TOP STORY >> Rescue teams answer calls in worst flooding

By JOAN MCCOY

Leader staff writer

The flooding that resulted from heavy rain the evening of Dec. 23 and all day Christmas Eve will go on record as the worst in recent history.

“I’ve been here since I was six years old, and this is the worst flood I’ve seen in Lonoke County,” said 45-year-old Bobby Graham, assistant chief for the Mountain Springs Volunteer Fire Department.

Jacksonville Fire Capt. Joe Bratton said it was the busiest Christmas he had ever worked. His crew got the first call about 7 a.m. and didn’t stop responding to flooding calls until after 8 p.m., a span of more than 13 hours.

Mountain Springs rescued five residents and four dogs from Grayhawk Circle, where floodwater was about five feet deep early in the morning on Christmas Eve. The South Bend Fire and Rescue Department and the Cabot Fire Department, which brought boats, assisted Mountain Springs.

Lt. Hubert Chapman of the South Bend Fire Department said he has lived in the area since 1955 and has never seen such flooding.

The worst area was on West Hwy. 236, where water was four-to five-feet deep in the roadway and even deeper in the houses, Chapman said. His department responded to 38 calls for rescue from vehicles trapped in high water and assisted six families with safely leaving their homes.

One rescue occurred Sunday evening after water pushed one van off West Hwy. 236.

Other problem areas included Graham Road, Kerr Station Road, South Kerr Road and the area around Gentry, Rifle and Shotgun lanes.

“We are grateful that the waters in our area are finally receding and we plan to be available if any of the departments south of us need any help as the waters travel downstream,” Chapman said.

South Bend had 23 of its 36 firefighters involved in rescues over a 96-hour period.

Capt. Tim Kuykendall spoke about one rescue, a handicapped man who was trapped in his vehicle. At 12:53 p.m. Saturday the department was paged by the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office.

Kuykendall and Assistant Chief Dwayne James responded to a call at Kerr Station Road on the Hwy. 294 side. They rescued a 17-year-old who was on the roof of his flooded car. While they were standing there, Kuykendall said it appeared that someone was walking in the water.

“James and I conferred with each other. We went in the boat down Kerr Station to Billy Lane. We found a bucket floating in the water.”

Then firefighters spotted a Kia minivan on the roadway in three-and-half-feet of water.

“We pulled up to the vehicle. We found a disabled gentleman, approximately 55 years old. The gentleman was slumped over the steering wheel barely conscious. He had a Zippo lighter that he was pecking at the window, trying to get someone’s attention. He never saw us there,” Kuykendall said.

He said the man had been in the water for at least 45 minutes. He had no cell phone or any other way to contact emergency personnel. According to Kuykendall, the handicapped man was trying to leave the rising water at his home off Kerr Station Road.

“We knew we couldn’t get the patient out of the vehicle because he was handicapped. Hypothermia had already set in,” Kuykendall said.

The firefighters decided to get the department’s six-by-six vehicle, a two-and-a-half ton cargo transporter, to the scene. It was at another call involving a submerged vehicle. The 6x6 resembles a large forestry truck. It stands five-feet tall with six wheels and has six-wheel drive.

Kuykendall continued, “We hooked the six-by-six with a winch to the front of the vehicle and pulled the vehicle 300 yards to dry land. We put him in our rescue vehicle (an ambulance-style vehicle with a covered payload area and heat) until MEMS arrived on scene.

“Something pointed us to that vehicle, it was something out of the blue,” Kuykendall said.

Kuykendall said there were so many vehicles on Kerr Station that emergency crews had to maneuver their boat to get past them.

Most of the rescues were from drivers who drove around barricades.

The district also helped the Mountain Springs and Cabot Fire Departments rescue several families from their homes in the Greyhawk Circle area of Cabot.

Sgt. Branden Hampton of the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office said when a driver goes around a barricade they would be cited, but since there was a state of emergency, drivers were taken to jail.

The beanfield stretch on Hwy. 67/167 between Redmond Road and the entrance to I-440 in Jacksonville was completely submerged both north and southbound until Saturday, when it was re-opened by the state Highway Department.

Residents in Jacksonville’s Taramount neighborhood were unable to reach their homes, although a few made it to the cut-off in boats.

The entrance to Northlake from Main Street was blocked by floodwater, and about a dozen residents from Taramount parked along Jacksonville Cut-off and hiked through a resident’s yard who had left the gate open for them.

The Jacksonville Fire Department responded to three separate calls of people trapped in floating cars on West Main Street.

Bratton said the biggest problem the department had was getting around because traffic was so backed up everywhere after Hwy. 67/167 was closed down.

A home across from Reed’s Bridge and trailers were flooded on South Hwy. 161.

The stretch of Hwy. 31 from Beebe to Lonoke was flooded and about 30 homes were affected there. Floodwater also closed Hwy. 31 from Hwy. 305 at Floyd to Hwy. 5.

Sylvia Smith, one of the owners of Smith Wrecker in Cabot, said Monday that she had seen ice storms that caused as many motorists to go off the roadways, but in 20 years, she had never seen water cause this much trouble.

“I had three drivers working nonstop,” she said. “I had some boys who went swimming several times (connecting the wench to stalled vehicles), and they said it was cold.”

Smith said her drivers had towed about 30 vehicles.

“We had some that were actually swept off the road and some that died in the road,” she said. “We had some where people drove around the barriers.”

After spending three days moving livestock and pets from his 70-acre hobby farm to higher ground, Dean White, chief deputy at the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office, said he hopes 2009 was a freak year and 2010 will be more like those he is accustomed to.

Bayou Meto is usually at five feet, he said. On Monday, it was at 26.33 feet and rising.

He said the water completely surrounded his house, and if it rose 13 more inches, then it would be inside.

“I moved here in 1995, and it had never flooded like that before. But water has been up to my house three times this year,” he said. “It wasn’t too bad in May because it was warm and the water was so clear you could see fish in it. Now it’s cold and muddy and you have to break ice when you walk through it.”

So far, his only real losses have been the cattle feeders that have floated off, he said. But his neighbors who raise winter wheat and minnows have fared far worse.

The second time White’s home was surrounded by water was from the rain that fell Oct. 30.

Some residents of Beebe’s Windwood subdivision have not recovered from that flood that filled half a dozen homes. Those same homes and half a dozen more were flooded Christmas Eve after the swamp behind them backed up again.

Mayor Mike Robertson was among the rescuers who took residents out of the flooded area by boat.

The floodwater also washed out a railroad trestle and stopped the trains from running through Beebe for two days.

Milton McCullar, head of Beebe’s street department and the city’s floodplain administrator, said several of the houses weren’t covered by flood insurance, so how the owners will pay for the damage is unclear.

To aid in cleanup, the city has brought in large dumpsters for the furniture that was ruined.

White County Judge Michael Lincoln said flooding around Georgetown near the Little Red River was not as bad as anticipated, but Lake Barnett flooded, which is unusual. The lake came out of its boundaries and washed over Hwy. 31 and over the bridge at Gravel Hill, he said.

The county also lost two 80-year-old one-lane bridges near McRae in the Vinity community, he said.

Mayor Eddie Joe Williams reported “minimal damage” in Cabot. Williams said recent drainage projects kept water out of houses.

Lt. Jim Kulesa, spokesman for the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office, said Monday that the volunteer fire departments that helped with the evacuations and rescues are heroes who don’t get the recognition they deserve.

“These guys are volunteers. They don’t get paid,” Kulesa said.

Leader staff writers Eileen Feldman and Jeffrey Smith contributed to this report.

TOP STORY >> Flood devastates homes

A storage facility on Jacksonville Cutoff was flooded on Christmas. The cutoff was impassable until early this week.

.

West Main Street going into the Taramount subdivision in Jacksonville was flooded for much of the weekend.

By EILEEN FELDMAN

and ALIYA FELDMAN

Leader staff writers

Many area residents were still recovering from October’s floods when the rain started pouring down on Christmas Eve.

Christmas 2009 will go down in history for several families who had already suffered a lot of damage to their homes from flooding just two months ago.

Adylyn and Glenn Figley moved to higher ground in the same trailer park on Old Tom Box Road in north Pulaski County after a brand-new trailer they were living in had been ruined. A trailer they were renting is now also damaged from flooding that started on Christmas Eve.

The Figleys aren’t the only ones who have had problems from the 81 inches of rain that Arkansas received this year.

Harold Ford awoke sometime around 2 a.m. Christmas morning and while walking by his solarium noticed his Valentine Road house south of Jacksonville was surrounded by water.

“It was frightening,” Ford said. “I never would have thought it would come in the house.”

He and his wife Ruthie began to gather a few of their things, shut off their electricity and gas and, around 5 a.m., they were rescued by boat by members of the East Pulaski Volunteer Fire Department with assistance from the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Fire Department. “We didn’t have time, they rushed in with boats,” he said.

Ford said the Dick Jeter Community off Valentine Road just south of Jacksonville has about 250 residents in about 100 homes belonging mostly to elderly folks. “The water came up so fast on Christmas, we just weren’t expecting it,” said Ford.

