lots in residential districts and on industrial and commercial properties with structures.
Dead trees, vegetation or other conditions that pose a hazard to a property or surrounding property would also be in violation of the new ordinance.
According to the proposed ordinance, the city would notify delinquent property owners in writing. After seven days, if an owner did not comply, the city could then enter the property, clean it up and charge the cost against the property in the form of a lien.
In the event of out-of-town owners who cannot be located, the city would post a notice on the premises and send a registered letter to the last known address.
Alderman Charles Harmon proposed adding to the proposed ordinance a measure that would require inclusion in letters to property owners a list of local lawn-maintenance companies’ contact information. That way, out-of-town owners could make arrangements to get the grass cut.
“Let’s make it as easy for them as we possibly can,” Harmon said.
The council heard the first reading of the ordinance. Sug-gestions from residents for revisions to the ordinance, which will be considered again in August, are welcome, Hillman said.
The council approved an emergency request to release $49,278 from the city sewer budget to replace a 600-foot length of sewer main on the east side of Brockington Road. A recent inspection deemed the length in poor condition and unable to withstand widening of the roadway, now under way.
The work will be done by Arkansas Cleaning and Televising of Little Rock. The one other bid for the job was $64,400.
The existing plastic pipe has “a very thin wall” and “actually, rocks are protruding into the pipe,” city engineer Ellen Norvell told the council. “We anticipate collapse or problems,” if the pipe is not replaced.
The sewer main will not be moved so as to not run under the pavement, Norvell explained, because there is no room along the road to put it.
“It is not something we normally would do, but it is a very congested roadway,” said Norvell said, adding that the plastic pipe will be replaced with heavy iron pipe that could last 100 years or more.
Norvell said that the emergency appropriation was needed to keep the road work on schedule. The project is to be completed by Nov. 1, 2010.
The council passed a resolution creating a military-liaison committee and appointing Alderman Lex “Butch” Davis as its chairman.
The purpose of the committee, Davis explained after the meeting, would be “military appreciation” and other activities to support past and present members of the military, especially those with disabilities.
Davis plans to meet with members of similar groups in other cities, including Jacksonville and North Little Rock and Gov. Beebe, before setting an agenda for the committee or making recommendations to Hillman for committee appointees.
“Military experience is not necessary” to serve on the committee, Davis pointed out.
Davis, a Vietnam War veteran, said that he wants to be sure those who have served their country in the military receive the proper recognition.
“Having gone through Viet-nam and not being thought very kindly of, I don’t want anybody in the military to go through that; it is totally unnecessary,” Davis said.
TOP STORY > >Resident requests Sherwood council deal with flooding
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
A Sherwood resident may finally get some relief from a nightmare of ruined property and expense caused by a blocked drainage ditch behind his house.
Before the Sherwood City Council on Monday, Stonehill subdivision homeowner Jim Steadman described what he has dealt with since moving into the custom-built home at 2956 Marble Cove in 2006. After listening to his woes, Mayor Virginia Hillman promised the ditch would be cleaned up.
The drainage ditch is on property that belongs to the city.
Steadman said that a dead tree, other vegetation and rubbish, including building materials, metal drums and tires, causes rainwater to back up into his yard and those of his neighbors. The last time that happened, in a storm a few weeks ago, water was “less than one foot” from coming into his house, but he dashed out and removed a section of privacy fence in time for the water to flow out of his yard and into Indianhead Lake.
Steadman said that his yard floods at least twice a year, but that repeated attempts over the years to interest the city in doing anything about it have been to no avail.
Lanny Leder, the director of Sherwood Public Works, has refused to help because the property is in a flood plain, which it is not, Steadman said. Ellen Norvell, the city engineer, “has been supporting (cleaning the ditch) 110 percent, but I can’t get public works to do anything.”
Each time Steadman’s yard floods, so does his in-ground swimming pool. Ridding it of fish, snakes, mosquitoes and debris costs him about $500 in chemicals and four days of work.
“It hasn’t been a real treat,” Steadman said.
When the ditch is cleaned out, Steadman said, there has not been a flooding problem, even during the heavy rains last Christmas that swamped area streets and homes.
Now that he has elevated the two motors for his pool on concrete blocks, they will no longer be ruined, which each time has cost $400 for replacement, Steadman said.
Steadman said that the problem has worsened with the construction of Miller’s Crossing subdivision, which is above his property. He wondered if a “down-flow study” had been conducted to assess impacts before the development got under way.
“We will do what we can to take care of the debris,” Hillman said.
On Tuesday, Leder was out of the office and not available for comment.
Leader staff writer
A Sherwood resident may finally get some relief from a nightmare of ruined property and expense caused by a blocked drainage ditch behind his house.
Before the Sherwood City Council on Monday, Stonehill subdivision homeowner Jim Steadman described what he has dealt with since moving into the custom-built home at 2956 Marble Cove in 2006. After listening to his woes, Mayor Virginia Hillman promised the ditch would be cleaned up.
The drainage ditch is on property that belongs to the city.
Steadman said that a dead tree, other vegetation and rubbish, including building materials, metal drums and tires, causes rainwater to back up into his yard and those of his neighbors. The last time that happened, in a storm a few weeks ago, water was “less than one foot” from coming into his house, but he dashed out and removed a section of privacy fence in time for the water to flow out of his yard and into Indianhead Lake.
Steadman said that his yard floods at least twice a year, but that repeated attempts over the years to interest the city in doing anything about it have been to no avail.
Lanny Leder, the director of Sherwood Public Works, has refused to help because the property is in a flood plain, which it is not, Steadman said. Ellen Norvell, the city engineer, “has been supporting (cleaning the ditch) 110 percent, but I can’t get public works to do anything.”
Each time Steadman’s yard floods, so does his in-ground swimming pool. Ridding it of fish, snakes, mosquitoes and debris costs him about $500 in chemicals and four days of work.
“It hasn’t been a real treat,” Steadman said.
When the ditch is cleaned out, Steadman said, there has not been a flooding problem, even during the heavy rains last Christmas that swamped area streets and homes.
Now that he has elevated the two motors for his pool on concrete blocks, they will no longer be ruined, which each time has cost $400 for replacement, Steadman said.
Steadman said that the problem has worsened with the construction of Miller’s Crossing subdivision, which is above his property. He wondered if a “down-flow study” had been conducted to assess impacts before the development got under way.
“We will do what we can to take care of the debris,” Hillman said.
On Tuesday, Leder was out of the office and not available for comment.
TOP STORY > >Cabot daycare wins top state rating
By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
Cabot Zones Kidz Spotz has received a quality-app-roved child care rating from the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
Debra Browning bought Cabot Zones at 103 Kilgore Drive in 1998. It was a teenage recreation center with pool tables, video games and a dance hall. In 2002, Cabot Zones switched focus to become a child care facility. She said for two years it was a before- and after-school program.
Browning said Cabot Zones came into the Better Beginnings program, the state’s quality rating-improvement system for early education and care a year ago when it was a pilot program. In January, Cabot Zones learned it was quality rated. Last May, the center became Better Beginnings certified.
