By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Beebe Badgers played themselves into at least a three seed with a 28-6 victory on the road at Nettleton Friday night. The Badgers and Raiders met up with playoff seeds on the line, and Beebe walked away with a big victory.
The game wasn’t without its concerns. The Badgers turned the ball over three times on fumbles, but a 28-point margin just one play into the second half was much more than the home team could overcome.
The Badgers struck early, scoring on the game’s opening possession. James Anderson converted a third and long with a 34-yard gain to the Nettleton 22-yard line to keep the drive alive. A few snaps later, fullback Sammy Williams scored from the 7-yard line to put the Badgers up by a touchdown. Roger Glaude hit the extra point to make it 7-0 with 9:29 left in the first quarter.
Glaude then picked off a Nettleton pass, but Beebe gave it back when quarterback Charlie Spakes fumbled while Beebe was driving.
The defense held and forced the Raiders to punt, and Beebe’s Joe Barrick blocked it to set the Badgers up with great field position at the Raider 17. Beebe took advantage of the short field. On the very next play, and the very first play of the second quarter, Kyle Williams rumbled 17 yards for the second touchdown of the game. Glaude added the extra point and Beebe led with 11:52 remaining in the half.
The Badger defense forced another Nettleton punt, and Beebe put together its best drive of the game. The drive almost stalled deep in Raider territory, but Anderson got just enough on fourth and two from the 22 to keep the drive alive. Four plays later, Josh Turner scored from eight yards out to make it a three-score game with 5:55 left in the half.
That’s the way the score remained for the rest of the half, but it changed quickly once the second half began.
On the first play of the half, Nettleton fumbled and linebacker Chris Blundell scooped it up and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown. Glaude’s extra point capped Beebe’s scoring in the game and gave the Badgers a 28-0 lead with 11:50 left in the third quarter.
Nettleton receiver Matt Akers caught a pass from quarterback Blake Johnson from 11 yards out midway through the fourth quarter to set the final margin.
Beebe finished with 285 total yards on offense. Sammy Williams led the way with 114 yards on 29 carries. Anderson picked up 57 yards on just five carries.
The win lifted the Badgers to 8-1 overall and 5-1 inside the 5A-East Conference.
The Badgers will play Batesville at home next week with a two seed and a first-round home playoff game on the line.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
SPORTS >>Cabot falls short to Zebras
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Missed conversions after touchdowns told the story Friday night at Panther Stadium. Cabot rallied from a 27-7 halftime deficit against Pine Bluff, only to fall 27-25 when fullback Michael James was upended at the 1-yard line with 48 seconds remaining on a two-point attempt that would have tied the game. The attempt came after a James seven-yard run that capped off a 12-play, 46-yard drive and gave the Panthers their third unanswered touchdown of the half.
It was Cabot’s fifth possession of the half that was completely dominated by the Panthers in every aspect except plays after touchdowns.
Cabot’s keep-away brand of football worked to perfection, as the Panthers held the ball for 19 minutes and eight seconds of the final 24 minutes.
Cabot still put the ball on the ground, and none was more crucial than one with 5:30 left in the game. On second and five from the Pine Bluff 8-yard line, James fumbled after a 2-yard gain and the Zebras recovered on the their own 6.
Two plays later, linebacker Spencer Neumann intercepted a Claude Johnson pass at the 46 to set up the Panthers’ final touchdown drive.
Trailing 27-7 at halftime, the Panthers took the opening possession and went 77 yards in 17 plays and used over seven minutes of the clock. The drive ended on a quarterback keeper by Jeremy Wilson for 4 yards and the score. The extra point attempt was no good and left the Panthers trailing 27-13.
Pine Bluff went three and out on its next possession. On third and five, defensive end Callen Boris sacked Zebra quarterback Jarvis Mayo for a 4-yard loss and forced a punt.
Cabot took over on its 30 and went 11 plays, but a 9-yard loss on third and 5, and an illegal procedure penalty left the Panthers with fourth and 19 on the 34. Cabot tried a throwback to the opposite field, but the Zebra defense snuffed it out and stopped the play after just a 1-yard gain by Les McGregor.
The Zebras took over and went backwards. New quarterback Claude Johnson was dropped for a 4-yard loss on first down, and threw incomplete on second down. On third and 14, he slipped and fell while trying to escape pressure for a loss of nine yards. A short punt set Cabot up at the Pine Bluff 47, and Wilson covered all that distance on the very first snap of the drive.
Wilson kept on the option to the left side, and raced untouched for 47 yards and the score. Cabot set up for another extra point, but Pine Bluff jumped off sides, moving the ball inside the 2-yard line. Cabot opted to go for two from that distance, but James was stopped short, leaving the score 27-19 with 10:11 left in the game.
Pine Bluff got its first and only first down of the half on its next possession. The Zebras were one yard short of another first down and faced third and one at the Panther 40. They went for it all on third down, but the pass was knocked down in the end zone by Cabot senior Hunter Hess. On fourth down, senior L.J. Tarrant exploded through the line of scrimmage and blew up a draw play, nailing tailback Christian Owens as soon as he took the handoff for a 4-yard loss to give the Panthers possession and set up the drive that ended with the fumble inside the 10.
The first 24 minutes belonged to the Zebras. Cabot could not find an answer for the Pine Bluff passing game, even when Pine Bluff had to have big yardage. The Mayo to Jonathan Frasier connection was virtually unstoppable in the first half.
On their first possession, the Zebras converted a third and 19 when Mayo and Frasier hooked up for the first time for 29 yards to the Cabot 3. Owens stepped it in from there to give Pine Bluff a 7-0 lead with 8:01 left in the first quarter.
Cabot got 14 yards on its first play, but punted after three more plays and gave Pine Bluff the ball at its own 18.
Facing third and nine, Mayo and Frasier hooked up again, this time for 33 yards to the Cabot 48. On first down, Owens broke loose for a 45-yard gain to the 5-yard line. Pine Bluff was called for clipping on first down to set up first and goal from the 16. An incomplete pass was followed by a sack by Boris that set up fourth and goal from the 24. That’s when Mayo and Fraiser hooked up again. Another jump ball to the corner was won by Frasier for the score and a two-touchdown Pine Bluff lead with 2:47 left in the first quarter.
Cabot fumbled on the first play of its next possession, and Pine Bluff covered it on the Cabot 37. This time the Zebras tried to pull out another third and long, but senior Michael Reitz picked off the pass on the Cabot 11.
Cabot drove out to the 36, where it had to punt on fourth and nine.
The punt put Pine Bluff on its own 32, and it covered all that distance in one play. Predictably, it was another Mayo to Frasier connection, this time it was on jump ball. Mayo faked his defender into biting on hitch and ran alone down the left sideline, where Mayo’s pass hit him in stride for the score. The extra point made it 21-0 with 9:16 left in the first half.
Cabot got good field position when Neumann returned the kickoff 46 yards to the Pine Bluff 44, and scored in nine plays to make it 21-7 with 5:14 left in the half. Wesley Sowell got the payoff from six yards out.
Pine Bluff took the ensuing kickoff to the Cabot 49, but another clipping penalty backed it up to the 40. From there, three Mayo completions to three different receivers put the Zebras back up by three scores. The final pass was to Kelsey Collins and covered 23 yards. The extra point was no good, and Pine Bluff never threatened to score again.
Cabot put together another good drive, and had first down at the Pine Bluff 24 with 44 seconds and all three timeouts left, but Wilson fumbled the ball and Pine Bluff covered it and ran out the clock to end the half.
Statistically, the two halves look like two different games.
Pine Bluff finished with 293 total yards, with 291 coming in the first half. Cabot picked up 402 total yards, with 137 in the first half and 265 in the second.
Mayo finished with eight completions in 11 attempts for 219 yards and three touchdowns. Frasier had five receptions for 168 yards and two scores, all in the first half.
James led all rushers with 36 carries for 164 yards, including 25 carries for 114 in the second half. Wilson carried 15 times for 127 yards, 123 of which came in the second half.
The loss drops the Panthers to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in conference play, while Pine Bluff improved to 1-1-7 and 1-5 in league play.
Cabot will travel to Russellville next Thursday while Pine Bluff battles North Little Rock, another upset winner. The Wildcats got their first conference win of the season, upsetting top-ranked Bryant.
Leader sports editor
Missed conversions after touchdowns told the story Friday night at Panther Stadium. Cabot rallied from a 27-7 halftime deficit against Pine Bluff, only to fall 27-25 when fullback Michael James was upended at the 1-yard line with 48 seconds remaining on a two-point attempt that would have tied the game. The attempt came after a James seven-yard run that capped off a 12-play, 46-yard drive and gave the Panthers their third unanswered touchdown of the half.
It was Cabot’s fifth possession of the half that was completely dominated by the Panthers in every aspect except plays after touchdowns.
Cabot’s keep-away brand of football worked to perfection, as the Panthers held the ball for 19 minutes and eight seconds of the final 24 minutes.
Cabot still put the ball on the ground, and none was more crucial than one with 5:30 left in the game. On second and five from the Pine Bluff 8-yard line, James fumbled after a 2-yard gain and the Zebras recovered on the their own 6.
Two plays later, linebacker Spencer Neumann intercepted a Claude Johnson pass at the 46 to set up the Panthers’ final touchdown drive.
Trailing 27-7 at halftime, the Panthers took the opening possession and went 77 yards in 17 plays and used over seven minutes of the clock. The drive ended on a quarterback keeper by Jeremy Wilson for 4 yards and the score. The extra point attempt was no good and left the Panthers trailing 27-13.
Pine Bluff went three and out on its next possession. On third and five, defensive end Callen Boris sacked Zebra quarterback Jarvis Mayo for a 4-yard loss and forced a punt.
Cabot took over on its 30 and went 11 plays, but a 9-yard loss on third and 5, and an illegal procedure penalty left the Panthers with fourth and 19 on the 34. Cabot tried a throwback to the opposite field, but the Zebra defense snuffed it out and stopped the play after just a 1-yard gain by Les McGregor.
The Zebras took over and went backwards. New quarterback Claude Johnson was dropped for a 4-yard loss on first down, and threw incomplete on second down. On third and 14, he slipped and fell while trying to escape pressure for a loss of nine yards. A short punt set Cabot up at the Pine Bluff 47, and Wilson covered all that distance on the very first snap of the drive.
Wilson kept on the option to the left side, and raced untouched for 47 yards and the score. Cabot set up for another extra point, but Pine Bluff jumped off sides, moving the ball inside the 2-yard line. Cabot opted to go for two from that distance, but James was stopped short, leaving the score 27-19 with 10:11 left in the game.
Pine Bluff got its first and only first down of the half on its next possession. The Zebras were one yard short of another first down and faced third and one at the Panther 40. They went for it all on third down, but the pass was knocked down in the end zone by Cabot senior Hunter Hess. On fourth down, senior L.J. Tarrant exploded through the line of scrimmage and blew up a draw play, nailing tailback Christian Owens as soon as he took the handoff for a 4-yard loss to give the Panthers possession and set up the drive that ended with the fumble inside the 10.
The first 24 minutes belonged to the Zebras. Cabot could not find an answer for the Pine Bluff passing game, even when Pine Bluff had to have big yardage. The Mayo to Jonathan Frasier connection was virtually unstoppable in the first half.
On their first possession, the Zebras converted a third and 19 when Mayo and Frasier hooked up for the first time for 29 yards to the Cabot 3. Owens stepped it in from there to give Pine Bluff a 7-0 lead with 8:01 left in the first quarter.
Cabot got 14 yards on its first play, but punted after three more plays and gave Pine Bluff the ball at its own 18.
Facing third and nine, Mayo and Frasier hooked up again, this time for 33 yards to the Cabot 48. On first down, Owens broke loose for a 45-yard gain to the 5-yard line. Pine Bluff was called for clipping on first down to set up first and goal from the 16. An incomplete pass was followed by a sack by Boris that set up fourth and goal from the 24. That’s when Mayo and Fraiser hooked up again. Another jump ball to the corner was won by Frasier for the score and a two-touchdown Pine Bluff lead with 2:47 left in the first quarter.
Cabot fumbled on the first play of its next possession, and Pine Bluff covered it on the Cabot 37. This time the Zebras tried to pull out another third and long, but senior Michael Reitz picked off the pass on the Cabot 11.
Cabot drove out to the 36, where it had to punt on fourth and nine.
The punt put Pine Bluff on its own 32, and it covered all that distance in one play. Predictably, it was another Mayo to Frasier connection, this time it was on jump ball. Mayo faked his defender into biting on hitch and ran alone down the left sideline, where Mayo’s pass hit him in stride for the score. The extra point made it 21-0 with 9:16 left in the first half.
Cabot got good field position when Neumann returned the kickoff 46 yards to the Pine Bluff 44, and scored in nine plays to make it 21-7 with 5:14 left in the half. Wesley Sowell got the payoff from six yards out.
Pine Bluff took the ensuing kickoff to the Cabot 49, but another clipping penalty backed it up to the 40. From there, three Mayo completions to three different receivers put the Zebras back up by three scores. The final pass was to Kelsey Collins and covered 23 yards. The extra point was no good, and Pine Bluff never threatened to score again.
Cabot put together another good drive, and had first down at the Pine Bluff 24 with 44 seconds and all three timeouts left, but Wilson fumbled the ball and Pine Bluff covered it and ran out the clock to end the half.
Statistically, the two halves look like two different games.
Pine Bluff finished with 293 total yards, with 291 coming in the first half. Cabot picked up 402 total yards, with 137 in the first half and 265 in the second.
Mayo finished with eight completions in 11 attempts for 219 yards and three touchdowns. Frasier had five receptions for 168 yards and two scores, all in the first half.
James led all rushers with 36 carries for 164 yards, including 25 carries for 114 in the second half. Wilson carried 15 times for 127 yards, 123 of which came in the second half.
The loss drops the Panthers to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in conference play, while Pine Bluff improved to 1-1-7 and 1-5 in league play.
Cabot will travel to Russellville next Thursday while Pine Bluff battles North Little Rock, another upset winner. The Wildcats got their first conference win of the season, upsetting top-ranked Bryant.
EDITORIALS>>Huck keeps moving up
It was a good-news, bad-news week for Mike Huckabee, who is beginning to be more than a favorite-son candidate for president.
The Rasmussen daily tracking poll Friday elevated him to fourth place among the Republican candidates, a little ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and not far behind Sen. John McCain.
The front-runners, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson, are not that far ahead.