He had two-and-a-half feet of water in one part of his house, a bi-level built in 1959. There were three inches of water in the upper level. He’s worried he’ll lose two freezers full of food since his power is out. “We can’t go back in now,” Ford said.

Ford has been talking to the Red Cross and the Department of Emergency Management, trying to get some kind of aid and a survey of the damage. He’s also talked to Sherman Smith of the county’s road and bridge department and is expecting some declaration of disaster.

Ford and his wife, who’ve lived in the area for 35 years, are staying in Jacksonville with Ruthie’s sister, who lives in the new subdivision behind Dupree Park. The subdivision didn’t flood, although Dupree Lake flowed over Redmond Road, closing it until Saturday afternoon.

Bill Moses of Jacksonville heard from FEMA two weeks ago that he wouldn’t qualify for assistance, even though almost a foot of water had entered his home in October.

“Today is the first day I can get back in the house,” Moses said on Monday.

He left his house on Hwy. 161 at 11 a.m. Thursday to go shopping. When he returned five hours later, 16 inches of floodwater was in the house.

He said he only had time to grab a few things before he knew he had to leave the house. It was too late for his computer, TV, three couches, wood floors and more damage he cared to think about.

By Christmas, 33 inches of water had entered his home, he said.

He spent the holiday with friends in Lonoke. He could hear water in his muffler as his truck trudged down Hwy. 161 in the downpour. “When I was getting out of here, I barely got the truck out,” he said.

This is the third time this year that Moses’ property flooded.

He blames the Jacksonville landfill.

“(The) dump is the reason the highway flooded,” he said.

In May, floodwaters reached his house but didn’t get in. But on Oct. 29, Moses says eight inches of water covered his den and ruined his wood floors. He had recently taken them up and left the concrete foundation bare when Thursday’s flood came.

When he came back from Christmas Eve shopping, water was “coming in an inch a minute,” he said.

He said his house never flooded before this year. “I’m 300 feet from the creek,” he said, adding that the dump is 115 feet away.

He thinks the flood-relief channels around the dump aren’t sufficient to contain the amount of rain that fell in Jacksonville recently.

“It knocks out all that water and throws it on me,” he said.

He estimates that his house has suffered $15,000 to $20,000 worth of damage from the Christmas flood.

Moses is an unemployed Vietnam veteran and doesn’t understand why the government won’t help him pay to repair damage to his house that occurred during October’s floods.

He says he’ll appeal to FEMA again for help with the most-recent round of damage.

The Figleys were unable to enter Jacksonville because Maddox Road was closed from the flooding. They headed to a Sherwood motel for shelter.

There was six to seven feet of water surrounding their trailer park, Figley said. Many of the trailers that flooded in October, forcing residents to be evacuated by the fire department, flooded again.

“Strangers helped on Christmas Eve with money. Friends brought dinner,” Adylyn Figley said. “Churches have been praying for us, and we’re just hanging in there.”

Their trailer flooded with about three inches.

“We rented a mobile home a little higher up in the park that we’d been living in since Nov. 9,” she said.

“When we left, (water) was at the top step” of their porch, she added.

Luckily, there isn’t any damage to their belongings because they had time to get everything off of the floor.

They lost a brand new trailer to flooding in October, for which insurance has compensated them.

Figley said the couple planned to close on a new house in Ward in mid-January, but the mortgage company is working with them so that they can move in sooner.

She’s still hopeful, despite the two floods she’s been in this year.

“God’s been good to us,” she said.

SPORTS >> Group effort propels Lady Jackrabbits

Emily Howell goes up for a shot in Lonoke’s victory over Carlisle at Beebe.

By JASON KING

Leader sportswriter

The Lonoke Lady Jackrabbits advanced to the semifinal round of the Beebe Christmas Classic with a mercy-ruled 58-29 victory over cross-county rival Carlisle on Monday afternoon at Badger Sports Arena.

The Lady Jackrabbits (8-5) used their entire bench during the rout and triggered the sportsmanship/timing rule with a 30-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter.

“It’s always good to get our feet back under us after Christmas break,” said Lady Jackrabbits coach Nathan Morris, who was pleased his team didn’t let down with the big lead.

“More than anything, I was happy that we came out and played hard in the second half, because it’s easy to do that, and they didn’t let up,” Morris said. “We stayed on and we executed well. Offensively we executed well and we played pretty solid defense.”

Lonoke held Carlisle to six points in the first quarter and five in the second to take a 32-11 lead at halftime and then kept the pressure up in the final two quarters.

The Lady Jackrabbits used 14 players and nine made it on to the scoreboard at some point.

“You never know when you’re going to have to have those folks down the stretch,” Morris said. “Their role might be limited; their role might be more minutes. If the starters do their job and get up on top of somebody early, we’ll put them in a little earlier.

“You never know; you might be an ankle injury away from having to use one of them.”

Junior shooting guard Cara Neighbors got in on the action in the fourth quarter after sitting out most of a month recovering from wrist surgery.

It did not take long for Neighbors to shake off the rust as she scored eight of the Lady Jackrabbits’ 10 points in the final period.

“I wouldn’t have done that if the kid had not been practicing,” Morris said. “She’s been going at about 85 percent in all of our contact stuff. We were fortunate enough we could get her into the doctor and get her in there and released — just a little bit of rust.”

After a slow start, things picked up for the Lady Jackrabbits in the final minute of the first quarter.

Asiah Scribner scored inside to make it 9-3 Lonoke, but Whitney Thrift answered for the Lady Bison (5-4) with a three-point basket. Lonoke reserve Emily Smith closed out the quarter for the Lady ’Rabbits with a pair of free throws and a putback that gave Lonoke a 13-7 lead heading into the second quarter.

Lonoke turned up the defensive pressure to open the second quarter, which resulted in a 7-0 run. Ashleigh Himstedt scored on two straight jumpers, followed by a free throw by younger sister Anna Himstedt and a basket by Scribner with 5:32 left to give the Lady Jackrabbits a 20-6 lead.

The elder Himstedt struck again with 5:06 left in the half to increase Lonoke’s lead to 22-8. She also scored on a Scribner steal and assist seconds later and drew a foul and completed the three-point play to put the Lady Jackrabbits up 25-8.

She went on to lead Lonoke with 14 points. Scribner finished with 11.

Ashleigh Himstedt got her next score unassisted when she stole a Carlisle pass at midcourt and drove for a lay-up to make it 28-8 with 2:38 left in the half. Smith then hit two free throws to extend the lead to 30-8.

Jessica McCallie finally ended Lonoke’s second 7-0 run of the period with a pair of free throws with 2:09 left before Emily Howell closed out the half for the Lady Jackrabbits with a putback of her miss with 1:49 left to make it 32-10.

SPORTS >> Breakdown in lane is costly to Lonoke

Storm Beeler attempts a jumper for the Lonoke Jackrabbits against Carlisle.

By JASON KING

Leader sportswriter

Lonoke’s comeback stalled, but what a comeback it was.

The Jackrabbits cut a 15-point deficit to two in the final minute before Carlisle pulled out a 62-58 victory in the first round of the Beebe Christmas Classic at Badger Arena on Monday.

Keonta Murray gave the Bison the victory when he hit a pair of free throws in the closing seconds. Lonoke’s comeback stalled in the lane with 10 seconds left when Tarrale Watson’s layup landed just off and Carlisle pulled down the rebound and then drew the foul.

“We can’t look at the missed layup at the end as making or breaking our game,” Lonoke coach Dean Campbell said. “We didn’t play very well in the first half at all and we dug ourselves a hole. We used a lot of energy coming back, and when you come up short like that, it is a little heartbreaking.

“But I told the guys that if you’re not afraid to lose, then you can win some games and come back in some games that maybe you shouldn’t.”

The Jackrabbits trailed by 15 with just over three minutes left before starting their rally.

Carlisle was premature in playing keep away with 3:18 still to go.

The resurgent Jackrabbits defense forced Malcolm Murray to dribble out of bounds, and an inside shot by T.J. Scott cut it to 57-52. Storm Beeler then made it a one-score game with a three-pointer.

D.J. Love scored for Carlisle on a putback and Scott answered, and the teams traded free throws to push the score to 60-58.

Carlisle missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and Dixon pulled down the rebound for the Jackrabbits.

Carlisle pressured Lonoke into a number of forced passes, many of which found their way out of bounds. A number of other frantic passes were picked up by the Bison and converted into easy transition points.

“That comes with young, inexperienced players not taking time to catch it and look,” Campbell said. “Instead just catching and going right away. As pressure comes, we’re trying to get used to handling that pressure, and try to make good passes and be patient. And that goes along with experience.”

The Bison got their initial lead with solid offensive play by Love at the end of the first quarter. Love hit a three-pointer and then took an assist from Malcolm Murray for a crowd-approved dunk with 56 seconds left in the quarter.

That gave Carlisle a 17-13 lead, and another Love basket extended the advantage to seven.

The Bison (6-1) went on an 8-1 run to end the first half and built their lead to 38-24.