Browning said she has applied and is on the list to be an Arkansas Better Chance Pre-K program and an early Head Start program.
She said Better Beginnings “provides more curriculum-centered activities versus empty time. Children learn while they play and do not realize it.”
“I felt the kids weren’t doing enough. I didn’t think they were having fun. It was so rigid. I thought there should be something better here,” Browning said.
She said Cabot Zones had to be completely restructured. Before participating in the Better Beginnings program, children at the child-care center used the pool tables, played outside or watched television. Now the center is divided into learning areas — science, reading, animal care, arts and crafts, and block-play games.
There are imagination-based activities for children. They can pretend to be working in a pizza restaurant, being in a kitchenette, dress up with different costumes or playing with dolls. A group of three to four children rotate to different learning areas every 45 minutes. Browning said there is a minimum of time spent watching television.
“We don’t force children to do anything they don’t want to do. It is a free choice. If they don’t want to do an art project they can play with the animals,” Browning said.
She said the younger children go to learning areas with numbers and letters. It is all geared towards learning.
Child-care center director Lindsey Discus said, “It is more organized. Things run more smoothly; before it was like a babysitter, now there is a schedule. Kids know what they will be doing.”
“Children don’t want to leave, because they want to stay and play. Kids want to be here. (They’re) excited to be learning and playing,” Discus said.
Cabot Zones has separate rooms, one is for 6-week-olds to 5-years-olds and the other room is for 6-to 12-year-olds.
Browning said that 50 percent of the staff is child-development-accreditation certified. Employees attend classes on child development at Arkansas State University Beebe. The classes are paid in part with grants from the state’s Department of Human Services.
She said 90 percent of her staff have been working at Cabot Zones for three years or more. Browning says she hires employees experienced with a child-care background. Cabot Zones averages 10 employees. Browning said the center is licensed for 117 children after school, a maximum of 47 children in daycare and 24 children in Pre-K classes.
Browning said children atten-ding Cabot Zones eat nutritious home-cooked meals and snacks. She limits serving processed foods. She said children are taught nutrition and how to eat balanced meals.
On the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services website, there are five “quality” approved child-care centers in Cabot including, besides Cabot Zones Kidz Spotz, Cabot United Methodist Church CDC, Westside Pre-School, Northside Elementary Pre-K and Cabot Public Schools Pre-K.
Cabot Zones has a website at www.cabotzones.com.
Leader staff writer
Cabot Zones Kidz Spotz has received a quality-app-roved child care rating from the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
Debra Browning bought Cabot Zones at 103 Kilgore Drive in 1998. It was a teenage recreation center with pool tables, video games and a dance hall. In 2002, Cabot Zones switched focus to become a child care facility. She said for two years it was a before- and after-school program.
Browning said Cabot Zones came into the Better Beginnings program, the state’s quality rating-improvement system for early education and care a year ago when it was a pilot program. In January, Cabot Zones learned it was quality rated. Last May, the center became Better Beginnings certified.
Browning said she has applied and is on the list to be an Arkansas Better Chance Pre-K program and an early Head Start program.
She said Better Beginnings “provides more curriculum-centered activities versus empty time. Children learn while they play and do not realize it.”
“I felt the kids weren’t doing enough. I didn’t think they were having fun. It was so rigid. I thought there should be something better here,” Browning said.
She said Cabot Zones had to be completely restructured. Before participating in the Better Beginnings program, children at the child-care center used the pool tables, played outside or watched television. Now the center is divided into learning areas — science, reading, animal care, arts and crafts, and block-play games.
There are imagination-based activities for children. They can pretend to be working in a pizza restaurant, being in a kitchenette, dress up with different costumes or playing with dolls. A group of three to four children rotate to different learning areas every 45 minutes. Browning said there is a minimum of time spent watching television.
“We don’t force children to do anything they don’t want to do. It is a free choice. If they don’t want to do an art project they can play with the animals,” Browning said.
She said the younger children go to learning areas with numbers and letters. It is all geared towards learning.
Child-care center director Lindsey Discus said, “It is more organized. Things run more smoothly; before it was like a babysitter, now there is a schedule. Kids know what they will be doing.”
“Children don’t want to leave, because they want to stay and play. Kids want to be here. (They’re) excited to be learning and playing,” Discus said.
Cabot Zones has separate rooms, one is for 6-week-olds to 5-years-olds and the other room is for 6-to 12-year-olds.
Browning said that 50 percent of the staff is child-development-accreditation certified. Employees attend classes on child development at Arkansas State University Beebe. The classes are paid in part with grants from the state’s Department of Human Services.
She said 90 percent of her staff have been working at Cabot Zones for three years or more. Browning says she hires employees experienced with a child-care background. Cabot Zones averages 10 employees. Browning said the center is licensed for 117 children after school, a maximum of 47 children in daycare and 24 children in Pre-K classes.
Browning said children atten-ding Cabot Zones eat nutritious home-cooked meals and snacks. She limits serving processed foods. She said children are taught nutrition and how to eat balanced meals.
On the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services website, there are five “quality” approved child-care centers in Cabot including, besides Cabot Zones Kidz Spotz, Cabot United Methodist Church CDC, Westside Pre-School, Northside Elementary Pre-K and Cabot Public Schools Pre-K.
Cabot Zones has a website at www.cabotzones.com.
TOP STORY > >Natural-gas industry comes with a price
By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
The natural gas industry that has developed in Arkansas since 2004 is reputed to have an economic impact of $22 billion through 2012.
But not everyone is pleased it has moved into the Natural State despite the estimated 11,000 jobs that came with it.
They don’t like the drilling rigs that operate around the clock or the countless trucks that are damaging their roads, damage that Dan Flowers, Highway Department director, says will cost $218.7 million to repair. They are concerned that runoff from the construction of roads to access the almost 2,500 gas wells is carrying silt and chemicals that is killing aquatic life.
Although Lawrence Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, says none of the 30 or so reported problems with water wells have been caused by the drilling, even some of those with new-found wealth from gas production fear their water wells may become contaminated from the fracturing process that breaks the shale so the gas can be extracted.
They have seen “Gasland,” the documentary on the industry that shows they have seen online the bottles of discolored water taken from Arkansas water wells after gas wells were drilled.
Then there is the 42-inch gas pipe that runs across wide open land, across fences and gardens. It will be completed this year.
That 185-mile pipeline from Conway to Panola County, Miss., is expected to produce more that 2,000 jobs and pay Arkansas workers $52 million. Building the line is the only way to get the gas out of the state and to customers in the North because the existing line can no longer handle the load.
Owned by a private corporation, it will provide a service for other private companies, but the property owners who provide the right-of-way for the big line have no choice about selling the use of their land. They either negotiate for a fair price or they go to court and let a judge determine the price because the company has legal authority to declare eminent domain and take what it needs.
Last year, State Rep. Jonathan Dismang (R-Beebe) sponsored a bill restricting private oil and gas companies from claiming eminent domain for wells and the gathering lines that connect wells and feed the larger lines, but his bill died in the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Develop-ment.