Huckabee, who remains far, far behind the pack in fundraising, has all along said if he could only get into fourth place . . . If this poll is to be believed, he’s finally there.
The bad news? It was expected. Now that he is a contender, his record and not just his presidential campaign patter is getting some attention.
The right-wing columnist John Fund of the Wall Street Journal wrote an unflattering piece about our man’s tax-and-spend record in Arkansas.
Huckabee is not the true-blue conservative he claims to be for many audiences now, Fund said.
Another pundit, who once wrote editorials for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Huckbee’s first term as governor, contested Huckabee’s conservative bona-tides. It will soon be a chorus.
His record has been both Huck-abee’s strength and his Achilles’ heel, as we have had occasion to observe.
He is one of the most liberal governors in Arkansas history, having accounted for more tax increases than any other and having enlarged state government more than any other.
He has exorbitantly inflated his record as a tax-cutter on the stump and now that will catch up with him.
But we continue to believe that if he will shoot straight with the Republican constituencies, his record and his moderate views on such things as immigration and government health assistance could make him the party’s best opponent to Sen. Hillary Clinton, the expected Democratic nominee. That is not the conventional wisdom, but it will be his best pitch.
Ernie Dumas writes editorials for The Leader.
The Rasmussen daily tracking poll Friday elevated him to fourth place among the Republican candidates, a little ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and not far behind Sen. John McCain.
The front-runners, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson, are not that far ahead.
Huckabee, who remains far, far behind the pack in fundraising, has all along said if he could only get into fourth place . . . If this poll is to be believed, he’s finally there.
The bad news? It was expected. Now that he is a contender, his record and not just his presidential campaign patter is getting some attention.
The right-wing columnist John Fund of the Wall Street Journal wrote an unflattering piece about our man’s tax-and-spend record in Arkansas.
Huckabee is not the true-blue conservative he claims to be for many audiences now, Fund said.
Another pundit, who once wrote editorials for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Huckbee’s first term as governor, contested Huckabee’s conservative bona-tides. It will soon be a chorus.
His record has been both Huck-abee’s strength and his Achilles’ heel, as we have had occasion to observe.
He is one of the most liberal governors in Arkansas history, having accounted for more tax increases than any other and having enlarged state government more than any other.
He has exorbitantly inflated his record as a tax-cutter on the stump and now that will catch up with him.
But we continue to believe that if he will shoot straight with the Republican constituencies, his record and his moderate views on such things as immigration and government health assistance could make him the party’s best opponent to Sen. Hillary Clinton, the expected Democratic nominee. That is not the conventional wisdom, but it will be his best pitch.
Ernie Dumas writes editorials for The Leader.
EDITORIALS>>Support Fallfest
This year’s Sherwood Fallfest had everything a town could have wanted in a festival except attendance.
It is probably the best non-attended festival in Arkansas.
The festival rivals most other festivals in the state with the number and variety of vendors. There was plenty of food to choose from and most of it local and relatively inexpensive. Plus, the weather was exquisite.
The entertainment was all homegrown and all excellent. And 90 percent of Sherwood missed it. Sure people can say there was a lot going on that Saturday—and there was. The Race for the Cure, the Hogs on radio winning their first SEC game and the final weekend of the state fair.
But pick any week in October and there’s a lot going on. The argument doesn’t wash. Not only were there people missing, so was half the city’s leadership. It’s not a requirement that aldermen are there, but it would be nice if they showed people they physically support city activities.
Alderman Marina Brooks was there, working all day as a volunteer, on a bum foot. Aldermen Sheila Sulcer and Butch Davis were also there for a large chunk of the day. Mayor Virginia Hillman was there, too, visiting with everyone and she even emceed the cutest kids and karaoke contests—but that’s less than half of the city’s leadership. Did we miss anyone else?
Too much work went into the festival for such a small turnout. Very few vendors made money and soon they will stop coming and then people will show up and say, “Hey, I thought this was a good festival.”
It was and is, but the city may have to look at the return it’s getting for all of its work and effort.
The city put forth the effort, the activities and vendors—now the residents have to do their part—and participate.
—Rick Kron
It is probably the best non-attended festival in Arkansas.
The festival rivals most other festivals in the state with the number and variety of vendors. There was plenty of food to choose from and most of it local and relatively inexpensive. Plus, the weather was exquisite.
The entertainment was all homegrown and all excellent. And 90 percent of Sherwood missed it. Sure people can say there was a lot going on that Saturday—and there was. The Race for the Cure, the Hogs on radio winning their first SEC game and the final weekend of the state fair.
But pick any week in October and there’s a lot going on. The argument doesn’t wash. Not only were there people missing, so was half the city’s leadership. It’s not a requirement that aldermen are there, but it would be nice if they showed people they physically support city activities.
Alderman Marina Brooks was there, working all day as a volunteer, on a bum foot. Aldermen Sheila Sulcer and Butch Davis were also there for a large chunk of the day. Mayor Virginia Hillman was there, too, visiting with everyone and she even emceed the cutest kids and karaoke contests—but that’s less than half of the city’s leadership. Did we miss anyone else?
Too much work went into the festival for such a small turnout. Very few vendors made money and soon they will stop coming and then people will show up and say, “Hey, I thought this was a good festival.”
It was and is, but the city may have to look at the return it’s getting for all of its work and effort.
The city put forth the effort, the activities and vendors—now the residents have to do their part—and participate.
—Rick Kron
EDITORIALS>>Resurrecting a straw man
Straw men never go out of fashion in the American political system. Whenever there is a need for a crisis to move the populace in the desired direction, someone finds a straw man. The Family Council, which is closely aligned with Republican politics, found a straw man — gay people marrying or rearing and corrupting children — a few years ago and resurrects him every two years in time to stampede voters into the Republican ranks. The party really doesn’t need it and some in the party resent it.
The Family Council is trying to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to prevent the adoption of children by unmarried households or the assignment of foster children to a gay parent or parents. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said the proposal could not be circulated for signatures because it was worded in a way that would get it stricken from the ballot.
Then he approved a revised initiative that was modeled on his criticisms. But McDaniel announced that while the new proposal would pass constitutional muster, he opposed it. Gov. Beebe also said it was needlessly punitive and created fresh problems in the adoption or foster care of abandoned, neglected and mistreated children. He would vote against it, too, if it reached the ballot next year.
Before beginning the circulation of petitions to put the amendment on the ballot, the Family Council changed it again last week to include the statement that it was in the best interest of children in need of adoption or foster care that they be in homes only of people who were not “cohabiting.” All the research suggests that children are just as apt to get good care in cohabiting homes. Good parents and bad parents come in all sizes and compositions. This all began several years ago when a committee appointed by Gov. Mike Huckabee dictated that the state’s foster-care division stop placing foster children in homes where there was a gay parent or a gay person lived. The Arkansas Supreme Court said the ban was unconstitutional because the committee exceeded the power given it by the legislature. A Family Council bill in the legislature this spring sought to reinstate the ban, but it was defeated. The proposed constitutional amendment is another shot at the same target.
Initiated proposals that target homosexuals stir up some although not all evangelical conservatives and they gin up the turnout at elections, which as the 2004 election in Arkansas and other states showed tends to benefit Republican candidates.
There is a crisis in the care of neglected and troubled children, but the prospect of a gay or unmarried couple gaining custody is not it. The crisis is the great shortage of willing and caring parents of any variety. Children are stacked into the homes of people who are willing to take them for the few dollars that the state pays them per child. The foster-care program has been beset with scandals of abuse and neglect in foster homes year after year. Why would you put even a few willing and caring adults off limits?
Gov. Beebe, a cautious and conservative man, said the child-care professionals worked hard to place children in nurturing homes wherever they could find them and that their hands should not be tied further.
“We should not undermine the current deliberative system and replace it with a rigid, blanket policy that does not allow full consideration for the circumstances of each child,” he said. What a sound policy that is.
But we will hear in the election season next year that God does not want children reared even for a day in anything but a duly married household no matter how mean or uncaring it is and that you had better get to the polls to prevent it. Something tells us voters are wising up to such stratagems.
The Family Council is trying to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to prevent the adoption of children by unmarried households or the assignment of foster children to a gay parent or parents. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said the proposal could not be circulated for signatures because it was worded in a way that would get it stricken from the ballot.
Then he approved a revised initiative that was modeled on his criticisms. But McDaniel announced that while the new proposal would pass constitutional muster, he opposed it. Gov. Beebe also said it was needlessly punitive and created fresh problems in the adoption or foster care of abandoned, neglected and mistreated children. He would vote against it, too, if it reached the ballot next year.
Before beginning the circulation of petitions to put the amendment on the ballot, the Family Council changed it again last week to include the statement that it was in the best interest of children in need of adoption or foster care that they be in homes only of people who were not “cohabiting.” All the research suggests that children are just as apt to get good care in cohabiting homes. Good parents and bad parents come in all sizes and compositions. This all began several years ago when a committee appointed by Gov. Mike Huckabee dictated that the state’s foster-care division stop placing foster children in homes where there was a gay parent or a gay person lived. The Arkansas Supreme Court said the ban was unconstitutional because the committee exceeded the power given it by the legislature. A Family Council bill in the legislature this spring sought to reinstate the ban, but it was defeated. The proposed constitutional amendment is another shot at the same target.
Initiated proposals that target homosexuals stir up some although not all evangelical conservatives and they gin up the turnout at elections, which as the 2004 election in Arkansas and other states showed tends to benefit Republican candidates.
There is a crisis in the care of neglected and troubled children, but the prospect of a gay or unmarried couple gaining custody is not it. The crisis is the great shortage of willing and caring parents of any variety. Children are stacked into the homes of people who are willing to take them for the few dollars that the state pays them per child. The foster-care program has been beset with scandals of abuse and neglect in foster homes year after year. Why would you put even a few willing and caring adults off limits?
Gov. Beebe, a cautious and conservative man, said the child-care professionals worked hard to place children in nurturing homes wherever they could find them and that their hands should not be tied further.
“We should not undermine the current deliberative system and replace it with a rigid, blanket policy that does not allow full consideration for the circumstances of each child,” he said. What a sound policy that is.
But we will hear in the election season next year that God does not want children reared even for a day in anything but a duly married household no matter how mean or uncaring it is and that you had better get to the polls to prevent it. Something tells us voters are wising up to such stratagems.
OBITUARIES >> 10-27-07
Jake Wheeler
Jake Wheeler, 55, of Beebe died Oct. 25. He was born April 18, 1952, at Hazen to James and Bettye Perry Wheeler.
He was retired from Community Bank as a collections officer.
He is survived by two daughters, Joy and husband Doug McIntire of Peoria, Ill. and Jennifer Wheeler of Cabot; two granddaughters, Courtney and Abigail McIntire of Peoria, Ill.; one brother, Bobby Wheeler of Jacksonville; and two sisters, Melinda Gore of Lonoke and Lisa Johnson of McRae.
Family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
Funeral will be at 2:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29 at the funeral home with burial in Hazen Cemetery.
Nora Massey
Nora Friedrich Massey, 94, of Beebe died Oct. 25. Nora was born Feb. 12, 1913, at Gerard, Kan., and moved to Arkansas at the age of four.
She was retired from Redmond Motors and Franklin Electric, and was a member of Stoney Point Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Coleman Massey; her parents, John and Myrtle Friedrich; and by her twin sister, Cora Richards; sister, Pearl Woods and by baby brother, John, Jr. Friedrich.
She is survived by one daughter, Mary Ann and husband Larry Massey; grandson, Mitch Helms; great-grandsons, Chanc Helms and C. J. Shireman, all of Beebe; granddaughter, Mellissa and husband Ricky Deese of North Little Rock; grandson, Dennis and wife Jackie Shireman; great-granddaughters, Denise and Brianna Shireman and great-grandson Casey Shireman, all of Marion; one sister, Johnell Mitchell of Little Rock; nephew Robert and wife June Richards and their daughter, Robin of Beebe; other nephews and nieces, Bruce Mitchell and Denna Mitchell, Ruth Beck and J. R. Woods.
Family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27 at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
Funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 at the funeral home with burial in Stoney Point Cemetery.
Lilburn Autry Jr.
Lilburn Hardy “L.H.” Autry, Jr., 78, died Oct. 25 after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He was born March 25, 1929 in Burdette. He was a dedicated teacher and educator and a devoted public servant his entire professional career.
He was a counselor of the disabled at Hot Springs Rehabilitation Center. He also was director of Rehab Services for the Blind for the state of Arkansas. He continued his career at the University of Oklahoma as Director of a Management Training Program in Continuing Education.
He was an extremely creative man; an artist and musician who loved to play and hear music. He enjoyed painting and loved to give his artwork to friends and family. He spent hours working in his shop and could build or fix anything. He loved feeding the birds and his pets always held a special place in his heart. He was a member of Lonoke Baptist Church and loved to be around friends and family.
He was preceded in death by his parents, L.H. Autry, Sr. and Lucile Autry and an infant daughter, Dianne.
Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Betty Autry of Lonoke; children, Rosanne Florence and husband Michael of Lonoke, David Autry and wife Colleen of New York City; sister, Mollie Rose Molnar and husband Gene of Springfield, Mo.; granddaughter, Megan Florence of Lonoke, numerous cousins and many beloved family friends.
A memorial service will be held Monday, Oct. 29 at 2 p.m. at Lonoke Baptist Church. Burial will follow in Lonoke Cemetery. The family will receive friends Sunday, Oct. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Boyd Funeral Home in Lonoke.
In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial donations be made to the Arkansas Alzheimer’s Association, 10411 W. Markham, Ste. 130, Little Rock, Ark., 72205 or the Lonoke Scholarship Foundation, 221 W. Holly, Lonoke, Ark., 72086 or a charity of your choice.
Frances Sykes Jr.
Frances J. Sykes, Jr., 72, of Jacksonville died Oct. 24.
He was born July 5, 1935 in New Orleans, La.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Hazel Mae Sykes; his sisters, Mary L. Mitchell and Elaine Butts and a brother, Billy Richmond.
He proudly served in the Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam wars and was a flight instructor for load masters and retired after 24 years.
He was a volunteer at Jacksonville High School, a member of Saint Jude the Apostle Catholic Church and was the most caring and giving man you could ever meet.
He is survived by four daughters Melody Neff of Arizona, Leta Cribb of North Little Rock, Cathy Peters of Jacksonville and Shelia Occhino of Arizona; and a son, Mark Sykes of Vilonia as well as two step-sons Rod Steinsick and Frank Steinsick and step-daughter Tina Connelly, all of North Little Rock; three sisters, Rita Blancher of Virginia, Teresa Spretz and Clare Rapp, both of Louisiana; 18 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
A funeral mass for Sykes was Oct. 26 at Saint Jude the Apostle Catholic Church in Jacksonville with Father Les Farley officiating.