Love went on to lead the Bison with 17 points, while Chris Larkin and Keonta Murray were close behind with 16 each.

Lonoke (1-4) struggled with turnovers most of the game, but the Jackrabbits (1-4) became the aggressors in the final period.

Darius Scott fueled much of Lonoke’s comeback in the second half with 11 of his team-high 17 points in the third quarter.

Scott’s run in the third began with a three-pointer with 4:51 left in the period and also included an old-fashioned three-point play with 3:37 left.

The loss put the Jackrabbits in the consolation bracket, but Campbell believes he has the ingredients for a potent team as the players gain experience.

“I think we’ve got a good mix,” Campbell said. “We have some kids who can shoot and some who are getting stronger physically.

“We’re not heavy one way or the other. The more we play and the more comfortable we get with each other, the more we will know who can do what.”

SPORTS >> Colts win gamble on imperfection

By TODD TRAUB

Leader sports editor

I had wanted to use this space for a nice end-of-year column full of inaccuracies and smarmy clichés, like what the big-time sports columnists write.

But then, on Sunday evening, I logged on to my favorite social networking site and opened my fat mouth about the cowardly Indianapolis Colts, and Facebook swiftly became In Your Face-book.

Since I’m not going to miss 2009 all that much, for a whole list of reasons that includes the recent weather, I’d rather skip the sentimentality and keep the debate going.

What do you say? Let’s send out the year with fireworks instead of champagne.

A few of my long-distance friends, including one expatriate Buffalo Bills fan living in Indianapolis, took issue with me for calling out the Colts over their decision to sacrifice a perfect season rather than risk their star players (i.e. Peyton Manning) in a “meaningless” regular-season game.

With Manning, who has passed for 4,405 yards and 33 touchdowns on the sideline for most of the second half Sunday, the Colts, who had clinched every possible playoff advantage, lost a 15-10 lead and were beaten 29-15 by the New York Jets.

The Colts fell to 14-1, gave the Jets a leg up to the playoffs and snarled things for several other teams.

And there, once again, went the chance to see something special in the NFL.

The league, with its explosive graphics and hyperbolic announcers, keeps telling us we’re watching the best sport in the world and just when we start to believe it, one of its best teams blows its chance to do something spectacular and just dares to be good.

I’m already on record as saying I wanted to see a perfect team win the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1972 Miami Dolphins went 16-0. With the modern, expanded schedule, the Colts, had they gone all the way, would have been the first team to finish 19-0.

But with his team leading by five, first-year coach Jim Caldwell pulled Manning, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Joseph Addai to preserve them for the postseason run and the Jets rallied.

I’m not irrational. I get it. You lose a lot of money and prestige if you don’t win the big one, and you aren’t going to win it if you get key players hurt. You could be the Icarus of pro football, crashing to the ground with your wings aflame because you dared to touch the sun.

But what if everyone thought that way?

What if NASA held back Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from walking on the moon because they were thinking about the long-term future of the space program?

What if Eisenhower decided not to go for it in Normandy because the weather reports were bad and he didn’t want to risk lives or his own military career?

You have to gamble to be great.

The space program gambled the lives of it astronauts and billions of dollars in the name of exploration and to capture the awe and imagination of the entire world.

Eisenhower gambled the lives of thousands of young men in order to free thousands more innocents who were living, or dying, under the tyranny of a few.

Are these extreme examples? After all we’re just talking about a silly game.

But that’s my point.

If you can’t take a risk and gamble to be great in a silly game, when can you?

There is a Super Bowl champion every year, but, as the creaky-kneed veterans of the 1972 Dolphins like to point out, there aren’t that many perfect teams.

Disappointed Colts fans booed their team Sunday, and I don’t condone such disloyalty, but I understand how they feel. So do the Colts.

“I probably would have booed too,” center Jeff Saturday said. “I don’t blame them. They pay to come see us win games and we didn’t get it done.”

My Bills-loving friend in Indianapolis said the Colts’ fans need to keep their eyes on the “prize” which, presumably, is the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

That sounds a lot to me like the great line from Peter Gent’s dark and disturbing pro football novel “North Dallas Forty.”

“Every time I call it a game you call it a business,” a player screams at a coach after a tough loss. “And every time I call it a business, you call it a game.”

Sure the prize is the Super Bowl championship, but I submit the prize is also that bonus money (winning players got $83,000 each last year), that contract negotiation leverage, those commercial endorsements and that big bump in a team’s merchandising revenues.

Those are nice things for the players, coaches, front office personnel and owners, but what do the fans get?

The fans get good, but not great. They get 18-1, if they’re lucky.

Oh well, we didn’t want those moon rocks anyway.

SPORTS >> Red Devils gave fans run to remember

By TODD TRAUB

Leader sports editor

Free throws won Jacksonville its first state basketball championship on March 14, but there was nothing free about them.

The Red Devils and hero guard Deshone McClure earned every shot.

McClure sank 2 of 3 free throws with 1.2 seconds left to lift the Red Devils to a 63-62 victory over Little Rock Hall at Summit Arena in Hot Springs. The team’s 6A championship is The Leader’s top sports story of 2009.

Jacksonville won its final 15 games of the season and avenged a regular-season loss to Hall in January. The rematch in the final was a thriller that would satisfy fans of just about any program with perhaps the exception of Hall.

“These guys showed a lot of heart,” Jacksonville coach Vic Joyner said.

Jacksonville rushed to an 11-1 lead, but the score was 15-14 Hall by the end of the first quarter. Jacksonville took a 27-26 lead at halftime and outscored Hall 18-10 in the third quarter to make it 45-36.

Stanley Appleby scored seven straight points to give the Red Devils their biggest lead, 52-39, midway through the fourth quarter. But the Warriors’ pressure defense began to have an effect against the turnover-prone Red Devils, who lost the ball 24 times during the game leading to 28 points by Hall.

Hall’s A.J. Walton had made two free throws for the 62-61 lead with 7.8 seconds left as the Warriors came completely back from their 13-point deficit.

But McClure, now a senior, split two defenders and got to the top of the three-point line to launch his last-second shot that missed. But David Rivers, behind McClure and reaching over, was called for the foul that sent McClure to the line for his game-winners.

“Coach told me to get the ball and don’t stop,” McClure said. “I almost lost it and I almost passed it, but Coach told me to go and don’t stop. If we’re going to lose, we’re going to lose it because of me.”

Instead, McClure won the game and the most valuable player award for his heroics and 17 points.

“I had to do it for my teammates — I had to,” said McClure, who made his first free throw, missed the second and put the Red Devils ahead to stay with his third. “After I missed that one I was thinking that I couldn’t miss another one or we’re going into overtime. I knew if we went into overtime that it was going to be a battle, so I had to hit it.”

Joyner said overtime, with Walton still on the court for Hall, would not have been a savory prospect. Walton, now at Baylor, scored a game-high 24 points, 15 over the final 5:48.

“He’s got no quit in him and he almost single-handedly carried his team to a state title,” Joyner said.

But Joyner and the Red Devils countered with a group effort.

Demetrius Harris was 9 of 14 for 20 points with 10 rebounds; Appleby had his solo run to give Jacksonville its biggest lead and his brother Raheem also contributed points; Cortrell Eskridge and Darrius Morant had two key assists apiece; Antonio Roy had seven rebounds and Antwan Lockhart made all of his three shots, including a dunk, while adding three rebounds and a block.

It was a satisfying championship because it was the Red Devils’ first, but it was also pleasing to Joyner after his team’s struggles the previous season. Jacksonville opened 3-9 but reached the state tournament, only to lose in the quarterfinals.

“We had a lot of infighting, a lot of things we were trying to work through personally,” Joyner said. “But for the most part, all year, these kids have given it up for each other. They respect each other and they’ve grown closer as teammates.

“But they’re still competitive. They want you to stop this guy, they want you to get up there and get this rebound. And they’ll get up in each other’s face and tell each other. And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you handle it the right way.”

Clearly, the Red Devils did.

LONOKE FOOTBALL

The Lonoke Jackrabbits overame a 2-3 start to reach their first state championship game since 1994.

The Jackrabbits had to win 3 of 4 playoff games on the road and gambled on two intentional safeties in a playoff victory at Warren just to get to Little Rock and War Memorial Stadium, the site of the championship.

Senior running back Brandon Smith, The Leader offensive player of the year, rushed for 1,953 yards and 24 touchdowns while senior quarterback Michael Nelson emerged as a threat to run and throw.

The storybook run ended one victory short as the Jackrabbits drew private school power Shiloh Christian in the championship.

The Saints roughed up the Jackrabbits 56-20 to win their sixth title, but the loss didn’t do much to mar the season for Lonoke.

“It was still fun for us,” Smith said. “We enjoyed ourselves. We were just happy to be one of the last two teams competing for a state championship.”

LAMAR LEGALITY

A court case involving Lamar’s eligibility delayed the 3A football playoffs by one week and kept Harding Academy on ice for three because of the first-round bye the Wildcats earned for winning the 2-3A Conference.