And in March, the state Supreme Court upheld a Cleburne County Circuit Court ruling that said the state law giving eminent domain to all pipeline companies, Arkansas Code Annotated section 23-15-101, is not unconstitutional.
In the Beebe area, on the fringe of the Fayetteville Shale production area or “play” as it is called, some residents of the Opal Community are upset about the odor from Arkansas Reclamation, which reclaims the diesel from drill cuttings. And they are concerned that chemicals from the plant are polluting White Oak Creek, which runs behind it.
About 200 of those with questions and concerns about the industry that has developed in the Fayetteville Shale, which lies a mile or so underground in White, Van Buren, Faulkner, Cleburne, Conway, Franklin, Independence, Johnson and Pope counties, attended a presentation in Clinton on July 16 by Calvin Tillman, mayor of Dish, Texas, who told them they’d better get control of the situation now before it is too late. They need to get the state to regulate the gas industry.
Clark, Texas, re-incorporated in 2000 as Dish. It is known as the little town in north Texas that changed its name to get free satellite TV for its 180 residents.
But now, because of Tillman’s appearance on “Gasland,” his blog and his public appearances, it is becoming known as the little town that has been taken over by the gas industry. In a two-square-mile area, Dish has 18 gas wells, 20 pipelines, 11 compressor stations and three metering stations.
“I’m not anti-drilling. I’m not anti-industry. I just think there is a better way,” Tillman told his audience at the Clinton Senior Center.
The big companies know how to get the gas out of the shale with less impact to the land and the people who live there, he said.
But they can’t justify the added cost to their stockholders unless the state requires that they follow those better practices.
In January, after repeated complaints that the chemicals in the air from the compressor stations were making Dish residents ill, the Texas Health Department tested the young adult members of 28 households who voluntarily gave blood and urine samples for chemical testing.
In May, preliminary reports showed that 65 percent of the households had detectable levels of toluene, 53 percent had detectable levels of m-/p-Xylene, and 46 percent had o-Xylene in their systems, all known chemicals of natural-gas production that had also been detected in the air.
“Everything we found in our air studies, we found in our citizens,” Tillman said.
Leader staff writer
The natural gas industry that has developed in Arkansas since 2004 is reputed to have an economic impact of $22 billion through 2012.
But not everyone is pleased it has moved into the Natural State despite the estimated 11,000 jobs that came with it.
They don’t like the drilling rigs that operate around the clock or the countless trucks that are damaging their roads, damage that Dan Flowers, Highway Department director, says will cost $218.7 million to repair. They are concerned that runoff from the construction of roads to access the almost 2,500 gas wells is carrying silt and chemicals that is killing aquatic life.
Although Lawrence Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, says none of the 30 or so reported problems with water wells have been caused by the drilling, even some of those with new-found wealth from gas production fear their water wells may become contaminated from the fracturing process that breaks the shale so the gas can be extracted.
They have seen “Gasland,” the documentary on the industry that shows they have seen online the bottles of discolored water taken from Arkansas water wells after gas wells were drilled.
Then there is the 42-inch gas pipe that runs across wide open land, across fences and gardens. It will be completed this year.
That 185-mile pipeline from Conway to Panola County, Miss., is expected to produce more that 2,000 jobs and pay Arkansas workers $52 million. Building the line is the only way to get the gas out of the state and to customers in the North because the existing line can no longer handle the load.
Owned by a private corporation, it will provide a service for other private companies, but the property owners who provide the right-of-way for the big line have no choice about selling the use of their land. They either negotiate for a fair price or they go to court and let a judge determine the price because the company has legal authority to declare eminent domain and take what it needs.
Last year, State Rep. Jonathan Dismang (R-Beebe) sponsored a bill restricting private oil and gas companies from claiming eminent domain for wells and the gathering lines that connect wells and feed the larger lines, but his bill died in the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Develop-ment.
And in March, the state Supreme Court upheld a Cleburne County Circuit Court ruling that said the state law giving eminent domain to all pipeline companies, Arkansas Code Annotated section 23-15-101, is not unconstitutional.
In the Beebe area, on the fringe of the Fayetteville Shale production area or “play” as it is called, some residents of the Opal Community are upset about the odor from Arkansas Reclamation, which reclaims the diesel from drill cuttings. And they are concerned that chemicals from the plant are polluting White Oak Creek, which runs behind it.
About 200 of those with questions and concerns about the industry that has developed in the Fayetteville Shale, which lies a mile or so underground in White, Van Buren, Faulkner, Cleburne, Conway, Franklin, Independence, Johnson and Pope counties, attended a presentation in Clinton on July 16 by Calvin Tillman, mayor of Dish, Texas, who told them they’d better get control of the situation now before it is too late. They need to get the state to regulate the gas industry.
Clark, Texas, re-incorporated in 2000 as Dish. It is known as the little town in north Texas that changed its name to get free satellite TV for its 180 residents.
But now, because of Tillman’s appearance on “Gasland,” his blog and his public appearances, it is becoming known as the little town that has been taken over by the gas industry. In a two-square-mile area, Dish has 18 gas wells, 20 pipelines, 11 compressor stations and three metering stations.
“I’m not anti-drilling. I’m not anti-industry. I just think there is a better way,” Tillman told his audience at the Clinton Senior Center.
The big companies know how to get the gas out of the shale with less impact to the land and the people who live there, he said.
But they can’t justify the added cost to their stockholders unless the state requires that they follow those better practices.
In January, after repeated complaints that the chemicals in the air from the compressor stations were making Dish residents ill, the Texas Health Department tested the young adult members of 28 households who voluntarily gave blood and urine samples for chemical testing.
In May, preliminary reports showed that 65 percent of the households had detectable levels of toluene, 53 percent had detectable levels of m-/p-Xylene, and 46 percent had o-Xylene in their systems, all known chemicals of natural-gas production that had also been detected in the air.
“Everything we found in our air studies, we found in our citizens,” Tillman said.
SPORTS>>Owner Barker gets his man
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Cabot car owner Kevin Barker loves seeing a plan come together. Finally.
Bryant driver and Lonoke native Casey Findley has driven Barker’s modified car to top-three finishes the last two weekends at Beebe Speedway, including a runner-up finish to Johnny Bone, Jr. in the big Scrapp Fox Memorial on Friday.
But those solid runs have come after Barker struggled not only to find consistency, but also a permanent driver.
Barker is a former driver and longtime modified car owner who has two IMCA state championships and two I-30 track championships under his belt. But filling the driver’s seat of his No. 34 machine has been a challenge this year.
He started the year withSherwood driver Scott Brown in the E-mod class, but Barker did not like the rough driving notorious for that class. From there, Brown gave Cabot driver David Payne a temporary ride while Payne revamped his own 7D modified after losing an engine early in the season.
Payne recently completed the overhaul and got back in his own car, leaving Barker’s seat vacant once again. But a call to Findley gave Barker what he has been accustomed to over the years — a seasoned driver with a proven record.
