By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
It’s a landslide.
Cabot voters said loud and clear Tuesday that they prefer to pay for their new sewer treatment plant by extending an existing sales tax seven additional years rather than doubling sewer rates.
The vote to extend the tax was 927 for, 187 against.
In a breakdown of all the projects to be funded with the sales tax, the unofficial results as supplied by Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh, who was waiting as the ballots were counted, are: sewer plant, 901 for, 202 against; overpass, 724 for, 366 against; community center, 695 for, 386 against; street improvements, 787 for, 304 against; animal shelter, 768 for, 324 against.
Stumbaugh opposed paying for the treatment plant with the sales tax, and said Tuesday night that he hadn’t changed his mind.
“A man stands where he stands,” the mayor said. “I think utilities should be paid for with rates.”
Still, he said he believes in the system. The voters have spoken, he said, and he is thrilled that some of the long-awaited projects can now begin.
“I am so excited about this community center being built,” Stumbaugh said. “I’m so excited about this animal shelter. And I’m so excited about this overpass because we’re going to save people’s lives.”
Alderman Odis Waymack, who with Alderman Eddie Cook sponsored the ordinance, submitting the tax extension to city voters, also waited while the ballots were counted. Waymack said he was pleased with the results that he believes are a message from city voters.
The tax was set to end when the water debt was repaid.
The approved tax extension will be used to pay off the existing $7 million debt and finance $16.5 million for a new sewer plant and improvements to sever lines, $1.5 million to build the community center which came in over budget, $200,000 for the animal shelter, $800,000 for the city’s part of a federally-funded railroad overpass and $1.2 million for street improvements.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
TOP STORY >> Foreign aid keeps coming
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
Gov. Mike Huckabee visited Little Rock Air Force Base Tuesday to see first-hand the extent of the aid being delivered from foreign countries and from NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
When its converted Boeing 707 landed at the base Monday with 24,000 blankets, 600 cots and 14 large tents for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina, it marked the first time NATO’s newly formed rapid-reaction force has been used for humanitarian relief, according to Capt. Robert Firman, public information chief, who accompanied the supplies from Geilenkirchen, Germany.
The force was created to respond quickly to help stabilize hostilities and restore order in conflicts.
Firman said the 10 tons of blankets and cots — five pallets worth — were donated by the Czech Republic and said many more flights and boatloads of supplies would be coming from NATO, and that many NATO member nations had already delivered relief supplies to the base, which has been designated as the hub for international relief delivered by air.
The supplies were unloaded in about 30 minutes.
In the days since the base was designated as the hub for relief, 31 international flights have delivered 303 pallets of aid weighing 1,225 tons, according its public information office. That’s 2.45 million pounds.
Those pallets had been loaded onto semi-tractor trailers for delivery into the hurricane-ravaged area.
“Serving as the hub for international aid, Little Rock Air Force Base stands ready and able to take on the hundreds of thousands of tons of incoming relief supplies,” said Brig. Gen. Kip Self, who assumed command of the base only Friday. “Our airmen at the base continuously train to move people and supplies. This life-saving effort puts our training into action by helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.”
In addition to the NATO flight, planes from Belgium, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Israel, Italy, Russia, Spain, Tunis, Thai-land and the United Nations had offloaded relief supplies at the base.
Disaster aid coming from China and Russia, former bitter Iron Curtain, Cold War enemies of the U.S., so impressed Vice Commander Col. Dave Watson, that he’s discussed it with his family.
“This is the good side of the wall coming down,” he said. “This is history in the making.”
Watson said he was further impressed by the Tunisian relief effort. They sent two cargo planes, one with “a full-blown colonel” each with two crews so they could fly shifts, stopping only for fuel.
As for the NATO aid, Firman said the U.S. requested NATO help on Thursday, the council voted Friday, and by Monday the 707 had been loaded, flown across the Atlantic Ocean and unloaded at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Col. Reinhard Mack, command pilot for the flight, said the rapid response was a demonstration of NATO teamwork, logistical capabilities and coordination.
Mack, a German who did his pilot training at Shepherd Air Force Base, said it gave him a good feeling to be involved in the relief.
In addition to unloading supplies, storing them and loading them onto trucks, base personnel have flown 31 sorties in support of Katrina relief, including 525 passengers and 84.25 tons.
Thirty-six airmen are deployed in support of Joint Task Force Katrina.
Leader staff writer
Gov. Mike Huckabee visited Little Rock Air Force Base Tuesday to see first-hand the extent of the aid being delivered from foreign countries and from NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
When its converted Boeing 707 landed at the base Monday with 24,000 blankets, 600 cots and 14 large tents for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina, it marked the first time NATO’s newly formed rapid-reaction force has been used for humanitarian relief, according to Capt. Robert Firman, public information chief, who accompanied the supplies from Geilenkirchen, Germany.
The force was created to respond quickly to help stabilize hostilities and restore order in conflicts.
Firman said the 10 tons of blankets and cots — five pallets worth — were donated by the Czech Republic and said many more flights and boatloads of supplies would be coming from NATO, and that many NATO member nations had already delivered relief supplies to the base, which has been designated as the hub for international relief delivered by air.
The supplies were unloaded in about 30 minutes.
In the days since the base was designated as the hub for relief, 31 international flights have delivered 303 pallets of aid weighing 1,225 tons, according its public information office. That’s 2.45 million pounds.
Those pallets had been loaded onto semi-tractor trailers for delivery into the hurricane-ravaged area.
“Serving as the hub for international aid, Little Rock Air Force Base stands ready and able to take on the hundreds of thousands of tons of incoming relief supplies,” said Brig. Gen. Kip Self, who assumed command of the base only Friday. “Our airmen at the base continuously train to move people and supplies. This life-saving effort puts our training into action by helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.”
In addition to the NATO flight, planes from Belgium, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Israel, Italy, Russia, Spain, Tunis, Thai-land and the United Nations had offloaded relief supplies at the base.
Disaster aid coming from China and Russia, former bitter Iron Curtain, Cold War enemies of the U.S., so impressed Vice Commander Col. Dave Watson, that he’s discussed it with his family.
“This is the good side of the wall coming down,” he said. “This is history in the making.”
Watson said he was further impressed by the Tunisian relief effort. They sent two cargo planes, one with “a full-blown colonel” each with two crews so they could fly shifts, stopping only for fuel.
As for the NATO aid, Firman said the U.S. requested NATO help on Thursday, the council voted Friday, and by Monday the 707 had been loaded, flown across the Atlantic Ocean and unloaded at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Col. Reinhard Mack, command pilot for the flight, said the rapid response was a demonstration of NATO teamwork, logistical capabilities and coordination.
Mack, a German who did his pilot training at Shepherd Air Force Base, said it gave him a good feeling to be involved in the relief.
In addition to unloading supplies, storing them and loading them onto trucks, base personnel have flown 31 sorties in support of Katrina relief, including 525 passengers and 84.25 tons.
Thirty-six airmen are deployed in support of Joint Task Force Katrina.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
EDITORIAL >> Evacuees get welcome here
The one bright spot after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina is the response Arkansans have shown thousands of people who fled here to escape the storm.
Arkansans have welcomed thousands of people from Louisiana and Mississippi and invited them into their homes and churches and fed them and enrolled them in their schools.
Restaurants have given away meals to hundreds of people at no charge, while others have received cash and clothing and even jobs. State agencies will surely take care of their needs for many weeks, possibly for several months.
The evacuees drove up here last weekend with little notice, but you couldn’t miss their presence this week as they filled up motels. Few of them will return anytime soon to their hometowns, since those hardly exist anymore.
These refugees are glad they’re alive, having lost almost everything they own and no doubt many lost relatives who were left behind.
Refugee children are enrolled in almost every school district in the state, including those in our communities, and have been made welcome. But the families’ situation is getting more desperate as they run out of money and max out their credit cards. They will need food and clothing and jobs and schooling for their children well into the fall and possibly into winter and beyond.
There’s no way to tell how many refugees from the hurricane are staying inside our borders, but more are on the way. Gov. Huckabee announced Friday that as many as 20,000 new refugees are on the way, and a quarter of them will be housed at Fort Chaffee at Fort Smith.
However long their stay, let’s make them feel at home.
Arkansans have welcomed thousands of people from Louisiana and Mississippi and invited them into their homes and churches and fed them and enrolled them in their schools.
Restaurants have given away meals to hundreds of people at no charge, while others have received cash and clothing and even jobs. State agencies will surely take care of their needs for many weeks, possibly for several months.
The evacuees drove up here last weekend with little notice, but you couldn’t miss their presence this week as they filled up motels. Few of them will return anytime soon to their hometowns, since those hardly exist anymore.
These refugees are glad they’re alive, having lost almost everything they own and no doubt many lost relatives who were left behind.
Refugee children are enrolled in almost every school district in the state, including those in our communities, and have been made welcome. But the families’ situation is getting more desperate as they run out of money and max out their credit cards. They will need food and clothing and jobs and schooling for their children well into the fall and possibly into winter and beyond.
There’s no way to tell how many refugees from the hurricane are staying inside our borders, but more are on the way. Gov. Huckabee announced Friday that as many as 20,000 new refugees are on the way, and a quarter of them will be housed at Fort Chaffee at Fort Smith.
However long their stay, let’s make them feel at home.
EDITORIAL >> Cavalry arrives way too late
The scenes from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina down south remind one of a Third World country where rescuers are nowhere to be found, having absconded with millions of dollars in foreign aid.
Those in charge of the assistance effort may not have run off with the loot, but their absence for most of this week is an embarrassment to this nation, whose citizens watched in horror as hundreds of people perished, while many of the survivors huddled in filth and lawless elements looted and raped as if this were an underdeveloped country.
The astonishingly slow response by the federal government to send in troops and help with rescue efforts proves once again that bureaucrats are naturally loath to react to disasters, much less prepare for them.
After 9-11, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) identified a hurricane and levee failure at New Orleans as one of the three most likely major disaster scenarios. Like the president’s morning briefing that reported that Osama bin Laden (remember him?) wanted to attack us using commercial airliners, apparently forewarned is not forearmed in this administration.
FEMA and the Homeland Security Department were nowhere to be found long after the hurricane tore through New Orleans. The people in charge made their obligatory statements on TV, but they didn’t have the sense to send reinforcements to make life a bit more sustainable there.
Too many people who were drowning in their homes were not rescued. Looters and rapists ran rampant throughout the city.
The administration must bear full responsibility for its inept response to the catastrophe, especially when it was willing to commit more than 100,000 troops to Iraq but hardly a tenth as many to Louisiana and Mississippi.
We conquered Baghdad in seven days and captured Normandy in just one day, and we can’t rescue New Orleans? We defended New Orleans against the British, but it took four days to mobilize the National Guard to begin to rescue the poor, sick and elderly left behind in that same city.
Sure, it’s easy to point fingers and lose one’s cool as we watch New Orleans disappear beyond the horizon. The suffering humanity that survived the disaster is still in a daze, angry that the authorities did not do more. We’re angy, too: That a great American city wasn’t better protected and helped when help was needed.
President Bush could help restore his own tattered credibility if he fired FEMA director Michael Brown, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose name he can’t pronounce anyway.
Those in charge of the assistance effort may not have run off with the loot, but their absence for most of this week is an embarrassment to this nation, whose citizens watched in horror as hundreds of people perished, while many of the survivors huddled in filth and lawless elements looted and raped as if this were an underdeveloped country.
The astonishingly slow response by the federal government to send in troops and help with rescue efforts proves once again that bureaucrats are naturally loath to react to disasters, much less prepare for them.
After 9-11, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) identified a hurricane and levee failure at New Orleans as one of the three most likely major disaster scenarios. Like the president’s morning briefing that reported that Osama bin Laden (remember him?) wanted to attack us using commercial airliners, apparently forewarned is not forearmed in this administration.
FEMA and the Homeland Security Department were nowhere to be found long after the hurricane tore through New Orleans. The people in charge made their obligatory statements on TV, but they didn’t have the sense to send reinforcements to make life a bit more sustainable there.
Too many people who were drowning in their homes were not rescued. Looters and rapists ran rampant throughout the city.
The administration must bear full responsibility for its inept response to the catastrophe, especially when it was willing to commit more than 100,000 troops to Iraq but hardly a tenth as many to Louisiana and Mississippi.
We conquered Baghdad in seven days and captured Normandy in just one day, and we can’t rescue New Orleans? We defended New Orleans against the British, but it took four days to mobilize the National Guard to begin to rescue the poor, sick and elderly left behind in that same city.
Sure, it’s easy to point fingers and lose one’s cool as we watch New Orleans disappear beyond the horizon. The suffering humanity that survived the disaster is still in a daze, angry that the authorities did not do more. We’re angy, too: That a great American city wasn’t better protected and helped when help was needed.
President Bush could help restore his own tattered credibility if he fired FEMA director Michael Brown, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose name he can’t pronounce anyway.
TOP STORY >> Family must flee again
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
When the United States pulled out of Saigon in 1975, abandoning all of Vietnam to the North Vietnamese, Trung Vu brought his family to this country with the few possessions they could carry. A young man then, he started anew, settling in the New Orleans area and eventually working as a jeweler.
Now, 30 years later, his job, home and that new life have been washed away in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Vu is once again on the road, a refugee in his adopted country.
Vu and three generations of his family—20 people in all—crammed in three cars with a few changes of clothes and some personal items are headed east to Pennsylvania and the promise of help and shelter from his brother and sister.
Looking tired and re-signed, Vu folded his arms and watched as his wife and daughter packed the back of the mini-van Thursday morning after an evening at the Lonoke Days Inn.
Many of the vehicles parked in Lonoke’s cluster of motels had Louisiana plates, with a fair smattering of Mississippi and Alabama plates.
People lingered in the lobbies, eating complimentary breakfasts, of hunkered down outside for a forlorn smoke.
Vu’s father-in-law, a man in his the 80s, came out to pack his bag into the car. For now, Vu just wants to get his family, including his wife’s aging parents, to his brother’s home in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Tuesday Houston, Wednesday night Lonoke and maybe one more night before Lancaster.
“We’re from Gretna, over the bridge from New Orleans,” said Vu. As far as I know, our area, the whole New Orleans, my job, all gone.
“We are empty again,” said Vu. “It’s a total loss,” said Vu. “Nothing now. No job.”
Asked if he was going back, Vu asked, “Go back for what? No job. No electricity—how you pay for everything?” He said he might try to go back in a few months and see if anything of his old life, any possessions could be salvaged.
“I’m very sad, very lost inside,” said his daughter Kim, 12.
Hopefully there will be another opportunity, Vu said. “We lost what we had, but we’re still lucky,” he said. “There’s a thousand people dead, floating in the water.
“Life will never be the same.”
Leader staff writer
When the United States pulled out of Saigon in 1975, abandoning all of Vietnam to the North Vietnamese, Trung Vu brought his family to this country with the few possessions they could carry. A young man then, he started anew, settling in the New Orleans area and eventually working as a jeweler.
Now, 30 years later, his job, home and that new life have been washed away in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Vu is once again on the road, a refugee in his adopted country.
Vu and three generations of his family—20 people in all—crammed in three cars with a few changes of clothes and some personal items are headed east to Pennsylvania and the promise of help and shelter from his brother and sister.
Looking tired and re-signed, Vu folded his arms and watched as his wife and daughter packed the back of the mini-van Thursday morning after an evening at the Lonoke Days Inn.
Many of the vehicles parked in Lonoke’s cluster of motels had Louisiana plates, with a fair smattering of Mississippi and Alabama plates.
People lingered in the lobbies, eating complimentary breakfasts, of hunkered down outside for a forlorn smoke.
Vu’s father-in-law, a man in his the 80s, came out to pack his bag into the car. For now, Vu just wants to get his family, including his wife’s aging parents, to his brother’s home in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Tuesday Houston, Wednesday night Lonoke and maybe one more night before Lancaster.
“We’re from Gretna, over the bridge from New Orleans,” said Vu. As far as I know, our area, the whole New Orleans, my job, all gone.
“We are empty again,” said Vu. “It’s a total loss,” said Vu. “Nothing now. No job.”
Asked if he was going back, Vu asked, “Go back for what? No job. No electricity—how you pay for everything?” He said he might try to go back in a few months and see if anything of his old life, any possessions could be salvaged.
“I’m very sad, very lost inside,” said his daughter Kim, 12.
Hopefully there will be another opportunity, Vu said. “We lost what we had, but we’re still lucky,” he said. “There’s a thousand people dead, floating in the water.
“Life will never be the same.”
TOP STORY >> Military working to save victims
Combined, more than a thousand Little Rock Air Force Base airmen and Arkansas National Guardsmen are working to save lives, move supplies, light runways and restore order in New Orleans and other storm-ravaged parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Airmen continued supporting Hurricane Katrina relief operations from Friday by launching C-130 missions carrying supplies to the Gulf Coast. Those missions carried vital shipments consisting of approximately 13,000 bottles of water, 1,800 meals ready to eat and 2,500 packages of sanitary wiping napkins.
The Pentagon has been slow to respond to the state’s request to use 60 C-130 airplanes from Little Rock Air Force Base to airlift some of the evacuees to Fort Chaffee and other “colonies” that are planned around the state, Governor Mike Huckabee said Friday.
“We have been chomping at the bit to get involved,” said Capt. Delvin Genenbacher, a 463rd Airlift Group, 50th Airlift Squadron pilot and aircraft commander. “We are happy that we are going to help. We support this 100 percent.”
“This is a touching mission to be involved in ... I am just honored to do this,” said Tech Sgt. Patrick Carter, 463rd Operations Support Squadron loadmaster. “If we were in the same situation I am sure they would do the same thing for us.”
On the Guard side, numerous C-130 airlifts and a large convoy have transported troops, trucks, food and water in recent days. Designated Task Force Arkansas, it includes members of the 39th Infantry Brigade—some veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan—as well as many other outfits including the 189th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base.
It is deploying with more than 80 vehicles including fuel and water trucks and many other trucks up to five-ton. Among the specialties of the Guardsmen are communications, medical, maintenance, transportation, law enforcement, engineering and logistics.
Wednesday, airmen from the 314th Airlift Wing, the 463rd Air Group and the 34th Combat Training Squadron flew to New Orlean’s Louis Armstrong International Airport to deliver portable runway lights to the hurricane ravaged airport.
“It was a race against the clock to get the airmen and airfield lights to the airport before dark so they could keep the runway open,” said Lt. Col. Glen Swift, 34th Combat Training Squadron commander. “The rest of us in the squadron worked together to look for anything they would need while they are there,” the colonel said.
Getting the airmen and lights into the airport was necessary for 24-hour operations. There was not enough power to use the existing lights on the runway. Those portable airfield lights were essential to saving lives according to crewmembers. The airfield is now one of the primary airfields used for aero-medical missions transporting patients out of New Orleans.
The airport is 4-feet above sea level and has three runways ranging from 3,500 feet to 10,080 feet long. “We are extremely proud of their efforts and proud of these guys,” Colonel Swift said. “They excelled in all they were asked to do.”
Four aero medical evacuation crews were to have departed Friday for San Antonio, Texas, aboard a C-130 Hercules from Little Rock Air Force Base, to provide in-flight medical care for victims of Hurricane Katrina, that has wrecked havoc along the coastlines of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
The Arkansas Army National Guard’s 35th Aviation Brigade deployed two UH-60 MEDEVAC Black Hawk helicopters to
Mississippi Tuesday and performed search and rescue missions near Mobile, Ala., Wednesday rescuing a total of 57 civilians including six children and two infants. All rescues were from rooftops and flooded homes.