Entombment followed in Chapel Hill Mausoleum. Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.
Alfred Allison
Alfred Allison, 92, of Sheridan formerly of Beebe, went to be with the Lord Oct. 23. He was born Dec. 30, 1914, in Lonoke County to William and Elsie Allison.
He leaves to cherish his memories three daughters, Barbara Shellnut and husband Ralph of Sheridan, Mary Best and husband Berl of Branson, Mo., and Ann Hartline of Springfield, Mo.; four grandchildren, Kathy Frost and husband Darrell of Booneville, Carol Crump and husband Jim of Knoxville, Karen Best of Branson, Mo., and Ed Smoot of Phoenix, Ariz.; five step-grandchildren, Darrin Shellnut and wife Tamara of Beebe, Dana Moore and husband Jeff of Bauxite, Dewayne Shellnut of Sheridan, Adam Crump of Mt. Vernon, Ill., and Melissa Crump of Carbondale, Ill.; three great-grandchildren, Joshua Frost of Jackson, Tenn., Lindsey Andrews and husband Ben of Russellville and Corey Martone of Knoxville; eight step-great-grandchildren, D.J. Shellnut of Livingston, La., Dixie Shaffer and husband Michael of Searcy, Sean Keen and Scotty Shellnut of Sheridan, Zachary and Haley Moore of Bauxite, and Dallas and Shelby Carson of Beebe; one great-great-grandchild, Kylie Frost of Jackson, Tenn.; two brothers, David Allison of Xenia, Ill., and Billy Allison of Reading, Pa.; one sister, Ida Atterberry of Flatrock, Ill.; many beloved nieces and nephews and wonderful care-givers, Evelyn Rutherford and Carol Ham.
Funeral services were Oct. 26 at Beebe First Assembly of God. Funeral arrangements were by Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
Charles Franks
Charles Thomas “Tommy” Franks, 59, of Lonoke died Oct. 23 at Lonoke.
He was born April 3, 1948 in Dyess. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Kathy Thomason Franks; one daughter, Lesley Ann Faulkner of Little Rock; twin sons, John Phillip Franks and his wife Kristy, and Joseph Bartley Franks of Lonoke; three grandchildren, Kylie Smith and twins Karson and Kate Franks; his mother and stepfather, Emil and James Blackard of Lonoke; three sisters, Peggy Bewley of Scott, Mary Moore of Ward, and Carol Ann Scott of Lonoke; one brother, Craig Blackard of Lonoke; three nieces and five nephews; two great nieces; two great nephews and his beloved terrier, Jack.
Tommy was a graduate of Little Rock Central High School. He was proud of his profession as a journeyman lineman, beginning his career with Arkansas Power and Light Co. (forerunner to Entergy).
After marriage, he and his wife dairy farmed in the Wattensaw community for several years.
For the past 10 years, he has worked for Diversified Electric Contractors in various areas of California.
In 1999, he was chosen to be the lineman picked from California to go to Chicago for “bare hand” training.
Tommy was devoted to his family, loved adventure, was an avid reader, a talented wood worker and an inventor.
One of his interests was dirt track racing. A number of years ago he rebuilt a car and drove it from Arkansas to California.
He became a grandfather recently and was known as “Grumpy.” A tall, handsome man, Tommy was known among his wife’s family as “The Marlboro Man.”
Funeral services were Oct. 25 at Wattensaw Baptist Church in Lonoke; interment followed at Wattensaw Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Craig Blackard, Michael Franks, Larry Cash, Danny Hazelwood, Bob Trickey and Randy Zeps. Honorary pallbearers were John Franks, Joe Franks, Tom Browning, Wade Finley and Bill Trickey.
Memorials may be made to Wattensaw Cemetery, c/o Neal Colclasure, 3700 Hwy. 31 N., Lonoke, Ark. 72086. Funeral arrangements were by Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
Jake Wheeler, 55, of Beebe died Oct. 25. He was born April 18, 1952, at Hazen to James and Bettye Perry Wheeler.
He was retired from Community Bank as a collections officer.
He is survived by two daughters, Joy and husband Doug McIntire of Peoria, Ill. and Jennifer Wheeler of Cabot; two granddaughters, Courtney and Abigail McIntire of Peoria, Ill.; one brother, Bobby Wheeler of Jacksonville; and two sisters, Melinda Gore of Lonoke and Lisa Johnson of McRae.
Family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
Funeral will be at 2:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29 at the funeral home with burial in Hazen Cemetery.
Nora Massey
Nora Friedrich Massey, 94, of Beebe died Oct. 25. Nora was born Feb. 12, 1913, at Gerard, Kan., and moved to Arkansas at the age of four.
She was retired from Redmond Motors and Franklin Electric, and was a member of Stoney Point Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Coleman Massey; her parents, John and Myrtle Friedrich; and by her twin sister, Cora Richards; sister, Pearl Woods and by baby brother, John, Jr. Friedrich.
She is survived by one daughter, Mary Ann and husband Larry Massey; grandson, Mitch Helms; great-grandsons, Chanc Helms and C. J. Shireman, all of Beebe; granddaughter, Mellissa and husband Ricky Deese of North Little Rock; grandson, Dennis and wife Jackie Shireman; great-granddaughters, Denise and Brianna Shireman and great-grandson Casey Shireman, all of Marion; one sister, Johnell Mitchell of Little Rock; nephew Robert and wife June Richards and their daughter, Robin of Beebe; other nephews and nieces, Bruce Mitchell and Denna Mitchell, Ruth Beck and J. R. Woods.
Family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27 at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
Funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 at the funeral home with burial in Stoney Point Cemetery.
Lilburn Autry Jr.
Lilburn Hardy “L.H.” Autry, Jr., 78, died Oct. 25 after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He was born March 25, 1929 in Burdette. He was a dedicated teacher and educator and a devoted public servant his entire professional career.
He was a counselor of the disabled at Hot Springs Rehabilitation Center. He also was director of Rehab Services for the Blind for the state of Arkansas. He continued his career at the University of Oklahoma as Director of a Management Training Program in Continuing Education.
He was an extremely creative man; an artist and musician who loved to play and hear music. He enjoyed painting and loved to give his artwork to friends and family. He spent hours working in his shop and could build or fix anything. He loved feeding the birds and his pets always held a special place in his heart. He was a member of Lonoke Baptist Church and loved to be around friends and family.
He was preceded in death by his parents, L.H. Autry, Sr. and Lucile Autry and an infant daughter, Dianne.
Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Betty Autry of Lonoke; children, Rosanne Florence and husband Michael of Lonoke, David Autry and wife Colleen of New York City; sister, Mollie Rose Molnar and husband Gene of Springfield, Mo.; granddaughter, Megan Florence of Lonoke, numerous cousins and many beloved family friends.
A memorial service will be held Monday, Oct. 29 at 2 p.m. at Lonoke Baptist Church. Burial will follow in Lonoke Cemetery. The family will receive friends Sunday, Oct. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Boyd Funeral Home in Lonoke.
In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial donations be made to the Arkansas Alzheimer’s Association, 10411 W. Markham, Ste. 130, Little Rock, Ark., 72205 or the Lonoke Scholarship Foundation, 221 W. Holly, Lonoke, Ark., 72086 or a charity of your choice.
Frances Sykes Jr.
Frances J. Sykes, Jr., 72, of Jacksonville died Oct. 24.
He was born July 5, 1935 in New Orleans, La.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Hazel Mae Sykes; his sisters, Mary L. Mitchell and Elaine Butts and a brother, Billy Richmond.
He proudly served in the Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam wars and was a flight instructor for load masters and retired after 24 years.
He was a volunteer at Jacksonville High School, a member of Saint Jude the Apostle Catholic Church and was the most caring and giving man you could ever meet.
He is survived by four daughters Melody Neff of Arizona, Leta Cribb of North Little Rock, Cathy Peters of Jacksonville and Shelia Occhino of Arizona; and a son, Mark Sykes of Vilonia as well as two step-sons Rod Steinsick and Frank Steinsick and step-daughter Tina Connelly, all of North Little Rock; three sisters, Rita Blancher of Virginia, Teresa Spretz and Clare Rapp, both of Louisiana; 18 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
A funeral mass for Sykes was Oct. 26 at Saint Jude the Apostle Catholic Church in Jacksonville with Father Les Farley officiating.
Entombment followed in Chapel Hill Mausoleum. Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.
Alfred Allison
Alfred Allison, 92, of Sheridan formerly of Beebe, went to be with the Lord Oct. 23. He was born Dec. 30, 1914, in Lonoke County to William and Elsie Allison.
He leaves to cherish his memories three daughters, Barbara Shellnut and husband Ralph of Sheridan, Mary Best and husband Berl of Branson, Mo., and Ann Hartline of Springfield, Mo.; four grandchildren, Kathy Frost and husband Darrell of Booneville, Carol Crump and husband Jim of Knoxville, Karen Best of Branson, Mo., and Ed Smoot of Phoenix, Ariz.; five step-grandchildren, Darrin Shellnut and wife Tamara of Beebe, Dana Moore and husband Jeff of Bauxite, Dewayne Shellnut of Sheridan, Adam Crump of Mt. Vernon, Ill., and Melissa Crump of Carbondale, Ill.; three great-grandchildren, Joshua Frost of Jackson, Tenn., Lindsey Andrews and husband Ben of Russellville and Corey Martone of Knoxville; eight step-great-grandchildren, D.J. Shellnut of Livingston, La., Dixie Shaffer and husband Michael of Searcy, Sean Keen and Scotty Shellnut of Sheridan, Zachary and Haley Moore of Bauxite, and Dallas and Shelby Carson of Beebe; one great-great-grandchild, Kylie Frost of Jackson, Tenn.; two brothers, David Allison of Xenia, Ill., and Billy Allison of Reading, Pa.; one sister, Ida Atterberry of Flatrock, Ill.; many beloved nieces and nephews and wonderful care-givers, Evelyn Rutherford and Carol Ham.
Funeral services were Oct. 26 at Beebe First Assembly of God. Funeral arrangements were by Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
Charles Franks
Charles Thomas “Tommy” Franks, 59, of Lonoke died Oct. 23 at Lonoke.
He was born April 3, 1948 in Dyess. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Kathy Thomason Franks; one daughter, Lesley Ann Faulkner of Little Rock; twin sons, John Phillip Franks and his wife Kristy, and Joseph Bartley Franks of Lonoke; three grandchildren, Kylie Smith and twins Karson and Kate Franks; his mother and stepfather, Emil and James Blackard of Lonoke; three sisters, Peggy Bewley of Scott, Mary Moore of Ward, and Carol Ann Scott of Lonoke; one brother, Craig Blackard of Lonoke; three nieces and five nephews; two great nieces; two great nephews and his beloved terrier, Jack.
Tommy was a graduate of Little Rock Central High School. He was proud of his profession as a journeyman lineman, beginning his career with Arkansas Power and Light Co. (forerunner to Entergy).
After marriage, he and his wife dairy farmed in the Wattensaw community for several years.
For the past 10 years, he has worked for Diversified Electric Contractors in various areas of California.
In 1999, he was chosen to be the lineman picked from California to go to Chicago for “bare hand” training.
Tommy was devoted to his family, loved adventure, was an avid reader, a talented wood worker and an inventor.
One of his interests was dirt track racing. A number of years ago he rebuilt a car and drove it from Arkansas to California.
He became a grandfather recently and was known as “Grumpy.” A tall, handsome man, Tommy was known among his wife’s family as “The Marlboro Man.”
Funeral services were Oct. 25 at Wattensaw Baptist Church in Lonoke; interment followed at Wattensaw Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Craig Blackard, Michael Franks, Larry Cash, Danny Hazelwood, Bob Trickey and Randy Zeps. Honorary pallbearers were John Franks, Joe Franks, Tom Browning, Wade Finley and Bill Trickey.
Memorials may be made to Wattensaw Cemetery, c/o Neal Colclasure, 3700 Hwy. 31 N., Lonoke, Ark. 72086. Funeral arrangements were by Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.
TOP STORY >>Move to expel mayor from GOP abandoned
By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams and Alderman Ken Williams have been cleared of the charge by another member of the Lonoke County Republican Committee that they intentionally worked against the party.
If they had not been cleared, their memberships in the local committee could have been taken away. But officials at the state level say that would not prevent them from running for office as Republicans.
Robert Horn, chairman of the Lonoke County Republican Committee, said expulsion at the local level would mean at the most that candidates would not have local party members working for them and at the worst; they could have local party members working against them.
After interviewing the two elected Cabot city officials Monday night, a panel of three members of the county committee concluded that the complaint filed by Carl Schmidt was without merit. The complained stemmed from Mayor Williams’ and Alderman Williams’ support for non-partisan elections in Cabot, where Republicans stand a better chance of being elected than Democrats or independents, because most residents vote Republican.
Horn said he was disappointed that the issue was made public and that he hopes it is over.
“(The panel) voted unanimously to not remove them,” Horn said. “It’s a simple matter; they just concluded that those actions did not merit removal from committee.”
About 20 or so of the 83 members of the Lonoke County Republican Committee attended the July city council meeting in which the council voted 5-2 for non-partisan elections that would require all candidates for office in Cabot to run as independents.
Those local Republicans included members who also belong to the Republican Assembly, a more conservative arm of the party that is sometimes at odds with other committee members. But one Republican Committee member told the city council that although the two sides are often divided, they were together on the issue of partisan elections. Residents have a right to know the values of the people running for public office they said.
But the council members who voted for non-partisan elections said national issues like abortion, gun control and homosexuality were not a part of city government.
They said they wanted residents to get to know the candidates rather than voting based on party affiliation. And they wanted qualified candidates.
The elephant in the room that council members only hinted at was City Attorney Jim Taylor who set up residency in Cabot and ran as a Republican, winning easily over Clint McGue, the independent incumbent with 15 or so years of experience as a city attorney. Taylor, who worked mostly in accounting, had no experience in city government.
Alderman Williams voted for the resolution and Mayor Williams would not veto it even though he was under pressure to do so.
The council members who supported non-partisan elections also pointed out that since most Cabot residents vote Republican, candidates could switch parties just to get elected. The presence of an “R” beside a name on a ballot was no real indication of a candidate’s values, they said.