“I’ve talked to Casey off and on a little bit through the year this year, and I asked if he would like to finish up driving the rest of the year,” Barker said. “Hopefully, it will work out for the both of us and we’ll run together next year. That’s what our plans are.”
Findley had a banner year in 2006 with 23 victories across the state in his 17F car, but as sponsorship funding began to evaporate, so did many of his winning runs. Findley enjoyed moderate success in 2007 and 2008 before his program began to struggle last year. He made limited appearances in his car through the first half of this year before getting the call from Barker.
“I’ve raced against Kevin for a long time, and he was kind of in between drivers,” Findley said. “And I know he’s always had good stuff. We’re getting along good, and they’ve got a good pit crew, so hopefully we can get together. It’s really hard to win nowadays, but if we can just run consistent in the top three or four and win a few, those are my expectations.”
Barker is coming off a solid year in 2009 with former driver Tyler Stevens of Searcy. Stevens drove the car to nine victories and second in points at Beebe before getting an offer to take part in the growing, crate late-model division that has emerged in the Batesville area.
The partnership with Stevens in 2009 capped off a successful decade for Barker, who won IMCA state titles and I-30 track championships with driver Chuck McGinty of Conway in 2005 and again with Cabot’s Jayson Hefley in 2007.
But the lack of success in the first half of this season has not caused Barker to lose much sleep.
“No, it doesn’t really bother me,” Barker said. “I’ve done very well with drivers I’ve had in the past. Anytime I show up at the track, my only intention is to win, but I can go back and look at the years I’ve had in the past.
“There’s not a lot of them out here who have had that kind of success. It’s easier to take when you’ve had that success in the past when a lot of them are still trying to get to that point.”
Findley is also looking for a long-term partnership with the Barker group and believes it can be successful, but also said his runaway effort in 2006 may be hard to recapture with the increased level of competition, particularly at Beebe.
“I don’t really get frustrated, because the competition is a lot tougher now than it was then,” Findley said. “We got lucky and came across a good sponsor at the time and had good resources. We still have good resources now, but the problem is that everyone else also has good resources, and a lot of setup information is out there.”
Leader sportswriter
Cabot car owner Kevin Barker loves seeing a plan come together. Finally.
Bryant driver and Lonoke native Casey Findley has driven Barker’s modified car to top-three finishes the last two weekends at Beebe Speedway, including a runner-up finish to Johnny Bone, Jr. in the big Scrapp Fox Memorial on Friday.
But those solid runs have come after Barker struggled not only to find consistency, but also a permanent driver.
Barker is a former driver and longtime modified car owner who has two IMCA state championships and two I-30 track championships under his belt. But filling the driver’s seat of his No. 34 machine has been a challenge this year.
He started the year withSherwood driver Scott Brown in the E-mod class, but Barker did not like the rough driving notorious for that class. From there, Brown gave Cabot driver David Payne a temporary ride while Payne revamped his own 7D modified after losing an engine early in the season.
Payne recently completed the overhaul and got back in his own car, leaving Barker’s seat vacant once again. But a call to Findley gave Barker what he has been accustomed to over the years — a seasoned driver with a proven record.
“I’ve talked to Casey off and on a little bit through the year this year, and I asked if he would like to finish up driving the rest of the year,” Barker said. “Hopefully, it will work out for the both of us and we’ll run together next year. That’s what our plans are.”
Findley had a banner year in 2006 with 23 victories across the state in his 17F car, but as sponsorship funding began to evaporate, so did many of his winning runs. Findley enjoyed moderate success in 2007 and 2008 before his program began to struggle last year. He made limited appearances in his car through the first half of this year before getting the call from Barker.
“I’ve raced against Kevin for a long time, and he was kind of in between drivers,” Findley said. “And I know he’s always had good stuff. We’re getting along good, and they’ve got a good pit crew, so hopefully we can get together. It’s really hard to win nowadays, but if we can just run consistent in the top three or four and win a few, those are my expectations.”
Barker is coming off a solid year in 2009 with former driver Tyler Stevens of Searcy. Stevens drove the car to nine victories and second in points at Beebe before getting an offer to take part in the growing, crate late-model division that has emerged in the Batesville area.
The partnership with Stevens in 2009 capped off a successful decade for Barker, who won IMCA state titles and I-30 track championships with driver Chuck McGinty of Conway in 2005 and again with Cabot’s Jayson Hefley in 2007.
But the lack of success in the first half of this season has not caused Barker to lose much sleep.
“No, it doesn’t really bother me,” Barker said. “I’ve done very well with drivers I’ve had in the past. Anytime I show up at the track, my only intention is to win, but I can go back and look at the years I’ve had in the past.
“There’s not a lot of them out here who have had that kind of success. It’s easier to take when you’ve had that success in the past when a lot of them are still trying to get to that point.”
Findley is also looking for a long-term partnership with the Barker group and believes it can be successful, but also said his runaway effort in 2006 may be hard to recapture with the increased level of competition, particularly at Beebe.
“I don’t really get frustrated, because the competition is a lot tougher now than it was then,” Findley said. “We got lucky and came across a good sponsor at the time and had good resources. We still have good resources now, but the problem is that everyone else also has good resources, and a lot of setup information is out there.”
SPORTS>>Hatcher is taking charge of Falcons
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
High school football is, of course, a young man’s game.
So is high school football coaching, at least at North Pulaski.
Offensive coordinator Terrod Hatcher, 23, has been promoted to head coach, pending final approval by school officials, just in time for the start of the season. Practice begins Monday.
His promotion makes Hatcher one of the younger head coaches in Arkansas high school football.
“Well I thought it was an honor, to be honest with you, that people actually thought I was ready at this age to be a head coach,” Hatcher said. “I think I’m prepared.”
Hatcher transferred from Arkansas State to Arkansas Tech, where he graduated witha degree in mathematics.
He coached at Fuller Middle School before he was named offensive coordinator under former Falcons head coach Rick Russell, who moved to Jacksonville late last month to create the vacancy at North Pulaski.
“The coaching staff basically discussed it, that after coach Russell left so soon that it might be best if one of us got the job,” Hatcher said. “So that’s how I came about applying for it.”
Hatcher had been running the program, which right now is into its voluntary summer conditioning, since Russell departed on June 21.
Hatcher said he and the other assistants felt it was important for a staff member to get the head coaching job for the sake of continuity.
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue to build on what was seen as a solid offseason, spring practice and performance in the summer 7-on-7 games at Cabot.
“Actually we had been flowing right along, so we thought it would be better for the kids,” Hatcher said.
Hatcher admitted it was a tall order taking over, at short notice, a program now on its third coach in three years, has won four games the past six seasons and averaged 10.3 points a game in 2009. North Pulaski’s only victory last year was over Little Rock McClellan, 35-13.
“I agree that it’s going to be a challenge,” Hatcher said. “But like I told the board, the only way we will be able to change around the program is if we win. People won’t take us seriously and they won’t want to come to that school unless we win.”