Some missions involved chopping through attic roofs.
Airmen continued supporting Hurricane Katrina relief operations from Friday by launching C-130 missions carrying supplies to the Gulf Coast. Those missions carried vital shipments consisting of approximately 13,000 bottles of water, 1,800 meals ready to eat and 2,500 packages of sanitary wiping napkins.
The Pentagon has been slow to respond to the state’s request to use 60 C-130 airplanes from Little Rock Air Force Base to airlift some of the evacuees to Fort Chaffee and other “colonies” that are planned around the state, Governor Mike Huckabee said Friday.
“We have been chomping at the bit to get involved,” said Capt. Delvin Genenbacher, a 463rd Airlift Group, 50th Airlift Squadron pilot and aircraft commander. “We are happy that we are going to help. We support this 100 percent.”
“This is a touching mission to be involved in ... I am just honored to do this,” said Tech Sgt. Patrick Carter, 463rd Operations Support Squadron loadmaster. “If we were in the same situation I am sure they would do the same thing for us.”
On the Guard side, numerous C-130 airlifts and a large convoy have transported troops, trucks, food and water in recent days. Designated Task Force Arkansas, it includes members of the 39th Infantry Brigade—some veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan—as well as many other outfits including the 189th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base.
It is deploying with more than 80 vehicles including fuel and water trucks and many other trucks up to five-ton. Among the specialties of the Guardsmen are communications, medical, maintenance, transportation, law enforcement, engineering and logistics.
Wednesday, airmen from the 314th Airlift Wing, the 463rd Air Group and the 34th Combat Training Squadron flew to New Orlean’s Louis Armstrong International Airport to deliver portable runway lights to the hurricane ravaged airport.
“It was a race against the clock to get the airmen and airfield lights to the airport before dark so they could keep the runway open,” said Lt. Col. Glen Swift, 34th Combat Training Squadron commander. “The rest of us in the squadron worked together to look for anything they would need while they are there,” the colonel said.
Getting the airmen and lights into the airport was necessary for 24-hour operations. There was not enough power to use the existing lights on the runway. Those portable airfield lights were essential to saving lives according to crewmembers. The airfield is now one of the primary airfields used for aero-medical missions transporting patients out of New Orleans.
The airport is 4-feet above sea level and has three runways ranging from 3,500 feet to 10,080 feet long. “We are extremely proud of their efforts and proud of these guys,” Colonel Swift said. “They excelled in all they were asked to do.”
Four aero medical evacuation crews were to have departed Friday for San Antonio, Texas, aboard a C-130 Hercules from Little Rock Air Force Base, to provide in-flight medical care for victims of Hurricane Katrina, that has wrecked havoc along the coastlines of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
The Arkansas Army National Guard’s 35th Aviation Brigade deployed two UH-60 MEDEVAC Black Hawk helicopters to
Mississippi Tuesday and performed search and rescue missions near Mobile, Ala., Wednesday rescuing a total of 57 civilians including six children and two infants. All rescues were from rooftops and flooded homes.
Some missions involved chopping through attic roofs.
TOP STORY >> Katrina's Aftermath
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
Five days into the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history, even as many tens of thousands of people desperately stew in frustration and anger in New Orleans awaiting long-promised water, food and medical help, local people are helping out.
Bringing what little they could pack into the family car before fleeing—perhaps forever—from the homes and jobs and neighbors and schools they’ve known for a lifetime, refugees from Hurricane Katrina have flooded into area motels, some without a clue where they are headed, what life holds in store for them or from where their next meal will come.
They bring with them their hopes and fears, their children, pets and medical and emotional problems, often with too little food, too little water, too little money and not enough information about the folks back home.
Estimates of refugees in the state range as high as 20,000, according to some reports, although firm information is hard to come by.
Local churches, private citizens, businesses and governments are doing what they can.
The Jacksonville Chamber of Com-merce has coordinated a schedule of free meals to be provided at area churches and pantries, planned a job fair and is opening a shelter behind the chamber.
Gov. Mike Huckabee has identified 20,000 beds in the state for refugees, 4,000 of them at Fort Chaffee near Fort Smith. He has declared an emergency to exist in every Arkansas county and freed millions of dollars for relief.
Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency identified a hurricane and levee failure at New Orleans as one of the most likely disasters, the agency was caught flatfooted this week—even though the hurricane was expected.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln Friday praised Huckabee’s response to the crisis, but called the action and inaction of President Bush and the Federal Emergency Ma-nagement Agency “unacceptable.”
“I was a little dismayed it took (the President) until today to get down there. There’s no doubt we need the kind of leadership that will make sure the agencies that are operating can operate efficiently.”
But locally, with guidance and support from the state Education Department, schools have begun enrolling students fleeing Loui-siana and Mississippi, forgoing for now the niceties of transcripts and other requirements.
The local Pulaski County schools have enrolled about at least seven students and are expecting more, particularly Arnold Drive Elemen-tary School, located on Little Rock Air Force Base. The base has opened a re-ception center to welcome airmen uprooted by the storm and flood and those with elementary school aged children would most likely attend Arnold.
“We’re expecting more and will do whatever we can,” said Arnold Drive Elementary Principal Jackie Smith. “We have a way to get uniforms and help the students get supplies,” she said.
At Jacksonville Middle School, the boys’ campus, three displaced students enrolled Friday.
In a competition to see which middle school could raise more money for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, the Jackson-ville girls raised $1,000 versus $400 for the boys, according to Girls Superintendent Angela Romney.
Responding to inaccurate information that many school-aged children were holed up in Lonoke motels with their parents, Lonoke Schools considered sending a school bus to pick those children up, according to John Tackett, assistant superintendent.
The new Holiday Inn Express at Lonoke emerged as the unofficial headquarters for Lonoke’s newly arrived travelers at the prompting of Christina Harris, a motel employee who took it upon herself to round up food, clothing and information for them.
One woman with two children, including a 19-month-old, told the desk clerk she was out of money and would have to leave, Harris said. A guest checking out pushed his credit card forward and had the clerk pay for two more nights for the woman.
“The parking lot’s been plenty full,” said Jason Thompson, general manager of the motel, “about 90 percent from Louisiana.”
By Thursday morning, he said, some were heading back to New Orleans “to see what’s left,” and others had run out of money and don’t know what to do.”
In the motel’s computer room, Marlene Nobles and members of her family surf the Internet, trying to find out how their home and neighborhood fared.
“My husband is still there and we can’t get in touch,” she said.
Then after a pause, “I feel that he’s well.”
Nobles and the Fergusons are headed to stay with family in Indiana. “I’m concerned,” said Chole Ferguson, 14. “We left people we know and want to have a house to go home to. This is going to be a life-changing event.”
Meanwhile, the Arkansas National Guard has about 1,000 soldiers and airmen in the affected areas, providing various kinds of aid.
“I’m very proud of the wonderful people of Arkansas who have opened their hearts and homes and churches and communities to help the displaced,” said the senator.
She said the Senate this week convened to pass a $10.5 billion emergency relief authorization, mostly for FEMA search and rescue. When FEMA moved to homeland security, it became entwined in tremendous bureaucracy, said Lincoln.
“Clearly, there have been simulations and there’s no reason that we should not have been prepared better—and we will be in the future,” she said.
Leader staff writer
Five days into the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history, even as many tens of thousands of people desperately stew in frustration and anger in New Orleans awaiting long-promised water, food and medical help, local people are helping out.
Bringing what little they could pack into the family car before fleeing—perhaps forever—from the homes and jobs and neighbors and schools they’ve known for a lifetime, refugees from Hurricane Katrina have flooded into area motels, some without a clue where they are headed, what life holds in store for them or from where their next meal will come.
They bring with them their hopes and fears, their children, pets and medical and emotional problems, often with too little food, too little water, too little money and not enough information about the folks back home.
Estimates of refugees in the state range as high as 20,000, according to some reports, although firm information is hard to come by.
Local churches, private citizens, businesses and governments are doing what they can.
The Jacksonville Chamber of Com-merce has coordinated a schedule of free meals to be provided at area churches and pantries, planned a job fair and is opening a shelter behind the chamber.
Gov. Mike Huckabee has identified 20,000 beds in the state for refugees, 4,000 of them at Fort Chaffee near Fort Smith. He has declared an emergency to exist in every Arkansas county and freed millions of dollars for relief.
Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency identified a hurricane and levee failure at New Orleans as one of the most likely disasters, the agency was caught flatfooted this week—even though the hurricane was expected.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln Friday praised Huckabee’s response to the crisis, but called the action and inaction of President Bush and the Federal Emergency Ma-nagement Agency “unacceptable.”
“I was a little dismayed it took (the President) until today to get down there. There’s no doubt we need the kind of leadership that will make sure the agencies that are operating can operate efficiently.”
But locally, with guidance and support from the state Education Department, schools have begun enrolling students fleeing Loui-siana and Mississippi, forgoing for now the niceties of transcripts and other requirements.
The local Pulaski County schools have enrolled about at least seven students and are expecting more, particularly Arnold Drive Elemen-tary School, located on Little Rock Air Force Base. The base has opened a re-ception center to welcome airmen uprooted by the storm and flood and those with elementary school aged children would most likely attend Arnold.
“We’re expecting more and will do whatever we can,” said Arnold Drive Elementary Principal Jackie Smith. “We have a way to get uniforms and help the students get supplies,” she said.
At Jacksonville Middle School, the boys’ campus, three displaced students enrolled Friday.
In a competition to see which middle school could raise more money for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, the Jackson-ville girls raised $1,000 versus $400 for the boys, according to Girls Superintendent Angela Romney.
Responding to inaccurate information that many school-aged children were holed up in Lonoke motels with their parents, Lonoke Schools considered sending a school bus to pick those children up, according to John Tackett, assistant superintendent.
The new Holiday Inn Express at Lonoke emerged as the unofficial headquarters for Lonoke’s newly arrived travelers at the prompting of Christina Harris, a motel employee who took it upon herself to round up food, clothing and information for them.
One woman with two children, including a 19-month-old, told the desk clerk she was out of money and would have to leave, Harris said. A guest checking out pushed his credit card forward and had the clerk pay for two more nights for the woman.
“The parking lot’s been plenty full,” said Jason Thompson, general manager of the motel, “about 90 percent from Louisiana.”
By Thursday morning, he said, some were heading back to New Orleans “to see what’s left,” and others had run out of money and don’t know what to do.”
In the motel’s computer room, Marlene Nobles and members of her family surf the Internet, trying to find out how their home and neighborhood fared.
“My husband is still there and we can’t get in touch,” she said.
Then after a pause, “I feel that he’s well.”
Nobles and the Fergusons are headed to stay with family in Indiana. “I’m concerned,” said Chole Ferguson, 14. “We left people we know and want to have a house to go home to. This is going to be a life-changing event.”
Meanwhile, the Arkansas National Guard has about 1,000 soldiers and airmen in the affected areas, providing various kinds of aid.
“I’m very proud of the wonderful people of Arkansas who have opened their hearts and homes and churches and communities to help the displaced,” said the senator.
She said the Senate this week convened to pass a $10.5 billion emergency relief authorization, mostly for FEMA search and rescue. When FEMA moved to homeland security, it became entwined in tremendous bureaucracy, said Lincoln.
“Clearly, there have been simulations and there’s no reason that we should not have been prepared better—and we will be in the future,” she said.
OBITS
JOHN ROACH
John Daniel Roach, 68, of El Paso, passed away Sept. 3 in North Little Rock. He was born Feb. 14, 1937, in Little Rock to the late John Robert and Katie Roach. He married Frances Johnson Oct. 19, 1954, in Little Rock. Together they had four children and adopted five children.
Preceding him in death were his parents John Robert Roach and Katie McCler Roach; seven brothers: Robert, Calvin, Alan, Hilton, Paul, Floyd and Richard; and one sister, Virginia Bailey.
Survivors include his loving wife for over 50 years, Frances Mamie Roach of the home; nine children: Larry Roach, Linda Roach, Ricky Roach, Melissa Wooldridge, and Gene Roach all of El Paso, Rachel Cash of Cabot, LeaAnn Foshee of Amarillo, Texas, Tiffiny Roach and Carol Adams both of El Paso; two sisters, Charlean Mayfield and Dar-lene Goode both of Cabot; two brothers: Jesse Roach of Cabot and Jimmy Roach of Rusk, Texas; 18 grandchildren and six great grand-children. Funeral services were held Sept. 6 at Mt. Springs Baptist Church with interment at Grissard Cemetery in El Paso.
Arrangements were by Thomas Funeral Service 713 South Second St. in Cabot.
CHARLES BUSBY
Charles “Tommy” Busby, 53, of Cabot, died Friday, Sept. 2. He was a musician and gardener.
He is survived by two sons, Kenny Busby and Lance Busby and wife, Rene all of Austin; brother, James Busby and wife, Pat of Cabot; sister, Jackie Goodwin and husband, Otis of Cabot; nieces, Shanna Busby and Denise Sword and husband, Mark; nephews, Brett Busby, Bradley Busby, Allen Tucker and wife, Mona, David Tucker and wife, Tanya; great-nephews, Blake Busby, Mark and Mallory Sword, Heather and Bradley Tucker and Jacob Tucker.
Funeral services were Sept. 6 at Austin Church of Christ with burial at Sylvania Cemetery by Westbrook Funeral Home, Beebe.
LYLE POINDEXTER
Lyle Poindexter, 75, of McRae, went to be with the Lord, Sunday, Sept. 4. He was retired from Harding University with over 38 years of service in the automotive maintenance department, a farmer and a member of West Side Church of Christ, Searcy.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Lorene Goff Poindexter; two daughters, Myra Spence and husband, Jamie of Beebe, Stephanie Poindexter Milton of Searcy; three granddaughters, Erica Young, An-drea McCoy and Alicia Scarbor-ough; a great-granddaughter, Ash-lynn McCoy; one brother, Phillip Poindexter of McRae; four sisters, Betty Jones of Searcy, Imogene Gardner of Denver, Colo., Leoda Bennett of Jacksonville and Ann McQueen of Little Rock. He was preceded in death by his parents, Ovid and Elsie Poindexter and a brother, James Poindexter.
Funeral services were Sept. 6 at Westbrook Funeral Home, Beebe with burial at Antioch Cemetery.
John Daniel Roach, 68, of El Paso, passed away Sept. 3 in North Little Rock. He was born Feb. 14, 1937, in Little Rock to the late John Robert and Katie Roach. He married Frances Johnson Oct. 19, 1954, in Little Rock. Together they had four children and adopted five children.
Preceding him in death were his parents John Robert Roach and Katie McCler Roach; seven brothers: Robert, Calvin, Alan, Hilton, Paul, Floyd and Richard; and one sister, Virginia Bailey.
Survivors include his loving wife for over 50 years, Frances Mamie Roach of the home; nine children: Larry Roach, Linda Roach, Ricky Roach, Melissa Wooldridge, and Gene Roach all of El Paso, Rachel Cash of Cabot, LeaAnn Foshee of Amarillo, Texas, Tiffiny Roach and Carol Adams both of El Paso; two sisters, Charlean Mayfield and Dar-lene Goode both of Cabot; two brothers: Jesse Roach of Cabot and Jimmy Roach of Rusk, Texas; 18 grandchildren and six great grand-children. Funeral services were held Sept. 6 at Mt. Springs Baptist Church with interment at Grissard Cemetery in El Paso.
Arrangements were by Thomas Funeral Service 713 South Second St. in Cabot.
CHARLES BUSBY
Charles “Tommy” Busby, 53, of Cabot, died Friday, Sept. 2. He was a musician and gardener.
He is survived by two sons, Kenny Busby and Lance Busby and wife, Rene all of Austin; brother, James Busby and wife, Pat of Cabot; sister, Jackie Goodwin and husband, Otis of Cabot; nieces, Shanna Busby and Denise Sword and husband, Mark; nephews, Brett Busby, Bradley Busby, Allen Tucker and wife, Mona, David Tucker and wife, Tanya; great-nephews, Blake Busby, Mark and Mallory Sword, Heather and Bradley Tucker and Jacob Tucker.
Funeral services were Sept. 6 at Austin Church of Christ with burial at Sylvania Cemetery by Westbrook Funeral Home, Beebe.
LYLE POINDEXTER
Lyle Poindexter, 75, of McRae, went to be with the Lord, Sunday, Sept. 4. He was retired from Harding University with over 38 years of service in the automotive maintenance department, a farmer and a member of West Side Church of Christ, Searcy.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Lorene Goff Poindexter; two daughters, Myra Spence and husband, Jamie of Beebe, Stephanie Poindexter Milton of Searcy; three granddaughters, Erica Young, An-drea McCoy and Alicia Scarbor-ough; a great-granddaughter, Ash-lynn McCoy; one brother, Phillip Poindexter of McRae; four sisters, Betty Jones of Searcy, Imogene Gardner of Denver, Colo., Leoda Bennett of Jacksonville and Ann McQueen of Little Rock. He was preceded in death by his parents, Ovid and Elsie Poindexter and a brother, James Poindexter.
Funeral services were Sept. 6 at Westbrook Funeral Home, Beebe with burial at Antioch Cemetery.
NEIGHBORS >> Area Girl Scouts opening arms
By SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
The Ouachita Council of Girl Scouts is inviting girls from families evacuated as a result of Hurricane Katrina to join the Girl Scouts free of charge. The Ouachita Council of Girl Scouts will pay all registration fees.
The Girl Scouts’ Juliette Low Service Unit serves scouts in Cabot, Austin, Ward, Beebe, McRae and DesArc areas and wants to help by placing girls in existing troops to make friends.
For more information, contact the Ouachita Council at (501) 758-1020 or call Beverly Keathley, manager of the Juliette Low Service Unit, at 843-8873 or by e-mail at beverlykeathley@yahoo.com.
Six members of Girl Scout Troop 635 of Beebe toured the William J. Clinton Presidential Li-brary and Museum in Little Rock recently. The troop is for Girl Scouts ages 10, 11 and 12.
The presidential library, 1200 President Clinton Ave., includes an archival research facility and a museum. It is responsible for preserving and processing the official presidential records, audiovisual materials and artifacts of the Clinton administration.
Clinton was at the library when the troop visited. He made time to shake hands and pose for photographs with the scouts.
“The scouts really enjoyed the day,” said Mary Beth Hendricks who shares the leadership of the troop with Becky Blair. Hendricks has been involved with scouts since her daughter was a Daisy Scout in kindergarten. She became active in scout leadership last year.
“I enjoy the interaction with the girls,” Hendricks said. Her daughter is now a Junior Scout. Next year, her daughter will be a Cadet.
The tour of the library fulfilled a history-badge requirement as well as encouraging good citizenship in the scouts, says Hendricks.
The scouts took turns sitting in chairs in the Cabinet Room, looking up historical facts on the various touch-screen computers. The computer screens allow visitors to simply touch the screen for information.
For example, the scouts used the computers to find out what President Clinton was doing on the day they were born. The troop stopped at the Old Mill in North Little Rock where they had a picnic lunch and afternoon tour.
The Old Mill, located at Fairway Ave. and Lakeshore Drive in North Little Rock, is a historic re-creation of an 1880’s water-powered gristmill.
Currently, Troop 635 is planning a trip to the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace in Savannah, Ga., where the Girl Scouts organization was first founded.
The troop is also planning a visit to the Little Rock Central High School national historic site and museum later in the year.