Lamar initially had to forfeit five of its six victories because it used an ineligible player, but an injunction granted by Fifth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Gordon McCain overturned the decision and returned the victories to Lamar.

As a result of the delay, the 3A championship game had to be moved to Conway’s Estes Stadium because of scheduled renovations at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

As it turned out, Harding Academy wouldn’t have earned a trip to either venue as it suffered its first loss in the semifinals at Fountain Lake.

Lamar was also a playoff casualty.

PRIME TIME

Cabot and Jacksonville met at Cabot’s Panther Stadium on Sept. 1 in the state’s first high school football game to be broadcast on commercial television.

It was the latest installment of the “Backyard Brawl” between the next-door rivals and anyone who couldn’t make the game had a chance to tune in.

A crew of 20, with two trucks, seven cameras and 3,000 feet of cable, decked out Panther Stadium for the broadcast on KARZ-TV Channel 42, sister station to KARK-TV Channel 4 in Little Rock.

“I think there’s been some cable access kind of stuff,” KARK assistant news director Jeff Whatley said. “But this is the first time on commercial television.”

Whatley is the brother to Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley, but the family relationship had nothing to do with the selection of Jacksonville-Cabot as the premiere matchup.

“We just know this was a good rivalry,” Jeff Whatley said.

Though renovated over the years, Panther Stadium still needed a rented generator to help handle the power needs of KARK’s production and microwave trucks.

Concerns over a possible dip in attendance at the 5,000-seat stadium were offset by a guarantee of $500 to each team.

But a near capacity crowd showed up to see Cabot beat Jacksonville 35-6 in the non-conference season-opener.

FALCONS FALTER

While Jacksonville was on its way to a 6A state basketball championship, crosstown rival North Pulaski was coming up short in its bid to be the 5A state champion.

It might have been impressive to some that the city of Jacksonville produced two state final qualifiers, but that was far from satisfying to North Pulaski, which was beaten 39-34 by Greene Co. Tech.

The Falcons shot just 19 percent (11 of 57), though Kyron Ware was a bright spot with 19 points.

Behind Ware, the Falcons rallied from a 24-13 deficit with 3:47 left in the third quarter to within 24-23 with 12 seconds to go in the period.

But North Pulaski missed all five of its fourth-quarter three-point attempts.

“Of course it was our goal to win it,” North Pulaski coach Raymond Cooper said after his team finished the year 25-7. “But they have nothing to be ashamed of. I’m just as proud of them as I could be.”

THIRD SETBACK

Getting to a state championship game once is quite a feat.

Getting there three times would have to be considered something special, except after their third straight trip the Lonoke Lady Jackrabbits still went home without the winner’s trophy as Shiloh Christian won 51-45 on March 12.

Lonoke became the seventh Arkansas girls team to go to the final three straight years.

Only two other teams, the Greenland girls and the Harrison boys, reached three consecutive championships and lost them all.

This year’s setback came largely because of Shiloh Christian power forward Megan Herbert, who had 26 points, 14 in the fourth quarter.

Lonoke led 37-35 after a basket by Ashleigh Himstedt with 3:25 to go, but Lonoke was already in foul trouble and Herbert took over and put her team ahead to stay with a layup with 2:05 left.

“All I know that we can do is dig, scratch, claw and fight to come back,” Lonoke coach Nathan Morris said.

TOP STORY >> Who’ll stop the rain?

A car is submerged on Hwy. 67/167 between Jacksonville and Cabot on Thursday in the biggest downpour on record.

By JOAN McCOY and JEFFREY SMITH

Leader staff writers

After a record-setting, two-day deluge that dumped some nine inches of rain, area residents found some relief just before Christmas when the rain stopped, at least temporarily.

Sections of Hwy. 67/167 were closed on Christmas.

Widespread flooding affected the entire three county area.

The beanfield stretch between Redmond Road and the entrance to I-440 in Jacksonville was completely submerged both north and southbound until Saturday when it was reopened by the Highway and Traffic Department.

Residents in Taramount were unable to reach their homes although a few made it to the cutoff in boats. The entrance to Northlake from Main Street was blocked by floodwaters and about a dozen residents from Taramount parked along the cutoff and hiked through a resident's yard who had kindly left the gate open for them.

A home across from Reed's Bridge and trailers were flooded.

The stretch of Hwy. 31 from Beebe to Lonoke was flooded and about 30 homes were affected there. Floodwaters also closed Hwy. 31 from Hwy. 305 at Floyd to Hwy. 5.

Lt. Jim Kulesa of the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office said there were several reports of flooding of roadways in the county.

A woman and her baby were in a vehicle on Carson Bridge Road in Lonoke County, when her vehicle hydroplaned and became stuck on part of the road that collapsed.

The woman and her child were not injured and were rescued, Kulesa said. There were numerous reports of vehicles stalled in water.

Kulesa said the worst flooding was in the southern part of the county. However, Cocklebur Road in Ward was underwater Thursday as were parts of Hwy. 31 and Hwy. 319 from Lewisburg Road to Hwy. 5.

The Sheriff’s Office also received reports of residents who called to say they were unable to leave their homes. There are also a number roads that are still not passable. It’s been the wettest year on record — 81.5 inches so far.

Five homes in the Grayhawk area outside the Cabot city limits were evacuated at 3 a.m. Thursday. Capt. Dwayne Boswell of the Cabot Fire Department said the department assisted the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department, the South Bend Volunteer Fire Department and the Mountain Springs Volun-teer Fire Department.

The Cabot Fire Department and the South Bend Volunteer Fire Department used two flat-bottom boats in the rescue.

“We took the boats to the front door and took them to dry ground,” Boswell said.
Kulesa said the sheriff “is asking residents to remain home and use extreme caution if you must leave your residence.

He said “the highest risk will be tonight” — Chrismas night — “during darkness when people will attempt to travel to friends and family homes for the holiday. This is when the roadways will be the most hazardous due to the darkness.

“If you must travel, let someone know when you are leaving and what route you plan to take. Don’t just rely on a cell phone,” the lieutenant said.

LESS FLOODING

Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams said Thursday morning that even though streets flooded all over the city, fewer homes were flooded, so the recently completed drainage projects are a success.

Williams said he was out late into the night, as were Aldermen Ed Long and Eddie Cook, Public Works Director Jerrel Maxwell and Dan Willhite, head of the street department, keeping an eye on the flooding.

Drainage work kept water out of houses in Autumnwood, and Campground and Diedrich, Williams said, but sandbags were brought in to keep houses in the Highlands dry.

The main problem there was the sod that was put down to cover the raw dirt from the drainage work. The rain washed it off and into the drainage grates on the street, the mayor said.

The sandbags kept the water out of houses, but simply uncovering the grates helped more, he said.

“The water is killing us, but Autumnwood is a great success story,” said Cook, a candidate for mayor.

Cook said the amount of rainfall wasn’t really the problem; the deluge Wednesday evening was. The rain fell so fast, the city drainage system couldn’t contain it all. But being out and watching where the water flowed will help to improve the system, he said.

“It’s one thing to sit around and look at elevation maps but it’s another to get out and actually watch where it flows,” he said.

At 9 a.m., Maxwell was parked at the intersection of Kerr Station and Candlewood, his truck a barrier to stop traffic onto Candlewood, where a deep ditch was not discernable from the street.

So many streets were flooded that all the barricades had been used, he said. As the water ran down in some areas the barricades were being moved to the locations where they were most needed.

Road closings on Christmas Eve in Cabot included Candlewood Circle at Kerr Station Road, South Rockwood Road, Mountain Springs Road near Hwy. 5, South First Street and North Willie Ray Drive at Four Mile Creek.

Jacksonville Police Department spokesman April Kiser said the following roads were closed because of flooding — Hwy. 67-167 north and south between the 13 and 17 mile markers; Ellis Street; John Hardin Drive to the north city limits; West Main Street to North Lake; North First at Maddox Road; Hwy. 161 and S. Second St.; Hwy. 161 at the old railroad overpass viaduct; Redmond Road from James to Park, West Main at Jessica just east of Harris Road and Oneida to West Main.

Kiser said Dupree Park is also closed because it is “completely flooded. It’s looking pretty bad.”

ROADS CLOSED

Tracey Perkins, spokesman for the Pulaski County Road Department, said county roads that are barricaded because of heavy rains and flooding include Peters Road (one barricade); Centennial Road (four barricades); Hatcher Road (two barricades); Lena Lane (two barricades); Kellogg Acres Road (two barricades); Republican at Batesville Pike (two barricades); Maddox at Tom Box Road (two barricades); Maddox at Madru (two barricades); Maddox at Toneyville (two barricades); Batesville Pike at Fortson Road; Rixie Road (two barricades); Kellogg Acres Road at the bridge (one barricade); Batesville Pike at Bridge Creek (two barricades); Jacksonville Conway Road (two barricades); Fortson Road, four barricades, and Bethel at Jacksonville Conway Road (one barricade).