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue plans to punch up the offense with elements of the Spread formation as part of multiple sets.
“We’re going to run multiple offenses,” Hatcher said. “We have a lot of talented skill positions but because we’re short on the line we have to put them in position to be successful.”
Hatcher thinks the Spread, run by returning junior quarterback Shyheim Barron, may help equalize the lack of size and depth on the line.
“Definitely,” Hatcher said. “We’ll try to be balanced but we will be spread. I think that will give us an advantage on the line.”
The Falcons lost 16 seniors from last year, but before Russell left he was touting the players’ improved size, strength and speed developed in offseason workouts.
Russell pronounced spring practice a success before departing, and the Falcons held their own with victories in the 7-on-7 league.
“We had such a good spring and such production in the spring we’re actually excited,” Hatcher said. “We’re thinking that stuff we learned in the spring, we’re just going to build on top of that.”
Hatcher still has to find an assistant to basically replace himself on the Falcons’ staff. With his background on offense, Hatcher will oversee the play calling, but he said he and the coaches would decide soon if they were going to hire an offensive or defensive assistant.
“Everybody’s going to have a position that they’re going to watch,” Hatcher said. “They will be my eyes and ears. I will be over the offense mostly but if there is something that needs done on defense I will take over that and make sure it gets done.
“We’re trying to look at what we have and what our strengths are.”
Leader sports editor
High school football is, of course, a young man’s game.
So is high school football coaching, at least at North Pulaski.
Offensive coordinator Terrod Hatcher, 23, has been promoted to head coach, pending final approval by school officials, just in time for the start of the season. Practice begins Monday.
His promotion makes Hatcher one of the younger head coaches in Arkansas high school football.
“Well I thought it was an honor, to be honest with you, that people actually thought I was ready at this age to be a head coach,” Hatcher said. “I think I’m prepared.”
Hatcher transferred from Arkansas State to Arkansas Tech, where he graduated witha degree in mathematics.
He coached at Fuller Middle School before he was named offensive coordinator under former Falcons head coach Rick Russell, who moved to Jacksonville late last month to create the vacancy at North Pulaski.
“The coaching staff basically discussed it, that after coach Russell left so soon that it might be best if one of us got the job,” Hatcher said. “So that’s how I came about applying for it.”
Hatcher had been running the program, which right now is into its voluntary summer conditioning, since Russell departed on June 21.
Hatcher said he and the other assistants felt it was important for a staff member to get the head coaching job for the sake of continuity.
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue to build on what was seen as a solid offseason, spring practice and performance in the summer 7-on-7 games at Cabot.
“Actually we had been flowing right along, so we thought it would be better for the kids,” Hatcher said.
Hatcher admitted it was a tall order taking over, at short notice, a program now on its third coach in three years, has won four games the past six seasons and averaged 10.3 points a game in 2009. North Pulaski’s only victory last year was over Little Rock McClellan, 35-13.
“I agree that it’s going to be a challenge,” Hatcher said. “But like I told the board, the only way we will be able to change around the program is if we win. People won’t take us seriously and they won’t want to come to that school unless we win.”
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue plans to punch up the offense with elements of the Spread formation as part of multiple sets.
“We’re going to run multiple offenses,” Hatcher said. “We have a lot of talented skill positions but because we’re short on the line we have to put them in position to be successful.”
Hatcher thinks the Spread, run by returning junior quarterback Shyheim Barron, may help equalize the lack of size and depth on the line.
“Definitely,” Hatcher said. “We’ll try to be balanced but we will be spread. I think that will give us an advantage on the line.”
The Falcons lost 16 seniors from last year, but before Russell left he was touting the players’ improved size, strength and speed developed in offseason workouts.
Russell pronounced spring practice a success before departing, and the Falcons held their own with victories in the 7-on-7 league.
“We had such a good spring and such production in the spring we’re actually excited,” Hatcher said. “We’re thinking that stuff we learned in the spring, we’re just going to build on top of that.”
Hatcher still has to find an assistant to basically replace himself on the Falcons’ staff. With his background on offense, Hatcher will oversee the play calling, but he said he and the coaches would decide soon if they were going to hire an offensive or defensive assistant.
“Everybody’s going to have a position that they’re going to watch,” Hatcher said. “They will be my eyes and ears. I will be over the offense mostly but if there is something that needs done on defense I will take over that and make sure it gets done.
“We’re trying to look at what we have and what our strengths are.”
SPORTS>>Hatcher is taking charge of Falcons
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
High school football is, of course, a young man’s game.
So is high school football coaching, at least at North Pulaski.
Offensive coordinator Terrod Hatcher, 23, has been promoted to head coach, pending final approval by school officials, just in time for the start of the season. Practice begins Monday.
His promotion makes Hatcher one of the younger head coaches in Arkansas high school football.
“Well I thought it was an honor, to be honest with you, that people actually thought I was ready at this age to be a head coach,” Hatcher said. “I think I’m prepared.”
Hatcher transferred from Arkansas State to Arkansas Tech, where he graduated witha degree in mathematics.
He coached at Fuller Middle School before he was named offensive coordinator under former Falcons head coach Rick Russell, who moved to Jacksonville late last month to create the vacancy at North Pulaski.
“The coaching staff basically discussed it, that after coach Russell left so soon that it might be best if one of us got the job,” Hatcher said. “So that’s how I came about applying for it.”
Hatcher had been running the program, which right now is into its voluntary summer conditioning, since Russell departed on June 21.
Hatcher said he and the other assistants felt it was important for a staff member to get the head coaching job for the sake of continuity.
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue to build on what was seen as a solid offseason, spring practice and performance in the summer 7-on-7 games at Cabot.
“Actually we had been flowing right along, so we thought it would be better for the kids,” Hatcher said.
Hatcher admitted it was a tall order taking over, at short notice, a program now on its third coach in three years, has won four games the past six seasons and averaged 10.3 points a game in 2009. North Pulaski’s only victory last year was over Little Rock McClellan, 35-13.
“I agree that it’s going to be a challenge,” Hatcher said. “But like I told the board, the only way we will be able to change around the program is if we win. People won’t take us seriously and they won’t want to come to that school unless we win.”
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue plans to punch up the offense with elements of the Spread formation as part of multiple sets.
“We’re going to run multiple offenses,” Hatcher said. “We have a lot of talented skill positions but because we’re short on the line we have to put them in position to be successful.”
Hatcher thinks the Spread, run by returning junior quarterback Shyheim Barron, may help equalize the lack of size and depth on the line.
“Definitely,” Hatcher said. “We’ll try to be balanced but we will be spread. I think that will give us an advantage on the line.”
The Falcons lost 16 seniors from last year, but before Russell left he was touting the players’ improved size, strength and speed developed in offseason workouts.
Russell pronounced spring practice a success before departing, and the Falcons held their own with victories in the 7-on-7 league.
“We had such a good spring and such production in the spring we’re actually excited,” Hatcher said. “We’re thinking that stuff we learned in the spring, we’re just going to build on top of that.”