The museum, at 2125 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Dr. in Little Rock, opened in September 1997 to mark the 40th anniversary of the high school’s desegregation, when nine African-American students en-tered the school under federal troop protection.
Leader staff writer
The Ouachita Council of Girl Scouts is inviting girls from families evacuated as a result of Hurricane Katrina to join the Girl Scouts free of charge. The Ouachita Council of Girl Scouts will pay all registration fees.
The Girl Scouts’ Juliette Low Service Unit serves scouts in Cabot, Austin, Ward, Beebe, McRae and DesArc areas and wants to help by placing girls in existing troops to make friends.
For more information, contact the Ouachita Council at (501) 758-1020 or call Beverly Keathley, manager of the Juliette Low Service Unit, at 843-8873 or by e-mail at beverlykeathley@yahoo.com.
Six members of Girl Scout Troop 635 of Beebe toured the William J. Clinton Presidential Li-brary and Museum in Little Rock recently. The troop is for Girl Scouts ages 10, 11 and 12.
The presidential library, 1200 President Clinton Ave., includes an archival research facility and a museum. It is responsible for preserving and processing the official presidential records, audiovisual materials and artifacts of the Clinton administration.
Clinton was at the library when the troop visited. He made time to shake hands and pose for photographs with the scouts.
“The scouts really enjoyed the day,” said Mary Beth Hendricks who shares the leadership of the troop with Becky Blair. Hendricks has been involved with scouts since her daughter was a Daisy Scout in kindergarten. She became active in scout leadership last year.
“I enjoy the interaction with the girls,” Hendricks said. Her daughter is now a Junior Scout. Next year, her daughter will be a Cadet.
The tour of the library fulfilled a history-badge requirement as well as encouraging good citizenship in the scouts, says Hendricks.
The scouts took turns sitting in chairs in the Cabinet Room, looking up historical facts on the various touch-screen computers. The computer screens allow visitors to simply touch the screen for information.
For example, the scouts used the computers to find out what President Clinton was doing on the day they were born. The troop stopped at the Old Mill in North Little Rock where they had a picnic lunch and afternoon tour.
The Old Mill, located at Fairway Ave. and Lakeshore Drive in North Little Rock, is a historic re-creation of an 1880’s water-powered gristmill.
Currently, Troop 635 is planning a trip to the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace in Savannah, Ga., where the Girl Scouts organization was first founded.
The troop is also planning a visit to the Little Rock Central High School national historic site and museum later in the year.
The museum, at 2125 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Dr. in Little Rock, opened in September 1997 to mark the 40th anniversary of the high school’s desegregation, when nine African-American students en-tered the school under federal troop protection.
SPORTS >> Badgers, Lonoke continue old rivalry
By RICKY HARVEY
Leader managing editor
There’s no telling what kind of game to expect when rivals Beebe and Lonoke face off Friday night in Lonoke.
The game could be a shootout like last season when the Jackrabbits won 34-26 at Beebe, or the game could be low-scoring, like in 2003 when the Badgers came away with an 8-2 victory.
One thing is certain, however: The game will likely be competitive.
“It’s a war every time we play,” Lonoke coach Marcel Vincent said. “The game has come down to the end the last two years. We always seem to match up well with each other. It’s just a classic game.”
Since 1976, Lonoke leads the series against Beebe 12-11.
“We got a nice little rivalry going,” Vincent said. Lonoke (0-1) is coming off a 41-14 season-opening loss to class AAA power Pine Bluff Dollarway, a game which saw the Jackrabbits have a turnover-filled first half lead to an early 28-0 deficit. Lonoke trailed by as many as 33-0 before scoring two touchdowns in the second half.
“Dollarway is a very good club and I think everyone realizes that, but we didn’t help ourselves by turning the ball over,” Vincent said. “We spotted them 28 points before we started really playing and I was disappointed by that.
“But there were some bright spots. We played much better at the end of the game than we did in the first half so that’s a positive. Our special teams also played really well and we threw the ball a lot. We had open receivers, we just need to work on making better reads.”
Beebe junior quarterback Jared Mathis had plenty of good reads in a 32-26 victory over Greenbrier on Thursday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Mathis threw for four touchdowns and added another rushing score as the Badgers (1-0) held on for the season-opening victory. Mathis finished 16 of 28 for 218 yards.
“He’s got a lot of confidence right now,” Vincent said of Mathis. “Their offense really clicked behind him and he was a great leader in that game. He’s certainly an area we’ve got to be concerned about.”
While he’s concerned with what will be effective against Beebe, Vincent is mainly concerned about his team, and getting it ready for a rugged 6AAA conference schedule, which begins in two weeks.
“We’ve had the state champion come out of our conference the past two years so we’re going to know fairly early where we stand,” Vincent said. “We’ve got to get ready for it.”
Leader managing editor
There’s no telling what kind of game to expect when rivals Beebe and Lonoke face off Friday night in Lonoke.
The game could be a shootout like last season when the Jackrabbits won 34-26 at Beebe, or the game could be low-scoring, like in 2003 when the Badgers came away with an 8-2 victory.
One thing is certain, however: The game will likely be competitive.
“It’s a war every time we play,” Lonoke coach Marcel Vincent said. “The game has come down to the end the last two years. We always seem to match up well with each other. It’s just a classic game.”
Since 1976, Lonoke leads the series against Beebe 12-11.
“We got a nice little rivalry going,” Vincent said. Lonoke (0-1) is coming off a 41-14 season-opening loss to class AAA power Pine Bluff Dollarway, a game which saw the Jackrabbits have a turnover-filled first half lead to an early 28-0 deficit. Lonoke trailed by as many as 33-0 before scoring two touchdowns in the second half.
“Dollarway is a very good club and I think everyone realizes that, but we didn’t help ourselves by turning the ball over,” Vincent said. “We spotted them 28 points before we started really playing and I was disappointed by that.
“But there were some bright spots. We played much better at the end of the game than we did in the first half so that’s a positive. Our special teams also played really well and we threw the ball a lot. We had open receivers, we just need to work on making better reads.”
Beebe junior quarterback Jared Mathis had plenty of good reads in a 32-26 victory over Greenbrier on Thursday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Mathis threw for four touchdowns and added another rushing score as the Badgers (1-0) held on for the season-opening victory. Mathis finished 16 of 28 for 218 yards.
“He’s got a lot of confidence right now,” Vincent said of Mathis. “Their offense really clicked behind him and he was a great leader in that game. He’s certainly an area we’ve got to be concerned about.”
While he’s concerned with what will be effective against Beebe, Vincent is mainly concerned about his team, and getting it ready for a rugged 6AAA conference schedule, which begins in two weeks.
“We’ve had the state champion come out of our conference the past two years so we’re going to know fairly early where we stand,” Vincent said. “We’ve got to get ready for it.”
SPORTS >> Sloppy openers expose areas needing improvement for Falcons, Devils
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The two Jacksonville high school football teams enter this Friday’s annual showdown after taking their own respective thumpings in last week’s season openers.
AAAAA-Central schools beat both Jacksonville teams. The Red Devils were routed 43-14 by North Little Rock, while North Pulaski was lit up 44-0 by Little Rock Hall.
North Little Rock is highly ranked while Hall entered the season with little expectations from anyone but the Warriors themselves. That leads most to believe that Jacksonville would be a heavy favorite over its crosstown rival, but head Red Devil Mark Whatley doesn’t see it that way.
“To be honest I can’t worry too much about how tough they’re going to be,” Whatley said. “We’ve got too many of our own problems we’ve got to get fixed. We put it on the ground four times, had five dropped passes and six misfires. We can’t be too concerned with anybody else right now but us.”
Jacksonville failed to get much of a running game going against North Little Rock’s defense. That’s another thing the Red Devils will work on this week.
The passing game worked well at times, and provided a few big plays in Friday’s loss, but Whatley wants to see more drives down the field.
“We just weren’t consistent enough,” Whatley said. “We had some big plays, but you don’t want to live and die by the big play. We want to put together some drives and be consistent on offense.”
There were a couple of things about the offense Whatley liked. The play of sophomore quarterback Cameron Hood was impressive, when all things are considered.
Hood was rushed into the starting job when junior returning starter Daniel Hubbard went hrough an emergency appendectomy Friday morning.
Hood suffered a major knee injury in the first game of the year last season in the Metro Conference, and hasn’t played a down since. He was told Friday afternoon he’d be under center against one of the most highly touted teams in the state to start the season.
“I think Cameron played about as good as can be expected,” Whatley said. “He woke up Friday morning expecting to play linebacker, then found out he was going to be running the team. I think he handled it really well.”
One thing that helped Hood out a lot was the protection offered by the offensive line, something Whatley was very pleased about.
“I think the offensive line gave him ample time to throw and that’s big. It’s big all the time, but especially when you’ve got a kid in the situation Daniel was in.”
Hood will start this week as well, but Hubbard will be back by week three against Watson Chapel.
North Pulaski took a beating, but even that score may not have told the story of how good the Falcons can be. North Pulaski threw four interceptions, lost three fumbles and gave up two punt returns for touchdowns.
That’s a lot of breakdowns to correct, but the basic offense and defense wasn’t that bad, turnovers notwithstanding.
“When you commit seven turnovers and give up two special teams touchdowns, you’re going to get spanked. I don’t care how good you are,” North Pulaski coach Tony Bohannon said.
North Pulaski’s starting running back, Rodric Rainey, carried seven times for 42 yards in the first half, but suffered a high ankle sprain that kept him out the entire second half. He’ll likely be ready to play by Friday, but will be limited.
The passing game is what Bohannon was most disappointed with. Execution will have to improve this week.
“We missed a lot of receivers over the middle that were wide open,” Bohannon said. “We just didn’t see ‘em, didn’t throw it to ‘em. We’re going to start throwing to our shorter receivers instead of going down field every time. If we don’t we’re going to have a new quarterback.”
Leader sports editor
The two Jacksonville high school football teams enter this Friday’s annual showdown after taking their own respective thumpings in last week’s season openers.
AAAAA-Central schools beat both Jacksonville teams. The Red Devils were routed 43-14 by North Little Rock, while North Pulaski was lit up 44-0 by Little Rock Hall.
North Little Rock is highly ranked while Hall entered the season with little expectations from anyone but the Warriors themselves. That leads most to believe that Jacksonville would be a heavy favorite over its crosstown rival, but head Red Devil Mark Whatley doesn’t see it that way.
“To be honest I can’t worry too much about how tough they’re going to be,” Whatley said. “We’ve got too many of our own problems we’ve got to get fixed. We put it on the ground four times, had five dropped passes and six misfires. We can’t be too concerned with anybody else right now but us.”
Jacksonville failed to get much of a running game going against North Little Rock’s defense. That’s another thing the Red Devils will work on this week.
The passing game worked well at times, and provided a few big plays in Friday’s loss, but Whatley wants to see more drives down the field.
“We just weren’t consistent enough,” Whatley said. “We had some big plays, but you don’t want to live and die by the big play. We want to put together some drives and be consistent on offense.”
There were a couple of things about the offense Whatley liked. The play of sophomore quarterback Cameron Hood was impressive, when all things are considered.
Hood was rushed into the starting job when junior returning starter Daniel Hubbard went hrough an emergency appendectomy Friday morning.
Hood suffered a major knee injury in the first game of the year last season in the Metro Conference, and hasn’t played a down since. He was told Friday afternoon he’d be under center against one of the most highly touted teams in the state to start the season.
“I think Cameron played about as good as can be expected,” Whatley said. “He woke up Friday morning expecting to play linebacker, then found out he was going to be running the team. I think he handled it really well.”
One thing that helped Hood out a lot was the protection offered by the offensive line, something Whatley was very pleased about.
“I think the offensive line gave him ample time to throw and that’s big. It’s big all the time, but especially when you’ve got a kid in the situation Daniel was in.”
Hood will start this week as well, but Hubbard will be back by week three against Watson Chapel.
North Pulaski took a beating, but even that score may not have told the story of how good the Falcons can be. North Pulaski threw four interceptions, lost three fumbles and gave up two punt returns for touchdowns.
That’s a lot of breakdowns to correct, but the basic offense and defense wasn’t that bad, turnovers notwithstanding.
“When you commit seven turnovers and give up two special teams touchdowns, you’re going to get spanked. I don’t care how good you are,” North Pulaski coach Tony Bohannon said.
North Pulaski’s starting running back, Rodric Rainey, carried seven times for 42 yards in the first half, but suffered a high ankle sprain that kept him out the entire second half. He’ll likely be ready to play by Friday, but will be limited.
The passing game is what Bohannon was most disappointed with. Execution will have to improve this week.
“We missed a lot of receivers over the middle that were wide open,” Bohannon said. “We just didn’t see ‘em, didn’t throw it to ‘em. We’re going to start throwing to our shorter receivers instead of going down field every time. If we don’t we’re going to have a new quarterback.”
EDITORIAL >> Only one’s presidential
Let us first be charitable about the images of post-Katrina leadership and recognize the obvious. Of the two Republicans observable in Arkansas over the weekend tending to the needs of the dispossessed, the president and the aspirant, Gov. Huckabee hands down struck us as the most presidential. Although disaster relief was primarily President Bush’s responsibility and Huckabee’s was merely ministering to the overflow of 25,000 or so within our borders, the governor seemed to be everywhere, welcoming, encouraging and, yes, being knowledgeable.
President Bush, on the other hand, seemed almost catatonic. He finally ended his long vacation from the White House and flew back to Washington. From there, as hundreds and perhaps thousands lay dying in the streets, homes and redoubts of New Orleans and in the many-splintered villages along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, the president made a flyby and a couple of staged photo ops. The scripted messages were delivered mechanically and sometimes petulantly. People were doing a great job, he said, except maybe local and state officials. With criticism gathering, he made a mulligan visit at the first of the week with even better photo ops to demonstrate empathy and caring.
But while a speech and an emblematic hug or two were what the country needed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, and Bush ultimately delivered those well enough, the human devastation of Hurricane Katrina required much more of the president of the United States. Solace was what the country and the people of New York needed four years ago this week.
The city’s and state’s infrastructure took care of the rescue of the few who could be saved from the rubble, the recovery of the dead, the treatment of the injured and, insofar as any community could, ministry to the grieving. But hundreds of thousands in New Orleans and along the coast needed help to stay alive, keep their families together and to hold on to the vanishing hope for a future.
It is for such instances that democratic people have nourished the idea of vigilant and humane government. For the people this time, government failed its purpose.
After first congratulating his administration’s team at Home-land Security and the vanishing little program called the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), for their magnificent work, President Bush yesterday announced that he would lead an investigation of the government failures in the aftermath of Katrina. Moreover, the heretofore invisible Vice President Dick Cheney will soon go to the Gulf Coast to get the straight of it and he will come back and tell us how well or badly his administration has done. He is the same vice president who gave us all those optimistic assays on the progress of finishing off Osama bin Laden, al Qaida and the insurgents in Iraq.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Go-vernmental Affairs, on the other hand, may actually get to the bottom of the administration’s cataclysmic failures.
“It is difficult to understand the lack of preparedness and the ineffective initial response to a disaster that had been predicted for years, and for which specific, dire warnings had been given for days,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chair of the committee. Sen. Jo-seph Lieberman, D-Conn., the ranking minority member, said the government’s ineptness in the crisis had eroded America’s self-confidence.
Even before Katrina roared through the rapidly disappearing coastal marshes and its gales and rain sliced through the levees holding the waters of Pontchartrain out of the city, the people of New Orleans and the Cajun country to the east and west had a sound inkling of the political forces that left them in such mortal peril.
Starting the month he took office, President Bush slash-ed funding for levee reconstruction and other vital waterways projects to keep floodwaters out of the city and to reconstitute the coastal wetlands that take the steam out of hurricanes and that have vanished to developers and oil companies that have cut swaths through the marshes for pipelines, roads, drilling rigs and storage facilities. The cuts became deeper the more the money was needed to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and for the war in Iraq.
Three months before Katrina struck, Bush took his pen and slashed $71.2 million from the New Orleans Corps of Engineers for hurricane and flood projects. Though only symbolic at that point — the money could not have been spent fast enough to strengthen the levees before Katrina — it must have been fresh on people’s minds as they fled the waters or hovered in their attics or in the Superdome.
But more telling than the de-emphasis on disaster prevention was the virtual abandonment of preparedness by the federal government, the neutering of the FEMA, the Carter-era superagency that coordinates the nation’s response to natural and man-made emergencies. It had stultified in the Reagan and Bush I years, and its bureaucratic bumbling and lumbering after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 damaged President George H. W. Bush in Florida.
An Arkansan, James Lee Witt of Dardanelle, rebuilt the agency and won such bipartisan praise for its swift and dramatic response to major hurricanes, tornadoes, the Oklahoma City bombing and earthquakes that it became the symbol of effective government in the Clinton administration.
He turned the agency from a civil-defense orientation to preparation for natural disasters and mitigating the harm. The agency, given cabinet status by Clinton, could requisition help from federal and state agencies, including the military.
When Bush took office, he downgraded the agency and declared that responding to natural disasters was a state and local obligation and that the federal government ought to play only a diminished supporting role.
The president’s appointments to the agency, which were altogether political, did more than anything to erode its effectiveness. He first appointed his old Texas campaign aide, Joe All-baugh, to run it. When Allbaugh returned to politics, Bush was happy to oblige Allbaugh and appoint the man’s old college roommate, Michael Brown, to run it. Brown had been forced to resign his previous job of supervising the judging for an Arabian horse show association in Colorado because his mismanagement had brought a spate of lawsuits against the organization. Brown’s mismanagement of Katrina and his embarrassing public explanations were on full view last week.
While he is tuning up for a go at the national leadership, Gov. Huckabee may want to continue to observe George W. Bush and his spinmeister, Karl Rove, as the administration’s self-investigation goes forward.
The lesson will be that this is not the way to run a national government.
President Bush, on the other hand, seemed almost catatonic. He finally ended his long vacation from the White House and flew back to Washington. From there, as hundreds and perhaps thousands lay dying in the streets, homes and redoubts of New Orleans and in the many-splintered villages along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, the president made a flyby and a couple of staged photo ops. The scripted messages were delivered mechanically and sometimes petulantly. People were doing a great job, he said, except maybe local and state officials. With criticism gathering, he made a mulligan visit at the first of the week with even better photo ops to demonstrate empathy and caring.
But while a speech and an emblematic hug or two were what the country needed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, and Bush ultimately delivered those well enough, the human devastation of Hurricane Katrina required much more of the president of the United States. Solace was what the country and the people of New York needed four years ago this week.
The city’s and state’s infrastructure took care of the rescue of the few who could be saved from the rubble, the recovery of the dead, the treatment of the injured and, insofar as any community could, ministry to the grieving. But hundreds of thousands in New Orleans and along the coast needed help to stay alive, keep their families together and to hold on to the vanishing hope for a future.
It is for such instances that democratic people have nourished the idea of vigilant and humane government. For the people this time, government failed its purpose.
After first congratulating his administration’s team at Home-land Security and the vanishing little program called the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), for their magnificent work, President Bush yesterday announced that he would lead an investigation of the government failures in the aftermath of Katrina. Moreover, the heretofore invisible Vice President Dick Cheney will soon go to the Gulf Coast to get the straight of it and he will come back and tell us how well or badly his administration has done. He is the same vice president who gave us all those optimistic assays on the progress of finishing off Osama bin Laden, al Qaida and the insurgents in Iraq.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Go-vernmental Affairs, on the other hand, may actually get to the bottom of the administration’s cataclysmic failures.