Alderman Williams said after the panel reached its unanimous decision that he believed he had been given a fair hearing and he was glad the matter had been resolved.
Williams said he would not bow to pressure to vote against non-partisan elections because the Lonoke County Republican Committee had never adopted any policy in support of party elections.
In fact, he said, he had never seen the party take a stand on any city issue before the July resolution for non-partisan elections. As for the 20 or so Republicans who attended the July meeting, they were committee members the same as him with no authority from the party to make demands, he said.
Mayor Williams said his record this year as mayor shows that he is a good Republican despite his stand on partisan elections.
“We’ve reduced the size of government and we now have a substantial savings account,” he said. “I stand for family values and I’m fiscally conservative. I’m all the things you think of as Republican.”
Asked how the Democrats would deal with a similar issue, Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Bill Gwatney issued this statement:
“The Democratic Party of Arkansas welcomes those with divergent viewpoints, and believes it is our differences that make us stronger. To those who are removed from the Republican Party in Lonoke County, please come visit with us if you would like to be involved with a party that appreciates varying points of view, and does not disavow those who act on their convictions even if it is not in lock-step with their party’s leadership.”
Leader staff writer
Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams and Alderman Ken Williams have been cleared of the charge by another member of the Lonoke County Republican Committee that they intentionally worked against the party.
If they had not been cleared, their memberships in the local committee could have been taken away. But officials at the state level say that would not prevent them from running for office as Republicans.
Robert Horn, chairman of the Lonoke County Republican Committee, said expulsion at the local level would mean at the most that candidates would not have local party members working for them and at the worst; they could have local party members working against them.
After interviewing the two elected Cabot city officials Monday night, a panel of three members of the county committee concluded that the complaint filed by Carl Schmidt was without merit. The complained stemmed from Mayor Williams’ and Alderman Williams’ support for non-partisan elections in Cabot, where Republicans stand a better chance of being elected than Democrats or independents, because most residents vote Republican.
Horn said he was disappointed that the issue was made public and that he hopes it is over.
“(The panel) voted unanimously to not remove them,” Horn said. “It’s a simple matter; they just concluded that those actions did not merit removal from committee.”
About 20 or so of the 83 members of the Lonoke County Republican Committee attended the July city council meeting in which the council voted 5-2 for non-partisan elections that would require all candidates for office in Cabot to run as independents.
Those local Republicans included members who also belong to the Republican Assembly, a more conservative arm of the party that is sometimes at odds with other committee members. But one Republican Committee member told the city council that although the two sides are often divided, they were together on the issue of partisan elections. Residents have a right to know the values of the people running for public office they said.
But the council members who voted for non-partisan elections said national issues like abortion, gun control and homosexuality were not a part of city government.
They said they wanted residents to get to know the candidates rather than voting based on party affiliation. And they wanted qualified candidates.
The elephant in the room that council members only hinted at was City Attorney Jim Taylor who set up residency in Cabot and ran as a Republican, winning easily over Clint McGue, the independent incumbent with 15 or so years of experience as a city attorney. Taylor, who worked mostly in accounting, had no experience in city government.
Alderman Williams voted for the resolution and Mayor Williams would not veto it even though he was under pressure to do so.
The council members who supported non-partisan elections also pointed out that since most Cabot residents vote Republican, candidates could switch parties just to get elected. The presence of an “R” beside a name on a ballot was no real indication of a candidate’s values, they said.
Alderman Williams said after the panel reached its unanimous decision that he believed he had been given a fair hearing and he was glad the matter had been resolved.
Williams said he would not bow to pressure to vote against non-partisan elections because the Lonoke County Republican Committee had never adopted any policy in support of party elections.
In fact, he said, he had never seen the party take a stand on any city issue before the July resolution for non-partisan elections. As for the 20 or so Republicans who attended the July meeting, they were committee members the same as him with no authority from the party to make demands, he said.
Mayor Williams said his record this year as mayor shows that he is a good Republican despite his stand on partisan elections.
“We’ve reduced the size of government and we now have a substantial savings account,” he said. “I stand for family values and I’m fiscally conservative. I’m all the things you think of as Republican.”
Asked how the Democrats would deal with a similar issue, Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Bill Gwatney issued this statement:
“The Democratic Party of Arkansas welcomes those with divergent viewpoints, and believes it is our differences that make us stronger. To those who are removed from the Republican Party in Lonoke County, please come visit with us if you would like to be involved with a party that appreciates varying points of view, and does not disavow those who act on their convictions even if it is not in lock-step with their party’s leadership.”
TOP STORY >>Lonoke celebrates its history
By ALIYA FELDMAN
Leader staff writer
Historians visited the Lonoke Community Center Tuesday in a treasure hunt for the state’s rich artistic heritage, and local residents brought them several valuable items to add to the state’s collection. What began as the Historic Arkansas Museum’s preparing pre-Civil War museum houses soon culminated into the uncovering of a wealth of Arkansas arts.
The Historic Arkansas Museum is locating decorative, mechanical and fine art produced by Arkansas artists and artisans from 1700 to 1950. The museum’s research team is traveling across the state in search of original works of art, photography, furniture, handmade silver, firearms, quilts, pottery and other art objects believed to have been made in the state to be collected for future volumes of the Arkansas Made book series.
“We discovered more than one treasure to consider for the books,” Swannee Bennett, chief curator of the Historic Arkansas Museum, said of the Lonoke visit.
Suzanne Gross Marks, president of the Lonoke Historical Society, brought an afghan quilt she sewed in 1944.
She said her family has been in Lonoke six generations, and her great-great grandfather Issac Hicks laid out Lonoke. She said Hicks also ran a safe house for Native Americans crossing through Arkansas on the Trail of Tears. Marks said they stopped there for food and water on their long trek.
“I want people to know that they can work with their hands,” the 83-year-old Marks said, noting that she built her house in Lonoke in 1963, painting the rooms and handmaking her tiles.
Lonoke resident Lynn Fletcher brought in two quilts made by each of her grandmothers. One has names of four generations of family members sewn into it. Her husband Alex brought in photographs that hang in his accounting office in Lonoke: one of school children that Bennett thought might be from 1890 to 1895 and another of a Lonoke baseball team he thought to be from 1910 to 1915.
The Lonoke Historical Society publishes its own book every year and will be meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lonoke County Museum.
Bennett and his staff researched every page of Arkansas newspapers printed between 1819 and 1870 for the first two volumes of “Arkansas Made: A Survey of the Decorative, Mechanical and Fine Art Produced in Arkansas, 1819-1870” published by University of Arkansas Press.
“The curators also surveyed the census records for the same period along with business directories, personal correspondence, journals and diaries,” Bennett said.
“The new research continues to examine census and newspaper records, along with personal correspondence, journals and diaries, most of which we find in public collections, like the state archives [Arkansas History Commission],” Bennett said. “However, we occasionally have the good fortune to find letters and journals in private hands which furnish us with a great deal of information about life and work at a particular time in Arkansas history.”
He said the museum wants to record the state’s cultural and artistic history to “understand more about the creative legacy in Arkansas. Arkansas is oftentimes viewed in history as backwards, rustic and unsophisticated,” but he said, “we have a fine tradition of quilt-making and fine arts.”
Bennett said researching quilt-making history is difficult. “It was not generally an occupation that got a mention in the census or in newspaper advertisements,” Bennett said. “I suspect when a woman is listed under an occupation as a ‘seamstress,’ that this line of work might include making quilts.”
Quilts made by Arkansas women are the largest part of decorative and functional art that has survived to date. An 1849 journal entry in the UALR archives documents quilt-maker Everard Dickinson, from near the north fork of the White River: “The men gather the wheat, while the Women quilt… and the young men can get a chance maybe to hug and kiss the Galls [girls]….”
The museum encourages all Arkansans who may have an original family heirloom created in Arkansas to contact the research office. The staff will document the heirlooms and will not keep them. For more information, contact the Historic Arkansas Museum at 501-580-5237 or 501-324-9376.
Leader staff writer
Historians visited the Lonoke Community Center Tuesday in a treasure hunt for the state’s rich artistic heritage, and local residents brought them several valuable items to add to the state’s collection. What began as the Historic Arkansas Museum’s preparing pre-Civil War museum houses soon culminated into the uncovering of a wealth of Arkansas arts.
The Historic Arkansas Museum is locating decorative, mechanical and fine art produced by Arkansas artists and artisans from 1700 to 1950. The museum’s research team is traveling across the state in search of original works of art, photography, furniture, handmade silver, firearms, quilts, pottery and other art objects believed to have been made in the state to be collected for future volumes of the Arkansas Made book series.
“We discovered more than one treasure to consider for the books,” Swannee Bennett, chief curator of the Historic Arkansas Museum, said of the Lonoke visit.
Suzanne Gross Marks, president of the Lonoke Historical Society, brought an afghan quilt she sewed in 1944.
She said her family has been in Lonoke six generations, and her great-great grandfather Issac Hicks laid out Lonoke. She said Hicks also ran a safe house for Native Americans crossing through Arkansas on the Trail of Tears. Marks said they stopped there for food and water on their long trek.
“I want people to know that they can work with their hands,” the 83-year-old Marks said, noting that she built her house in Lonoke in 1963, painting the rooms and handmaking her tiles.
Lonoke resident Lynn Fletcher brought in two quilts made by each of her grandmothers. One has names of four generations of family members sewn into it. Her husband Alex brought in photographs that hang in his accounting office in Lonoke: one of school children that Bennett thought might be from 1890 to 1895 and another of a Lonoke baseball team he thought to be from 1910 to 1915.
The Lonoke Historical Society publishes its own book every year and will be meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lonoke County Museum.
Bennett and his staff researched every page of Arkansas newspapers printed between 1819 and 1870 for the first two volumes of “Arkansas Made: A Survey of the Decorative, Mechanical and Fine Art Produced in Arkansas, 1819-1870” published by University of Arkansas Press.
“The curators also surveyed the census records for the same period along with business directories, personal correspondence, journals and diaries,” Bennett said.
“The new research continues to examine census and newspaper records, along with personal correspondence, journals and diaries, most of which we find in public collections, like the state archives [Arkansas History Commission],” Bennett said. “However, we occasionally have the good fortune to find letters and journals in private hands which furnish us with a great deal of information about life and work at a particular time in Arkansas history.”
He said the museum wants to record the state’s cultural and artistic history to “understand more about the creative legacy in Arkansas. Arkansas is oftentimes viewed in history as backwards, rustic and unsophisticated,” but he said, “we have a fine tradition of quilt-making and fine arts.”
Bennett said researching quilt-making history is difficult. “It was not generally an occupation that got a mention in the census or in newspaper advertisements,” Bennett said. “I suspect when a woman is listed under an occupation as a ‘seamstress,’ that this line of work might include making quilts.”
Quilts made by Arkansas women are the largest part of decorative and functional art that has survived to date. An 1849 journal entry in the UALR archives documents quilt-maker Everard Dickinson, from near the north fork of the White River: “The men gather the wheat, while the Women quilt… and the young men can get a chance maybe to hug and kiss the Galls [girls]….”
The museum encourages all Arkansans who may have an original family heirloom created in Arkansas to contact the research office. The staff will document the heirlooms and will not keep them. For more information, contact the Historic Arkansas Museum at 501-580-5237 or 501-324-9376.
TOP STORY >>Decline triggers criticism of PCSSD
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
White parents appear to be abandoning Jacksonville, particularly the Boys Middle School, where 50 fewer white students are enrolled this year than last, according to official 2007-2008 enrollment figures released this month by the state Education Department this week.
Overall, the school’s enrollment declined by 48 students. That means that white enrollment at the predominantly black, all-boys middle school declined 26 percent from last year. Enrollment for the entire boys middle school is down 11 percent. Whites now account for just over one-third of the enrollment there.
“This puts an exclamation mark on the need for new facilities,” said state Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville.
“We need to break ground on a new facility in the next six to eight months. We need to talk to the parents of the elementary school students and see what they need to have in that school. We need to look at the curriculum and the way the schools are set up,” he said.
“Everybody has opinions, but very seldom do people get the data,” Bond said. “The decline shows something is wrong here. Enrollment has declined over the last 19 years pretty consistently, a lot faster than the rest of the county.
Enrollment at PCSSD schools declined to 17,395, down 361 students from last year.
That’s a 2 percent de-cline overall in a district that has steadily lost enrollment over the past few years.
The district suffered a nearly 5 percent decline in enrollment of white students, this at a time when it seems poised to ask for release from federal court oversight and the desegregation agreement.
The school board meets in special session at 5 p.m. Monday, just two days in advance of the Oct. 31 deadline to file for unitary school status and qualify for attorney’s fees.
The 361-student decline in enrollment at Pulaski County Special School District from last year to this includes the loss of 128 students in Jacksonville, Zone 6, where 3,228 students are enrolled.
Zone 6 schools are Jacksonville High School, both Jacksonville Middle Schools, Jacksonville Elementary School, Pinewood and Murrell Taylor Elementary schools.
The decline will cost PCSSD more than $2 million in state minimum foundation aid.
Those Jacksonville schools serve less than 20 percent of the students in the district, but sustained more than a third of PCSSD’s total enrollment losses.
Thirty-five percent of the decline in PCSSD enrollment is attributable to the decline of white students attending Zone 6 schools.
“It shows a trend that’s been going on since 1989,” said Bond. “Pulaski County has been losing enrollment and Jacksonville’s been losing quicker than the rest of the county.
“You have a slew of young families leaving or choosing not to put their kids in the schools,” Bond said. “We’ve been trying to correct that and haven’t made a lot of headway yet.”
People are moving out of the city, said middle school Principal Mike Nellums. “They are building on the other side of the freeway, which gives them an opportunity to go to Northwood.
“We can stem that movement by providing quality education,” he said. “Some parents aren’t into gender-based education.”
He said Jacksonville’s poor facilities contribute to the problem. He said proportionately, discipline problems are no more frequent at his school.
Jacksonville Middle School for Boys is the only one not under academic distress. “All our test scores improved last year—every grade level in every subject matter,” he said.
“Ours is a 50-plus-year-old building,” he said. “We’re doing the best we can with what we have.”
Nellums said he hopes with the audio-visual program started at the middle school, it will grow into a communications-magnet school.
Students classified as neither black nor white account for just 5 percent of the district’s enrollment.
Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders account for most of those. Those groups had slight increases in enrollment.
The district has 8,822 white students, 7,641 black students, 611 Hispanic students, 284 Asian or Pacific Islanders and 37 American Indians or Alaskan natives.