Hatcher still has to find an assistant to basically replace himself on the Falcons’ staff. With his background on offense, Hatcher will oversee the play calling, but he said he and the coaches would decide soon if they were going to hire an offensive or defensive assistant.
“Everybody’s going to have a position that they’re going to watch,” Hatcher said. “They will be my eyes and ears. I will be over the offense mostly but if there is something that needs done on defense I will take over that and make sure it gets done.
“We’re trying to look at what we have and what our strengths are.”
Leader sports editor
High school football is, of course, a young man’s game.
So is high school football coaching, at least at North Pulaski.
Offensive coordinator Terrod Hatcher, 23, has been promoted to head coach, pending final approval by school officials, just in time for the start of the season. Practice begins Monday.
His promotion makes Hatcher one of the younger head coaches in Arkansas high school football.
“Well I thought it was an honor, to be honest with you, that people actually thought I was ready at this age to be a head coach,” Hatcher said. “I think I’m prepared.”
Hatcher transferred from Arkansas State to Arkansas Tech, where he graduated witha degree in mathematics.
He coached at Fuller Middle School before he was named offensive coordinator under former Falcons head coach Rick Russell, who moved to Jacksonville late last month to create the vacancy at North Pulaski.
“The coaching staff basically discussed it, that after coach Russell left so soon that it might be best if one of us got the job,” Hatcher said. “So that’s how I came about applying for it.”
Hatcher had been running the program, which right now is into its voluntary summer conditioning, since Russell departed on June 21.
Hatcher said he and the other assistants felt it was important for a staff member to get the head coaching job for the sake of continuity.
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue to build on what was seen as a solid offseason, spring practice and performance in the summer 7-on-7 games at Cabot.
“Actually we had been flowing right along, so we thought it would be better for the kids,” Hatcher said.
Hatcher admitted it was a tall order taking over, at short notice, a program now on its third coach in three years, has won four games the past six seasons and averaged 10.3 points a game in 2009. North Pulaski’s only victory last year was over Little Rock McClellan, 35-13.
“I agree that it’s going to be a challenge,” Hatcher said. “But like I told the board, the only way we will be able to change around the program is if we win. People won’t take us seriously and they won’t want to come to that school unless we win.”
With that in mind, Hatcher wants to continue plans to punch up the offense with elements of the Spread formation as part of multiple sets.
“We’re going to run multiple offenses,” Hatcher said. “We have a lot of talented skill positions but because we’re short on the line we have to put them in position to be successful.”
Hatcher thinks the Spread, run by returning junior quarterback Shyheim Barron, may help equalize the lack of size and depth on the line.
“Definitely,” Hatcher said. “We’ll try to be balanced but we will be spread. I think that will give us an advantage on the line.”
The Falcons lost 16 seniors from last year, but before Russell left he was touting the players’ improved size, strength and speed developed in offseason workouts.
Russell pronounced spring practice a success before departing, and the Falcons held their own with victories in the 7-on-7 league.
“We had such a good spring and such production in the spring we’re actually excited,” Hatcher said. “We’re thinking that stuff we learned in the spring, we’re just going to build on top of that.”
Hatcher still has to find an assistant to basically replace himself on the Falcons’ staff. With his background on offense, Hatcher will oversee the play calling, but he said he and the coaches would decide soon if they were going to hire an offensive or defensive assistant.
“Everybody’s going to have a position that they’re going to watch,” Hatcher said. “They will be my eyes and ears. I will be over the offense mostly but if there is something that needs done on defense I will take over that and make sure it gets done.
“We’re trying to look at what we have and what our strengths are.”
SPORTS>>Bone holds his own during Scrapp
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Veteran modified driver Johnny Bone, Jr. added the Scrapp Fox Memorial to his long list of big-money race victories Friday.
Bone, of Pea Ridge, won both his heats to earn fast qualifier and led from flag to flag on a slicked over, one-groove racetrack at Beebe Speedway. Bone collected the $2,000 first-place payday over Bryant’s Casey Findley and Campbell, Mo., driver Robert Powers.
Bone proved to be the class of the field in the 12 rounds of heat races, winning the third heat over Patrick Linn and home-track favorite Randy Weaver before making his way to the front again in his invert heat.
That gave him the first starting spot for the feature, and with a track left with no grip after six classes and 39 total modifieds, Bone’s only challenge was keeping the car pointed in the rightdirection in a race marred by five cautions, including a seven-car pileup on lap four.
“I was trying to hug those tires,” Bone said. “Then I saw it getting a little blacker and blacker and I thought, ‘Well, it’s starting to rubber up,’ and I could feel it off of turn two over here when I came off the corner.
“Just a lucky day – started up front, and did what I needed to do. It was just right there on the bottom all night long, unfortunately.”
Findley and Powers had no choice but to play follow-the-leader with Bone on the inside, as did the rest of the field.
Linn, of Little Rock, was the only driver brave enough to try his luck on the outside, which proved unsuccessful. Linn started fifth but fell back to 10th shortly after the start.
Linn was able to make up two spots on a mid-race restart when he used the high line to get around Curtis Cook and Donnie Stringfellow, but that is where his success ended. Linn gave the two positions back and continued to slip until he pulled off the track with six laps to go and was scored 13th in the final rundown.
The pace slowed on lap four when Hector’s Dale Proctor got sideways coming out of turn two, leading to a six-car collision.
Chris Moore, David Payne, Tony Anglin, Jeff Davis, Travis Broach and Weaver all got a piece of the incident. Broach and Anglin got the worst of it and were done for the night while the rest tried to continue.
Weaver barely made it out of the pits in time for the restart, but was well off the pace. The four-time track champion made five more laps and quickly lost touch with the lead pack before parking on lap 10.
Moore, of Coldwater, Miss., could not repeat the success he enjoyed two months earlier in the USCS modified event at Beebe.
He won that night in dominant fashion, but had to make his way into a transfer spot in the consolation feature Friday just to get in the A-main.
Moore put his aggressive style on display to win the B-main after spinning in both of his heats, but ran into difficulty again in the feature. Moore was involved in the early pileup, and had contact with Beebe driver Todd Greer on lap 15.
That ended the night for Greer in the K1 car, while Moore tried to continue before pulling into the infield with eight laps remaining.
Positions one through 10 changed little from the start of the race until the end of the 30-lap feature. In fact, the top four remained the same the entire way with Bone, Findley, Powers and Arkadelphia’s Keith Craft.
North Little Rock veteran Mike Bowers managed to climb to fifth in front of Robert Baker after starting seventh. Baker settled in the sixth position in front of Blytheville’s Kenny Lovins and Cook.
Stringfellow, one of four drivers to compete in all eight Scrapp Fox events, finished ninth, while Bryant’s Joseph Long came from his 18th starting spot to complete the top 10.
Robert Davis of Searcy and Bald Knob veteran Wayne Brooks shared hard-charger honors. Davis started 21st and finished 11th while Brooks followed him to a 12th-place finish after starting shotgun in 22nd.