“It is difficult to understand the lack of preparedness and the ineffective initial response to a disaster that had been predicted for years, and for which specific, dire warnings had been given for days,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chair of the committee. Sen. Jo-seph Lieberman, D-Conn., the ranking minority member, said the government’s ineptness in the crisis had eroded America’s self-confidence.
Even before Katrina roared through the rapidly disappearing coastal marshes and its gales and rain sliced through the levees holding the waters of Pontchartrain out of the city, the people of New Orleans and the Cajun country to the east and west had a sound inkling of the political forces that left them in such mortal peril.
Starting the month he took office, President Bush slash-ed funding for levee reconstruction and other vital waterways projects to keep floodwaters out of the city and to reconstitute the coastal wetlands that take the steam out of hurricanes and that have vanished to developers and oil companies that have cut swaths through the marshes for pipelines, roads, drilling rigs and storage facilities. The cuts became deeper the more the money was needed to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and for the war in Iraq.
Three months before Katrina struck, Bush took his pen and slashed $71.2 million from the New Orleans Corps of Engineers for hurricane and flood projects. Though only symbolic at that point — the money could not have been spent fast enough to strengthen the levees before Katrina — it must have been fresh on people’s minds as they fled the waters or hovered in their attics or in the Superdome.
But more telling than the de-emphasis on disaster prevention was the virtual abandonment of preparedness by the federal government, the neutering of the FEMA, the Carter-era superagency that coordinates the nation’s response to natural and man-made emergencies. It had stultified in the Reagan and Bush I years, and its bureaucratic bumbling and lumbering after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 damaged President George H. W. Bush in Florida.
An Arkansan, James Lee Witt of Dardanelle, rebuilt the agency and won such bipartisan praise for its swift and dramatic response to major hurricanes, tornadoes, the Oklahoma City bombing and earthquakes that it became the symbol of effective government in the Clinton administration.
He turned the agency from a civil-defense orientation to preparation for natural disasters and mitigating the harm. The agency, given cabinet status by Clinton, could requisition help from federal and state agencies, including the military.
When Bush took office, he downgraded the agency and declared that responding to natural disasters was a state and local obligation and that the federal government ought to play only a diminished supporting role.
The president’s appointments to the agency, which were altogether political, did more than anything to erode its effectiveness. He first appointed his old Texas campaign aide, Joe All-baugh, to run it. When Allbaugh returned to politics, Bush was happy to oblige Allbaugh and appoint the man’s old college roommate, Michael Brown, to run it. Brown had been forced to resign his previous job of supervising the judging for an Arabian horse show association in Colorado because his mismanagement had brought a spate of lawsuits against the organization. Brown’s mismanagement of Katrina and his embarrassing public explanations were on full view last week.
While he is tuning up for a go at the national leadership, Gov. Huckabee may want to continue to observe George W. Bush and his spinmeister, Karl Rove, as the administration’s self-investigation goes forward.
The lesson will be that this is not the way to run a national government.
EDITORIAL >> Why they were slow to act
We can clear up the mystery of why federal officials, many of whom were still on their summer vacations, including President Bush, didn’t react more quickly to the hurricane disaster on the Gulf Coast.
Like many of us, they were watching the cable news channels, which told us that New Orleans had “dodged a bullet.”
We let out a sigh of relief, glad that earlier predictions about Hurricane Katrina destroying New Orleans didn’t come true.
Homeland Security Department and Federal Emer-gency Management Agency officials, who didn’t feel the urge to put relief operations in place before the storm arrived, must have congratulated themselves that they didn’t waste money and manpower on the Gulf Coast.
They might have even read the New York Times editorial Tuesday before last about how lucky New Orleans was that it had survived pretty much intact, but the paper warned that the city could do a lot worse the next time a hurricane came through.
The Times had hardly hit the streets when the levee broke in New Orleans, flooding the city and destroying it just as many forecasters had predicted.
You can blame local and state officials for not doing more before the hurricane, but the Homeland Security Department and FEMA should have known better and moved in much sooner.
Those departments have no leadership. The hapless Michael Brown runs FEMA at this writing but is probably headed out the door, while the execrable Michael Chertoff may keep his job at Homeland Security a little while longer. Both are a disgrace and should have resigned just as the Japanese do when they bring shame to their government or businesses.
Buses, planes and trains should have evacuated all of New Orleans two weeks ago with assistance from our military, which can perform miracles when it’s asked to help. Look how much the American people, including the people of Arkansas, have done after they rolled up their sleeves and helped thousands of victims get out of New Orleans, and fed them, clothed them and sheltered them.
Airdrops should have started a week ago instead of last weekend, with tent cities going up like those after the recent tsunami.
An airman puts things into perspective in an e-mail to us: “What I can’t believe is that C-130’s weren’t flying several sorties per day airdropping supplies into New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. I served at LRAFB and Keesler. Being an old combat controller, I know the capabilities of C-130’s, and this mission was made for them.”
The C-130’s have gone into action, at last, delivering food and supplies and ferrying people to safety. Foreign aid is pouring into Little Rock Air Force Base.
One of the sad missions for our airmen might include recovering bodies from the waters in New Orleans, way too many of them, perhaps 10,000, most of whom would have lived if their government had figured out in time how to save them.
Like many of us, they were watching the cable news channels, which told us that New Orleans had “dodged a bullet.”
We let out a sigh of relief, glad that earlier predictions about Hurricane Katrina destroying New Orleans didn’t come true.
Homeland Security Department and Federal Emer-gency Management Agency officials, who didn’t feel the urge to put relief operations in place before the storm arrived, must have congratulated themselves that they didn’t waste money and manpower on the Gulf Coast.
They might have even read the New York Times editorial Tuesday before last about how lucky New Orleans was that it had survived pretty much intact, but the paper warned that the city could do a lot worse the next time a hurricane came through.
The Times had hardly hit the streets when the levee broke in New Orleans, flooding the city and destroying it just as many forecasters had predicted.
You can blame local and state officials for not doing more before the hurricane, but the Homeland Security Department and FEMA should have known better and moved in much sooner.
Those departments have no leadership. The hapless Michael Brown runs FEMA at this writing but is probably headed out the door, while the execrable Michael Chertoff may keep his job at Homeland Security a little while longer. Both are a disgrace and should have resigned just as the Japanese do when they bring shame to their government or businesses.
Buses, planes and trains should have evacuated all of New Orleans two weeks ago with assistance from our military, which can perform miracles when it’s asked to help. Look how much the American people, including the people of Arkansas, have done after they rolled up their sleeves and helped thousands of victims get out of New Orleans, and fed them, clothed them and sheltered them.
Airdrops should have started a week ago instead of last weekend, with tent cities going up like those after the recent tsunami.
An airman puts things into perspective in an e-mail to us: “What I can’t believe is that C-130’s weren’t flying several sorties per day airdropping supplies into New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. I served at LRAFB and Keesler. Being an old combat controller, I know the capabilities of C-130’s, and this mission was made for them.”
The C-130’s have gone into action, at last, delivering food and supplies and ferrying people to safety. Foreign aid is pouring into Little Rock Air Force Base.
One of the sad missions for our airmen might include recovering bodies from the waters in New Orleans, way too many of them, perhaps 10,000, most of whom would have lived if their government had figured out in time how to save them.
TOP STORY >> Cabot could give $50,000 for refugees
By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
A special Cabot City Council meeting has been set for tonight at 7 to deal with evacuee issues.
The council will consider appropriating $50,000 for the mayor to spend at his discretion to assist the evacuees in Cabot until federal aid is available, waiving water deposits for evacuees and establishing temporary housing on 10th Street.
A little more than a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, homes in Beebe, Searcy and Cabot have become a refuge for some of the thousands displaced by the storm and the people in those areas who want to help are trying to organize their efforts.
Since the storm hit, the Cabot Chamber of Commerce has been a sort of clearinghouse for information about the needs of the victims. At press time, the city and chamber had scheduled a meeting in the city annex to try to coordinate relief efforts.
Beebe Clerk-Treasurer Paul Hill, one of the founders of Beebe KARES, a hastily established nonprofit organization with a mission of helping evacuees in the Beebe area who are not staying in shelters, said Tuesday afternoon that all is going well.
“We have 54 people on our list right now and everyone is clothed, housed and fed,” he said.
He added that the list included a college student who arrived in the Beebe area without even a clean pair of jeans. Now, he’s enrolled in ASU-Beebe and wearing a pair of jeans provided by a church clothes closet.
Beebe Mayor Donald Ward, a high school history teacher, met with members of the new organization Tuesday afternoon to coordinate the city’s efforts and efforts at the school with those of that organization.
Ward said the police department will pick up donations. Call (501) 882-3365, he said.
The police should also be able to conduct background checks of evacuees so the families they might eventually find temporary shelter with would feel safe.
Ward has appointed Williard Crain, the medical services liaison for Arkansas Rehabilitation Ser-vices, as his liaison to Beebe KARES. While working with the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Crain helped establish Lonoke County Cares, a non-profit that works with needy families.
Ward also announced that Union Valley Baptist Church on Hwy. 64 outside Beebe has agreed to temporarily house up to 200 evacuees in its newest building, a combination gym and Sunday school rooms.
In the Searcy area, Camp Wyldewood, run by the Church of Christ, is housing 44 evacuees. But that church is not bearing the work and expense of housing and feeding them alone.
“It’s been amazing to see how people rise to the occasion,” said Michael Lincoln, camp director. “We’ve had so many offers of assistance that it has just been incredible.”
Lincoln said he has had offers to help from Methodist and Baptist churches from Searcy, Kensett, Hickory Flat, Judsonia and Possum Grape.
The camp will be available for the evacuees for five weeks, he said. After that they will have to find other accommodations. Some have already said they don’t intend to go back to the coast, he said.
Two couples who planned to get married before the storm are now planning a double ceremony in Searcy.
Leader staff writer
A special Cabot City Council meeting has been set for tonight at 7 to deal with evacuee issues.
The council will consider appropriating $50,000 for the mayor to spend at his discretion to assist the evacuees in Cabot until federal aid is available, waiving water deposits for evacuees and establishing temporary housing on 10th Street.
A little more than a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, homes in Beebe, Searcy and Cabot have become a refuge for some of the thousands displaced by the storm and the people in those areas who want to help are trying to organize their efforts.
Since the storm hit, the Cabot Chamber of Commerce has been a sort of clearinghouse for information about the needs of the victims. At press time, the city and chamber had scheduled a meeting in the city annex to try to coordinate relief efforts.
Beebe Clerk-Treasurer Paul Hill, one of the founders of Beebe KARES, a hastily established nonprofit organization with a mission of helping evacuees in the Beebe area who are not staying in shelters, said Tuesday afternoon that all is going well.
“We have 54 people on our list right now and everyone is clothed, housed and fed,” he said.
He added that the list included a college student who arrived in the Beebe area without even a clean pair of jeans. Now, he’s enrolled in ASU-Beebe and wearing a pair of jeans provided by a church clothes closet.
Beebe Mayor Donald Ward, a high school history teacher, met with members of the new organization Tuesday afternoon to coordinate the city’s efforts and efforts at the school with those of that organization.
Ward said the police department will pick up donations. Call (501) 882-3365, he said.
The police should also be able to conduct background checks of evacuees so the families they might eventually find temporary shelter with would feel safe.
Ward has appointed Williard Crain, the medical services liaison for Arkansas Rehabilitation Ser-vices, as his liaison to Beebe KARES. While working with the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Crain helped establish Lonoke County Cares, a non-profit that works with needy families.
Ward also announced that Union Valley Baptist Church on Hwy. 64 outside Beebe has agreed to temporarily house up to 200 evacuees in its newest building, a combination gym and Sunday school rooms.
In the Searcy area, Camp Wyldewood, run by the Church of Christ, is housing 44 evacuees. But that church is not bearing the work and expense of housing and feeding them alone.
“It’s been amazing to see how people rise to the occasion,” said Michael Lincoln, camp director. “We’ve had so many offers of assistance that it has just been incredible.”
Lincoln said he has had offers to help from Methodist and Baptist churches from Searcy, Kensett, Hickory Flat, Judsonia and Possum Grape.
The camp will be available for the evacuees for five weeks, he said. After that they will have to find other accommodations. Some have already said they don’t intend to go back to the coast, he said.
Two couples who planned to get married before the storm are now planning a double ceremony in Searcy.
TOP STORY>> Families welcomed to area after ordeal
By RICKY HARVEY
Leader managing editor
The lights were bright, the air conditioning was running at full blast, and a 31-inch television was blaring the sounds of a weekday afternoon sit-com.
Pretty good conditions for a group of New Orleans-area residents staying in Jacksonville after being forced to leave their homes in the days before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina.
Chandra Tigler, 36, and Shantell Chess, 31, are two of 20 family members from the Jefferson Parish area of New Orleans staying in a back room of Around the Clock Child Development Center, located just behind the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce building on South James Street.
The five-household family moved into the center on Monday after spending a week at the Jacksonville Inn and plan on being in the area for the foreseeable future.
“They’re saying that it could be like six weeks to get everything in order down there,” Chess said. “We could be here that long.”
Or maybe longer.
According to Bonita Rownd, executive director of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, the people staying at the day care are the largest group from one extended family known to be staying in Jacksonville. Another large extended family is staying at First Freewill Baptist Church, Rownd said.
“We’ve still got 81 adults and 31 children staying in area motels,” Rownd said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re trying to place them in area homes and other places where people are volunteering space.”
While many New Orleans-area residents decided to ignore evacuation orders and stay behind during the storm, Tigler said she and 19 family members left the New Orleans area as soon as the early warnings of the potential of Hurricane Katrina were made.
“We left the Saturday before the storm because we knew it could be a direct hit,” Tigler said. “Where we live is already below sea level and we get standing water with a hard rain. With a Category 5 storm, we knew what would happen. There was no second-guessing.”
Tigler said her family drove from New Orleans to Memphis, but once weather reporters indicated stormy weather in western Tennessee, the group made the drive to Jack-sonville, where a friend of Chess lives and recommended they go to.
After a week at the Jacksonville Inn, someone from an area church who was helping hurricane evacuees suggested the group move into the room at the daycare. Eight double beads, a single bed, a couch, a handful of chairs and plenty of toys meets the needs of the 20 adults and nine children staying there.
The group has also had an offer to stay with a family in Searcy, if needed.
“They said we could stay here as long as needed,” Tigler said. “There’s plenty of room, showers, whatever we need.”
The need to watch coverage of the events in the New Orleans area has declined, however.
“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing early on,” Tigler said. “Seeing all those people and to think we got out and they didn’t. It hurt seeing that.
“We watched all that at first because we wanted to know what was going on, but we stopped watching because it got so depressing.”
The response from members of the community in the central Arkansas area has helped lift those spirits, though, Tigler and Chess said. From the donation of meals to friendly conversations, the two said they’re grateful — and a bit surprised — at the response of complete strangers.
“We didn’t even know there was a Jacksonville, Arkansas, before this,” Tigler said.
“This has just been amazing. Every meal has been donated, people have brought stuff to us, and a guy even came from Searcy and brought his grill and barbecued for us,” she said.
“It just feels so good that people you don’t even know, people you don’t know if you’ll ever see again, are being so nice to us, regardless of their background.”
“To me, this is a city full of color-blind people,” Chess said. “With us being black, automatically we were not sure what people around here were used to.
“In New Orleans, it’s a big party city, and as long as you’re partying it doesn’t matter what you are. But coming to a place like this, a place we could be staying so long, we didn’t know what to expect. But we’ve had a big sigh of relief that the people here haven’t cared what color we are.”
While flood water damage to the Tigler and Chess homes was minimal, no electricity, phones and food will keep their family from returning anytime soon. Seven of the nine children are starting school in the area today.
“If we went home all we’d have is running water,” Tigler said. “No power, no telephone and no stores are open.
“Why rush back?”
Leader managing editor
The lights were bright, the air conditioning was running at full blast, and a 31-inch television was blaring the sounds of a weekday afternoon sit-com.
Pretty good conditions for a group of New Orleans-area residents staying in Jacksonville after being forced to leave their homes in the days before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina.
Chandra Tigler, 36, and Shantell Chess, 31, are two of 20 family members from the Jefferson Parish area of New Orleans staying in a back room of Around the Clock Child Development Center, located just behind the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce building on South James Street.
The five-household family moved into the center on Monday after spending a week at the Jacksonville Inn and plan on being in the area for the foreseeable future.
“They’re saying that it could be like six weeks to get everything in order down there,” Chess said. “We could be here that long.”
Or maybe longer.
According to Bonita Rownd, executive director of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, the people staying at the day care are the largest group from one extended family known to be staying in Jacksonville. Another large extended family is staying at First Freewill Baptist Church, Rownd said.
“We’ve still got 81 adults and 31 children staying in area motels,” Rownd said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re trying to place them in area homes and other places where people are volunteering space.”
While many New Orleans-area residents decided to ignore evacuation orders and stay behind during the storm, Tigler said she and 19 family members left the New Orleans area as soon as the early warnings of the potential of Hurricane Katrina were made.
“We left the Saturday before the storm because we knew it could be a direct hit,” Tigler said. “Where we live is already below sea level and we get standing water with a hard rain. With a Category 5 storm, we knew what would happen. There was no second-guessing.”
Tigler said her family drove from New Orleans to Memphis, but once weather reporters indicated stormy weather in western Tennessee, the group made the drive to Jack-sonville, where a friend of Chess lives and recommended they go to.
After a week at the Jacksonville Inn, someone from an area church who was helping hurricane evacuees suggested the group move into the room at the daycare. Eight double beads, a single bed, a couch, a handful of chairs and plenty of toys meets the needs of the 20 adults and nine children staying there.
The group has also had an offer to stay with a family in Searcy, if needed.
“They said we could stay here as long as needed,” Tigler said. “There’s plenty of room, showers, whatever we need.”
The need to watch coverage of the events in the New Orleans area has declined, however.
“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing early on,” Tigler said. “Seeing all those people and to think we got out and they didn’t. It hurt seeing that.
“We watched all that at first because we wanted to know what was going on, but we stopped watching because it got so depressing.”
The response from members of the community in the central Arkansas area has helped lift those spirits, though, Tigler and Chess said. From the donation of meals to friendly conversations, the two said they’re grateful — and a bit surprised — at the response of complete strangers.
“We didn’t even know there was a Jacksonville, Arkansas, before this,” Tigler said.
“This has just been amazing. Every meal has been donated, people have brought stuff to us, and a guy even came from Searcy and brought his grill and barbecued for us,” she said.
“It just feels so good that people you don’t even know, people you don’t know if you’ll ever see again, are being so nice to us, regardless of their background.”
“To me, this is a city full of color-blind people,” Chess said. “With us being black, automatically we were not sure what people around here were used to.
“In New Orleans, it’s a big party city, and as long as you’re partying it doesn’t matter what you are. But coming to a place like this, a place we could be staying so long, we didn’t know what to expect. But we’ve had a big sigh of relief that the people here haven’t cared what color we are.”
While flood water damage to the Tigler and Chess homes was minimal, no electricity, phones and food will keep their family from returning anytime soon. Seven of the nine children are starting school in the area today.
“If we went home all we’d have is running water,” Tigler said. “No power, no telephone and no stores are open.
“Why rush back?”