At mid-morning Thursday, city officials in Beebe reported minimal problems such as water over Railroad Street and drainage problems at Mississippi and Main. The real trouble was expected Thursday afternoon where houses that flooded in late October in the Windwood subdivision were expected to flood again from the swamp that would fill from the heavy rain.

White County Judge Michael Lincoln said Thursday afternoon that flooding was a problem county-wide.

“I haven’t heard of anyone trapped and unable to get out,” Lincoln said, “but we’ve got roads covered with water and bridges covered with water and it’s still coming down.

Lincoln said his biggest concern was the area around Griffithville, West Point and Georgetown near the Little Red River. The river was already at near flood stage when the rain started because the Corps of Engineers was releasing water from Greers Ferry Lake, he said, adding that the end of the rain won’t mean the end to the threat of flooding for that area.

Lincoln said assessment and repair of damage to the roads won’t start until Monday.

TOP STORY >> Looking back at first three months

Compiled By RICK KRON

After culling through 104 issues and more than 2,100 pages of newsprint to determine The Leader’s top 12 stories for 2009, there was still so much news left that it was decided to take a month-by-month look back. These snippets are from some of the major news stories that appeared in The Leader between January and March.

JANUARY

• The man charged in Jacksonville’s first murder of 2008 was sentenced in early January to 40 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Derrick Alan Cox, 26, stabbed and beat William Ramsey, 22, of 520-D Stonewall Drive, to death in March 2008. They were neighbors.

• The Sherwood Fire Board narrowed down its search for a full-time fire chief to three candidates, but the longtime current chief, Frank Hill, was not among the candidates. The fire department is not a municipal department but a fire protection district department under the control of the county judge, who appoints a five-member board to oversee its operations. Most of the firefighters are part time and volunteers.

• By late January, Sherwood’s wastewater treatment plants rectified most of the problems that so upset the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality last year that the agency slapped the city with a hefty fine and consent order.

The one outstanding violation was the condition of the levees around the lagoons. The lagoons are old and do not meet today’s tougher standards for wastewater treatment. Repairs will be expensive.

• Harold S. Longs, 54, of 516 Beverly St., in Jacksonville, was accused in a Bernie Madoff-style scheme, taking investors for more than $755,000.

Longs was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of securities fraud and 18 counts of wire fraud.

The charges stem from Longs’ two-year operation of a securities investment scheme carried out through his company, Your Money Worth.

• Knight’s Super Foods was named business of the year at Cabot’s 49th annual chamber banquet. It was the first time the grocery store received the award. Pastor Mark Eisold was named chamber member of the year. Eisold leads the congregation of Our Savior Lutheran Church.

• Eleven Jacksonville High School students, plus their instructor and two chaperones, received VIP tickets to attend President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Pulaski County Clerk Pat O’Brien of Jacksonville, who was the first elected official in central Arkansas to openly support Obama, also attended the inauguration.

• Jacksonville Mayor Tommy Swaim, who held that position for 22 years, announced that he would resign. Swaim announced that even though he was just midway through his sixth four-year term, he would be stepping down July 1.

• New sidewalks at Northwood Middle School finally gave students with physical disabilities playground and outside access. Parent Reginald Ford spearheaded the drive for the sidewalks.

• Howard H. Neal Jr.’s capital murder conviction was upheld by the Arkansas Supreme Court.

The 26-year-old Jacksonville man was convicted in December 2007 of the Oct. 23, 2005, death of a 5-year-old girl in Jacksonville. Neal stabbed the girl, Jasmine Peeples, more than 100 times before suffocating her and keeping the police away in a 50-minute standoff.

After receiving a life-without-parole sentence in circuit court, Neal appealed to the state Supreme Court.

• The Pulaski County Special School District board voted to keep James Sharpe as the district’s superintendent, but did not extend his contract. Sharpe’s contract had been a point of contention with the board, which had discussed and voted on whether or not to fire him several times in late 2008.

• The Beebe School Board extended Superintendent Dr. Belinda Shook’s contract for an additional year to June 2012, but she refused to accept a pay raise. Shook asked that her salary of $117,292 stay the same. “I feel like I’m being paid a fair salary,” she said.

• An Air Force staff sergeant stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his part in a 2005 brutal gang initiation of an Army sergeant, who died from his injuries. At the time, both men were stationed in Germany.
Staff Sgt. Jerome Jones, 25, will serve two years in prison, have his rank reduced to airman basic, and receive a dishonorable discharge for his part in the death of Army Sgt. Juwan Johnson and convictions on a host of other charges.

• Brig. Gen. Rowayne Schatz, the 19th Airlift Wing commander, under whose command Little Rock Air Force Base was successfully reorganized and who was a strong voice for getting a failed effort for base housing privatization restarted, was reassigned to the joint staff at the Pentagon, where he serves as deputy director for global operations.

Col. Gregory S. Otey, the former Air Force Expeditionary Center vice commander at Fort Dix, N.J., took over command of the 19th Airlift Wing from departing Brig. Gen. Rowayne Schatz.

• An ice storm in early January put the brakes on travel as more than 200 interstate and highway accidents were reported in a 16-hour period. Even those responding to the accidents ended up in accidents. The Jacksonville Fire Department had a fire truck and an ambulance slide into the median and a state trooper’s vehicle slid into a fire truck.

• The finishing touches on the Cabot sewer treatment plant that opened Dec. 15, 2007, to meet the needs of the growing city were finally completed. The $12 million plant, which was part of a $16.5 million bond issue for wastewater, took a year to build.

• Jacksonville residents got the word that native Kris Allen, who auditioned in Louisville, Ky., for the eighth season of American Idol, would be on the show.

• Leaky roofs at Cato Elementary School and Northwood Middle School were slated for repairs. Pulaski County Special School District officials said work would begin in the spring. Temporary patches have stopped the leaks.

• A dog at the Jacksonville Animal Shelter found a new home, and First Arkansas Bank and Trust found a new mascot as Cash, a one-year-old-yellow Labrador retriever, was adopted by the bank and is the new face of First Arkansas Bank and Trust.

• Buying North Belt right-of-way land in Sherwood near Brockington Road is “priority one,” the state Highway Department said in January. The state has about $4 million to buy right-of-way for the proposed North Belt from Hwy. 67/167 through Sherwood over to Hwy. 107. The money won’t buy all the land the state needs for the bypass that has been on the books since the late 1940s, but it will help move the project forward.

FEBRUARY

• The Jacksonville city council set May 12 as the day the city will elect a new mayor and June 2 for any runoff.

• A tragic early morning house fire claimed the life of a toddler in Lonoke County.
The Lonoke Sheriff’s Office received a report of an early morning house fire at 6424 Mount Tabor Road near the intersection of South Oak Grove Road.

An adult male, two adult females and a 5-month-old child were able to get out of the mobile home, but a 3-year old boy died in the blaze.

• Sherwood Mayor Virginia Hillman signed a contract with the Sherwood Fire Department providing it with about $800,000 for the year. She will also sign a $125,000-plus contract with the Gravel Ridge Fire Department. The Sherwood money makes sure that the city has fire protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• The owners of Tecboys, a Cabot-based Internet company that lost its city business license in 2006, were sentenced in circuit court on six felony theft charges for not delivering scooters to customers. But they will not spend any time in prison.

Eddie Williams, 56, and Connie Williams, 53, were sentenced to 10 years in prison, suspended, and five years supervised probation. They also were ordered to pay restitution of $8,159.06 at the rate of $300 a month beginning Feb. 2. There was nothing in Special Judge John Cole’s ruling that would prevent the couple from continuing to sell on the Internet.

• Bill Vasquez, who represents most of Jacksonville on the Pulaski County Special School District Board, led the way Tuesday on a 4-3 vote to recombine the boys and girls middle schools in Jacksonville next year, saying neither school had made adequate yearly progress.

Vasquez’s argument was false and misleading, Mike Nellums, principal of the boy’s school, said.

• A national publication and a Little Rock marketing firm whose search for the fastest-growing communities in the nation has led to the realization that in Arkansas, Cabot is the “boom town.”

The Gadberry Group named Cabot the third fastest-growing city in the state behind Lowell in the Rogers-Springdale area and Maumelle. The boomtown designation is the result of a survey BusinessWeek.com conducted in association with the Gadberry Group, which considered such factors as continual population growth over the past 10 years and the whopping 83 percent increase in household income, which is now estimated at $98,555.

Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams said he was pleased with the recognition and confident that the city would continue to flourish.

• The Jacksonville City Council unveiled a 65-inch television screen and seven computer monitors as part of an update to the council’s chambers. “City hall is 19 years old and this brings us more into the 21st century,” said City Administrator Jay Whisker.

• An attorney for the developers of the 586-acre Oakdale North Addition told the Sherwood Planning Commission that not approving his client’s project would put the city in “financial peril.”

The commission had delayed approving the project for at least three months because the city had not approved the latest revisions to the master street plan.

The attorney, Hal Kemp, contended that the city requiring the developer to block off a corridor in his development for the North Belt loop, which may or may not get built, is actually a ploy to squash any rise in the fair market value of the property.

