This is the second in a series looking back at the front page headlines of the Leader. From May through August, the news was dominated by articles about area schools, water projects, the North Belt and Little Rock Air Force Base.
MAY
• Jacksonville closer to its own district — Pulaski County Special School District officials want to continue desegregation funding for eight more years, but they have agreed to let the Jacksonville area break away.
• Boy killed riding on his bicycle — The Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the death of a 13-year-old boy from the Woodlawn area who was struck and killed by a car while he was riding his bicycle. No charges were pending against the driver, but the investigation could change that.
• Unions file lawsuit to keep right to bargain — PACT and PASS, the teachers and staff unions, filed a motion in court to seek reinstatement of their contracts and recognition by the county school district
• Hopson’s lawsuit against PCSSD is advancing slowly — The lawyer for Charles Hopkins, fired superintendent for the Pulaski County Special School District, who is suing for $500,000 for wrongful dismissal, said the case was moving slowly and that the slowness favored the state. Hopkins died later in the year before the suit was settled.
• Cabot employees could go to college free — A proposed change in the city handbook would make it less expensive and easier for city employees to go to college.
• Small towns glad to keep post offices —Numerous small-town post offices in the area were slated to close as a cost-cutting measure, but instead hours and days of operations were shortened.
• Carlisle has land for jobs — The city has 1,925 acres off I-40 that they are calling the best acreage in the state for industrial development.
• Commander of 314th gets a key role at Maxwell AFB — Col. Mark Czelusta, the 314th Airlift Wing commander is being reassigned as commandant of the Squadron Officer College and Squadron Officers School at Maxwell AFB, Ala.
• Cabot told not to sell community center — The Cabot School District decided not to buy the Veterans Park Community Center and instead will build its own facility. City risked violating contract with veterans.
• Contractor says city messed up — The contractor relocating waterlines on Graham Road blames Jacksonville and incorrect maps for delays and increased cost in the project.
• Fire rating upgraded, insurance fees to fall — Jacksonville joins other cities around the state with a Class 2 fire rating.
• Lonoke superintendent, deputy quit — Lonoke Superintendent John Tackett and assistant superintendent Melissa Nash both resigned. Tackett, along with former superintendent Janice Warren, both took positions with the Pulaski County Special School District. Nash took a position with the Bald Knob district.
• Aldermen face off in November — Jacksonville will have five contested aldermen races this year (later it became four), Lonoke will have three and Sherwood just one as the filing date for the positions ended.
• Board zones are redrawn for balance — Even though the Pulaski County School District is still under state control, school zones are being redrawn for reverting to local control. Under the new plan, Jacksonville schools are grouped together, as are Sherwood and North Pulaski schools.
• Recount the same — One Cabot precinct was left out of the initial election count, but once it was included, the results didn’t change. The winners were still the winners.
• Judge candidate sure he’s the winner — Jacksonville’s Marshall Nash believed that when all the absentee votes were counted he’d surpass veteran District Judge Robert Batton to take the position. Without the absentee votes, Nash was behind by five votes. As it turned out the absentee votes didn’t change the outcome.
• $50M plan will pump water here — The cost of the Lonoke-White water project has doubled since the planning stage and completion have been pushed to July 2014.
• JHS making progress in achievement — About 90 percent of Jacksonville High School seniors graduated this year and test scores are up about nine percent.
• Whiteaker set for runoff — Veteran judge Phillip Whiteaker, of Cabot, is in a runoff election for the Arkansas Court of Appeals set for Nov. 6 against Jonesboro lawyer Jeannette Robinson.
JUNE
• State could run PCSSD until 2014, Guess says — State-appointed superintendent says district could stay under state control for the next two years.
• New executive to run hospital in Jacksonville — Jodi Love becomes new chief executive officer of North Metro Medical Center in Jacksonville.
• Cabot seeks flood data — Mayor Bill Cypert wants residents of Highlands subdivision to provide the city with cost estimates from flooding over the past three years.
• PCSSD: Letter grades archaic — The district wants to abandon traditional letter grades for more detailed report to keep parents informed.
• Church signs come down, which upsets some clergy —The state highway department declared a number of church signs along Hwy.67/167 illegal and Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher is looking to sooth hurt feelings with a common use sign in Dupree Park.
• City looks for loan to pay for projects — Grant restrictions cause Jacksonville to look at obtaining a $3.1 million short-term loan to finish projects.
• PCSSD starts upgrading area schools — The district spends about one-third of its $7.3 million facility budget to remodel schools in Jacksonville.