TOP STORY >> District sends its buses to transport evacuees
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
Nearly 90 Pulaski County Special School District personnel, driving 62 buses, answered Gov. Mike Huckabee’s call Labor Day weekend, transporting more than 1,100 storm evacuees from Fort Chaffee to relocation centers around the state.
“Late Friday we received a call for assistance,” said Brad Montgomery, the district’s transportation director. “We put the word out to our drivers and the response was amazing, to pick folks up at Fort Chaffee and disperse them throughout the state.”
In addition to the Pulaski County Special School District buses, Little Rock School District provided 10 buses and Laidlaw Transportation another 20, according to Montgomery.
“We arrived at Fort Chaffee and found just a sea of humanity,” he said. “These poor souls had been sitting all night waiting to be processed.”
Fort Chaffee was prepared for about 4,000 evacuees, but about 9,000 arrived by motor coach directly from rooftops, the convention center and the Super-dome, all in New Orleans.
Montgomery said his drivers delivered the refugees to centers in Conway, Garland County, Pine Bluff Convention Center, Redfield, Little Rock, Van Buren, Russellville and other locations.
With First Lady Janet Huck-abee on one of the buses, state police provided an escort to one convoy.
Montgomery said he bonded with an 80-year-old man named Stanley, a recent stroke victim, who survived on a rooftop for two days before a helicopter rescued him and took him to Louis Armstrong International Airport.
That night at Fort Chaffee was his first bed, first hot meal and first shower in five days, according to Montgomery.
“He had lost contact with his daughter, his only family,” he said.
“There were a lot of heart-wrenching stories. We would do it again in a heartbeat,” said Montgomery.
“I thanked the governor this morning and the drivers thanked us. I’ll never forget the last three days. I saw a lot of tears on the faces of employees.”
Montgomery said that eventually the district would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its fuel and employee costs.
Leader staff writer
Nearly 90 Pulaski County Special School District personnel, driving 62 buses, answered Gov. Mike Huckabee’s call Labor Day weekend, transporting more than 1,100 storm evacuees from Fort Chaffee to relocation centers around the state.
“Late Friday we received a call for assistance,” said Brad Montgomery, the district’s transportation director. “We put the word out to our drivers and the response was amazing, to pick folks up at Fort Chaffee and disperse them throughout the state.”
In addition to the Pulaski County Special School District buses, Little Rock School District provided 10 buses and Laidlaw Transportation another 20, according to Montgomery.
“We arrived at Fort Chaffee and found just a sea of humanity,” he said. “These poor souls had been sitting all night waiting to be processed.”
Fort Chaffee was prepared for about 4,000 evacuees, but about 9,000 arrived by motor coach directly from rooftops, the convention center and the Super-dome, all in New Orleans.
Montgomery said his drivers delivered the refugees to centers in Conway, Garland County, Pine Bluff Convention Center, Redfield, Little Rock, Van Buren, Russellville and other locations.
With First Lady Janet Huck-abee on one of the buses, state police provided an escort to one convoy.
Montgomery said he bonded with an 80-year-old man named Stanley, a recent stroke victim, who survived on a rooftop for two days before a helicopter rescued him and took him to Louis Armstrong International Airport.
That night at Fort Chaffee was his first bed, first hot meal and first shower in five days, according to Montgomery.
“He had lost contact with his daughter, his only family,” he said.
“There were a lot of heart-wrenching stories. We would do it again in a heartbeat,” said Montgomery.
“I thanked the governor this morning and the drivers thanked us. I’ll never forget the last three days. I saw a lot of tears on the faces of employees.”
Montgomery said that eventually the district would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its fuel and employee costs.
TOP STORY >> Foreign aid arrives at base
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
At least 15 aircraft from as many as eight foreign countries will discharge their hurricane-relief supplies at Little Rock Air Force Base by Thursday, where airmen will load them onto commercial freight liners headed into the heart of the storm ravaged South, according to Lt. Jon Quinlan, base spokesman.
“Little Rock Air Force Base has played a vital role in (hurricane relief) efforts,” Quinlan said. “We’re proud to be involved. This is a chance to alleviate suffering and save lives, and that’s extremely important to us.
“This is about the busiest time I can remember,” he added.
Among the countries sending aid through the base, which has been designated as the hub for the international relief effort, are France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Egypt, Italy, Israel and the West Indies.
That’s not the base’s only contribution.
“As of this morning, we have flown 25 C-130 mission sin relief,” Quinlan said Tuesday.
Those missions have been everything from transporting sick and injured from Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans to transporting cargo to Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., and to other locations. “It’s been a vital airlift in relief,” he said.
Among the various aircraft that have delivered about 185 tons of aid to the base are the 747, DC8, C-5, AN 124 Russian jets, some C-130s and a CASA 235.
Airmen from logistics readiness use forklift loaders to unload the planes.
The base expects another 250 tons by Thursday.
The aid includes water and meals ready to eat (MRE), Quinlan said.
The Times of London reported that 50,000 meals had been airlifted already from Britain to the base, with blankets, tarps, camp beds and military tents likely to be shipped later in the week.
The Times reported that British logistics experts would help coordinate distribution of aid from about 50 countries and in-ternational organizations from around the world.
Many of the international crews are being housed at the base until their trip home, Quinlan said.
“Little Rock Air Force Base stands ready to take on the hundreds of thousands of cargo tons coming in,” he said. “This is an excellent opportunity to put our training to work.”
An Office of U.S. Disaster Assistance is on the base serving as a liaison, and is responsible for contracting for the semi-tractor trailers taking the supplies south into the hurricane area, Quinlan said.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee directed the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base to active duty today to airlift evacuees from Louisiana to Fort Chaffee in northwest Arkansas.
“We’re preparing to fly evacuees around the clock,” said Col. Jim Crumpton, 189th Airlift Wing vice commander.
“We’re calling in our aircrew members, C-130 maintainers and a few others to launch, recover and fuel the fleet.
“We have seven aircraft — six of ours and the Louisiana bird — available and ready to fly today,” Crumpton said.
C-130 Hercules aircraft can carry up to 92 passengers per plane. As of Sept. 5, C-130 aircraft and airmen assigned to the 50th Airlift Squadron of the 463rd Airlift Wing had relocated more than 60 sick and injured hurricane victims from New Orleans to aeromedical evacuation hubs at Kelly Field, Texas, and Ellington Airfield, near Houston.
The base is also housing 173 airmen and dependents from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., which took a direct hit from the hurricane.
“We will do everything we can to get families situated here and to be comfortable,” said Brig. Gen. Joseph Reheiser, commander of the 314th.
The base also has 36 personnel deployed as part of Joint Task Force Katrina, including two from public affairs.
Most are support personnel such as drivers and medics.
Quinlan said the cooperation between the three groups on base has been important, including the 314th Air Education Wing, the 463rd Airlift Wing and the 189th Air National Guard.
Leader staff writer
At least 15 aircraft from as many as eight foreign countries will discharge their hurricane-relief supplies at Little Rock Air Force Base by Thursday, where airmen will load them onto commercial freight liners headed into the heart of the storm ravaged South, according to Lt. Jon Quinlan, base spokesman.
“Little Rock Air Force Base has played a vital role in (hurricane relief) efforts,” Quinlan said. “We’re proud to be involved. This is a chance to alleviate suffering and save lives, and that’s extremely important to us.
“This is about the busiest time I can remember,” he added.
Among the countries sending aid through the base, which has been designated as the hub for the international relief effort, are France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Egypt, Italy, Israel and the West Indies.
That’s not the base’s only contribution.
“As of this morning, we have flown 25 C-130 mission sin relief,” Quinlan said Tuesday.
Those missions have been everything from transporting sick and injured from Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans to transporting cargo to Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., and to other locations. “It’s been a vital airlift in relief,” he said.
Among the various aircraft that have delivered about 185 tons of aid to the base are the 747, DC8, C-5, AN 124 Russian jets, some C-130s and a CASA 235.
Airmen from logistics readiness use forklift loaders to unload the planes.
The base expects another 250 tons by Thursday.
The aid includes water and meals ready to eat (MRE), Quinlan said.
The Times of London reported that 50,000 meals had been airlifted already from Britain to the base, with blankets, tarps, camp beds and military tents likely to be shipped later in the week.
The Times reported that British logistics experts would help coordinate distribution of aid from about 50 countries and in-ternational organizations from around the world.
Many of the international crews are being housed at the base until their trip home, Quinlan said.
“Little Rock Air Force Base stands ready to take on the hundreds of thousands of cargo tons coming in,” he said. “This is an excellent opportunity to put our training to work.”
An Office of U.S. Disaster Assistance is on the base serving as a liaison, and is responsible for contracting for the semi-tractor trailers taking the supplies south into the hurricane area, Quinlan said.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee directed the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base to active duty today to airlift evacuees from Louisiana to Fort Chaffee in northwest Arkansas.
“We’re preparing to fly evacuees around the clock,” said Col. Jim Crumpton, 189th Airlift Wing vice commander.
“We’re calling in our aircrew members, C-130 maintainers and a few others to launch, recover and fuel the fleet.
“We have seven aircraft — six of ours and the Louisiana bird — available and ready to fly today,” Crumpton said.
C-130 Hercules aircraft can carry up to 92 passengers per plane. As of Sept. 5, C-130 aircraft and airmen assigned to the 50th Airlift Squadron of the 463rd Airlift Wing had relocated more than 60 sick and injured hurricane victims from New Orleans to aeromedical evacuation hubs at Kelly Field, Texas, and Ellington Airfield, near Houston.
The base is also housing 173 airmen and dependents from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., which took a direct hit from the hurricane.
“We will do everything we can to get families situated here and to be comfortable,” said Brig. Gen. Joseph Reheiser, commander of the 314th.
The base also has 36 personnel deployed as part of Joint Task Force Katrina, including two from public affairs.
Most are support personnel such as drivers and medics.
Quinlan said the cooperation between the three groups on base has been important, including the 314th Air Education Wing, the 463rd Airlift Wing and the 189th Air National Guard.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
OBITS
BILLY BRIGHTWELL
Billy Neil Brightwell, 67, died Aug. 30.
He was the owner and operator of Brightwell Family Foods in Lonoke for many years.
He was a member of Lonoke Baptist Church and was involved in many community activities and projects. In the mid-1980s, he was selected as man of the year for Lonoke. He also was chosen for an Arkansas Community Service award. A son, Tim, his parents, Dewey and Daphna Brightwell, preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte Brightwell; a son, Danny Brightwell; a granddaughter, Jennifer Brightwell, all of Lonoke, and his sister, Leota Kimbrough of Colombia, Tenn.
Visitation will be Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Boyd Funeral Home, Lonoke.
Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Thursday at Lonoke Baptist Church with interment at Browns-ville Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to Lonoke Baptist Church Building Fund.
BRENDA TUBBS
Brenda Christine Tubbs, 65, passed away Aug. 27. Survivors include her husband, William G. Tubbs; son, David G. Tubbs; daughter, Nancy K.Woods; grandson, Kristopher Gearth, all of Cabot; and brother, Robert Chism of Charlotte, N.C. Services were held Tuesday at Gateway Fellowship Church in Lonoke with interment in Sunset Memorial Gardens in Lawton, Okla., on Wednesday.
Funeral arrangements by Boyd Funeral Home.
HAROLD COUNTS
Harold L. Counts, 85, of Cabot passed away Aug. 28.
He was a member of Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church for over 45 years, Big Rock Masonic Lodge for over 50 years and a World War II veteran in the U.S. Navy.
He retired from the Navy Re-serve. He worked for Missouri Pacific Railroad for 40 years as a machinist.
He is survived by his wife, of 63 years, Elfetta Counts, of Cabot; two sons, James Counts and wife, April, of Benton and Dr. Ken Counts, of Vi-lonia; daughter, Joy Maddox, of Colorado Springs, Colo.; grandchildren, Heather Grodzki, Jenny Parnell, Amy Counts, Katrice Noel Counts, Audrey Maddox and Jacob Maddox; and one great-grandchild, Abigail Parnell. He was preceded in death by his brother, Basil F. Counts.
Memorials may be made to Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church building bund or cemetery. Funeral services were held Tuesday at Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church.
Burial was in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Arrangements by North Little Rock Funeral Home.
JULIA WELCH
Julia Doris Welch, 87, of McRae, died Aug. 26.
She lived in the Copperas Springs community all her life. She was a homemaker and a member of McRae First United Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Kirby Welch and five brothers, Sidney, Wayne, Bernice, Neil and Exum Cranford.
She is survived by a son, Jim Welch and his wife, Liz, of Overland Park, Kan.; two daughters, Judy Latture and her husband, James, of McRae, and Cindy Lascola and her husband, Tony, of Ward; seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Funeral services were held Monday at Westbrook Funeral Home, with burial in Weir Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society. Arrangements by West-brook Funeral Home.
WILLIAM WARREN
William N. Warren, 94, of Beebe died Aug. 25.
He was born May 6, 1911, in Beebe to W. A. and Olga Warren. His father started Warren Brothers Store in Beebe in 1904, and William started working there in 1930 and retired in 1980. He was a lifetime and faithful member of Beebe First Baptist Church where he served as deacon, treasurer for 35 years, Sunday school superintendent and trustee. William also served as of Beebe treasurer and was a member of the Beebe Kiwanis Club.
He is survived by a daughter, Nancy Burnett, and her husband, Bill of Beebe; three grandchildren, Amy Lee and husband Chuck, Martha Dodson and husband Rick, and Debbie Adams and husband Matt; five great-grandchildren, Chris Lee, Walt Hefner, Katie Bunzell, Laura Adams and Emily Adams.
Funeral services were held Monday at Westbrook Funeral Home, with burial in Beebe Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Beebe First Baptist Church Building Fund.
Arrangements by Westbrook Funeral Home.
Billy Neil Brightwell, 67, died Aug. 30.
He was the owner and operator of Brightwell Family Foods in Lonoke for many years.
He was a member of Lonoke Baptist Church and was involved in many community activities and projects. In the mid-1980s, he was selected as man of the year for Lonoke. He also was chosen for an Arkansas Community Service award. A son, Tim, his parents, Dewey and Daphna Brightwell, preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte Brightwell; a son, Danny Brightwell; a granddaughter, Jennifer Brightwell, all of Lonoke, and his sister, Leota Kimbrough of Colombia, Tenn.
Visitation will be Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Boyd Funeral Home, Lonoke.
Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Thursday at Lonoke Baptist Church with interment at Browns-ville Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to Lonoke Baptist Church Building Fund.
BRENDA TUBBS
Brenda Christine Tubbs, 65, passed away Aug. 27. Survivors include her husband, William G. Tubbs; son, David G. Tubbs; daughter, Nancy K.Woods; grandson, Kristopher Gearth, all of Cabot; and brother, Robert Chism of Charlotte, N.C. Services were held Tuesday at Gateway Fellowship Church in Lonoke with interment in Sunset Memorial Gardens in Lawton, Okla., on Wednesday.
Funeral arrangements by Boyd Funeral Home.
HAROLD COUNTS
Harold L. Counts, 85, of Cabot passed away Aug. 28.
He was a member of Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church for over 45 years, Big Rock Masonic Lodge for over 50 years and a World War II veteran in the U.S. Navy.
He retired from the Navy Re-serve. He worked for Missouri Pacific Railroad for 40 years as a machinist.
He is survived by his wife, of 63 years, Elfetta Counts, of Cabot; two sons, James Counts and wife, April, of Benton and Dr. Ken Counts, of Vi-lonia; daughter, Joy Maddox, of Colorado Springs, Colo.; grandchildren, Heather Grodzki, Jenny Parnell, Amy Counts, Katrice Noel Counts, Audrey Maddox and Jacob Maddox; and one great-grandchild, Abigail Parnell. He was preceded in death by his brother, Basil F. Counts.
Memorials may be made to Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church building bund or cemetery. Funeral services were held Tuesday at Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church.
Burial was in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Arrangements by North Little Rock Funeral Home.
JULIA WELCH
Julia Doris Welch, 87, of McRae, died Aug. 26.
She lived in the Copperas Springs community all her life. She was a homemaker and a member of McRae First United Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Kirby Welch and five brothers, Sidney, Wayne, Bernice, Neil and Exum Cranford.
She is survived by a son, Jim Welch and his wife, Liz, of Overland Park, Kan.; two daughters, Judy Latture and her husband, James, of McRae, and Cindy Lascola and her husband, Tony, of Ward; seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Funeral services were held Monday at Westbrook Funeral Home, with burial in Weir Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society. Arrangements by West-brook Funeral Home.
WILLIAM WARREN
William N. Warren, 94, of Beebe died Aug. 25.
He was born May 6, 1911, in Beebe to W. A. and Olga Warren. His father started Warren Brothers Store in Beebe in 1904, and William started working there in 1930 and retired in 1980. He was a lifetime and faithful member of Beebe First Baptist Church where he served as deacon, treasurer for 35 years, Sunday school superintendent and trustee. William also served as of Beebe treasurer and was a member of the Beebe Kiwanis Club.
He is survived by a daughter, Nancy Burnett, and her husband, Bill of Beebe; three grandchildren, Amy Lee and husband Chuck, Martha Dodson and husband Rick, and Debbie Adams and husband Matt; five great-grandchildren, Chris Lee, Walt Hefner, Katie Bunzell, Laura Adams and Emily Adams.
Funeral services were held Monday at Westbrook Funeral Home, with burial in Beebe Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Beebe First Baptist Church Building Fund.
Arrangements by Westbrook Funeral Home.
EDITORIAL >> BRAC slows base growth
Little Rock Air Force Base would have gained dozens of C-130 transport planes and some 4,000 personnel had the Base Realignment and Closure Commission agreed with the Pentagon’s list of proposed military base closings, which would have saved taxpayers billions of dollars and made our military more efficient.
But bending to political pressure from several states that would not let go of their military facilities without a fight, the commission this week virtually sabotaged the Pentagon’s carefully thought-out plan to consolidate this nation’s military by phasing out useless bases. It appears now that our air base will gain about half the number of planes — perhaps as few as 25 and as few as 1,000 new personnel, which would have been fine under normal circumstances but not in today’s complicated world.
These are unusual times, with rising deficits and our military stretched to the limit. The BRAC Commission need not have rubber-stamped the Pentagon’s list of closings, but the panel left too many bases open to achieve significant savings and make the military more agile.
Sure, Arkansans may be grateful that the commission did not eliminate the Little Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Texas. In addition, the Air National Guard will stay in Fort Smith, but the BRAC Commis-sion has done us few other favors. It chose to keep open South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base, whose bombers would have moved down to Dyess AFB in Texas. Dyess’ C-130s, in turn, would have come here.
On the positive side, we could get some planes from Pope AFB, but not as many as we had hoped. What’s more, Sen. Hillary Clinton will keep her C-130s at the Niagara Falls, N.Y., Air National Guard, which would have moved here if the BRAC Commission had gone along with the Pentagon’s wishes.
The commission will now submit its conclusions to President Bush and Congress, who can accept or reject the BRAC’s entire list of recommendations. Chances are they will go along with the commission because no one wants to start the process all over again anytime soon.
The BRAC Commission’s recommendations are disappointing, although the Air Force could still move most of the planes it had wanted to even if the other facilities stay open. The Pentagon didn’t get everything it wanted during the review process, but it can still exercise good judgment and consolidate much of its C-130 fleet right here at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Central Arkansas can support the military’s effort at streamlining by welcoming however many new planes and people we’ll wind up with, and then keep lobbying — and lobby hard — for more of them in the years ahead.