• Entergy announced a plan to build a substation and two high voltage transmission lines near the railroad track in Cabot, which could mean more to the city than just the assurance of enough electricity to accommodate growth.

The project will connect the two existing high-voltage lines at the new substation.

The huge components of the project are too big and heavy to be delivered by truck. They will come by rail and that will require the construction of a railroad spur that could be used to attract industry to the area.

• A partially buried box of cremated human remains was found Tuesday near a church cemetery in Furlow. Lt. Jim Kulesa, with the Lonoke Sheriff’s Department, said an individual told deputies that he found a box in a hole in the woods. The individual looked in the box and it appeared to be filled with cremated remains.

• The Cabot City Council passed a resolution asking the Arkansas Highway Department to install a traffic signal at Hwy. 367 and Locust Street, where traffic is expected to increase after a new railroad overpass opens in the spring. The traffic signal would be mostly federally funded and would not likely be started until 2010, Mayor Eddie Joe Williams said.

• Sherwood police and other authorities spent a day digging up what looked like a grave in the woods near Gravel Ridge only to find rocks. It was reported that the possible grave might have contained the body of Darla Harper, a 25-year-old Gravel Ridge woman who went missing in March 1986.

• Projects in Sherwood, Cabot and Jacksonville were put on the short list in February for how $14.2 million in federal stimulus money for local projects will be spent. Metroplan, the regional planning agency, had produced a tentative list of “shovel-ready” projects in central Arkansas before the federal stimulus bill was finalized.

• Even though the park study that Sherwood has paid for is about three months away from completion, the parks and recreation committee decided that the 106-acre North Hills Country Club and defunct golf course needed to be revamped into a working golf course.

The committee, according to Alderman Ken Rankin, decided that the property would be an 18-hole golf course with work to begin immediately.

“Why are we having a park study done if we are not going to wait for it or look at it?” questioned Mayor Virginia Hillman.

• Waste Management of Arkansas presented two checks to Jacksonville. The chamber received $5,000 for its projects and the city received $25,000 to be used for college scholarships.

• The Lonoke School Board unanimously agreed to submit an application to the Arkansas Department of Education to issue as much as $2.8 million in second-lien bonds for demolition and construction of parts of the high school. The district requested partnership funding with the state to demolish four buildings, the science building, the main wing east, the main wing west and the band building, about 40,000 square feet.

• Officials with the $62 million Lonoke-White Water Project to bring water from Greers Ferry Lake to the central part of the state which has been in the planning stages for about 15 years got word that the project could be funded from the almost $800 billion economic stimulus package approved earlier this month and under construction by June because it is “shovel-ready.”

• It was announced in late February that Pulaski County could house an additional 100 prisoners in the detention center starting in March, thanks to a unanimous $1.3 million appropriation the quorum court made, bringing the total capacity to 980 inmates.

When the county begins collecting another $15 per case in court fees by July, it can hold another 75 prisoners, bringing the total to 1,055.

• Jacksonville’s Daud Amir Jones was sentenced to 20 years in prison, plus a five-year enhancement for using a handgun, for the shooting death of his girlfriend, Meloney Graham, at their Pike Avenue residence,

• Local businesswoman and the chief motivator behind the success of Pathfinders, Joan Zumwalt, was roasted and toasted at the senior center’s annual fund-raising dinner in late February.

• Stimulus funds for “shovel-ready” central Arkansas road projects, previously estimated at $12.7 million, grew to $14.2 million, increasing the likelihood-but not guaranteeing-that Graham Road in Jacksonville would be widened to four lanes in the near future. The widening of Brockington Road in Sherwood has risen to the top tier and seemed certain to receive the $4.6 million federal share, with another $1.2 million due from the city.

Overall, the $787 billion stimulus act contains $351 million for Arkansas roadways.

MARCH

• Austin’s new police chief said he was grateful for his six years at the Jacksonville Police Department, which he calls “one of the topnotch police departments in the state.” But he’s happy to be back in Austin where he grew up and where he started work as a part time police officer eight years ago.

John Staley, 29, moved into his new position March 16, taking over from interim Police Chief Woody McEuen, who replaced former Chief J.J. Martin when he left in January to head the public safety department at ASU-Beebe.

• Seven candidates filed before the deadline to run in the May 12 special election for Jacksonville mayor to replace retiring Tommy Swaim. The candidates included Randy (Doc) Rhodd, who heads the Family Motorcycle Ministry, realtor Beckie Brooks, Aldermen Kenny Elliott and Gary Fletcher, developer Tommy Dupree, former Jacksonville police officer Bill Shelley and Farm Bureau area manager Jody Urquhart. Shelley dropped out shortly after filing.

• Jacksonville can look forward to an additional $73,103 in federal community development block grant money in 2009. A regular appropriation of about $269,000 is also expected. The new money is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – also known as the stimulus package – signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17.

• All 596 C-130s in the Air Force-including all 68 C-130J models-are being inspected here and abroad for cracks in the wing joint barrel nuts.

Roughly 20 percent of those aircraft are based at Little Rock Air Force Base. None of the planes here have been grounded while they’re inspected and repaired.

“Our number one thing is to make sure that it is safe in the air for our mission,” Col. Greg Otey, 19th Airlift Wing commander at LRAFB, said. “Some of it could be aging, but we’re checking all C-130s.”

There are 13 nuts per wing, and it will take about four hours per plane, roughly a couple days, to make the repairs.

• Ronald Dean Charles, 31, of Jacksonville lacked the mental capacity to help in his own defense and was sent to the State Hospital until further notice for treatment and further evaluation.

Capital murder charges had been filed in Faulkner County against Charles and Troy Allen Crook, 29, also of Jacksonville, in deaths of two cousins near Vilonia last April.

• Jacksonville sold its old library building and land to the First United Methodist Church for about $350,000.

The church had shared a common parking lot with the library for more than 40 years.

The city’s new $4.8 million library, about two blocks west on Main Street and on the other side of the street, opened Feb. 14, replacing the city’s oldest library.

The new 13,500-square-foot facility is one of 12 libraries in the Central Arkansas Library System.

• Pulaski County Special School District board member Bill Vasquez, who represents Jacksonville, broke ranks with the usual four-person voting bloc, as the board approved a resolution that could let Jacksonville-area school patrons off the hook for their share of the $80 million second-lien construction bond for a school in Maumelle. Jacksonville only gets a pass if it can be done legally and only if it gets its own school district.

• An architect’s drawing of the $8.2 million future home of the Arkansas National Guard’s F-Company, of the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team’s Brigade Support Battalion was unveiled in Cabot.

The 35,000-square-foot armory, officially called a readiness center, will be built off Arkansas Hwy. 367. It will have a classroom large enough to hold 100 soldiers and kitchen large enough to serve 350. It also will have a 5,800-square-foot drill hall and maintenance and storage areas for vehicles and equipment.

• Sherwood’s planning commission said no to a major residential development after the project had been tabled for months as the commission waited for the council to adopt the new master street plan showing the latest location of the planned North Belt Loop.

Developer Steve Deere and others working on the project which would have added more than 1,000 homes to the city insisted that they did not have to show the North Belt on their plans. The commission insisted that city ordinances said that all planned roads, highways and interstates needed to be shown on the plans.

• Two Pulaski-Lonoke corridors will get new asphalt paid for with federal economic stimulus funds totaling $2.75 million. They are among 103 road and bridge improvements approved statewide in March by the Arkansas Highway Commission, bringing $351.5 million into the state economy as authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2001 (ARRA). President Obama signed into the act into law Feb. 17.

For repairs to the nine-mile stretch of Hwy. 165 between I-440 and Hwy. 386, $2 million in stimulus funds is allocated. For repairs to 2.8 miles of Hwy. 70 running from the Pulaski County line east into Lonoke County, $750,000 is allocated.

• The Cabot School Board unanimously approved construction of a 32-classroom facility for the Mountain Springs Elementary School. The school will be the district’s ninth elementary school. The 78,641-square-foot building will cost about $7.3 million.

• Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams went to Washington in March looking for $19.5 million to build the proposed north interchange and came back with a promise of help getting $3 million to $5 million for engineering and right-of-way acquisition.

It’s not what he hoped for, but the mayor says it’s a good start.

Williams said the interchange promise came from Cong. Marion Berry (D-Gillett) who said he would include a special appropriation to start the project in the next five-year highway-spending plan, which will be developed in the fall.

• After an internal investigation into an oversized buyout check issued to its former superintendent, James Sharpe, who was fired in early March, the Pulaski County Special School District accepted the resignation of Larry O’Briant, its chief financial officer.

Interim Superintendent Robert McGill said O’Briant was helpful and forthcoming during the investigation, and McGill said he appreciated O’Briant’s years of service to the district.

Sharpe received a check for about $79,000 more than the flat sum of $185,000 the board approved in his buyout March 11.

• In March, physicians at the Jacksonville Medical Clinic looked to leave the facility next door to North Metro Medical Center, where they have practiced for more than 10 years because of the rent being doubled. The move was just one option being considered by the doctors, but their rent was lowered and they stayed.