• Command changes at 314th AW — Col. Mark Czelusta turns over command of the 19th Airlift Wing to Col. Edward S. Brewer in a mid-June ceremony.
• Staley wins runoff, faces White in fall — Republican candidate for Lonoke County Sheriff defeated Jason Wil-kinson in a runoff and will face Democrat candidate Dean White in November.
• Greers Ferry water to flow — Contracts have been awarded and construction is expected to start soon on the $57 million water project designed to bring water to central Arkansas from Greers Ferry in about two years.
• Board favors drug tests in Cabot schools — Five of seven Cabot School District board members support random drug testing of high school students.
• Jacksonville isn’t giving up on land after fair says no — Despite a disappointing but unsurprising announcement that the state fair won’t relocate to Jacksonville, city officials will continue efforts to purchase 450 acres off Hwy. 161 and I-440 for economic development.
• State: We didn’t halt North Belt — A scathing letter from the Highway Department director takes Metroplan to task over delay and problems with North Belt as the two agencies point fingers at each other.
• New chief at Lonoke schools is appointed — Beebe native Suzanne Bailey, who worked for the Waldron School district, becomes the new superintendent for Lonoke.
• Grant helps end stink over sewer — $105,000 in emergency funding caps a 20-year effort to bring city services to the Valentine-Wooten road area.
• Trophy back at air base—The Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council was presented with the Abilene Trophy which recognizes the community that provides the “finest support” to an Air Mobility Command unit. The base community also won the award in 2010.
• Lonoke JPs pay $65,000 settlement — Lonoke County’s Quorum Court voted to pay $65,000 to settle a circuit clerk employee’s overtime claim.
• Farmers market big hit in Cabot — The city is looking to expand as the event draws bigger crowds.
• Heat puts squeeze on Fourth — Hot arid weather has caused burn bans across the area and put a stop to individual fireworks and some city celebrations, putting a big hurt on firework stands that dot the area.
• Construction is off the table for North Belt — Metroplan put another nail in North Belt’s coffin as it took steps to remove it from the list of transportation projects.
• Lonoke job fair for felons offers fresh start — More than 100 people lined up to get information on restarting their lives at the first ever Lonoke County Re-Entry Job and Resource Fair for convicted felons.
• 250 jobs are coming soon to Sherwood — A cabinet making company is set to move into the old National Home Center and bring 250 new jobs to the city.
• North Belt looks to sales tax, tolls — In an effort to keep the North Belt freeway project alive, the highway department is looking at local sales taxes and tolls to pay for the $600 million project.
• Marshall Tucker will rock — The iconic Southern rock band is booked to headline Jacksonville’s annual Patriotic Spectacular.
JULY
• Newspaper wins top state honors — For the fifth year in a row, the Leader was named the best large weekly in the state by the Arkansas Press Association.
• Cabot library could move — The library board asks the Cabot city council to add a new $3 million library to a list of projects set to be funded by a proposed one-cent sales tax.
• Fireworks are fizzling in sizzling heat wave—Jacksonville and Sherwood cancel citywide fireworks shows, but Cabot, Beebe and others keep theirs on tap with extra precautions.
• Ex-general, community titan passes at age of 82 — The Jacksonville community mournec the death of retired Brig. Gen. Oliver “Dub” Myers who was also very active in local civic organizations.
• Fireworks follies end in arrests — Three Lonoke County residents shoot fireworks despite burn ban and start a fire that burned a field, a mobile home, a pole barn and an SUV.
• Arnold Drive test scores bright spot — The elementary school located on the air base has surpassed state averages on the annual Benchamrk exam for at least the past five years.
• Ward gets big check — The Lonoke-White water project pays back $206,000 to Ward for the investment the city made in the project six years ago.
• Ex-officer sued by bank, others — A former loan officer of First Securty Bank is sued by customers for allegedly taking money from customers accounts and using their information to write unauthorized loans.
• Smoke detector in fatal fire was 9 years too old—Investigation into the fatal duplex fire that killed five showed that the fire detector was outdated and the wires had been cut.
• Greers Ferry pipeline begins — Numerous Lonoke County officials participated in groundbreaking ceremonies for the $57 million Lonoke-White water project.
• Cabot outperforms state on test — Recently released state test results show that Cabot elementary schools, along with Beebe schools, continue to perform better than the state average.
• Firemen too late to save victims — Medical reports show that even if firefighters had entered the duplex where a mom and four children were found dead of smoke inhalation the first time they were at the home, it still would have been too late to save the family.