But bending to political pressure from several states that would not let go of their military facilities without a fight, the commission this week virtually sabotaged the Pentagon’s carefully thought-out plan to consolidate this nation’s military by phasing out useless bases. It appears now that our air base will gain about half the number of planes — perhaps as few as 25 and as few as 1,000 new personnel, which would have been fine under normal circumstances but not in today’s complicated world.
These are unusual times, with rising deficits and our military stretched to the limit. The BRAC Commission need not have rubber-stamped the Pentagon’s list of closings, but the panel left too many bases open to achieve significant savings and make the military more agile.
Sure, Arkansans may be grateful that the commission did not eliminate the Little Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Texas. In addition, the Air National Guard will stay in Fort Smith, but the BRAC Commis-sion has done us few other favors. It chose to keep open South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base, whose bombers would have moved down to Dyess AFB in Texas. Dyess’ C-130s, in turn, would have come here.
On the positive side, we could get some planes from Pope AFB, but not as many as we had hoped. What’s more, Sen. Hillary Clinton will keep her C-130s at the Niagara Falls, N.Y., Air National Guard, which would have moved here if the BRAC Commission had gone along with the Pentagon’s wishes.
The commission will now submit its conclusions to President Bush and Congress, who can accept or reject the BRAC’s entire list of recommendations. Chances are they will go along with the commission because no one wants to start the process all over again anytime soon.
The BRAC Commission’s recommendations are disappointing, although the Air Force could still move most of the planes it had wanted to even if the other facilities stay open. The Pentagon didn’t get everything it wanted during the review process, but it can still exercise good judgment and consolidate much of its C-130 fleet right here at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Central Arkansas can support the military’s effort at streamlining by welcoming however many new planes and people we’ll wind up with, and then keep lobbying — and lobby hard — for more of them in the years ahead.
EDITORIAL >> Job preservation was BRAC’s focus
As the Base Realignment and Closure Commission was winding down its work outside Washington Friday evening, Anthony J. Principi, the commission’s chairman, offered an amendment to keep open the Niagara Falls, N.Y., Air Reserve Station, preventing the transfer of eight C-130s to Little Rock Air Force Base.
He didn’t need an amendment: The commission’s staff had taken the base off the closure list, and Principi, who talks like a New Yorker, was relieved. The base would remain open because, as Principi said, it “is the second-largest employer in western New York” and might become the largest if the biggest industry there shut down, which, judging from the pained expression on Principi’s face, seemed imminent.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat from New York and formerly Arkansas’ and America’s First Lady, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, had fought to keep the C-130s from moving here. You can’t blame her for standing up for her second adopted state, but military considerations had little to do with her stance.
Hundreds of other politicians and community leaders fought for their home bases, turning the BRAC process into a job-preservation effort instead of addressing the needs of today’s military, which is spread too thin at too many bases and must consolidate.
Unfortunately, the Base Realign-ment and Closure Commission weighed the economic consequences of closing too many bases and decided that preserving jobs was more important than building a lean military.
The commission rejected about $11 billion in savings that the Pentagon had hoped to realize by closing scores of bases around the country. The commission voted to keep open bases in Alaska, Michigan, South Dakota, Connecticut, Texas and elsewhere, ignoring the Defense Department’s list of closings that would have saved America’s taxpayers $48 billion over 20 years. The commission thought saving about $37 billion was enough.
The President and Congress will probably accept the BRAC Commis-sion’s decision against closing all the bases the Defense Department wanted eliminated. Saving Niagara Falls, Ells-worth AFB in South Dakota and Pope AFB in North Carolina means fewer additional C-130s and personnel for us, although Pentagon officials could legally still move people and planes around any way they want to. If they believe the nation’s military interests are better served when C-130s and their crews are consolidated at LRAFB, then by all means send them here even if the other bases stay open.
He didn’t need an amendment: The commission’s staff had taken the base off the closure list, and Principi, who talks like a New Yorker, was relieved. The base would remain open because, as Principi said, it “is the second-largest employer in western New York” and might become the largest if the biggest industry there shut down, which, judging from the pained expression on Principi’s face, seemed imminent.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat from New York and formerly Arkansas’ and America’s First Lady, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, had fought to keep the C-130s from moving here. You can’t blame her for standing up for her second adopted state, but military considerations had little to do with her stance.
Hundreds of other politicians and community leaders fought for their home bases, turning the BRAC process into a job-preservation effort instead of addressing the needs of today’s military, which is spread too thin at too many bases and must consolidate.
Unfortunately, the Base Realign-ment and Closure Commission weighed the economic consequences of closing too many bases and decided that preserving jobs was more important than building a lean military.
The commission rejected about $11 billion in savings that the Pentagon had hoped to realize by closing scores of bases around the country. The commission voted to keep open bases in Alaska, Michigan, South Dakota, Connecticut, Texas and elsewhere, ignoring the Defense Department’s list of closings that would have saved America’s taxpayers $48 billion over 20 years. The commission thought saving about $37 billion was enough.
The President and Congress will probably accept the BRAC Commis-sion’s decision against closing all the bases the Defense Department wanted eliminated. Saving Niagara Falls, Ells-worth AFB in South Dakota and Pope AFB in North Carolina means fewer additional C-130s and personnel for us, although Pentagon officials could legally still move people and planes around any way they want to. If they believe the nation’s military interests are better served when C-130s and their crews are consolidated at LRAFB, then by all means send them here even if the other bases stay open.
NEIGHBORS >> Open Arms Shelter in Lonoke receives $28,000 gift from Dillard’s department store.
By SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
Lonoke’s Open Arms Shelter for abused and neglected children received one of their largest gifts ever, $27,000 from Dillard’s in McCain Mall.
“This donation is the result of our furnishing vendors and merchandising office working together to help Open Arms,” said Bob Seibert, store manager for Dillard’s in McCain Mall.
“But it’s not about the store, it’s about Open Arms.”
The money will be used for debt reduction and expenses at the shelter according to Susan Bransford, executive director of Open Arms Shelter. She has been with Open Arms Shelter since it began in 1986.
“This is one of the largest donations we’ve had,” Bransford said.
During an Open Arms fundraiser in July, Dillard’s of McCain Mall furnished The Idea House, one of 26 homes showcased during the Cabot Avenue of Dreams Home Showcase.
The home showcase, organized by Open Arms Shelter board member Rhonda House, raised more than $18,000 for the shelter through ticket sales and donations.
Open Arms Shelter began in October 1985 when a group of concerned citizens met to address the growing problem of child abuse and neglect in central Arkansas.
This group, made up of law enforcement officials, judges, school counselors and human service professionals, became known as the Lonoke County Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. After conducting a survey, the task force found that the greatest need was a shelter for young victims of abuse and neglect because Lonoke County had only a few foster homes. Shelters in the state for children were consistently full and often had waiting lists.
On September 15, 1986, the first Open Arms Shelter opened at 203 East Fourth St. in Lonoke in a house donated by former Lonoke County Judge Dude Spence.
Open Arms Shelter began as a group foster home with eight beds, a budget of $25,000 and one full time set of house parents. Since then, the facility has moved twice. Open Arms Shelter now has a clean and spacious 12 facility, a budget of $225,000 and a full time staff of six.
“Right now Lonoke County only has one foster home accepting children,” Bransford said. “We’re currently housing nine children so we’re almost full.”
She said Open Arms has been blessed with volunteers donating their time as well as money.
“We have volunteers to read and do crafts, sometimes we have Sunday school classes that wash our windows,” Bransford said.
In the nearly 20 years since it started, Open Arms Shelter has provided emergency shelter to over 1,400 victims of abuse and neglect between the ages of birth and 18.
It provides the children a safe place to stay while awaiting placement in foster homes, treatment facilities or with relatives.
Open Arms Shelter is one of the few emergency shelters in the state that will take children under 8, teenage mothers with their children and large sibling groups.
Children can stay for a maximum of 45 days at Open Arms. In addition to a room, three meals a day, and around the clock supervision, the children receive affection and guidance on dealing with life’s difficulties.
The children at the shelter have come from every imaginable type of crisis including neglectful situations.
Some have arrived with broken arms and legs from abuse. Other children are so hungry from neglect they hide food. Some children arrive in shock from being the victim of a custodial kidnapping or witnessing a drug bust.
At Open Arms these children have a clean, spacious environment to recuperate.
For more information about Open Arms Shelter please call (501) 676-6166.
Leader staff writer
Lonoke’s Open Arms Shelter for abused and neglected children received one of their largest gifts ever, $27,000 from Dillard’s in McCain Mall.
“This donation is the result of our furnishing vendors and merchandising office working together to help Open Arms,” said Bob Seibert, store manager for Dillard’s in McCain Mall.
“But it’s not about the store, it’s about Open Arms.”
The money will be used for debt reduction and expenses at the shelter according to Susan Bransford, executive director of Open Arms Shelter. She has been with Open Arms Shelter since it began in 1986.
“This is one of the largest donations we’ve had,” Bransford said.
During an Open Arms fundraiser in July, Dillard’s of McCain Mall furnished The Idea House, one of 26 homes showcased during the Cabot Avenue of Dreams Home Showcase.
The home showcase, organized by Open Arms Shelter board member Rhonda House, raised more than $18,000 for the shelter through ticket sales and donations.
Open Arms Shelter began in October 1985 when a group of concerned citizens met to address the growing problem of child abuse and neglect in central Arkansas.
This group, made up of law enforcement officials, judges, school counselors and human service professionals, became known as the Lonoke County Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. After conducting a survey, the task force found that the greatest need was a shelter for young victims of abuse and neglect because Lonoke County had only a few foster homes. Shelters in the state for children were consistently full and often had waiting lists.
On September 15, 1986, the first Open Arms Shelter opened at 203 East Fourth St. in Lonoke in a house donated by former Lonoke County Judge Dude Spence.
Open Arms Shelter began as a group foster home with eight beds, a budget of $25,000 and one full time set of house parents. Since then, the facility has moved twice. Open Arms Shelter now has a clean and spacious 12 facility, a budget of $225,000 and a full time staff of six.
“Right now Lonoke County only has one foster home accepting children,” Bransford said. “We’re currently housing nine children so we’re almost full.”
She said Open Arms has been blessed with volunteers donating their time as well as money.
“We have volunteers to read and do crafts, sometimes we have Sunday school classes that wash our windows,” Bransford said.
In the nearly 20 years since it started, Open Arms Shelter has provided emergency shelter to over 1,400 victims of abuse and neglect between the ages of birth and 18.
It provides the children a safe place to stay while awaiting placement in foster homes, treatment facilities or with relatives.
Open Arms Shelter is one of the few emergency shelters in the state that will take children under 8, teenage mothers with their children and large sibling groups.
Children can stay for a maximum of 45 days at Open Arms. In addition to a room, three meals a day, and around the clock supervision, the children receive affection and guidance on dealing with life’s difficulties.
The children at the shelter have come from every imaginable type of crisis including neglectful situations.
Some have arrived with broken arms and legs from abuse. Other children are so hungry from neglect they hide food. Some children arrive in shock from being the victim of a custodial kidnapping or witnessing a drug bust.
At Open Arms these children have a clean, spacious environment to recuperate.
For more information about Open Arms Shelter please call (501) 676-6166.
SPORTS >> Conway goes to air to bomb Panthers
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports writer
The favorite almost never wins the Cabot-Conway football game that has become a season-opening staple in the state of Arkansas. Tuesday night was no different, as the underdog Wampus Cats went to the air to down the Panthers 21-7 in the first game of the Diamond Bank Bowl doubleheader.
Cabot was only slightly favored, and head Panther Mike Malham wasn’t surprised to see the run-oriented Cats take to the air.
“We have a lot of young guys back there,” Malham said. “They had almost everybody back from last year, so they have a lot more experience than we did, and that showed.”
Conway coach Kenny Smith gave an I-told-you-so speech after the game.
“I’ve been telling you that we’re going to air it out,” Smith said.
The plan worked beautifully, as Conway quarterback Casey Cooper completed 8 of 10 pass attempts for 182 yards and a touchdown.
Cooper played a tremendous game,” Smith said. “His passes were right on target, he made good decisions, but that’s not all that won this game. Everybody knows to beat Cabot you have to win it in the trenches, and I thought our front men did a heckuva job tonight. This is a big win and great way to start the season.”
Conway’s first drive looked easy. It started with a 29-yard run by tailback Eric Crenshaw on the first play of the game. Two running plays gained two yards, but back-to-back completions put Conway at the Cabot 16-yard line.
Tailback Patrick Harris did the rest, picking up those 16 yards on the next play for a 7-0 Conway lead just two minutes and nine seconds into the game.
Cabot answered right back, although it took a little longer.
The Panthers ground out 78 yards on 10 plays, starting with a 26-yarder by halfback Alex Tripp, and ending with a 1-yard run by fullback Richard Williams. The extra point was good to tie the game with 5:34 left in the first quarter.
Cabot had plenty more offensive success, but couldn’t manage another score.
After holding Conway to one first down, the Panthers threw an interception on the ninth play of their next drive.
After the pick, Harris went three yards to the Conway 23, before lightning struck for the Wampus Cats. On the very next play, Cooper found wide receiver Luke Pruett streaking down the sidelines. Pruett caught the perfectly thrown ball over his inside shoulder, behind the Cabot secondary, and cruised into the end zone for a 77-yard touchdown strike.
Cabot went three and out on its next drive. Conway got to the Cabot 15, but missed a field goal to set Cabot up at its own 20.
The Panthers put together another impressive drive, getting all the way to the Conway 9-yard line in 13 plays. Starting quarterback Cory Wade was hurt on the 12th play, a 6-yard completion to Colin Fuller that set up third and four and the 6-yard line.
After a Cabot timeout, backup quarterback John Flynn was sacked for a 3-yard loss, and Cabot missed a 26-yard field goal to come away empty after the long drive.
Conway took over at its own 20 with less than a minute remaining in the half, and took a knee to run out the clock.
After a first half that saw both teams gain yards easily, the second half was a defensive struggle.
Cabot managed just 74 yards in the second half, while Conway gained 116.
Fifty-one of Conway’s yards in the second half came on the game-clinching drive late in the fourth quarter.
After struggling throughout the half, the Wampus Cats bit off chunks of yardage at a time on the last drive. Backup fullback Jaycob Baker gained 10, 5 and 10 yards respectively on his first three carries of the drive. The next two plays lost four yards to set up third and 13 with 1:49 remaining in the game.
Cabot used its last timeout and Conway was trying to run out the clock, but changed courses on the ensuing play. To the surprise of some, Cooper dropped back to pass on third and long, and found receiver Lance Amos all alone in the end zone with 1:42 remaining.
Cabot tried throwing the ball in its last-ditch effort, but Flynn was under pressure. He was forced to keep on the first play, then threw into double coverage. The pass was tipped and intercepted by Jermall Whitworth to seal the game for the Wampus Cats.
Conway finished with 298 total yards, while Cabot gained 278.
Pruett led the Conway receivers in yardage, catching two passes for 90 yards. Amos was Cooper’s favorite target, catching five passes for 73 yards.
Crenshaw led Conway on the ground with just 43 yards on seven carries. The Wampus Cats only managed 116 yards on 36 carries as a team.
Cabot gained all but six yards on the ground, with Tripp leading the way with 100 yards on 13 carries. Brandon Wade picked up 87 yards on 13 totes while Williams gained 61 yards on 16 carries.
The Panthers will have a long week of preparation before its home opener next Friday against Mills University Studies.
Leader sports writer
The favorite almost never wins the Cabot-Conway football game that has become a season-opening staple in the state of Arkansas. Tuesday night was no different, as the underdog Wampus Cats went to the air to down the Panthers 21-7 in the first game of the Diamond Bank Bowl doubleheader.
Cabot was only slightly favored, and head Panther Mike Malham wasn’t surprised to see the run-oriented Cats take to the air.
“We have a lot of young guys back there,” Malham said. “They had almost everybody back from last year, so they have a lot more experience than we did, and that showed.”
Conway coach Kenny Smith gave an I-told-you-so speech after the game.
“I’ve been telling you that we’re going to air it out,” Smith said.
The plan worked beautifully, as Conway quarterback Casey Cooper completed 8 of 10 pass attempts for 182 yards and a touchdown.
Cooper played a tremendous game,” Smith said. “His passes were right on target, he made good decisions, but that’s not all that won this game. Everybody knows to beat Cabot you have to win it in the trenches, and I thought our front men did a heckuva job tonight. This is a big win and great way to start the season.”
Conway’s first drive looked easy. It started with a 29-yard run by tailback Eric Crenshaw on the first play of the game. Two running plays gained two yards, but back-to-back completions put Conway at the Cabot 16-yard line.
Tailback Patrick Harris did the rest, picking up those 16 yards on the next play for a 7-0 Conway lead just two minutes and nine seconds into the game.
Cabot answered right back, although it took a little longer.
The Panthers ground out 78 yards on 10 plays, starting with a 26-yarder by halfback Alex Tripp, and ending with a 1-yard run by fullback Richard Williams. The extra point was good to tie the game with 5:34 left in the first quarter.
Cabot had plenty more offensive success, but couldn’t manage another score.
After holding Conway to one first down, the Panthers threw an interception on the ninth play of their next drive.
After the pick, Harris went three yards to the Conway 23, before lightning struck for the Wampus Cats. On the very next play, Cooper found wide receiver Luke Pruett streaking down the sidelines. Pruett caught the perfectly thrown ball over his inside shoulder, behind the Cabot secondary, and cruised into the end zone for a 77-yard touchdown strike.
Cabot went three and out on its next drive. Conway got to the Cabot 15, but missed a field goal to set Cabot up at its own 20.
The Panthers put together another impressive drive, getting all the way to the Conway 9-yard line in 13 plays. Starting quarterback Cory Wade was hurt on the 12th play, a 6-yard completion to Colin Fuller that set up third and four and the 6-yard line.
After a Cabot timeout, backup quarterback John Flynn was sacked for a 3-yard loss, and Cabot missed a 26-yard field goal to come away empty after the long drive.
Conway took over at its own 20 with less than a minute remaining in the half, and took a knee to run out the clock.
After a first half that saw both teams gain yards easily, the second half was a defensive struggle.
Cabot managed just 74 yards in the second half, while Conway gained 116.
Fifty-one of Conway’s yards in the second half came on the game-clinching drive late in the fourth quarter.
After struggling throughout the half, the Wampus Cats bit off chunks of yardage at a time on the last drive. Backup fullback Jaycob Baker gained 10, 5 and 10 yards respectively on his first three carries of the drive. The next two plays lost four yards to set up third and 13 with 1:49 remaining in the game.
Cabot used its last timeout and Conway was trying to run out the clock, but changed courses on the ensuing play. To the surprise of some, Cooper dropped back to pass on third and long, and found receiver Lance Amos all alone in the end zone with 1:42 remaining.
Cabot tried throwing the ball in its last-ditch effort, but Flynn was under pressure. He was forced to keep on the first play, then threw into double coverage. The pass was tipped and intercepted by Jermall Whitworth to seal the game for the Wampus Cats.
Conway finished with 298 total yards, while Cabot gained 278.
Pruett led the Conway receivers in yardage, catching two passes for 90 yards. Amos was Cooper’s favorite target, catching five passes for 73 yards.
Crenshaw led Conway on the ground with just 43 yards on seven carries. The Wampus Cats only managed 116 yards on 36 carries as a team.
Cabot gained all but six yards on the ground, with Tripp leading the way with 100 yards on 13 carries. Brandon Wade picked up 87 yards on 13 totes while Williams gained 61 yards on 16 carries.