It was Bone’s 14th victory of the season in the white and orange No. 12 machine.
“I just travel all over the country,” Bone said. “Lucky, and got a good car. Like tonight, if I had started in the second row, I probably wasn’t going to win the race.
“Done what I needed to do in my heats to get qualified up on the pole, then I just needed to not make any mistakes.”
Leader sportswriter
Veteran modified driver Johnny Bone, Jr. added the Scrapp Fox Memorial to his long list of big-money race victories Friday.
Bone, of Pea Ridge, won both his heats to earn fast qualifier and led from flag to flag on a slicked over, one-groove racetrack at Beebe Speedway. Bone collected the $2,000 first-place payday over Bryant’s Casey Findley and Campbell, Mo., driver Robert Powers.
Bone proved to be the class of the field in the 12 rounds of heat races, winning the third heat over Patrick Linn and home-track favorite Randy Weaver before making his way to the front again in his invert heat.
That gave him the first starting spot for the feature, and with a track left with no grip after six classes and 39 total modifieds, Bone’s only challenge was keeping the car pointed in the rightdirection in a race marred by five cautions, including a seven-car pileup on lap four.
“I was trying to hug those tires,” Bone said. “Then I saw it getting a little blacker and blacker and I thought, ‘Well, it’s starting to rubber up,’ and I could feel it off of turn two over here when I came off the corner.
“Just a lucky day – started up front, and did what I needed to do. It was just right there on the bottom all night long, unfortunately.”
Findley and Powers had no choice but to play follow-the-leader with Bone on the inside, as did the rest of the field.
Linn, of Little Rock, was the only driver brave enough to try his luck on the outside, which proved unsuccessful. Linn started fifth but fell back to 10th shortly after the start.
Linn was able to make up two spots on a mid-race restart when he used the high line to get around Curtis Cook and Donnie Stringfellow, but that is where his success ended. Linn gave the two positions back and continued to slip until he pulled off the track with six laps to go and was scored 13th in the final rundown.
The pace slowed on lap four when Hector’s Dale Proctor got sideways coming out of turn two, leading to a six-car collision.
Chris Moore, David Payne, Tony Anglin, Jeff Davis, Travis Broach and Weaver all got a piece of the incident. Broach and Anglin got the worst of it and were done for the night while the rest tried to continue.
Weaver barely made it out of the pits in time for the restart, but was well off the pace. The four-time track champion made five more laps and quickly lost touch with the lead pack before parking on lap 10.
Moore, of Coldwater, Miss., could not repeat the success he enjoyed two months earlier in the USCS modified event at Beebe.
He won that night in dominant fashion, but had to make his way into a transfer spot in the consolation feature Friday just to get in the A-main.
Moore put his aggressive style on display to win the B-main after spinning in both of his heats, but ran into difficulty again in the feature. Moore was involved in the early pileup, and had contact with Beebe driver Todd Greer on lap 15.
That ended the night for Greer in the K1 car, while Moore tried to continue before pulling into the infield with eight laps remaining.
Positions one through 10 changed little from the start of the race until the end of the 30-lap feature. In fact, the top four remained the same the entire way with Bone, Findley, Powers and Arkadelphia’s Keith Craft.
North Little Rock veteran Mike Bowers managed to climb to fifth in front of Robert Baker after starting seventh. Baker settled in the sixth position in front of Blytheville’s Kenny Lovins and Cook.
Stringfellow, one of four drivers to compete in all eight Scrapp Fox events, finished ninth, while Bryant’s Joseph Long came from his 18th starting spot to complete the top 10.
Robert Davis of Searcy and Bald Knob veteran Wayne Brooks shared hard-charger honors. Davis started 21st and finished 11th while Brooks followed him to a 12th-place finish after starting shotgun in 22nd.
It was Bone’s 14th victory of the season in the white and orange No. 12 machine.
“I just travel all over the country,” Bone said. “Lucky, and got a good car. Like tonight, if I had started in the second row, I probably wasn’t going to win the race.
“Done what I needed to do in my heats to get qualified up on the pole, then I just needed to not make any mistakes.”
SPORTS>>Storms delay Cabot’s trip through state
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
The American Legion Senior State Tournament semifinal games were rained out at Burns Park on Monday and were rescheduled for Tuesday evening.
Cabot Centennial Bank, which suffered its first loss of the postseason to Texarkana on Sunday, was to face Benton in a rescheduled game at 5 p.m. at DeSalvo Stadium on Tuesday followed by Texarkana against Fayetteville at 8 p.m.
The winners will meet in the championship round at 5 p.m. today with a second game, if necessary in the double-elimination format, scheduled for 8 p.m.
If Tuesday’s schedule was rained out, all remaining games were to be played beginning at 1 p.m. today, tournament director Jerrell Howard said.
Cabot, under coach Jay Darr, took the Zone 3 district tournament without a loss to reach the state tournament. Cabot beat Benton in the state tournament opener and beat Fayetteville before falling to Texarkana, its first loss in seven postseason games.
Benton advanced to the semifinals through the losers bracket. A team is eliminated after two losses.
Leader sports editor
The American Legion Senior State Tournament semifinal games were rained out at Burns Park on Monday and were rescheduled for Tuesday evening.
Cabot Centennial Bank, which suffered its first loss of the postseason to Texarkana on Sunday, was to face Benton in a rescheduled game at 5 p.m. at DeSalvo Stadium on Tuesday followed by Texarkana against Fayetteville at 8 p.m.
The winners will meet in the championship round at 5 p.m. today with a second game, if necessary in the double-elimination format, scheduled for 8 p.m.
If Tuesday’s schedule was rained out, all remaining games were to be played beginning at 1 p.m. today, tournament director Jerrell Howard said.
Cabot, under coach Jay Darr, took the Zone 3 district tournament without a loss to reach the state tournament. Cabot beat Benton in the state tournament opener and beat Fayetteville before falling to Texarkana, its first loss in seven postseason games.
Benton advanced to the semifinals through the losers bracket. A team is eliminated after two losses.
SPORTS>>TRAINING CAMP Former Red Devil hopes to be on the field
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
They used to call it the “Taxi Squad.”
Defensive lineman Clinton McDonald would rather be on the team plane.
The Cincinnati Bengals and most of the rest of the NFL begin training camp today and McDonald, of Jacksonville, is hoping to make it off the Bengals’ practice squad, where he spent last season, and on to the active roster.
“Being practice squad and knowing I have a chance to play, that makes you feel like you’ve got to work harder,” said McDonald, who played college ball at Memphis and was drafted by the Bengals in the spring of 2009.
The “Taxi Squad” is a group of reserves who can join the active roster at short notice but do not travel with the team or dress out on game days. The term comes from the 1940s Cleveland Browns and coach Paul Brown, who kept a group of non-roster players whose salaries were paid by team owner Mickey McBride’s taxi company.
Things are plusher in the modern NFL.
McDonald, reporting to camp in Georgetown, Ky., today, gets to enjoy the Bengals’ modern facilities, training and dressing alongside the active players. But each Sunday last year he missed out on the thing he came to do — play ball.