ZONE 6 ENROLLMENT
Of the 3,228 students enrolled in Zone 6 schools this year, 1,300 are white.
Here’s the Zone 5 2007-2008 enrollment break-down with percent of increase or decline rounded off:
Jacksonville Elementary—542 students, down 10 (-2 percent) from last year with 329 black students and 160 white students.
Jacksonville Girls Middle School—405 students, down 35 (-8 percent) with 225 black students and 169 white students.
Jacksonville Boys Middle School—378 students, down 48 (-11 percent) with 224 black students and 139 white students.
Jacksonville High School—1,089 students, down 25 (-2 percent) with 544 black students and 499 white students.
Pinewood Elementary—390 students, down 14 (-4 percent) with 205 black students and 168 white students.
Murrell Taylor Elementary—434 students, up 4 (+1 percent) with 257 black students and 165 white students.
ZONE 5 ENROLLMENT
Of the 3,063 students enrolled in Zone 5 schools this year, 959 are black. Enrollment is down 62 students.
Here’s the Zone 5 2007-2008 enrollment break-down with percent of increase or decline rounded off:
Bayou Meto Elementary—362 students, down 32 (-8 percent) with 10 black students and 331 white students.
Warren Dupree Elementary—310 students, down 12 (-4 percent) with 138 black students and 153 white students. This is an 11 percent decline in the number of white students.
Tolleson Elementary—297 students, same as last year, with 108 black students and 164 white students. This is a 9 percent decline in the number of white students.
Cato Elementary—316 students, down 13 (-4 percent) with 103 black students and 193 white students. This is a 9 percent decline in the number of black students.
Arnold Drive Elementary—226 students, up 10 (+5 percent) with 79 black students and 122 white students.
Northwood Middle School —632 students, down 22 (-3 percent) with 233 black students and 368 white students.
North Pulaski High School —920 students, up 7 (+1 percent) with 367 black students and 527 white students.
ZONE 4 ENROLLMENT
Of the 2,317 students enrolled in area Zone 4 schools this year, a decline of 50 from last year. Just over half are white.
Here’s the Zone 4 2007-2008 enrollment break-down with percent of increase or decline rounded off:
Sherwood Elementary—377 students, down 23 (-6 percent) with 158 black students and 208 white students.
That’s a decline of 9 percent among white students.
Sylvan Hills Elementary—354 students, down 5 (-1 percent) with 136 black students and 204 white students.
Sylvan Hills Middle School—667 students, up 14 (+2 percent) with 310 black students and 323 white students.
Sylvan Hills High School—919 students, down 36 (-4 percent) with 418 black students and 468 white students.
LONOKE SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Lonoke School District, with 1,832 students, saw an enrollment decline of seven since the 2006-2007 school year, costing the district about $40,000 in state minimum foundation aid.
Lonoke Primary School enrollment of 422 students dropped 17 from last year, including an 8 percent decrease in the number of white students and a 13 percent increase in the number of black students.
Lonoke Elementary School’s enrollment grew by five to 422 students, an increase of 1 percent.
Lonoke Middle School enrollment grew by 16 students to 432. That includes a 41 percent increase in the number of Hispanic students to 24.
Lonoke High School dropped by 11 students to 556.
Cabot School District
The Cabot School District has an official enrollment of 9,245 students this school year, a figure that continues to increase each year.
There are 3,734 students among the district’s eight elementary schools, an increase of 83 students from last school year.
At the middle school, there are a total of 1,420 students among two middle schools; last year there were 1,406 fifth- and sixth-graders in Cabot.
The junior high population grew by 97 to 2,231 students, an increase of 1 percent.
Cabot High School also saw an increase in population, adding an additional 208 students for this school year, bringing the grand total to 1,861 10th- through 12th-graders.
Beebe School District
Enrollment growth in the Beebe School District has slowed from the 2006-07 school year, which had an increase of 140 students.
This year, enrollment is 3,119 students, up 86 from last year’s 3,033.
Leader senior staff writer
White parents appear to be abandoning Jacksonville, particularly the Boys Middle School, where 50 fewer white students are enrolled this year than last, according to official 2007-2008 enrollment figures released this month by the state Education Department this week.
Overall, the school’s enrollment declined by 48 students. That means that white enrollment at the predominantly black, all-boys middle school declined 26 percent from last year. Enrollment for the entire boys middle school is down 11 percent. Whites now account for just over one-third of the enrollment there.
“This puts an exclamation mark on the need for new facilities,” said state Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville.
“We need to break ground on a new facility in the next six to eight months. We need to talk to the parents of the elementary school students and see what they need to have in that school. We need to look at the curriculum and the way the schools are set up,” he said.
“Everybody has opinions, but very seldom do people get the data,” Bond said. “The decline shows something is wrong here. Enrollment has declined over the last 19 years pretty consistently, a lot faster than the rest of the county.
Enrollment at PCSSD schools declined to 17,395, down 361 students from last year.
That’s a 2 percent de-cline overall in a district that has steadily lost enrollment over the past few years.
The district suffered a nearly 5 percent decline in enrollment of white students, this at a time when it seems poised to ask for release from federal court oversight and the desegregation agreement.
The school board meets in special session at 5 p.m. Monday, just two days in advance of the Oct. 31 deadline to file for unitary school status and qualify for attorney’s fees.
The 361-student decline in enrollment at Pulaski County Special School District from last year to this includes the loss of 128 students in Jacksonville, Zone 6, where 3,228 students are enrolled.
Zone 6 schools are Jacksonville High School, both Jacksonville Middle Schools, Jacksonville Elementary School, Pinewood and Murrell Taylor Elementary schools.
The decline will cost PCSSD more than $2 million in state minimum foundation aid.
Those Jacksonville schools serve less than 20 percent of the students in the district, but sustained more than a third of PCSSD’s total enrollment losses.
Thirty-five percent of the decline in PCSSD enrollment is attributable to the decline of white students attending Zone 6 schools.
“It shows a trend that’s been going on since 1989,” said Bond. “Pulaski County has been losing enrollment and Jacksonville’s been losing quicker than the rest of the county.
“You have a slew of young families leaving or choosing not to put their kids in the schools,” Bond said. “We’ve been trying to correct that and haven’t made a lot of headway yet.”
People are moving out of the city, said middle school Principal Mike Nellums. “They are building on the other side of the freeway, which gives them an opportunity to go to Northwood.
“We can stem that movement by providing quality education,” he said. “Some parents aren’t into gender-based education.”
He said Jacksonville’s poor facilities contribute to the problem. He said proportionately, discipline problems are no more frequent at his school.
Jacksonville Middle School for Boys is the only one not under academic distress. “All our test scores improved last year—every grade level in every subject matter,” he said.
“Ours is a 50-plus-year-old building,” he said. “We’re doing the best we can with what we have.”
Nellums said he hopes with the audio-visual program started at the middle school, it will grow into a communications-magnet school.
Students classified as neither black nor white account for just 5 percent of the district’s enrollment.
Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders account for most of those. Those groups had slight increases in enrollment.
The district has 8,822 white students, 7,641 black students, 611 Hispanic students, 284 Asian or Pacific Islanders and 37 American Indians or Alaskan natives.
ZONE 6 ENROLLMENT
Of the 3,228 students enrolled in Zone 6 schools this year, 1,300 are white.
Here’s the Zone 5 2007-2008 enrollment break-down with percent of increase or decline rounded off:
Jacksonville Elementary—542 students, down 10 (-2 percent) from last year with 329 black students and 160 white students.
Jacksonville Girls Middle School—405 students, down 35 (-8 percent) with 225 black students and 169 white students.
Jacksonville Boys Middle School—378 students, down 48 (-11 percent) with 224 black students and 139 white students.
Jacksonville High School—1,089 students, down 25 (-2 percent) with 544 black students and 499 white students.
Pinewood Elementary—390 students, down 14 (-4 percent) with 205 black students and 168 white students.
Murrell Taylor Elementary—434 students, up 4 (+1 percent) with 257 black students and 165 white students.
ZONE 5 ENROLLMENT
Of the 3,063 students enrolled in Zone 5 schools this year, 959 are black. Enrollment is down 62 students.
Here’s the Zone 5 2007-2008 enrollment break-down with percent of increase or decline rounded off:
Bayou Meto Elementary—362 students, down 32 (-8 percent) with 10 black students and 331 white students.
Warren Dupree Elementary—310 students, down 12 (-4 percent) with 138 black students and 153 white students. This is an 11 percent decline in the number of white students.
Tolleson Elementary—297 students, same as last year, with 108 black students and 164 white students. This is a 9 percent decline in the number of white students.
Cato Elementary—316 students, down 13 (-4 percent) with 103 black students and 193 white students. This is a 9 percent decline in the number of black students.
Arnold Drive Elementary—226 students, up 10 (+5 percent) with 79 black students and 122 white students.
Northwood Middle School —632 students, down 22 (-3 percent) with 233 black students and 368 white students.
North Pulaski High School —920 students, up 7 (+1 percent) with 367 black students and 527 white students.
ZONE 4 ENROLLMENT
Of the 2,317 students enrolled in area Zone 4 schools this year, a decline of 50 from last year. Just over half are white.
Here’s the Zone 4 2007-2008 enrollment break-down with percent of increase or decline rounded off:
Sherwood Elementary—377 students, down 23 (-6 percent) with 158 black students and 208 white students.
That’s a decline of 9 percent among white students.
Sylvan Hills Elementary—354 students, down 5 (-1 percent) with 136 black students and 204 white students.
Sylvan Hills Middle School—667 students, up 14 (+2 percent) with 310 black students and 323 white students.
Sylvan Hills High School—919 students, down 36 (-4 percent) with 418 black students and 468 white students.
LONOKE SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Lonoke School District, with 1,832 students, saw an enrollment decline of seven since the 2006-2007 school year, costing the district about $40,000 in state minimum foundation aid.
Lonoke Primary School enrollment of 422 students dropped 17 from last year, including an 8 percent decrease in the number of white students and a 13 percent increase in the number of black students.
Lonoke Elementary School’s enrollment grew by five to 422 students, an increase of 1 percent.
Lonoke Middle School enrollment grew by 16 students to 432. That includes a 41 percent increase in the number of Hispanic students to 24.
Lonoke High School dropped by 11 students to 556.
Cabot School District
The Cabot School District has an official enrollment of 9,245 students this school year, a figure that continues to increase each year.
There are 3,734 students among the district’s eight elementary schools, an increase of 83 students from last school year.
At the middle school, there are a total of 1,420 students among two middle schools; last year there were 1,406 fifth- and sixth-graders in Cabot.
The junior high population grew by 97 to 2,231 students, an increase of 1 percent.
Cabot High School also saw an increase in population, adding an additional 208 students for this school year, bringing the grand total to 1,861 10th- through 12th-graders.
Beebe School District
Enrollment growth in the Beebe School District has slowed from the 2006-07 school year, which had an increase of 140 students.
This year, enrollment is 3,119 students, up 86 from last year’s 3,033.
TOP STORY >>Student growth expands in Cabot
By HEATHER HARTSELL
Leader staff writer
What, in your opinion, are the two greatest challenges facing the still-growing Cabot School District over the next 10 years?
That was one of three homework questions Superintendent Dr. Tony Thurman posed to a new focus group Friday during the first of many meetings to come as the district keeps adding more students, putting it in the top fourth in growth and seventh in size in the state.
“We are at a crossroads in the district,” Thurman told the group of about 30 community members, parents and former school board members. “We need your input as to what direction our patrons feel would be the best way to go.”
Friday’s meeting topic was facilities and growth; future meetings will focus on providing feedback to board members on funding, curriculum, technology and school safety.
The focus group will meet periodically for the rest of the school year and it is Thurman’s objective to have a group each year that provides input to the district.
“We need people from outside, with children or grandchildren in the district, teachers in the district, those that have been part of the district for many years and have a vested interest in what happens in Cabot schools, and we want to hear from you – the good and the bad, that’s why you were chosen,” Thurman said.
The district’s official enrollment numbers for this year in its 14 schools show a student population of 9,245 – an increase of over 2,000 students over 10 years.
Assuming an annual increase of 3 percent, Cabot’s student population is projected to hit 10,405 students five years from now.
By 2017, using the yearly 3 percent increase, the population is expected to be over the 12,000 mark.
“Three percent is with the current trends and we have every reason to believe this trend will stay in place as long as we continue to offer a quality product and we still have places for people to live,” Thurman said.
Knowing the projected population figures, there is no doubt the district will eventually have to expand its facilities – be it additional classrooms added at existing schools, or construction of a new school – ideas Thurman hopes his focus group will provide input on.
Of the eight elementary schools, only three — Central, Westside and Stagecoach — have the space to add additional classrooms if needed.
“These three are the only ones really with the land available to add four, five or six classes more,” Thurman said.
The others are either as full as they need to get, have commercial property surrounding them or would cause too many traffic problems if expanded.
At the middle school level, both Middle School South and Middle School North still have room for growth.
With a maximum capacity at each school of 1,200 students, MSS is currently at 738 and MSN is at 682.
The junior high campuses are much closer to reaching their maximum capacity of 1,200 students each; Junior High South has a current population of 1,025 and Junior High North, currently at the high school campus due to last August’s electrical fire, has 1,141 students.
With the projected 3 percent increase, the junior highs will be even closer to maximum capacity by next school year and could be over the limit in three years.
Cabot has a good school district, Thurman said, but it must face many challenges that lay ahead to remain a very good school district, especially with the market place of options for students getting more aggressive.
Thurman said that while people might still move to Cabot, there are now other educational options for students, citing a virtual high school with online classes and no base location as an example.
“There are a lot of challenges to keep up with what is happening with our students,” he said.
“Our board members want to know what you think,” Thurman told the focus group, adding he would be as transparent as possible in giving out information during the meetings so patrons would know what the district is dealing with.
Leader staff writer
What, in your opinion, are the two greatest challenges facing the still-growing Cabot School District over the next 10 years?
That was one of three homework questions Superintendent Dr. Tony Thurman posed to a new focus group Friday during the first of many meetings to come as the district keeps adding more students, putting it in the top fourth in growth and seventh in size in the state.
“We are at a crossroads in the district,” Thurman told the group of about 30 community members, parents and former school board members. “We need your input as to what direction our patrons feel would be the best way to go.”
Friday’s meeting topic was facilities and growth; future meetings will focus on providing feedback to board members on funding, curriculum, technology and school safety.
The focus group will meet periodically for the rest of the school year and it is Thurman’s objective to have a group each year that provides input to the district.