The Panthers will have a long week of preparation before its home opener next Friday against Mills University Studies.
SPORTS >> Devils aware of Cats
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports writer
The week-one battle between Jacksonville and North Little Rock could be labeled many things. One of the main things is a revenge game for the Red Devils. Jacksonville entered last season’s opening game with high hopes and expectations, while North Little Rock was hoping to become a team to contend with, but were still up-and-comers.
The Charging Wildcats scored three touchdowns before most fans got to their seats en route to a 34-0 drumming of the visiting Devils.
This year, it’s Jacksonville that is rebuilding, and hoping to prove itself a real contender in AAAAA football.
First Year Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley is downplaying the revenge factor.
“I haven’t heard much talk about revenge,” Whatley said. “Hopefully we’re becoming a team that prepares for every game the same way. We’re very aware of how good they are this year. That’s all we’re concerned with.
North Little Rock coach Brian Hutson got a good look at Jacksonville last Saturday night in its scrimmage against Greenbrier, and came away impressed.
“They looked really good,” Hutson said. “I was very impressed. “They’ve got some big boys and really seemed to have grasped what they’re doing. They’ve got speed on both sides. I just didn’t see any weaknesses.”
Hutson was very impressed with Jacksonville’s size up front, but his Wildcats are devoid of size and speed.
Hutson has two of the most sought-after recruits in the state in Van Stumon and Jonathan Hicks. Both players can play defensive end and linebacker, while Stumon adds running back to his list of duties with his 4.6 speed.
They are both in the 6-foot-3, 240 range, and both have scholarship offers from multiple major division I schools.
Although Stumon and Hicks are the two everyone knows about, they are far from the only talented players on the team.
Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley saw the Wildcats scrimmage at Stuttgart, and left very impressed.
“We immediately came home, changed all the locks on the gates and we’re not letting ‘em in,” Whatley said.
“They just seem to have an awful, awful lot of talent over there and a tremendous amount of speed. They’ve got those two big guys on the ends, in very dangerous spots. We’re going to have to know where those two are at all times.”
Those two are a big reason for North Little Rock’s high ranking in all the preseason polls, but Hutson doesn’t like all the preseason attention.
“Everybody’s got us ranked high, high, high, but honestly I’d like to know where that’s coming from,” Hutson said. “I do have great, great players, but they can’t play the other nine positions too. It takes 11. There’s some talent on this team, no doubt, but I don’t know if it’s what people are saying. This week is going to be a good test.”
One thing Hutson spotted he hopes he can take advantage of was the number of Jacksonville players that started on both sides of the ball in the Greenbrier scrimmage.
“We’re going to have to do that too (play some on both sides), but probably not as much as they did,” Hutson said. “They may not show up Friday and do that anyway.
“If they do, I’m hoping we’ll be in good enough shape to be the fresher team in the fourth quarter.
“If one team is fresher than the other in the fourth quarter, it makes a difference. It doesn’t matter who’s playing.”
Whatley agrees that keeping players fresh is important at this level, but says that’s the hand his team has been dealt right now.
“We’re hoping by conference time we’ll have some other kids step up that can play those roles and give us some more depth. Right now, though, we’re playing the 11 guys that we feel like will make us the best football team.”
Friday’s game begins at 7 p.m. instead of the traditional 7:30 start time.
It will be the KATV feature game of the week.
Leader sports writer
The week-one battle between Jacksonville and North Little Rock could be labeled many things. One of the main things is a revenge game for the Red Devils. Jacksonville entered last season’s opening game with high hopes and expectations, while North Little Rock was hoping to become a team to contend with, but were still up-and-comers.
The Charging Wildcats scored three touchdowns before most fans got to their seats en route to a 34-0 drumming of the visiting Devils.
This year, it’s Jacksonville that is rebuilding, and hoping to prove itself a real contender in AAAAA football.
First Year Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley is downplaying the revenge factor.
“I haven’t heard much talk about revenge,” Whatley said. “Hopefully we’re becoming a team that prepares for every game the same way. We’re very aware of how good they are this year. That’s all we’re concerned with.
North Little Rock coach Brian Hutson got a good look at Jacksonville last Saturday night in its scrimmage against Greenbrier, and came away impressed.
“They looked really good,” Hutson said. “I was very impressed. “They’ve got some big boys and really seemed to have grasped what they’re doing. They’ve got speed on both sides. I just didn’t see any weaknesses.”
Hutson was very impressed with Jacksonville’s size up front, but his Wildcats are devoid of size and speed.
Hutson has two of the most sought-after recruits in the state in Van Stumon and Jonathan Hicks. Both players can play defensive end and linebacker, while Stumon adds running back to his list of duties with his 4.6 speed.
They are both in the 6-foot-3, 240 range, and both have scholarship offers from multiple major division I schools.
Although Stumon and Hicks are the two everyone knows about, they are far from the only talented players on the team.
Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley saw the Wildcats scrimmage at Stuttgart, and left very impressed.
“We immediately came home, changed all the locks on the gates and we’re not letting ‘em in,” Whatley said.
“They just seem to have an awful, awful lot of talent over there and a tremendous amount of speed. They’ve got those two big guys on the ends, in very dangerous spots. We’re going to have to know where those two are at all times.”
Those two are a big reason for North Little Rock’s high ranking in all the preseason polls, but Hutson doesn’t like all the preseason attention.
“Everybody’s got us ranked high, high, high, but honestly I’d like to know where that’s coming from,” Hutson said. “I do have great, great players, but they can’t play the other nine positions too. It takes 11. There’s some talent on this team, no doubt, but I don’t know if it’s what people are saying. This week is going to be a good test.”
One thing Hutson spotted he hopes he can take advantage of was the number of Jacksonville players that started on both sides of the ball in the Greenbrier scrimmage.
“We’re going to have to do that too (play some on both sides), but probably not as much as they did,” Hutson said. “They may not show up Friday and do that anyway.
“If they do, I’m hoping we’ll be in good enough shape to be the fresher team in the fourth quarter.
“If one team is fresher than the other in the fourth quarter, it makes a difference. It doesn’t matter who’s playing.”
Whatley agrees that keeping players fresh is important at this level, but says that’s the hand his team has been dealt right now.
“We’re hoping by conference time we’ll have some other kids step up that can play those roles and give us some more depth. Right now, though, we’re playing the 11 guys that we feel like will make us the best football team.”
Friday’s game begins at 7 p.m. instead of the traditional 7:30 start time.
It will be the KATV feature game of the week.
TOP STORY >> Guard ready for evacuees
By SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
The Arkansas National Guard opened the Searcy Readiness Center in White County Tuesday, along with the Crossett Readiness Center in Ashley County to provide shelter for Hurricane Katrina evacuees. The two centers were opened in addition to the Monticello Readiness Center in Drew County.
Thousands of refugees from Louisiana and Mississippi have poured into Arkansas, seeking shelter from the storm.
An Arkansas National Guard response team of 15 personnel and seven vehicles left Tuesday evening from the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Hazen to respond to a request from the National Disaster Medical System to rescue patients stranded at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in New Orleans.
Additionally, the Guard supplied cots and blankets to shelters at First Baptist Church of West Memphis in Crittenden County, Lake Village High School in Chicot County and the Hot Springs Convention Center in Garland County.
Convoys of 350 combat engineers, transportation specialists, medics, and military police are scheduled to depart Wednesday morning from their home stations in Jonesboro, Marked Tree and West Memphis with nearly 75 vehicles and other pieces of equipment.
The troops will report to Camp Shelby, Miss., as Task Force Razorback.
The Arkansas National Guard is expected to assist with debris removal, law enforcement efforts and humanitarian aid in the area.
An advance party, including the Task Force Razorback commander, moved out Tuesday to prepare for the arrival of the troops at Camp Shelby.
Additionally, two UH-60 MEDEVAC Black Hawk helicopters departed from Camp Robinson to assist with search and rescue efforts in the Biloxi/Gulfport region.
The Guard’s unique dual mission allows the governor, as the commander in chief, to utilize National Guard in a state of active duty status for operations such as disaster response.
Communities requesting support from the Arkansas National Guard coordinate with county emergency management coordinators or the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management to funnel requests through the proper channels. Gov. Mike Huckabee must approve all requests for the National Guard.
Leader staff writer
The Arkansas National Guard opened the Searcy Readiness Center in White County Tuesday, along with the Crossett Readiness Center in Ashley County to provide shelter for Hurricane Katrina evacuees. The two centers were opened in addition to the Monticello Readiness Center in Drew County.
Thousands of refugees from Louisiana and Mississippi have poured into Arkansas, seeking shelter from the storm.
An Arkansas National Guard response team of 15 personnel and seven vehicles left Tuesday evening from the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Hazen to respond to a request from the National Disaster Medical System to rescue patients stranded at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in New Orleans.
Additionally, the Guard supplied cots and blankets to shelters at First Baptist Church of West Memphis in Crittenden County, Lake Village High School in Chicot County and the Hot Springs Convention Center in Garland County.
Convoys of 350 combat engineers, transportation specialists, medics, and military police are scheduled to depart Wednesday morning from their home stations in Jonesboro, Marked Tree and West Memphis with nearly 75 vehicles and other pieces of equipment.
The troops will report to Camp Shelby, Miss., as Task Force Razorback.
The Arkansas National Guard is expected to assist with debris removal, law enforcement efforts and humanitarian aid in the area.
An advance party, including the Task Force Razorback commander, moved out Tuesday to prepare for the arrival of the troops at Camp Shelby.
Additionally, two UH-60 MEDEVAC Black Hawk helicopters departed from Camp Robinson to assist with search and rescue efforts in the Biloxi/Gulfport region.
The Guard’s unique dual mission allows the governor, as the commander in chief, to utilize National Guard in a state of active duty status for operations such as disaster response.
Communities requesting support from the Arkansas National Guard coordinate with county emergency management coordinators or the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management to funnel requests through the proper channels. Gov. Mike Huckabee must approve all requests for the National Guard.
TOP STORY >> Commands on scoreboard?
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The scoreboard at the Cabot High School football field could soon display the Ten Commandments.
The Rev. Don Robinson is asking local churches to help pay for the display, which he says would be permitted following a recent Supreme Court ruling that is more tolerant of the Ten Command-ments in public areas.
The school district is asking $60,000 for the right to share the scoreboard with Community Bank, which has donated $100,000 for its construction.
The Cabot School District will allow the display if the Rev. Robinson comes up with the money.
“I don’t believe there would be a conflict as long as they paid for it,” said Johnny White, athletic and transportation director at the Cabot School District.
“I’ll go to work to raise it in the Christian community,” the Rev. Robinson told us. “There’s no question in my mind that if we show them we’re allowed to do it, we can do it.”
“We can get 3,000 godly people the night we unveil it,” says the Rev. Robinson, who has pastored at several small churches. “We’ll give the bank thanks for letting us share the scoreboard.”
“When businesses are allowed to advertise, so can churches,” he says. “A church has the same option to buy advertisements as the business world.”
“Churches will be able to get their message out,” he continues. “We’ll be able to put up signs at ballfields.”
“Young people have the idea we’re not relevant anymore be-cause we’ve been silent. Drug peddlers have been targeting our kids.”
If he encounters any opposition to putting the commandments on the scoreboard, he says he’ll get help from the American Center for Law and Justice, which has gone to court in support of public displays of the commandments.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court last June issued two contradictory rulings on the commandments — allowing their display at the Texas capitol, but not a plaque in a Kentucky courtroom — earlier this month, the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals let a public display stand in a Nebraska city park, overturning an earlier 2-1 decision by one of the court’s three-judge panels.
Judge Morris S. Arnold of Little Rock, a conservative Republican on the 8th Circuit, dissented from the full court’s favorable ruling on the commandments in the park.
The Rev. Robinson is confident he can legally display the commandments on a football scoreboard, although he acknowledges there are many skeptics in the community.
“We have a lot of Christian people who think we can’t get away with it,” the Rev. Robinson says.
“I appeal to the Christian community,” he adds, “to take back what we lost 30 years ago. We rolled over and played dead 30 years ago. God has put this opportunity in our hands. For many years, they wouldn’t let us pray in schools. We didn’t cease to be Christians.
“This opens up a whole new area for us,” he says, referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The Rev. Robinson says there are 76 churches in Cabot. They’d each have to contribute less than $800 to pay for the scoreboard display. Some churches could give more. A few months ago, members of a local church raised more than $100,000 for an experimental leukemia treatment for young Dakota Hawkins in Jerusalem.
“I’m going to ask the churches for a special offering,” the minister says.
The Rev. Robinson has been active in anti-pornography crusades. It was 18 years ago that he was pictured on the front page of the first issue of The Leader, demonstrating in front of a convenience store that sold adult magazines. That store has been torn down and is the site for the new Chili’s Bar and Grill.
He has been building churches in Mexico as well as small trains he lets children ride at church events.
He is a retired stonemason who developed the patent for a central fireplace that can heat a 4,200-square-foot house.
But religion is his passion and the Ten Commandments his obsession.
“It teaches us how to get along,” he explains. “The commandments are really something.”
“There’s hope,” he adds. “We’ve gotten to the point where we thought we lost hope. The Ten Commandments could be a beginning for us. We can build from there.
“If it’s for God’s cause, I’d like to be in a fight when He calls me. All we need is a battle cry, and the Ten Commandments can be that.”
E-mail Garrick Feldman at gfeldman@centurytel.net. His phone number is 982-9421 or 941-5132.
The scoreboard at the Cabot High School football field could soon display the Ten Commandments.
The Rev. Don Robinson is asking local churches to help pay for the display, which he says would be permitted following a recent Supreme Court ruling that is more tolerant of the Ten Command-ments in public areas.
The school district is asking $60,000 for the right to share the scoreboard with Community Bank, which has donated $100,000 for its construction.
The Cabot School District will allow the display if the Rev. Robinson comes up with the money.
“I don’t believe there would be a conflict as long as they paid for it,” said Johnny White, athletic and transportation director at the Cabot School District.
“I’ll go to work to raise it in the Christian community,” the Rev. Robinson told us. “There’s no question in my mind that if we show them we’re allowed to do it, we can do it.”
“We can get 3,000 godly people the night we unveil it,” says the Rev. Robinson, who has pastored at several small churches. “We’ll give the bank thanks for letting us share the scoreboard.”
“When businesses are allowed to advertise, so can churches,” he says. “A church has the same option to buy advertisements as the business world.”
“Churches will be able to get their message out,” he continues. “We’ll be able to put up signs at ballfields.”
“Young people have the idea we’re not relevant anymore be-cause we’ve been silent. Drug peddlers have been targeting our kids.”
If he encounters any opposition to putting the commandments on the scoreboard, he says he’ll get help from the American Center for Law and Justice, which has gone to court in support of public displays of the commandments.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court last June issued two contradictory rulings on the commandments — allowing their display at the Texas capitol, but not a plaque in a Kentucky courtroom — earlier this month, the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals let a public display stand in a Nebraska city park, overturning an earlier 2-1 decision by one of the court’s three-judge panels.
Judge Morris S. Arnold of Little Rock, a conservative Republican on the 8th Circuit, dissented from the full court’s favorable ruling on the commandments in the park.
The Rev. Robinson is confident he can legally display the commandments on a football scoreboard, although he acknowledges there are many skeptics in the community.
“We have a lot of Christian people who think we can’t get away with it,” the Rev. Robinson says.
“I appeal to the Christian community,” he adds, “to take back what we lost 30 years ago. We rolled over and played dead 30 years ago. God has put this opportunity in our hands. For many years, they wouldn’t let us pray in schools. We didn’t cease to be Christians.
“This opens up a whole new area for us,” he says, referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The Rev. Robinson says there are 76 churches in Cabot. They’d each have to contribute less than $800 to pay for the scoreboard display. Some churches could give more. A few months ago, members of a local church raised more than $100,000 for an experimental leukemia treatment for young Dakota Hawkins in Jerusalem.
“I’m going to ask the churches for a special offering,” the minister says.
The Rev. Robinson has been active in anti-pornography crusades. It was 18 years ago that he was pictured on the front page of the first issue of The Leader, demonstrating in front of a convenience store that sold adult magazines. That store has been torn down and is the site for the new Chili’s Bar and Grill.
He has been building churches in Mexico as well as small trains he lets children ride at church events.
He is a retired stonemason who developed the patent for a central fireplace that can heat a 4,200-square-foot house.
But religion is his passion and the Ten Commandments his obsession.
“It teaches us how to get along,” he explains. “The commandments are really something.”
“There’s hope,” he adds. “We’ve gotten to the point where we thought we lost hope. The Ten Commandments could be a beginning for us. We can build from there.
“If it’s for God’s cause, I’d like to be in a fight when He calls me. All we need is a battle cry, and the Ten Commandments can be that.”
E-mail Garrick Feldman at gfeldman@centurytel.net. His phone number is 982-9421 or 941-5132.
TOP STORY >> Base harbors planes fleeing from Katrina
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
The Base Closure and Realignment Commission may have bought Sen. Hillary Clinton’s argument that Little Rock Air Force Base is in tornado alley and too weather-vulnerable to be home to a new batch of C-130s, but for the second time in two months the Jacksonville base provided safe harbor to Air Force planes fleeing hurricanes.
An unspecified number of C-130s from Hurlburt Field in Florida moved to LRAFB to ride out Hurricane Katrina while remaining on alert. The planes and airmen of the 16th Special Operations Wing support the war on terrorism, according to Lt. Jon Quinlan of Little Rock’s 314th Airlift Wing.
The Jacksonville base also is playing host to airmen and C-21s from the 81st Training wing at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.
That base sustained significant damage in a direct hit by the hurricane, according to Quinlan, and LRAFB brass have been determining what local assets might be of use to Keesler. Those range from supplies to housing units, he said. “Some housing at Keesler was completely obliterated.
“We’ve been getting calls from families (who can’t reach) airmen at Keesler,” Quinlan said.
“The decision to evacuate (Hurlburt) was made Sunday morning,” said Col. Mark Alsid, 16th Operations Group commander. “With the storm being as big as it was, we couldn’t take any chances.”
The units received a lot of support from Little Rock Airmen setting up everything from billeting arrangements to maintenance support. “It was a base-wide effort,” said Sgt. Dawson. “We have helped set up just about anything you can think of.” The support was well received by the 16th SOW.
“Without the tremendous support of Little Rock Air Force Base and the local community we wouldn’t be about to continue our mission,” said Alsid.
The last hurricane evacuation here was July 8 during Hurricane Dennis. This is the second hurricane evacuation of the season for the 16th special operations.
Leader staff writer
The Base Closure and Realignment Commission may have bought Sen. Hillary Clinton’s argument that Little Rock Air Force Base is in tornado alley and too weather-vulnerable to be home to a new batch of C-130s, but for the second time in two months the Jacksonville base provided safe harbor to Air Force planes fleeing hurricanes.
An unspecified number of C-130s from Hurlburt Field in Florida moved to LRAFB to ride out Hurricane Katrina while remaining on alert. The planes and airmen of the 16th Special Operations Wing support the war on terrorism, according to Lt. Jon Quinlan of Little Rock’s 314th Airlift Wing.
The Jacksonville base also is playing host to airmen and C-21s from the 81st Training wing at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.
That base sustained significant damage in a direct hit by the hurricane, according to Quinlan, and LRAFB brass have been determining what local assets might be of use to Keesler. Those range from supplies to housing units, he said. “Some housing at Keesler was completely obliterated.
“We’ve been getting calls from families (who can’t reach) airmen at Keesler,” Quinlan said.