They were eyeing clinic space in Sherwood.

TOP STORY >> Early election sought for new school district

By JOHN HOFFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

If federal District Judge Brian S. Miller rules that Pulaski County Special School District is substantially desegregated — “unitary” is the term — in a hearing set to begin Jan. 25, three prominent Jacksonville-area residents want Miller to authorize an election that could allow Jacksonville to detach from Pulaski County Special School District and form a stand-alone district.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Tuesday, retired attorney Ben Rice, former PCSSD school board president Reedie Ray and state Rep. Mark Perry (D-Jacksonville) state: “In the event that this court should rule that both PCSSD and the North Little Rock School District have achieved unitary status, then the reasons for Judge (Bill) Wilson’s Aug. 19, 2003 ruling would be moot. A detachment election should be authorized and scheduled by this court.”

“Something needed to be said on behalf of Jacksonville before the hearing,” Rice said Thursday, when asked his motivation.

“If the court takes a good look at things and wants to wind things up, they’ll deal with Jacksonville when they deal with everything else,” he said.

Asked if he was optimistic about PCSSD getting a unitary-status ruling, Rice said he was “not privy to ins-and-outs about the unitary status.”

Sam Jones, the district’s attorney for desegregation-related issues, could not be reached Thursday.

Miller has scheduled a unitary hearing for the North Little Rock District beginning Jan. 11. The third district conjoined in the sprawling, perhaps convoluted,
desegregation agreement in question is the Little Rock School District, which already has been declared unitary.

With permission of the state Board of Education, the people of the Jacksonville area were scheduled in 2003 to have a detachment election, but the PCSSD challenged that election in court, saying it would violate the existing desegregation agreement, and Wilson ruled in their favor.

‘This court has authority, on its own motion, to determine the issues relating to a separate North Pulaski County/Jacksonville school district in the event that all districts herein are determined to be unitary,” the latest brief says.

“It would be in the best interest of all parties for this court to rule in favor of the creation of a separate Jacksonville school district, with all outstanding issues to be resolved by negotiation between PCSSD and the new school district within a reasonable time to be set by the court.”

In their brief, the three say Arkansas law authorizes the state “create a new school district in Pulaski County as part of the state’s efforts to resolve this litigation. Further, on July 29, 2009, the PCSSD board of directors voted to establish specific boundaries of a new Jacksonville School District, to become effective if and when a new Jacksonville School District is created, and if necessary, approved by this court.”

Those boundaries essentially would include the Jacksonville city limits and Pulaski County north and east of Sherwood.

Citing the final verse of William Ernest Henley’s 1875 poem “Invictus,” Rice wrote:

“It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.”

Rice, Ray and Perry are among scores of Jacksonville area residents who have pressed for a stand-alone district over the course of nearly three decades.

SPORTS >> All-Leader Defensive Team

FIRST TEAM

T.J. Bertrand, DL, Cabot — All-state selection, 61 tackles, 6 sacks, 7 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble

Larry Kilpatrick, DL, Searcy — 46 tackles, 6 sacks, 2 blocked punts


Nick Brewer, DE, Sylvan Hills — All-state lineman, 71 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 recovered fumble, 2 deflected passes

Nick Nowden, DE, Jacksonville — All-conference, all-state selection for Red Devils


Darius Cage, LB, North Pulaski — 158 tackles, 88 unassisted, 5 tackles for minus 18 yards and 3 forced fumbles

Mike Brown, LB, Searcy — 153 tackles, 6 forced fumbles, 3 recovered fumbles, 1 interception


Michael Robinson, LB, Sylvan Hills — 73 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, 1 recovered fumble, 1 interception, 2 sacks, 3 deflected passes

Spencer Neumann, LB, Cabot — 108 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 1 recovered fumble, 1 sack

Spencer Forte, DB, Beebe — 85 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 3 fumble recoveries, 2 interceptions

Todd Hobson, DB, Lonoke — 43 tackles, 9 interceptions


Joe Bryant, DB, Cabot — 55 tackles, 5 interceptions, 2 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble

SECOND TEAM

Andrew Gibbs, DL, Lonoke

Stetson Evans, DL, Riverview

Ricky Manning, DE, Lonoke

Doug Sprouse, DE, Jacksonville

Juliean Broner, LB, Sylvan Hills

Brandon O’Bannon, LB, Lonoke

Billy Barron, LB, North Pulaski

Victor Howell, DB, Beebe

Logan Spry, DB, Cabot

Darius Scott, DB, Lonoke

James Dillard, DB, Harding Academy

SPORTS >> Steals help Lady Devils grab trophy

By JASON KING

Leader sportswriter

The Jacksonville Lady Red Devils now have a first-place trophy from their own holiday tournament to showcase.

But it didn’t come without a major scare from Little Rock McClellan in Jacksonville’s 39-28 victory in the final of the Red Devil Classic at the Devils Den on Tuesday night.

The Lady Lions cut a 10-point lead to four in the final three minutes before Jacksonville senior guard Sherice Randell answered by converting three straight steals into seven points to close out the victory for the Lady Devils (7-4).

It was actually the second scare of the game for Jacksonville. McClellan started the first quarter on a 8-0 run fueled by a pair of three-point baskets, but the Lady Red Devils slowly closed the gap until senior post Jessica Lanier hit an inside jumper to put Jacksonville up 14-13 with 2:53 left in the second quarter.

Jacksonville led the rest of the way.

“We had a shoot-around [Tuesday], and we weren’t as focused as we were yesterday,” Lady Red Devils coach Katrina Mimms said. “And I told them that. I could tell they weren’t as focused, so I knew that was coming. We just had to kind of settle down.”

Lanier took MVP honors for her work during the two-day tournament, but it was Randell’s tough transition play that made the difference late in the final. She converted two baskets and foul shots off steals for six unanswered points, and earned another trip to the free-throw line with a third steal, hitting the first of the two free throws to give Jacksonville an 11-point lead in the final 35 seconds.

Randell led all scorers with 11 points.

“Randell played a side spot on a 1-3-1, and just played it like she should,” Mimms said. “She played it to the side, got some steals, did a good job and finished on the back side of it. So that’s what we’re working on.”

Jacksonville was forced to play for the classic championship without its leading scorer. Freshman point guard Jessica Jackson, 6-2, sustained an ankle injury Monday, which left ball-handling duties to junior Vonsay Evans.

“You go from a 6-2 to a 5-2, so you lose a foot right there,” Mimms said. “Vonsay did a good job. She played hard, and she didn’t turn the ball over very much. We had to step up and adjust off of that.”

Senior forward Apple Sims carried Jacksonville offensively in the third quarter. Sims gouged her way inside for a pair of baskets with feeds from Ebony Ghoshon and Lanier.

McClellan cut it to five before the end of the quarter, but Randell provided a sign of things to come at the start of the fourth period when she sank a three-pointer to make it 28-21.

Ghoshon returned the lead to double digits with an assist from Evans, who passed from mid-court to a wide-open Ghoshon in the lane.

But McClellan’s ensuing 6-0 run made it close again, if only briefly.

Shimila Crawford hit two straight baskets for the Lady Lions to close to 32-28 with 1:49 left, and got a defensive rebound off a missed free throw by Randell for a chance to make it a one-score game. But Evans picked off a pass at mid-court and quickly got it back to Randell, who converted a three-point play to put Jacksonville up 35-28.

SPORTS >> Perfection rarest gift NFL lover could get

By TODD TRAUB

Leader sports editor

Christmas has already come and gone and you know what gifts you did and did not get.

As I write this, Christmas is still a couple days away, but I already know what I didn’t get.

I didn’t get my Perfection Bowl.

The Dallas Cowboys shook out of their usual December doldrums to beat the previously undefeated New Orleans Saints 24-17 a week ago.

With the Saints now 13-1, that leaves the 14-0 Indianapolis Colts as the NFL’s only perfect team and it shatters my dream of two unbeaten teams meeting in the Super Bowl.

My loss. And yours. And the NFL’s.

What fun it would have been to see two clubs not just competing for a world championship but also competing for all-time supremacy, especially in a league like the NFL, which is genetically engineered for parity.

They would have talked about it for decades to come. Such a Super Bowl, had it happened, would have been an instant classic vaulting to the revered status held for games like the 1958 Colts-New York Giants NFL championship, a sudden-death thriller which consecrated the marriage of pro football and television.

Even if my little Perfection Bowl had turned out to be a dog — the kind of 30-point Super Bowl blowout we used to get every year — it would have been memorable because of the undefeated status of the teams in it.

The Saints might still make it to the Super Bowl, but people are already saying, “That’s the Saints. They never win anything.”

And the luster is sort of off the team a little bit, though I can root for them because coach Sean Peyton is a fellow Eastern Illinois alum.

I know, so is Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, but he was after my time. Peyton was the freshman quarterback when I was a junior at EIU and he was a frat brother to one of my roommates; I think I was even rude to Peyton on the phone once.

But I digress.

I’d still like to see the Colts run the table, just to finally silence those dead-enders from the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went 14-0 in the regular season and finished 17-0 in that Super Bowl championship year.