• Long FDA probe led to raid at firm selling fake cures — A 21-month-long investigation leads to agents seizing records from a company, Lase Med Inc., that fled Jacksonville for Oklahoma after losing a local $2.5 million lawsuit.
• Drug tests set to start this fall at Cabot High — Cabot School board members make a unanimous decision to require many students to undergo random drug testing at a cost of $15,000 a year to the disitrct.
• Benchmark shows JHS 55 percent below level — State test results show more than half the juniors at Jacksonville High School cannot read or write at the appropriate grade level.
• Sherwood buries North Belt — The Sherwood City Council agrees to a court settlement, pays developer $85,000 and gives him permission to build in the proposed North Belt corridor.
• Record heat hurts dairies, fisheries and beef farmers — Lonoke County sees fish die in ponds, while cattle are sold off because it’s too expensive to haul in water and feed them.
• Road work needs millions — State highway officials tell Cabot residents and officials that they have about $4 billion for highway construction and repairs over the next 10 years, but the state has $24 billion in highway needs.
• Local agencies cooperated on heroin arrests —Numerous law enforcement agencies joined forces to arrest and file heroin drug charges against eight individuals in Lonoke County.
• Housing project planned — The Jacksonville Housing Authority Commission sets a groundbreaking ceremony for a new $10 million, 55-unit low income housing subdivision.
AUGUST
• Sizzling heat blazing on as relief far off — A string of 110-degree-plus days in June and July set records.
• Sherwood ponders electric move — A 90-minute meeting with North Little Rock Electric, Entergy and First Electric left city council members still confused and unsure about which firm should get the contract to supply 7,500 Sherwood customers with power.
• New trash firm serving Cabot — The city switches trash firms, going from Waste Management to IESI, in what officials call a better move for Cabot.
• Base to grow, shifting focus toward Pacific — New aircraft and crews will increase the number of airmen at Little Rock Air Force Base by six percent.
• Saving Ebenezer Ceme-tery — A community cleanup of a nearly forgotten historic cemetery in north Pulaski County is scheduled.
• Red Cross helping in Lonoke County – A small team of volunteers helps those affected by flooding.
• Board to review reappraisals — Officials will review dramatic increases in home and land appraisals, many of which a local realtor claims were wrong.
• Beautification plan to spruce up Cabot — More than $300,000 in state and federal grants will be used for sidewalks, myrtle trees and other amenities to beautify a section of Main Street in Cabot.
• Cops use pamphlet to explain city rules — The Jacksonville Police department mixed in some humor in a pamphlet to explain code enforcement rules.
• Schools will expand with $29.5 million — Projects on the Cabot School District’s list include a new ninth-grade complex.
• Sherwood quizzes utilities — Sherwood officials sent a questionnaire to three utility firms as it debates whether or not North Little Rock should retain its contract supplying electricity to 7,500 customers in Sherwood.
• District makes changes in its bell schedule — Pulaski County Special School District began its second year under state takeover. The number of district students was on the increase.
• Shooter given 16 years — A Cleburne County man who killed a Cabot teen in January 2011 with a sawed-off shotgun is sentenced to 16 years in prison.
• Veteran recalls bombing raids — Army Air Forces First Lt. Thiel Harber recounted his World War II bombing missions for a large crowd at the Jacksonville military museum.
• Auditor finds city financially sound — Even though 2011 revenues were flat, Jacksonville’s assets still exceeded its liabilities by $51 million.
• Murder suspect declared unfit — Bryce Allen, charged with the first-degree murder of a Jacksonville firefighter and attempted murder of two others has been found mentally unfit to stand trial.
• Candidates forum draws interest — Five Jacksonville aldermen candidates shared their views, concerns and goals for the city at an NAACP-sponsored candidate forum.
• Ward declares war on meth cookers — The Ward Police Department sponsored classes to help landlords and homeowners identify the telltale signs of meth labs.
• PCSSD school numbers going up — Jacksonville High School sees some of its biggest gains as the new principal, Henry Anderson, wins praise from students, parents and the district.
• Base graduates first Iraqi pilot — Close to 50 international C-130 students were receiving training at Little Rock Air Force Base as the base graduated its first C-130J Iraqi pilot.
• Units find shelter as hurricane moves in — Several planes from Florida and Mississippi made Little Rock Air Force Base their temporary home as they flew in to sit out a hurricane heading for their home bases.
• Cabot to keep BMX competition — A $4,300 debt has been settled and the state BMX championship races are back on for the Cabot race track for Sept. 30.
• New director of State Police is from Austin — Stan Witt, an Austin resident with 27 years of service with the state troopers, has been named to head the agency.