“The decision to evacuate (Hurlburt) was made Sunday morning,” said Col. Mark Alsid, 16th Operations Group commander. “With the storm being as big as it was, we couldn’t take any chances.”
The units received a lot of support from Little Rock Airmen setting up everything from billeting arrangements to maintenance support. “It was a base-wide effort,” said Sgt. Dawson. “We have helped set up just about anything you can think of.” The support was well received by the 16th SOW.
“Without the tremendous support of Little Rock Air Force Base and the local community we wouldn’t be about to continue our mission,” said Alsid.
The last hurricane evacuation here was July 8 during Hurricane Dennis. This is the second hurricane evacuation of the season for the 16th special operations.
TOP STORY >> Gas prices skyrocket
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Gasoline jumped more than 25 cents a gallon from Monday night prices to Tuesday prices, and they were still rising Tuesday.
A Valero station on First Street in Jacksonville was at $2.599 per gallon of regular gas at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and two hours later the price was up to $2.699.
The commercial gas station on Little Rock Air Force Base even ran out of regular gasoline Monday.
Gas prices Tuesday ranged from $2.499 at Dude’s on Highway 38 in Ward to $2.799 at the Flash Market on Highway 367 in Cabot.
Most clerks quoted their prices using the words “at the moment” or “at this time.”
One said her station went up 15 cents Monday and another dime on Tuesday. Most couldn’t say if there was going to be any leveling of prices soon, but did agree that prices weren’t going down soon.
The Citgo on Marshall Road experienced a very busy night Monday. “It kicked our tail,” the clerk said. Monday night the price was $2.459, but Tuesday morning it jumped to $2.699.
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service pumps at Little Rock Air Force base were out of regular unleaded Monday, according to Lt. Jon Quinlan, a base spokesman. The underground tanks have been refilled and “they don’t anticipate future shortage,” he said Tuesday.
In Jacksonville Tuesday the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $2.660. In Cabot it was $2.677. The BP station on Main Street in Jacksonville never did adjust their road sign Tuesday, which advertised regular gasoline at $2.459 (Monday night’s price), but as motorists drove up they saw paper notices taped to the pumps stating the price was really $2.669, a penny less than the Shell station on one side of Main and a penny more than the Hess station on the other side. The American Automobile Association daily fuel gauge report was outdated by mid morning. The AAA surveys more than 60,000 station across the nation and releases the information in the early hours of the morning. On Tuesday, it released its surveyed prices at about 3 a.m., showing that Arkansas’ average price for a gallon of gasoline was $2.513, actually down about three-tenths of a cent from Monday.
For now, the gas and oil supply from wells and refineries in the gulf area is disrupted and even local Murphy Oil officials say it’s too early to how much damage has been sustained. “We have two platforms in Gulf of Mexico and a refinery at Gulf Shores,” said Mindy West, director of investor relations.
She said they don’t know the fate of those platforms or the refinery.
“If the refineries are damaged, we won’t be able to replace that without raising the cost per barrel,” said West. “As for an actual shortage, it’s too early to know.
“New Orleans is one of our major ports with a lot of refinery capacity in the area,” said West. “We’ll know more in the next several days or week or two,” she said. “Wholesale prices are rising on the fear of extensive damage.”
(Leader staff writer John Hofheimer contributed to this article.)
Leader staff writer
Gasoline jumped more than 25 cents a gallon from Monday night prices to Tuesday prices, and they were still rising Tuesday.
A Valero station on First Street in Jacksonville was at $2.599 per gallon of regular gas at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and two hours later the price was up to $2.699.
The commercial gas station on Little Rock Air Force Base even ran out of regular gasoline Monday.
Gas prices Tuesday ranged from $2.499 at Dude’s on Highway 38 in Ward to $2.799 at the Flash Market on Highway 367 in Cabot.
Most clerks quoted their prices using the words “at the moment” or “at this time.”
One said her station went up 15 cents Monday and another dime on Tuesday. Most couldn’t say if there was going to be any leveling of prices soon, but did agree that prices weren’t going down soon.
The Citgo on Marshall Road experienced a very busy night Monday. “It kicked our tail,” the clerk said. Monday night the price was $2.459, but Tuesday morning it jumped to $2.699.
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service pumps at Little Rock Air Force base were out of regular unleaded Monday, according to Lt. Jon Quinlan, a base spokesman. The underground tanks have been refilled and “they don’t anticipate future shortage,” he said Tuesday.
In Jacksonville Tuesday the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $2.660. In Cabot it was $2.677. The BP station on Main Street in Jacksonville never did adjust their road sign Tuesday, which advertised regular gasoline at $2.459 (Monday night’s price), but as motorists drove up they saw paper notices taped to the pumps stating the price was really $2.669, a penny less than the Shell station on one side of Main and a penny more than the Hess station on the other side. The American Automobile Association daily fuel gauge report was outdated by mid morning. The AAA surveys more than 60,000 station across the nation and releases the information in the early hours of the morning. On Tuesday, it released its surveyed prices at about 3 a.m., showing that Arkansas’ average price for a gallon of gasoline was $2.513, actually down about three-tenths of a cent from Monday.
For now, the gas and oil supply from wells and refineries in the gulf area is disrupted and even local Murphy Oil officials say it’s too early to how much damage has been sustained. “We have two platforms in Gulf of Mexico and a refinery at Gulf Shores,” said Mindy West, director of investor relations.
She said they don’t know the fate of those platforms or the refinery.
“If the refineries are damaged, we won’t be able to replace that without raising the cost per barrel,” said West. “As for an actual shortage, it’s too early to know.
“New Orleans is one of our major ports with a lot of refinery capacity in the area,” said West. “We’ll know more in the next several days or week or two,” she said. “Wholesale prices are rising on the fear of extensive damage.”
(Leader staff writer John Hofheimer contributed to this article.)
TOP STORY >> State check will pay for upgrading Lonoke jail
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
Things may be looking up for the overcrowded, decrepit Lonoke County Jail, the result of a General Improvement Fund check for $290,000 due to be presented to County Judge Charlie Troutman at 2 p.m. Friday.
The money for jail improvement was secured through the efforts of state Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle; state Rep. Lenville Evans, D-Lonoke and state Rep. Susan Schulte, R-Cabot.
The state Department of Finance and Administration began writing about $53 million worth of General Improvement Fund checks for 2,100 projects late last week, ac-cording to Richard Weiss, director.
Among the checks not being cut are several for Jacksonville-area improvements, most of them sponsored by state Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville.
Jacksonville attorney Mike Wilson has sued, saying that state funding for most of the project is illegal and citing the Jacksonville projects by name.
Proctor has put a temporary halt to disbursement of funds for the projects named in the suit, saying it was not unreasonable to think Wilson might prevail, but no hearing date has been set.
Wilson, a former state representative, says the funding violates Amendment 14, which bans state-funded local legislation. The Jacksonville projects named in the case are:
• $190,000 for the new Esther D. Nixon Library.
• $50,000 to the Jacksonville Boys and Girls Club.
• $50,000 to the Jacksonville Senior Center.
• $20,000 to the City of Jacksonville.
• $10,000 to the Jacksonville Museum of Military History.
• $10,000 for the Reed’s Bridge Preservation Society.
Jacksonville voters in July approved a one-mill property tax increase to finance $2.5 million in bonds to build the new library.
“My understanding is they have started cutting checks after Aug. 25. There’s no court order prohibiting it, with exception of ones the judge asked be put on hold,” said Weiss, head of the DFA.
Writing the checks, however, must be fit into regular state business like paying bills and issuing paychecks.
“But the process has begun,” said Weiss.
Leader staff writer
Things may be looking up for the overcrowded, decrepit Lonoke County Jail, the result of a General Improvement Fund check for $290,000 due to be presented to County Judge Charlie Troutman at 2 p.m. Friday.
The money for jail improvement was secured through the efforts of state Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle; state Rep. Lenville Evans, D-Lonoke and state Rep. Susan Schulte, R-Cabot.
The state Department of Finance and Administration began writing about $53 million worth of General Improvement Fund checks for 2,100 projects late last week, ac-cording to Richard Weiss, director.
Among the checks not being cut are several for Jacksonville-area improvements, most of them sponsored by state Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville.
Jacksonville attorney Mike Wilson has sued, saying that state funding for most of the project is illegal and citing the Jacksonville projects by name.
Proctor has put a temporary halt to disbursement of funds for the projects named in the suit, saying it was not unreasonable to think Wilson might prevail, but no hearing date has been set.
Wilson, a former state representative, says the funding violates Amendment 14, which bans state-funded local legislation. The Jacksonville projects named in the case are:
• $190,000 for the new Esther D. Nixon Library.
• $50,000 to the Jacksonville Boys and Girls Club.
• $50,000 to the Jacksonville Senior Center.
• $20,000 to the City of Jacksonville.
• $10,000 to the Jacksonville Museum of Military History.
• $10,000 for the Reed’s Bridge Preservation Society.
Jacksonville voters in July approved a one-mill property tax increase to finance $2.5 million in bonds to build the new library.
“My understanding is they have started cutting checks after Aug. 25. There’s no court order prohibiting it, with exception of ones the judge asked be put on hold,” said Weiss, head of the DFA.
Writing the checks, however, must be fit into regular state business like paying bills and issuing paychecks.
“But the process has begun,” said Weiss.
TOP STORY >> DoD has final say on base strength
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
No one seems sure how many additional C-130s Little Rock Air Force Base will receive in the wake of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations, but ultimately that will be a Defense Department decision, not a decision by the BRAC Commission.
That’s according to Jim Schaefer, communications director for the BRAC Commission in Washington.
How many of the 77 additional planes and 3,898 jobs proposed for Little Rock Air Force Base by the Defense De-partment will end up at the base is still a big question mark.
Schaefer did say that nine, instead of 18, C-130Hs are headed for the 189th Air Education Wing of the Air National Guard, which shares the base, and the Guard says it is grateful for those.
But as for the active Air Force, the 314th Airlift Wing, Little Rock Air Force Base brass don’t know how many planes it will get.
Schaefer says he doesn’t know either. He says the commission “severed” the movement of planes from the original motion to expand the mission of the base, so the movement of planes and personnel could fluctuate.
Instead of a specific number of additional planes, the recommendation for more planes at LRAFB will specify “at the discretion of the secretary of defense,” said Schaefer.
“How they get there or where they come from is left to the discretion of the Air Force,” said Schaefer.
He said he had hoped that a final BRAC Air Force rendering would be available on the BRAC website by Tuesday evening, but it was not there by 9:30 p.m.
Schaeffer confirmed that the 24 C-130s recommended for reassignment from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas to Little Rock were taken off the table when the commission recommended that Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota remain open.
“It’s been a marathon week for us,” Schaeffer said.
Cong. Vic Snyder said Tuesday, “My staff and I continue to make inquiries of the impact of BRAC on Little Rock Air Force Base, but we have been unable to get information that we believe to be final and reliable.”
“We don’t know any more than we did,” said Lt. Jon Quinlan, spokesman for the 314th Airlift Wing. “We’re still trying to figure out what the deal is. We haven’t received any information from headquarters.”
Sgt. Bob Oldham, a spokesman for the Air National Guard at the base, said it expects to receive nine C-130Hs to replace eight older model C-130s, “although nothing is certain.”
“(Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld wanted us to get 14 H models and four Js,” he said.
But Oldham is not complaining.
“They are modernizing our fleet, and we gained one extra aircraft,” he said.
Leader staff writer
No one seems sure how many additional C-130s Little Rock Air Force Base will receive in the wake of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations, but ultimately that will be a Defense Department decision, not a decision by the BRAC Commission.
That’s according to Jim Schaefer, communications director for the BRAC Commission in Washington.
How many of the 77 additional planes and 3,898 jobs proposed for Little Rock Air Force Base by the Defense De-partment will end up at the base is still a big question mark.
Schaefer did say that nine, instead of 18, C-130Hs are headed for the 189th Air Education Wing of the Air National Guard, which shares the base, and the Guard says it is grateful for those.
But as for the active Air Force, the 314th Airlift Wing, Little Rock Air Force Base brass don’t know how many planes it will get.
Schaefer says he doesn’t know either. He says the commission “severed” the movement of planes from the original motion to expand the mission of the base, so the movement of planes and personnel could fluctuate.
Instead of a specific number of additional planes, the recommendation for more planes at LRAFB will specify “at the discretion of the secretary of defense,” said Schaefer.
“How they get there or where they come from is left to the discretion of the Air Force,” said Schaefer.
He said he had hoped that a final BRAC Air Force rendering would be available on the BRAC website by Tuesday evening, but it was not there by 9:30 p.m.
Schaeffer confirmed that the 24 C-130s recommended for reassignment from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas to Little Rock were taken off the table when the commission recommended that Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota remain open.
“It’s been a marathon week for us,” Schaeffer said.
Cong. Vic Snyder said Tuesday, “My staff and I continue to make inquiries of the impact of BRAC on Little Rock Air Force Base, but we have been unable to get information that we believe to be final and reliable.”
“We don’t know any more than we did,” said Lt. Jon Quinlan, spokesman for the 314th Airlift Wing. “We’re still trying to figure out what the deal is. We haven’t received any information from headquarters.”
Sgt. Bob Oldham, a spokesman for the Air National Guard at the base, said it expects to receive nine C-130Hs to replace eight older model C-130s, “although nothing is certain.”
“(Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld wanted us to get 14 H models and four Js,” he said.
But Oldham is not complaining.
“They are modernizing our fleet, and we gained one extra aircraft,” he said.
TOP STORY >> Workers lending a hand
By SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
As survivors assess the damage from Hurricane Katrina, Arkansas utility companies are sending employees to help restore electricity to more than one million customers. After hitting the tip of Florida last week, the massive hurricane made landfall again on the Gulf Coast early Monday morning, wreaking havoc and killing dozens of people.
Early Tuesday morning, 39 crew members and twenty-two trucks from First Electric’s Benton, Heber Springs, Jack-sonville and Perryville off-ices left for Washington-St. Tammany Elec-tric Cooperative in Franklinton, La. About 22 of the crew members are from the Jacksonville office.
Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative serves over 46,000 customers north of New Orleans and reported a complete loss of power to all customers at the height of the storm.
“We’ll be down there two weeks at least,” said Larry Hulsey, a First Electric construction foreman. “The hardest part is driving down. Everyone’s anxious to go.”
Hulsey went with First Electric crews to help with extensive and lengthy power restoration projects in Alabama caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Restoring power in the aftermath of a hurricane is a first for some of the crew, like Shawn Taylor, 33, of Lonoke. Taylor said he feels prepared since he has worked restoring power after ice storms and tornadoes.
“We just loaded our trucks with what we thought we might need down there,” Taylor said.
The most valuable piece of equipment each worker has is the personal voltage detector. The device is about the size of a deck of cards and hangs around employees’ necks. When the employee nears a live wire, for instance, one possibly under debris, an alarm goes off.
On a larger scale, Entergy Arkansas deployed 360 employees, about two-thirds of their total workforce, to restore electricity for more than 1.1 million customers.
Entergy spokesman David Lewis said there were about 790,000 customers without electricity in Louisiana and 290,000 in Mississippi.
“This is by far the worst disaster we’ve ever had,” Lewis said. “The largest outage we’ve ever helped with was 270,000 customers just last month with Tropical Storm Cindy in these same states.”
The record prior to Tropical Storm Cindy was 260,000 outages following Hurricane George in 1998.
Lewis estimates it will be well over a month before the power is back on in New Orleans and maybe longer for rural areas. In many places, restoration cannot begin until after the damage has been assessed.
Workers will concentrate on restoring service in areas not inhibited by flood waters or debris.
“Our personnel are working from the Entergy offices in Jackson, Miss. with 4,000 other Entergy employees,” Lewis said. “They will proceed day by day to where they’re needed the most.”
Entergy follows a restoration plan that concentrates on getting service restored to essential customers first, like hospitals, police and fire departments, communications, water, sanitary services and transportation providers.
Then crews turn their attention to making repairs to electrical facilities that will return service to the largest number of customers in the shortest period of time.
Entergy customers in Arkansas may see some lag in services since so many employees are helping restore electricity in Louisiana and Mississippi.
“We request some patience and understanding because we’re shorthanded here,” Lewis said.
“There will be slower response times for non-emergency services such as getting new service connected.”
The American Red Cross estimates 2,000 volunteers will be in the areas providing assistance. Donations to the American Red Cross can be made by calling (800) HELP-NOW or (800) 435-7669 or by visiting www.redcross.org.
Leader staff writer
As survivors assess the damage from Hurricane Katrina, Arkansas utility companies are sending employees to help restore electricity to more than one million customers. After hitting the tip of Florida last week, the massive hurricane made landfall again on the Gulf Coast early Monday morning, wreaking havoc and killing dozens of people.
Early Tuesday morning, 39 crew members and twenty-two trucks from First Electric’s Benton, Heber Springs, Jack-sonville and Perryville off-ices left for Washington-St. Tammany Elec-tric Cooperative in Franklinton, La. About 22 of the crew members are from the Jacksonville office.
Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative serves over 46,000 customers north of New Orleans and reported a complete loss of power to all customers at the height of the storm.
“We’ll be down there two weeks at least,” said Larry Hulsey, a First Electric construction foreman. “The hardest part is driving down. Everyone’s anxious to go.”
Hulsey went with First Electric crews to help with extensive and lengthy power restoration projects in Alabama caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Restoring power in the aftermath of a hurricane is a first for some of the crew, like Shawn Taylor, 33, of Lonoke. Taylor said he feels prepared since he has worked restoring power after ice storms and tornadoes.
“We just loaded our trucks with what we thought we might need down there,” Taylor said.
The most valuable piece of equipment each worker has is the personal voltage detector. The device is about the size of a deck of cards and hangs around employees’ necks. When the employee nears a live wire, for instance, one possibly under debris, an alarm goes off.
On a larger scale, Entergy Arkansas deployed 360 employees, about two-thirds of their total workforce, to restore electricity for more than 1.1 million customers.
Entergy spokesman David Lewis said there were about 790,000 customers without electricity in Louisiana and 290,000 in Mississippi.
“This is by far the worst disaster we’ve ever had,” Lewis said. “The largest outage we’ve ever helped with was 270,000 customers just last month with Tropical Storm Cindy in these same states.”
The record prior to Tropical Storm Cindy was 260,000 outages following Hurricane George in 1998.
Lewis estimates it will be well over a month before the power is back on in New Orleans and maybe longer for rural areas. In many places, restoration cannot begin until after the damage has been assessed.
Workers will concentrate on restoring service in areas not inhibited by flood waters or debris.
“Our personnel are working from the Entergy offices in Jackson, Miss. with 4,000 other Entergy employees,” Lewis said. “They will proceed day by day to where they’re needed the most.”
Entergy follows a restoration plan that concentrates on getting service restored to essential customers first, like hospitals, police and fire departments, communications, water, sanitary services and transportation providers.
Then crews turn their attention to making repairs to electrical facilities that will return service to the largest number of customers in the shortest period of time.
Entergy customers in Arkansas may see some lag in services since so many employees are helping restore electricity in Louisiana and Mississippi.
“We request some patience and understanding because we’re shorthanded here,” Lewis said.
“There will be slower response times for non-emergency services such as getting new service connected.”
The American Red Cross estimates 2,000 volunteers will be in the areas providing assistance. Donations to the American Red Cross can be made by calling (800) HELP-NOW or (800) 435-7669 or by visiting www.redcross.org.
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