“We need people from outside, with children or grandchildren in the district, teachers in the district, those that have been part of the district for many years and have a vested interest in what happens in Cabot schools, and we want to hear from you – the good and the bad, that’s why you were chosen,” Thurman said.
The district’s official enrollment numbers for this year in its 14 schools show a student population of 9,245 – an increase of over 2,000 students over 10 years.
Assuming an annual increase of 3 percent, Cabot’s student population is projected to hit 10,405 students five years from now.
By 2017, using the yearly 3 percent increase, the population is expected to be over the 12,000 mark.
“Three percent is with the current trends and we have every reason to believe this trend will stay in place as long as we continue to offer a quality product and we still have places for people to live,” Thurman said.
Knowing the projected population figures, there is no doubt the district will eventually have to expand its facilities – be it additional classrooms added at existing schools, or construction of a new school – ideas Thurman hopes his focus group will provide input on.
Of the eight elementary schools, only three — Central, Westside and Stagecoach — have the space to add additional classrooms if needed.
“These three are the only ones really with the land available to add four, five or six classes more,” Thurman said.
The others are either as full as they need to get, have commercial property surrounding them or would cause too many traffic problems if expanded.
At the middle school level, both Middle School South and Middle School North still have room for growth.
With a maximum capacity at each school of 1,200 students, MSS is currently at 738 and MSN is at 682.
The junior high campuses are much closer to reaching their maximum capacity of 1,200 students each; Junior High South has a current population of 1,025 and Junior High North, currently at the high school campus due to last August’s electrical fire, has 1,141 students.
With the projected 3 percent increase, the junior highs will be even closer to maximum capacity by next school year and could be over the limit in three years.
Cabot has a good school district, Thurman said, but it must face many challenges that lay ahead to remain a very good school district, especially with the market place of options for students getting more aggressive.
Thurman said that while people might still move to Cabot, there are now other educational options for students, citing a virtual high school with online classes and no base location as an example.
“There are a lot of challenges to keep up with what is happening with our students,” he said.
“Our board members want to know what you think,” Thurman told the focus group, adding he would be as transparent as possible in giving out information during the meetings so patrons would know what the district is dealing with.
TOP STORY >>Big check for Guard
By HEATHER HARTSELL
Leader staff writer
Arkansas Army National Guard members from F Company, 2nd Battalion, 153rd Foreign Support Company, who are serving full-time in Cabot in temporary shelters, have always received tremendous support from the Cabot community.
Witnessing Gov. Mike Beebe present a $100,000 check to the city Thursday to help pay for the land on Hwy. 367 that will house their 34,000-square-foot permanent armory location only sealed the deal.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, from the day we stepped foot here, even in the rental facility, that it (a permanent location) was going to happen. It was just a matter of letting it run its course,” Capt. Isaac Shields, F Company commander, said.
“The overwhelming support all the people and vendors have given has shown us that Cabot does want us here and will help us help them,” he said, adding, “they understand that we’re here for them.”
Construction of the new Cabot readiness center, which will be the headquarters for the unit, will cost approximately $8 million, all of it eligible for federal funding within the next five years, said Brig. Gen. Larry Haltom, deputy adjutant general for the Arkansas Army National Guard.
The Guard’s goal is to have the new facility constructed by 2010. Its temporary headquarters are nearby.
“This project is the number one priority on the Guard’s long-range facilities plan,” Haltom said.
“The funds to purchase the land is just one step in the process and hopefully it (construction of the actual armory) won’t be eight years later, but it won’t happen tomorrow either,” he said.
Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams had asked Beebe for $100,000 from his discretionary fund to help pay for the 15.5 acres in the industrial park on Hwy. 367 where the armory will be built, but the amount of the check was not known until Thursday’s ceremony at the Cabot community center.
Beebe said the check, almost all of it coming from tax dollars, is a marriage of two “spectacular” things – the community and the troops.
“This marriage between the city and National Guard is appropriate and one we all honor, so we celebrate by providing this check,” the governor said.
“It’s a marriage we are all proud of,” he added. And with the possibility of federal funds helping in the construction, Beebe said the new armory will allow the unit to train in an enhanced facility.
“It also gives easy access to the soldiers and their families, is more convenient, and the updated aspects of today’s armory allow for a bit more sophisticated training than the armories of yesterday,” the govenor said.
The state has not built a new armory since September 2005, when a $4.25 million facility went up in Warren.
As members of the Guard, soldiers can choose where they want to work and which unit they want to be in, Shields said.
“This is an incredible unit and an incredible community. I think it speaks volumes about the community to have so many come from out of state to be here, that this is where they want to work,” he said.
While many soldiers assigned to F Company live in and around the Cabot and Beebe area, others, like Shields, live out of state; he lives in Oklahoma.
F Company’s primary mission is to support the infantry battalion. With a working/fighting force of 127 soldiers, the company is comprised of mechanics, welders, truck drivers and other support personnel using approximately 120 pieces of equipment.
Leader staff writer
Arkansas Army National Guard members from F Company, 2nd Battalion, 153rd Foreign Support Company, who are serving full-time in Cabot in temporary shelters, have always received tremendous support from the Cabot community.
Witnessing Gov. Mike Beebe present a $100,000 check to the city Thursday to help pay for the land on Hwy. 367 that will house their 34,000-square-foot permanent armory location only sealed the deal.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, from the day we stepped foot here, even in the rental facility, that it (a permanent location) was going to happen. It was just a matter of letting it run its course,” Capt. Isaac Shields, F Company commander, said.
“The overwhelming support all the people and vendors have given has shown us that Cabot does want us here and will help us help them,” he said, adding, “they understand that we’re here for them.”
Construction of the new Cabot readiness center, which will be the headquarters for the unit, will cost approximately $8 million, all of it eligible for federal funding within the next five years, said Brig. Gen. Larry Haltom, deputy adjutant general for the Arkansas Army National Guard.
The Guard’s goal is to have the new facility constructed by 2010. Its temporary headquarters are nearby.
“This project is the number one priority on the Guard’s long-range facilities plan,” Haltom said.
“The funds to purchase the land is just one step in the process and hopefully it (construction of the actual armory) won’t be eight years later, but it won’t happen tomorrow either,” he said.
Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams had asked Beebe for $100,000 from his discretionary fund to help pay for the 15.5 acres in the industrial park on Hwy. 367 where the armory will be built, but the amount of the check was not known until Thursday’s ceremony at the Cabot community center.
Beebe said the check, almost all of it coming from tax dollars, is a marriage of two “spectacular” things – the community and the troops.
“This marriage between the city and National Guard is appropriate and one we all honor, so we celebrate by providing this check,” the governor said.
“It’s a marriage we are all proud of,” he added. And with the possibility of federal funds helping in the construction, Beebe said the new armory will allow the unit to train in an enhanced facility.
“It also gives easy access to the soldiers and their families, is more convenient, and the updated aspects of today’s armory allow for a bit more sophisticated training than the armories of yesterday,” the govenor said.
The state has not built a new armory since September 2005, when a $4.25 million facility went up in Warren.
As members of the Guard, soldiers can choose where they want to work and which unit they want to be in, Shields said.
“This is an incredible unit and an incredible community. I think it speaks volumes about the community to have so many come from out of state to be here, that this is where they want to work,” he said.
While many soldiers assigned to F Company live in and around the Cabot and Beebe area, others, like Shields, live out of state; he lives in Oklahoma.
F Company’s primary mission is to support the infantry battalion. With a working/fighting force of 127 soldiers, the company is comprised of mechanics, welders, truck drivers and other support personnel using approximately 120 pieces of equipment.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
TOP STORY >>Restrictions upset payday lenders
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
With implementation of a new 17 percent interest limit on payday loans to members of the military and their families in Arkansas, the cash cow may be drying up for lenders who target the military.
The military has taken a firm position against payday lenders, and in Arkansas, state Rep. Jeff Wood (D-Sherwood) authored a bill approved by the General Assembly in 2005 to limit the interest charged on military payday loans to 17 percent, the maximum interest allowed in the state.
Some lenders found a way around that limit, but this month, a federal law took effect limiting loans to members of the military and their families to 36 percent interest except where state law called for less. So, in Arkansas, 17 percent is officially the highest interest a payday lender could charge—not much for an industry that regularly charged 400 percent interest or more for its small loans.
Studies have shown that payday lenders and the check cashers tend to congregate near military bases, and in fact, three of four Jacksonville payday lenders are within a mile of base property outside Little Rock Air Force Base’s Vandenberg gate.
Clustered just east of state Hwy. 67/167 are Advance America, First American Cash Advance and American Check Cashers.
At Little Rock Air Force Base, arriving airmen are briefed on payday lenders and discouraged from using the services, according to Sgt. Arlo Taylor, the public information officer. “We work to encourage financial education,” he said.
The base does provide some services, such as Airman’s Attic, Air Force Aid and Good Samaritan loans, according to Hank Klein, the founder of Arkansans Against Payday Lending and former head of the Arkansas Federal Credit Union.
“There ain’t much future in our industry,” said payday entrepreneur W. Cosby Hodges of Fort Smith. “The (Arkansas Federal) Credit Union has come out with a product (for the military),” he said, which hurts the payday lenders.
Although the credit union announced a low-interest loan product for the military a few months ago, it has yet to make its first such loan, according to Terry Vick, the credit union’s vice president.
“We’ve had a few inquiries, with people gathering information,” he said.
The new, small, relatively low-interest loans, which also have a savings component to them, will be advertised on Little Rock Air Force Base soon, he said.
Criticized at every turn, Arkansas’ payday lenders and their first cousins, the check cashers, are finding business increasingly difficult and less profitable, Hodges said.
Whether or not the situation is as grim for the makers of small, short-term, high-interest—some say usurious—loans as the picture Hodges paints, it seems certain that they operate now in a tougher environment.
Hodges said he was thinking about closing some of his stores, perhaps including the two in Jacksonville.
Hodges, who owns outright 17 payday and check cashing stores in Arkansas, mostly under his American Check Cashers brand says the check-cashing business is increasingly competitive, with chain stores like Wal-Mart cashing paychecks for as little as $3.
The largest payday lenders have hundreds of stores across the country and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or are owned by banks or other publicly traded companies.
Combined with new state and federal laws limiting the amount of interest that can be charged military families for payday loans, directives from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., lawsuits and negative publicity, some payday lenders and check cashers have left the state.
“We haven’t done a payday loan this year,” said Hodges, who had created his own out-of-state finance company to permit him to circumvent state caps on the amount that could be loaned.
There are about 24,000 payday loan stores in the United States, and last year, about 19 million people used one, according to an industry spokesman.
Many communities have more payday loan stores than McDonald’s restaurants.
“Between the combination of the activists (AAAPL), and so much has been happening in the market over the past five or six years, with Wal-Mart getting in the business, how can anybody compete with that?” Hodges asked.
Klein said Wal-Mart is not only cashing checks, but putting money centers in 1,000 stores, part of what Business Week magazine called “the retailing giant’s relentless push into financial services.” The retail giant already offers money-transfer and check cashing.
Leader senior staff writer
With implementation of a new 17 percent interest limit on payday loans to members of the military and their families in Arkansas, the cash cow may be drying up for lenders who target the military.
The military has taken a firm position against payday lenders, and in Arkansas, state Rep. Jeff Wood (D-Sherwood) authored a bill approved by the General Assembly in 2005 to limit the interest charged on military payday loans to 17 percent, the maximum interest allowed in the state.
Some lenders found a way around that limit, but this month, a federal law took effect limiting loans to members of the military and their families to 36 percent interest except where state law called for less. So, in Arkansas, 17 percent is officially the highest interest a payday lender could charge—not much for an industry that regularly charged 400 percent interest or more for its small loans.
Studies have shown that payday lenders and the check cashers tend to congregate near military bases, and in fact, three of four Jacksonville payday lenders are within a mile of base property outside Little Rock Air Force Base’s Vandenberg gate.
Clustered just east of state Hwy. 67/167 are Advance America, First American Cash Advance and American Check Cashers.
At Little Rock Air Force Base, arriving airmen are briefed on payday lenders and discouraged from using the services, according to Sgt. Arlo Taylor, the public information officer. “We work to encourage financial education,” he said.
The base does provide some services, such as Airman’s Attic, Air Force Aid and Good Samaritan loans, according to Hank Klein, the founder of Arkansans Against Payday Lending and former head of the Arkansas Federal Credit Union.
“There ain’t much future in our industry,” said payday entrepreneur W. Cosby Hodges of Fort Smith. “The (Arkansas Federal) Credit Union has come out with a product (for the military),” he said, which hurts the payday lenders.
Although the credit union announced a low-interest loan product for the military a few months ago, it has yet to make its first such loan, according to Terry Vick, the credit union’s vice president.
“We’ve had a few inquiries, with people gathering information,” he said.
The new, small, relatively low-interest loans, which also have a savings component to them, will be advertised on Little Rock Air Force Base soon, he said.
Criticized at every turn, Arkansas’ payday lenders and their first cousins, the check cashers, are finding business increasingly difficult and less profitable, Hodges said.
Whether or not the situation is as grim for the makers of small, short-term, high-interest—some say usurious—loans as the picture Hodges paints, it seems certain that they operate now in a tougher environment.
Hodges said he was thinking about closing some of his stores, perhaps including the two in Jacksonville.
Hodges, who owns outright 17 payday and check cashing stores in Arkansas, mostly under his American Check Cashers brand says the check-cashing business is increasingly competitive, with chain stores like Wal-Mart cashing paychecks for as little as $3.
The largest payday lenders have hundreds of stores across the country and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or are owned by banks or other publicly traded companies.
Combined with new state and federal laws limiting the amount of interest that can be charged military families for payday loans, directives from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., lawsuits and negative publicity, some payday lenders and check cashers have left the state.
“We haven’t done a payday loan this year,” said Hodges, who had created his own out-of-state finance company to permit him to circumvent state caps on the amount that could be loaned.
There are about 24,000 payday loan stores in the United States, and last year, about 19 million people used one, according to an industry spokesman.
Many communities have more payday loan stores than McDonald’s restaurants.
“Between the combination of the activists (AAAPL), and so much has been happening in the market over the past five or six years, with Wal-Mart getting in the business, how can anybody compete with that?” Hodges asked.
Klein said Wal-Mart is not only cashing checks, but putting money centers in 1,000 stores, part of what Business Week magazine called “the retailing giant’s relentless push into financial services.” The retail giant already offers money-transfer and check cashing.
EDITORIALS>>Huck GOP’s best hope?