Like a “last man” club of war veterans, some of the former Dolphins still break out the champagne every time a team threatening to match their perfect record finally loses a game, and I’m a little tired of it. It wasn’t like the 1972 Dolphins had anything to do with the Giants tripping up the 2007 New England Patriots (18-1) in the Super Bowl.

Should the Colts march to the Super Bowl undefeated and win it, they will have gone 19-0, since today’s regular season is two games longer than in 1972, and will effectively blow the Dolphins out of the water.

But the Colts have been living lucky lately. There were nine lead changes in their 35-31 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, and after that — and after seeing the Saints get the Cowboys’ best shot — one realizes just how tough it is to find perfection.
It simply won’t happen in a 162-game Major League Baseball season or the 82-game NBA and NHL seasons.

If it’s going to happen, it will happen in football, where the once-a-week schedule allows fewer chances for bad things to happen to good teams. Enough high school and college teams have already gone unbeaten that the feat isn’t considered all that rare, though it is still impressive.

The NFL, with its draft order and free agency, does its best to see that dynasties don’t last long, however the union of quality coaches and management has given us some ripping good teams over the years.

But so far, none of those teams have been good enough to survive the injury to the marquee player, the innovative game plan of an opponent, the bad day or the funny bounce of the oblong ball with the points on the end.

Sooner or later, one or all of those factors have been the banana peel on a team’s path to perfection.

The Colts play the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills down the stretch and it has been mumbled, Peyton Manning’s wishes to the contrary, that coach Jim Caldwell may rest some of his stars since Indianapolis has every conceivable playoff advantage sewn up.

Even if Manning and the first string play and survive the best shots they are sure to get from the Jets and Bills, the Colts must then beat two playoff teams just to get to the Super Bowl.

That’s a tall order for any team, but I’m rooting for the Colts to succeed because I still want to see something never before done in the NFL.

My son is going to be a big Colts fan too, though he doesn’t know it yet. You see, if Indy loses, I’m going to become bored with the NFL and will be looking for something to do.

And my son got an Xbox for Christmas.

SPORTS >> Hello Neumann: Cabot senior tackles future

Cabot senior linebacker Spencer Neumann led the Panthers with 108 tackles in 2009. The team fell short in the 7A state semifnals, but Neumann will continue his football career as a member of the University of Central Arkansas Bears.

Neumann in uniform during this year’s game against Conway.

By TODD TRAUB

Leader sports editor

It pays off sooner or later.

The long practices twice a day in the heat pay off. The demanding offseason workouts pay off. The relentless demand for perfection pays off.

And for Cabot linebacker Spencer Neumann, payday has come.

Neumann is an all-state selection and The Leader defensive player of the year after leading the Panthers with 108 tackles this season. His three-year career as a starter ended prematurely, with a loss to Springdale Har-Ber in the 7A state semifinals, but Neumann’s career will continue after he earned a scholarship offer to play at Central Arkansas next year.

“I know I’m not that big,” said Neumann, 6-0, 203 pounds. “But everyone who plays at Cabot knows how hard it is and how much you have to work. As long as you do the right things and work, good things happen.”

A Cabot player doesn’t get far without a willingness to work, but coach Mike Malham said Neumann was a natural talent when he took the field as a sophomore.

“He was good-sized, a 190-pounder as a sophomore that ran good and was pretty smart,” Malham said. “He had all the tools.

When you’ve got the tools and you’re a pretty smart kid that picks things up, he was a pleasant surprise from the word go.”

Neumann said it was more than ability that made him into one of Cabot’s rare college products.

“I’ve never played for anyone else but it seems to me like you have to be exact,” Neumann said of Malham. “On offense, working with him at running back, you have to be exact on all your blocks and everything, your footwork. You have to be perfect. I think people can see that in our game.”

While he dabbled at running back this year, gaining 27 yards on eight carries, Neumann thrived as he always has at linebacker, where he added a sack, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery as Cabot allowed its opponents an average 13 points a game.

“I do like defense more than offense,” said Neumann, blaming his love of contact. “That has something to do with it. You get to deliver the hits instead of taking them.”

Neumann said he wasn’t always the hard-nosed athlete he is today.

“I know when I was a kid I just played basketball and I wasn’t that aggressive,” Neumann said. “In sixth grade I started football and I wasn’t aggressive then either, but just staying with it and being persistent, trying to work as hard as you can, that’s really helped.”

Somewhere between sixth grade and his sophomore year, Neumann blossomed as a defender. It didn’t hurt that he had a natural instinct for the game and the smarts to call defensive signals when the time came.

“He’s a very aggressive, athletic kid and he’s got a 3.8 grade-point average so he’s pretty smart too,” Malham said. “He knows where to be and he’s got the ability to get there.”

Neumann finished with more than 310 career tackles, making him Cabot’s all-time leader. While leaving his mark on the record books, Neumann also caught the notice of the Central Arkansas staff led by coach Clint Conque.

While admittedly undersized, Neumann said the Bears were still looking at him as a linebacker rather than converting him to safety.

“They run basically a 4-3 and one of the linebackers is kind of like a rover and he steps out of the box and is like another secondary guy,” Neumann said. “I can come in to the box too and that’s where they want me to be at.”

Whatever the position, Neumann knows his scholarship offer, which he has accepted, is a rarity for a Cabot player.

“Not too many people from Cabot, it seems like, they go anywhere,” Neumann said. “I don’t know what it is. I know we don’t have that much size around here and all those college coaches are looking at size and speed.”

“You better have an ‘S’ on your cape,” Malham said. “If you’re not a minimum of 6-2, 6-3 nowadays, with size that can move.

We just haven’t had a lot that fit in that mold.”

Instead, Cabot does its own molding with an offseason program Neumann said was one of the toughest in the state, followed by two-a-days during the warmer hours of August, from 6-10 a.m. and from 1-4 p.m.

But that’s life for a member of the Panthers, and Neumann wouldn’t trade his experiences. Especially now.

“It’s tough,” Neumann said. “But it’s definitely worth it.”

SPORTS >> Easy victory gets tough

 

Justin McCleary tries to keep the ball away from a Little Rock Catholic defender during the Jacksonville Red Devils’ game with the Rockets at the Devils’ Den on Tuesday night.

 







Senior Deshone McClure looks for a teammate in the lane at the Devils Den.

By JASON KING

Leader sportswriter

Jacksonville controlled everything except the last four minutes of the third quarter.

But it was what Little Rock Catholic did in those few minutes Tuesday that threatened to make an early bid for a blowout into a competitive game.

However, the host Red Devils eventually prevailed 57-39 once the starting unit got back onto the floor and back to putting up points.

Catholic cut a 21-point lead to nine with 7:50 left to play. The Rockets posted a 10-0 run to end the third quarter and a pair of free throws closed the gap to 37-28 to start the fourth.

Then the Red Devils (4-7) began to get serious in their second non-conference game with the Rockets in as many nights.

“I was going deep in my bench,” Jacksonville coach Victor Joyner said. “I thought the kids looked at the score, because all of our games have been so close. For the first time, I think they looked up at the clock and they got a little relaxed. I could tell by their body language at halftime — and a couple of things they said.”

The Rockets hung around until the Red Devils’ Tee Brown made a basket and free throw with three minutes left to extend the lead to 51-37 and start an 11-0 run to close out the game.

The first half was a runaway for Jacksonville. The Red Devils got off to a fast start with a balanced attack in which all five starters scored.

Joyner used reserves for much of the second quarter, but Jacksonville still outscored Catholic 10-6 for a 30-16 lead at the break.

“That’s the first time they felt relaxed,” Joyner said. “And I think it showed. Catholic kept fighting. You know they’re going to scrap, and I tried to explain that to them, that they were going to scrap.

“That’s why we play them twice in a row like we do, because they’re patient, they’re going to execute — it’s going to be similar to our conference. And we got a little lax with the ball, lax on the boards and lax defensively.”

Offensively, the inside-outside connection of Brown, the junior post, and senior forward T.J. Green did most of the damage.

Green made four three-pointers and scored 16 points to lead the Red Devils, and Brown scored 15 points with eight rebounds and two blocked shots.

“Tee Brown is one of the few we have inside who will bang,” Joyner said. “We’re a real passive team — way too passive for the 6A. If we don’t get a lot more aggressive like Tee Brown around that bucket, then it’s going to be hard for us.

“Tee is a Godsend on the inside. He’s banging, and he’s doing everything we’ve asked him to do; we just have to get some people to give him some help.”

Green, who played at North Pulaski then transferred this year, found his rhythm from the outside when he made a three-pointer to give Jacksonville a 25-12 lead with 4:35 left in the second quarter. He hit one more three-pointer before halftime and added another in each of the final two quarters.

“We’ve been knocking heads and bumping; it’s like when you first get married you have to work out the kinks,” Joyner said of Green. “He still does some bonehead stuff, taking some bad shots once in a while, but he’s learning the system. He’s getting more comfortable with what he can and what he can’t do.”