“It makes you feel like, when you watch it on TV it’s like ‘Man I wish I was there. I want to be there on the field I want to dress,’
” McDonald said. “Even on the sideline at a home game you feel like ‘Man I want to be out there with the guys.’ ”
The Bengals took McDonald, an all-state linebacker at Jacksonville, in the seventh round of the draft, 249th overall, after he amassed 135 tackles and 11.5 career sacks as a defensive tackle at Memphis.
McDonald is still close to his alma mater Jacksonville, where he last played as a senior in 2004, and recently visited with the Red Devils to provide encouragement after his former defensive coach, Rick Russell, returned from North Pulaski to take over the program.
“I’m basically the example that it can happen to anybody,” McDonald said.
McDonald went almost immediately to the Bengals’ rookie/free agent mini-camp in Cincinnati after he was drafted.
“You think to yourself, ‘I’m here so it’s not a time to play around,’” McDonald said. “‘They’ve got me up here for a reason. It’s not a time to rest, it’s not a time to take anything for granted; learn all you can learn and show these guys why they’ve got you up here.’ ”
Though a late-round pick, McDonald, 6-2, 290 pounds, held his own in Bengals training camp and just missed making the cut.
Each team can keep up to eight players on the practice squad, outside the 53-man active roster. A practice-squad player earns $5,200 a week, works out with the team and cannot be on the practice squad if he has played nine regular season games or been on an active roster the entire year.
That last part sounds good to McDonald, who with hall of famer Dan Hampton is only Jacksonville’s second NFL draft pick. Red Devils Robert Thomas, Adrian Wilson and Chet Winters signed free-agent deals.
“Going on the same team as future hall of famers and looking at their locker rooms coming in. At first you’re in awe,” McDonald said. “But then again, something clicks in your mind telling you they came from a town just like you came from, they went to college just like you came from.
“And they’re here too and they’re making it, so there’s no reason not for you to make it.”
McDonald’s “welcome to the NFL” moments came during last year’s preseason, in the tunnels of the Super Dome in New Orleans, home of the Super Bowl champion Saints, and at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., home of the perennially contending New England Patriots.
“There’s no bands playing, there’s no booster club or anything like that,” McDonald said. “But seeing all the fans and all the support these people have for these teams, that’s when you feel like you’re in a professional setting.”
So far McDonald’s NFL career has consisted of butting heads with teammates and simulating opponents for the betterment of the Bengals’ active players.
“You are contributing. You’re making somebody better,” McDonald said.
McDonald said established stars like Carson Palmer, defensive lineman Tank Johnson and quirky receiver Chad Johnson — currently playing under the name Chad Ochocinco — have been welcoming and there is no divide between the standouts and the hopefuls like McDonald.
Now if McDonald can just join those guys on game days.
“Me just being me and growing up the way I grew up, I was thankful for God to still be there and have a job at the same time,” McDonald said of his practice-squad status. “I was kind of in awe and kind of disappointed I hadn’t just actually made the 53 and I wasn’t playing yet.”
Leader sports editor
They used to call it the “Taxi Squad.”
Defensive lineman Clinton McDonald would rather be on the team plane.
The Cincinnati Bengals and most of the rest of the NFL begin training camp today and McDonald, of Jacksonville, is hoping to make it off the Bengals’ practice squad, where he spent last season, and on to the active roster.
“Being practice squad and knowing I have a chance to play, that makes you feel like you’ve got to work harder,” said McDonald, who played college ball at Memphis and was drafted by the Bengals in the spring of 2009.
The “Taxi Squad” is a group of reserves who can join the active roster at short notice but do not travel with the team or dress out on game days. The term comes from the 1940s Cleveland Browns and coach Paul Brown, who kept a group of non-roster players whose salaries were paid by team owner Mickey McBride’s taxi company.
Things are plusher in the modern NFL.
McDonald, reporting to camp in Georgetown, Ky., today, gets to enjoy the Bengals’ modern facilities, training and dressing alongside the active players. But each Sunday last year he missed out on the thing he came to do — play ball.
“It makes you feel like, when you watch it on TV it’s like ‘Man I wish I was there. I want to be there on the field I want to dress,’
” McDonald said. “Even on the sideline at a home game you feel like ‘Man I want to be out there with the guys.’ ”
The Bengals took McDonald, an all-state linebacker at Jacksonville, in the seventh round of the draft, 249th overall, after he amassed 135 tackles and 11.5 career sacks as a defensive tackle at Memphis.
McDonald is still close to his alma mater Jacksonville, where he last played as a senior in 2004, and recently visited with the Red Devils to provide encouragement after his former defensive coach, Rick Russell, returned from North Pulaski to take over the program.
“I’m basically the example that it can happen to anybody,” McDonald said.
McDonald went almost immediately to the Bengals’ rookie/free agent mini-camp in Cincinnati after he was drafted.
“You think to yourself, ‘I’m here so it’s not a time to play around,’” McDonald said. “‘They’ve got me up here for a reason. It’s not a time to rest, it’s not a time to take anything for granted; learn all you can learn and show these guys why they’ve got you up here.’ ”
Though a late-round pick, McDonald, 6-2, 290 pounds, held his own in Bengals training camp and just missed making the cut.
Each team can keep up to eight players on the practice squad, outside the 53-man active roster. A practice-squad player earns $5,200 a week, works out with the team and cannot be on the practice squad if he has played nine regular season games or been on an active roster the entire year.
That last part sounds good to McDonald, who with hall of famer Dan Hampton is only Jacksonville’s second NFL draft pick. Red Devils Robert Thomas, Adrian Wilson and Chet Winters signed free-agent deals.
“Going on the same team as future hall of famers and looking at their locker rooms coming in. At first you’re in awe,” McDonald said. “But then again, something clicks in your mind telling you they came from a town just like you came from, they went to college just like you came from.
“And they’re here too and they’re making it, so there’s no reason not for you to make it.”
McDonald’s “welcome to the NFL” moments came during last year’s preseason, in the tunnels of the Super Dome in New Orleans, home of the Super Bowl champion Saints, and at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., home of the perennially contending New England Patriots.
“There’s no bands playing, there’s no booster club or anything like that,” McDonald said. “But seeing all the fans and all the support these people have for these teams, that’s when you feel like you’re in a professional setting.”
So far McDonald’s NFL career has consisted of butting heads with teammates and simulating opponents for the betterment of the Bengals’ active players.
“You are contributing. You’re making somebody better,” McDonald said.
McDonald said established stars like Carson Palmer, defensive lineman Tank Johnson and quirky receiver Chad Johnson — currently playing under the name Chad Ochocinco — have been welcoming and there is no divide between the standouts and the hopefuls like McDonald.
Now if McDonald can just join those guys on game days.
“Me just being me and growing up the way I grew up, I was thankful for God to still be there and have a job at the same time,” McDonald said of his practice-squad status. “I was kind of in awe and kind of disappointed I hadn’t just actually made the 53 and I wasn’t playing yet.”
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