The national media has discovered our man Mike Huckabee, and the pundits from David Brooks of The New York Times to Jonathan Alter of Newsweek are writing glowingly about his charm, wit and middle-of-the-road positioning in the field of Republican presidential candidates. They note that the former governor is given to occasional stupid or even scary remarks but no more than the other candidates. And unlike any of the others, he evinces traces of compassion.
Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.
Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.
But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?
If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.
Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.
Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.
But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?
If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.
EDITORIALS>>Huck GOP’s best hope?
The national media has discovered our man Mike Huckabee, and the pundits from David Brooks of The New York Times to Jonathan Alter of Newsweek are writing glowingly about his charm, wit and middle-of-the-road positioning in the field of Republican presidential candidates. They note that the former governor is given to occasional stupid or even scary remarks but no more than the other candidates. And unlike any of the others, he evinces traces of compassion.
Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.
Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.
But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?
If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.
Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.
Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.
But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?
If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.
EDITORIALS>>Huck GOP’s best hope?
The national media has discovered our man Mike Huckabee, and the pundits from David Brooks of The New York Times to Jonathan Alter of Newsweek are writing glowingly about his charm, wit and middle-of-the-road positioning in the field of Republican presidential candidates. They note that the former governor is given to occasional stupid or even scary remarks but no more than the other candidates. And unlike any of the others, he evinces traces of compassion.
Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.
Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.
But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?
If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.
Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.
Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.
But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?
If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.
EDITORIALS>>State should reject plant
In the closing argument for a permit to build a coal-fired generating plant in Hempstead County, the lead attorney for Southwestern Electric Power Co. pleaded with the state Public Service Commission Monday not to put the company and its customers at risk by denying permission to build the plant.
He made a persuasive case that coal was the most reliable and maybe the cheapest way to meet the growing demand for electricity among its customers in western Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Soft coal is abundant in Wyoming and Montana and other generation sources are questionable. Nuclear takes too long, natural gas is abundant but prices are unstable, and renewable sources like wind and solar can help but are not yet reliable enough to meet a base load demand.
But the company makes a weaker case against the other options to building a coal plant that will foul the atmosphere for generations: existing merchant gas supplies and conservation. There is abundant capacity in the region now to meet the anticipated needs of SWEPCO and its partner in the Hempstead County proposition. A gas-powered merchant plant at El Dorado, for example, could meet the need as soon as transmission facilities are put in place. In other regions, notably North Carolina, power companies are investing in conservation practices and earning a return on the investment, which reduces demand and helps customers, too.
SWEPCO’s attorney acknowledged the existence of ample capacity among merchant suppliers, but he said it was just too chancy.
“If you force us into the market to meet base load, you’re putting our customers at risk,” the attorney told the commissioners, who must decide within 60 days whether to grant an environmental permit to build the big plant.
“Risk” is an apt description of the issue all right, but the risk of a higher imperative involves all of us and our grandchildren, not merely the ratepayers of the ArkLaTex who might some day have to pay a little more than is forecast on their light bills if the plant is not built.
The proposed plant would pump from 4 to 6 million tons of carbon dioxide every year into the atmosphere, where it will hover for a century or so and contribute, if ever so slightly, to the warming of the earth. We know that now; we didn’t know it 40 years ago, when the state was approving the existing three coal plants in Arkansas, which are pumping something like 30 million tons of carbon a year into the atmosphere. In the big scheme of things, the plant’s 4 to 6 million tons of poison is not that much, but are we to avoid simple good works simply because they are not miracles?
Congress shortly — well, as soon as there is a change of administrations — will regulate carbon dioxide for the first time and it almost certainly will impose huge costs on the new generation of electricity from carbon. All across the country companies are abandoning plans for new coal plants or being blocked by state governments. We hope the Arkansas commissioners as well will avoid the most dangerous risk, literally to mankind, and reject the plant.
He made a persuasive case that coal was the most reliable and maybe the cheapest way to meet the growing demand for electricity among its customers in western Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Soft coal is abundant in Wyoming and Montana and other generation sources are questionable. Nuclear takes too long, natural gas is abundant but prices are unstable, and renewable sources like wind and solar can help but are not yet reliable enough to meet a base load demand.
But the company makes a weaker case against the other options to building a coal plant that will foul the atmosphere for generations: existing merchant gas supplies and conservation. There is abundant capacity in the region now to meet the anticipated needs of SWEPCO and its partner in the Hempstead County proposition. A gas-powered merchant plant at El Dorado, for example, could meet the need as soon as transmission facilities are put in place. In other regions, notably North Carolina, power companies are investing in conservation practices and earning a return on the investment, which reduces demand and helps customers, too.
SWEPCO’s attorney acknowledged the existence of ample capacity among merchant suppliers, but he said it was just too chancy.
“If you force us into the market to meet base load, you’re putting our customers at risk,” the attorney told the commissioners, who must decide within 60 days whether to grant an environmental permit to build the big plant.
“Risk” is an apt description of the issue all right, but the risk of a higher imperative involves all of us and our grandchildren, not merely the ratepayers of the ArkLaTex who might some day have to pay a little more than is forecast on their light bills if the plant is not built.
The proposed plant would pump from 4 to 6 million tons of carbon dioxide every year into the atmosphere, where it will hover for a century or so and contribute, if ever so slightly, to the warming of the earth. We know that now; we didn’t know it 40 years ago, when the state was approving the existing three coal plants in Arkansas, which are pumping something like 30 million tons of carbon a year into the atmosphere. In the big scheme of things, the plant’s 4 to 6 million tons of poison is not that much, but are we to avoid simple good works simply because they are not miracles?
Congress shortly — well, as soon as there is a change of administrations — will regulate carbon dioxide for the first time and it almost certainly will impose huge costs on the new generation of electricity from carbon. All across the country companies are abandoning plans for new coal plants or being blocked by state governments. We hope the Arkansas commissioners as well will avoid the most dangerous risk, literally to mankind, and reject the plant.
SPORTS >>Freshmen, NP Falcons set records
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The North Pulaski freshmen football team is turning the corner. The freshmen Falcons have won their last two games over Little Rock Christian Academy and Pulaski Oak Grove, and broke some school records in the process.
Last Thursday against Oak Grove, freshman running back Michael Cage broke single-game records for touchdowns, points and rushing yardage, while the team broke the single-game school record for total yards.
The Falcons amassed 426 total yards while Caged piled up 288 of those on the ground.
He also scored six touchdowns and ran in two separate two-point conversions to finish the game with 40 points scored in North Pulaski’s 48-34 victory over the Hornets.
“It was a phenomenal effort,” North Pulaski coach Ben Belton said. “He ran hard, the line blocked really well for him. There were some big holes, and when there wasn’t he ran through tackles, kept his feet moving, it was just a great team accomplishment. “
North Pulaski has been at a disadvantage all season in having Belton as the only coach to work with the team most of the time. Extenuating circumstances left Belton without an assistant this season, and it’s taken the team a little more time to get up to speed with where most teams have been for a while.
“I knew this team would get better, and they have,” Belton said. “We’ve played eight games and we’re just now hitting our third and fourth-game stride. We’re behind other teams, but I knew they would come around.”
Belton felt like a key turning point was three games ago against league leading Mills. NP lost that game, but competed well, and the head coach noticed a difference that night.
“We made the turn that week against Mills,” Belton said. “We know we’re just 2-6 overall, but the way we’re looking at it, we’re throwing out the first half of the season and trying to finish 4-0.”
Belton is also proud of his team for sticking through the arduous and long process of improvement.
“They’re good kids, there’s no doubt about that,” Belton said. “They know they’re at a disadvantage, but they’ve kept working hard. We haven’t been able to do as much with our time as other teams, but what we’ve been able to do, they’ve listened and done what was asked of them. They’ve been getting better and better and better. I knew a turn would come for ‘em, and it finally did. We’ve got two tough games left, but games I think they can win.”
The Falcons travel to Sylvan Hills tomorrow, and close the season next week at home against Jacksonville in the annual Chili Bowl.
Leader sports editor
The North Pulaski freshmen football team is turning the corner. The freshmen Falcons have won their last two games over Little Rock Christian Academy and Pulaski Oak Grove, and broke some school records in the process.
Last Thursday against Oak Grove, freshman running back Michael Cage broke single-game records for touchdowns, points and rushing yardage, while the team broke the single-game school record for total yards.
The Falcons amassed 426 total yards while Caged piled up 288 of those on the ground.
He also scored six touchdowns and ran in two separate two-point conversions to finish the game with 40 points scored in North Pulaski’s 48-34 victory over the Hornets.
“It was a phenomenal effort,” North Pulaski coach Ben Belton said. “He ran hard, the line blocked really well for him. There were some big holes, and when there wasn’t he ran through tackles, kept his feet moving, it was just a great team accomplishment. “
North Pulaski has been at a disadvantage all season in having Belton as the only coach to work with the team most of the time. Extenuating circumstances left Belton without an assistant this season, and it’s taken the team a little more time to get up to speed with where most teams have been for a while.
“I knew this team would get better, and they have,” Belton said. “We’ve played eight games and we’re just now hitting our third and fourth-game stride. We’re behind other teams, but I knew they would come around.”
Belton felt like a key turning point was three games ago against league leading Mills. NP lost that game, but competed well, and the head coach noticed a difference that night.
“We made the turn that week against Mills,” Belton said. “We know we’re just 2-6 overall, but the way we’re looking at it, we’re throwing out the first half of the season and trying to finish 4-0.”
Belton is also proud of his team for sticking through the arduous and long process of improvement.
“They’re good kids, there’s no doubt about that,” Belton said. “They know they’re at a disadvantage, but they’ve kept working hard. We haven’t been able to do as much with our time as other teams, but what we’ve been able to do, they’ve listened and done what was asked of them. They’ve been getting better and better and better. I knew a turn would come for ‘em, and it finally did. We’ve got two tough games left, but games I think they can win.”
The Falcons travel to Sylvan Hills tomorrow, and close the season next week at home against Jacksonville in the annual Chili Bowl.
SPORTS >>Zebras concern Cabot
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Panthers’ loss to Bryant last week puts them in a strange position for the playoffs. If Bryant wins one more game, it seals up the conference title and No. 1 seed in the playoffs. If Cabot wins out, it can finish as high as No. 2 and get a home playoff game with a 5-2 league record. If it loses just one and fnishes 4-3, everything is up in the air.
Standing between Cabot and that two seed right now is Pine Bluff, which visits Panther Stadium this Friday night. The Zebras’ record isn’t impressive, but the team is, and has shown considerable improvement all season.
“They haven’t won a game, and you go in there wondering how you’re going to beat ‘em,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said. “They got speed all over the place. They got good size on the line. They’ve just been finding ways to beat themselves. They’re getting better though. I wish we could have got them in the first couple of weeks.”
Pine Bluff’s best weapon is sophomore quarterback Claude Johnson. He leads the team in rushing, and has a good arm. The Zebras lost 32-31 to Russellville, and Catholic scored late in the fourth to win 21-14. They also have a 28-28 tie with Fayetteville on their record this year.
“Russellville was lucky,” Malham said. “They gave that one away. Catholic had a tough time with them. They tied Fayetteville, this is a good team that’s about as dangerous as anyone we’ve played. If we play like we did in the second half last week we’re not going to beat anybody.”
Cabot gave up 28 points in the second half against Bryant, losing a 14-10 halftime lead in the process and falling 38-14. The Hornets scored just before halftime on an inverted screen to the wideout. A play that should have been stopped for a short gain, but turned into a 22-yard touchdown pass.
“We missed three tackles on that play and sort of gave them the momentum at halftime,” Malham said. “We were still in good shape, we were ahead. We just didn’t play in the second half. We didn’t tackle well, didn’t cover some receivers. For some reason we got some linemen that didn’t want to block like they’ve been blocking. If all that keeps up, we’re in trouble.”
Cabot lost two more players in that game as well. Starting center ?? Phelps, and starting cornerback Joe Bryant were injured last week and will miss this Friday’s game.
Malham said Jeremy Wilson will finish the year at quarterback. Sophomore Powell Bryant, who stepped in at quarterback against Little Rock Central when starter Seth Bloomberg suffered a broken collarbone, will play in the defensive backfield.
“We’ll need some speed in the defensive backfield these next two weeks for sure, and Bryant runs a little better than Wilson.” Malham said. “Wilson’s been doing a good job for us. He runs hard and makes good decisions with the ball.”
The importance of winning these last two games isn’t lost on the team. Five teams in the 7A-Central still have winning conference records. Bryant is 5-0, Russellville is 4-1 while Cabot, Catholic and Central are all 3-2.
“Everything is big right now,” Malham said. “We’d like to get to play at home and 5-2 will probably get us that. You finish 4-3 you may not even get in.”
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Panthers’ loss to Bryant last week puts them in a strange position for the playoffs. If Bryant wins one more game, it seals up the conference title and No. 1 seed in the playoffs. If Cabot wins out, it can finish as high as No. 2 and get a home playoff game with a 5-2 league record. If it loses just one and fnishes 4-3, everything is up in the air.
Standing between Cabot and that two seed right now is Pine Bluff, which visits Panther Stadium this Friday night. The Zebras’ record isn’t impressive, but the team is, and has shown considerable improvement all season.
“They haven’t won a game, and you go in there wondering how you’re going to beat ‘em,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said. “They got speed all over the place. They got good size on the line. They’ve just been finding ways to beat themselves. They’re getting better though. I wish we could have got them in the first couple of weeks.”
Pine Bluff’s best weapon is sophomore quarterback Claude Johnson. He leads the team in rushing, and has a good arm. The Zebras lost 32-31 to Russellville, and Catholic scored late in the fourth to win 21-14. They also have a 28-28 tie with Fayetteville on their record this year.
“Russellville was lucky,” Malham said. “They gave that one away. Catholic had a tough time with them. They tied Fayetteville, this is a good team that’s about as dangerous as anyone we’ve played. If we play like we did in the second half last week we’re not going to beat anybody.”
Cabot gave up 28 points in the second half against Bryant, losing a 14-10 halftime lead in the process and falling 38-14. The Hornets scored just before halftime on an inverted screen to the wideout. A play that should have been stopped for a short gain, but turned into a 22-yard touchdown pass.
“We missed three tackles on that play and sort of gave them the momentum at halftime,” Malham said. “We were still in good shape, we were ahead. We just didn’t play in the second half. We didn’t tackle well, didn’t cover some receivers. For some reason we got some linemen that didn’t want to block like they’ve been blocking. If all that keeps up, we’re in trouble.”
Cabot lost two more players in that game as well. Starting center ?? Phelps, and starting cornerback Joe Bryant were injured last week and will miss this Friday’s game.
Malham said Jeremy Wilson will finish the year at quarterback. Sophomore Powell Bryant, who stepped in at quarterback against Little Rock Central when starter Seth Bloomberg suffered a broken collarbone, will play in the defensive backfield.
“We’ll need some speed in the defensive backfield these next two weeks for sure, and Bryant runs a little better than Wilson.” Malham said. “Wilson’s been doing a good job for us. He runs hard and makes good decisions with the ball.”
The importance of winning these last two games isn’t lost on the team. Five teams in the 7A-Central still have winning conference records. Bryant is 5-0, Russellville is 4-1 while Cabot, Catholic and Central are all 3-2.
“Everything is big right now,” Malham said. “We’d like to get to play at home and 5-2 will probably get us that. You finish 4-3 you may not even get in.”
SPORTS >>Beebe preparing mentally
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Beebe’s “take-a-breath” week is over, and it’s back to games of great importance this week as the Badgers prepare to travel to Craighead County to take on the Nettleton Raiders. Beebe’s supposedly easy game against winless Greene County Tech turned out a little more difficult than it should have been, but Badger coach John Shannon was glad that his team got the win, got its 13 conference points and still has a shot at a high seed and a home playoff game.
Beebe’s 35-18 win over Tech qualified the Badgers for the playoffs, now it’s a matter of seeding.
A win over Nettleton assures Beebe of at least a three seed, and sets up a battle with Batesville for second place. Right now, Batesville is the furthest thing from Shannon’s mind.
“This is a big one right here,” Shannon said. “They’re on a roll. They’ve won 42-0 the last two weeks, so they’re coming into this one with some confidence.”
The teams’ four common opponents don’t shed much light on the matchup. Nettleton beat North Pulaski and Tech much easier than Beebe did, but just got by Paragould 21-14 and was blown out by Blytheville. Beebe hammered Paragould 35-0 and lost a thriller 32-22 to Blytheville.
What Shannon is most concerned with is improving how his team played last week against Tech.
“I don’t think it took them long to realize that they weren’t ready to play,” Shannon said of last week’s game. “We came back on Saturday watched film. They responded well to the talk we had Saturday, and hopefully we learned a valuable lesson about being mentally prepared.”
There some very tangible things that Beebe will have to improve upon in order to beat the Raiders. Executing on offense, and maintaining assignments on defense are key elements to a win this week, but those things too, go back to mental preparation.
“We had way too many missed assignments all over the field,” Shannon said. “Their (Tech’s) big plays were pass plays where the quarterback scrambled. He was able to get big yardage because we weren’t in our rushing lanes. We absolutely can’t do that this week because Nettleton is going to spread you out and run the ball.”
The Raiders come with a two-fold attack. Operating out of the spread offense, they run most of the time, but do have an effective passing game.
Their quarterback runs well and their running back is pretty good too,” Shannon said. “If we make the same kind of mistakes that we did last week, they’re going to have big games. We have to play smarter and execute better. We want to go into the playoffs with some momentum. We don’t want to limp in there losing two in a row, so we’re going to have to get better.”
Leader sports editor
Beebe’s “take-a-breath” week is over, and it’s back to games of great importance this week as the Badgers prepare to travel to Craighead County to take on the Nettleton Raiders. Beebe’s supposedly easy game against winless Greene County Tech turned out a little more difficult than it should have been, but Badger coach John Shannon was glad that his team got the win, got its 13 conference points and still has a shot at a high seed and a home playoff game.
Beebe’s 35-18 win over Tech qualified the Badgers for the playoffs, now it’s a matter of seeding.
A win over Nettleton assures Beebe of at least a three seed, and sets up a battle with Batesville for second place. Right now, Batesville is the furthest thing from Shannon’s mind.
“This is a big one right here,” Shannon said. “They’re on a roll. They’ve won 42-0 the last two weeks, so they’re coming into this one with some confidence.”
The teams’ four common opponents don’t shed much light on the matchup. Nettleton beat North Pulaski and Tech much easier than Beebe did, but just got by Paragould 21-14 and was blown out by Blytheville. Beebe hammered Paragould 35-0 and lost a thriller 32-22 to Blytheville.
What Shannon is most concerned with is improving how his team played last week against Tech.
“I don’t think it took them long to realize that they weren’t ready to play,” Shannon said of last week’s game. “We came back on Saturday watched film. They responded well to the talk we had Saturday, and hopefully we learned a valuable lesson about being mentally prepared.”
There some very tangible things that Beebe will have to improve upon in order to beat the Raiders. Executing on offense, and maintaining assignments on defense are key elements to a win this week, but those things too, go back to mental preparation.
“We had way too many missed assignments all over the field,” Shannon said. “Their (Tech’s) big plays were pass plays where the quarterback scrambled. He was able to get big yardage because we weren’t in our rushing lanes. We absolutely can’t do that this week because Nettleton is going to spread you out and run the ball.”
The Raiders come with a two-fold attack. Operating out of the spread offense, they run most of the time, but do have an effective passing game.
Their quarterback runs well and their running back is pretty good too,” Shannon said. “If we make the same kind of mistakes that we did last week, they’re going to have big games. We have to play smarter and execute better. We want to go into the playoffs with some momentum. We don’t want to limp in there losing two in a row, so we’re going to have to get better.”
OBITUARIES >> 10-24-07
James Roberts
James “Jim” Raleigh Roberts, 26, of Ward went to be with the Lord Oct. 18 in Little Rock. He was born Feb. 25, 1981 in Lawton, Okla.
He attended the New Life Assembly of God Church in Gravel Ridge and was an electrician for his family business, Cabot Electric. His two loves in life were spending time with his family and being outdoors. He was preceded in death by his grandmother, Hilda Stevens.
He is survived by his wife, Christina M. and son, Caleb James of Ward; mother, Kathy D. Wilk of Vilonia and father, Richard E. Wilk of Albuquerque, New Mexico; two sisters; Ruby Juarez of Ward and Jamie Roberts of Ward; daughter, Brooklyn Roberts of Jacksonville; and son, Colton Roberts of Cabot. He will be dearly missed by a host of family and friends.
Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, at Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25 at New Life Assembly of God Church in Gravel Ridge with burial to follow in Chapel Hill Memorial Park in Jacksonville.
Dakota Raney
Dakota Marie Raney, infant, of Cabot passed away Oct. 19. She was born Oct. 19 to Jeffrey Raney and Stefanie Hochhalter.
She was preceded in death by her grandfather, George Raney, Sr.; great-grandfathers, Vernon Brent Willis and George Henley; and great-grandmother, Verdie Kellett.
She is survived by her father, Jeffrey Allen Raney and mother, Stefanie Nicole Hochhalter of Cabot; grandparents, Carol Willis “Marc Henley” of Conway; Dana Hochhalter “Debra” of Montgomery, Ala., and Ernestine “Amy” Raney of Cabot; three great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather; four uncles, one aunt, along with other close family members and friends.
Graveside services were Oct. 22 at Mayflower Cemetery in Mayflower. Arrangements were by Thomas Funeral Service of Cabot.
Gary Wright
Gary Wayne Wright, 50, of North Little Rock passed away Oct. 20. He was born Dec. 15, 1956 in Little Rock.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Georgia Ives, and two sisters, Gladys Vondran and Connie Eubanks.
He is survived by two brothers, David Ives and Bobby Wright and wife Wendy; one sister, Barbara Campbell and many other family members and friends.
Funeral services were Oct. 23 at Thomas Funeral Service in Cabot. Burial was at Evans Cemetery in Cabot.
Etta Wright
Etta M. Wright, 99, of Ward died peacefully in her home on the morning of Oct. 20.
She was born April 5, 1908, at Des Arc to Sam and Martha Ford Williams. She was a member of Ward Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Carol Dewey Wright; one sister, Bonnie Dalton; and three brothers, Troy, Edward and Clarence Williams.
She is survived by one son, Rayford Wright and his wife Bonnie; one granddaughter, Jeri Lynne Wright; one grandson, Steve Wright; and two great-granddaughters, Alyssa and Tawna Wright, all of Springfield, Ill.; and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services were at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe Oct. 22. by the Rev. Frank Warden. Burial was at Johnson Chapel Cemetery.
James Sanders
James Leslie Sanders, 67, of Mabelvale died Oct. 18.
He was preceded in death by his father, James Phillip Sanders.
He is survived by his loving wife, Linda; sons, Norman Sanders and Jerry Sanders; daughter, Sandra Dailey; four grandchildren; sisters, Jeanette Wilson, Joyce Allen and Charlotte Curtis; mother, Dessie Mae Sanders.
Funeral services were Oct. 20 at North Jacksonville Church of Christ. Burial was Oct. 23 at Arkansas State Veterans’ Cemetery in North Little Rock. Funeral arrangements were by Wood Funeral Home of Jacksonville.
Ray Snell
Funeral services for Ray Williamson Snell, 84, who passed away Oct. 5 were held Oct. 8 at Oak Grove Baptist Church, Meridian, Miss., with the Rev. David Chandler officiating. Burial was in Oak Grove Cemetery with James F. Webb Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.
Snell was a retired postal worker and had worked in his father’s business, the Bob J. Snell Candy Company, for many years. He was a veteran of the Second World War and served in the Army Air Corps.
He was a member of the American Legion and a member of the E.J. Knox-King Solomon Lodge 130 F&AM.
Survivors include his brother, Reese Harris Snell and wife Carolyn of Hattiesburg, Miss.; niece, Sandy Snell Booth; great-nieces, Haley Booth and Abby Booth of Lawrence, Ga.; niece, Linda Snell McComb; great-nieces, Meredith McComb Eason and Morgan McComb of Clinton, Miss.; great-niece, Katey Evans and great-nephew, Derek Evans, of Jacksonville; niece, Jennifer Gullette Boyd and great-nephew, Jesse Boyd of Jacksonville; nephew, Bob J. Snell II; great-nephews, Reese Snell II and Ryder Snell of Jonesboro.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob J. Snell and Ella B. Williamson Snell; brother, Robert J. Snell; sister, Mary Kate Snell Gullette, and niece, Julia Kay Gullette Evans.
Lillian Ervin
Lillian Ervin, 78, of North Little Rock went to be with her Lord Sept. 29. She was born in Vermilion County, Ill., and attended schools in that area. She was interested and participated in bluegrass music and arts and crafts.
She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Donald; daughters, Donna Wilson and Carolyn and husband John Gloyd; three sisters, Ernestine, Barbara Jean and Wilma; two grandchildren, Terry Lott and Cody Speer.
Graveside services were at Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock by Huson Funeral Home of Sherwood.
Boyd Gilson
Boyd Roland Gilson, 70, of North Little Rock died Sept. 19 in Little Rock.He was born in Decorah, Iowa, Oct. 3, 1936 to the late W.L. Gilson and Esther N. Gilson. He spent 20 years in the Air Force and another 20 years as the butcher at Little Rock Air Force Base. He was also a member of Victory Missionary Baptist Church in Sherwood.
He had nine brothers, Bill and wife Marylin of Wicks, Phillip of Jacksonville, John and wife Bessie of Mena, Chucky of Conway, Mo., Ronnie and wife, Arlyss of Wright City, Mo., Norman of Texas, Larry of Arkansas, Duane and wife Veverly of Nixa, Mo., and Donnie who preceded him in death.
He is survived by his loving wife, Grace P. Jones Gilson of North Little Rock; two sons, James D. Gilson and wife Laura of North Little Rock, and John Gilson of Texas; two daughters, Esther Ashworth and husband Ben of Miss., and Elizabeth Hicks of Jacksonville; three grandsons, Brandon Ashworth, Chris Hicks and David Gilson; and a granddaughter, Allison Hicks; four sisters, Lucy Bowman of Galena, Mo., Nancy and husband Wayne Towe of Rogers, Cheryl Reid of Paris and Beth and husband T.M. Morgan of Mena; and many nieces and nephews. Cremation arrangements were by Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.
Joe Vann, Jr.
Joe “Poppy” Wilton Vann Jr., departed this life Oct. 22. He was born April 8, 1931.
He is survived by his wife, Marie; brother, John Sukeforth and wife Sharon; sister, Barbara Vann; children, Joe W. Vann III, Cheryl Vann Laar, Pamela Marie Walthers and Michael Ray Le Master; seven grandchildren; many nieces and nephews and one mother-in-law. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the chapel of Wood Funeral Home, Jacksonville.
James “Jim” Raleigh Roberts, 26, of Ward went to be with the Lord Oct. 18 in Little Rock. He was born Feb. 25, 1981 in Lawton, Okla.
He attended the New Life Assembly of God Church in Gravel Ridge and was an electrician for his family business, Cabot Electric. His two loves in life were spending time with his family and being outdoors. He was preceded in death by his grandmother, Hilda Stevens.
He is survived by his wife, Christina M. and son, Caleb James of Ward; mother, Kathy D. Wilk of Vilonia and father, Richard E. Wilk of Albuquerque, New Mexico; two sisters; Ruby Juarez of Ward and Jamie Roberts of Ward; daughter, Brooklyn Roberts of Jacksonville; and son, Colton Roberts of Cabot. He will be dearly missed by a host of family and friends.
Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, at Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25 at New Life Assembly of God Church in Gravel Ridge with burial to follow in Chapel Hill Memorial Park in Jacksonville.
Dakota Raney
Dakota Marie Raney, infant, of Cabot passed away Oct. 19. She was born Oct. 19 to Jeffrey Raney and Stefanie Hochhalter.
She was preceded in death by her grandfather, George Raney, Sr.; great-grandfathers, Vernon Brent Willis and George Henley; and great-grandmother, Verdie Kellett.
She is survived by her father, Jeffrey Allen Raney and mother, Stefanie Nicole Hochhalter of Cabot; grandparents, Carol Willis “Marc Henley” of Conway; Dana Hochhalter “Debra” of Montgomery, Ala., and Ernestine “Amy” Raney of Cabot; three great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather; four uncles, one aunt, along with other close family members and friends.
Graveside services were Oct. 22 at Mayflower Cemetery in Mayflower. Arrangements were by Thomas Funeral Service of Cabot.
Gary Wright
Gary Wayne Wright, 50, of North Little Rock passed away Oct. 20. He was born Dec. 15, 1956 in Little Rock.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Georgia Ives, and two sisters, Gladys Vondran and Connie Eubanks.
He is survived by two brothers, David Ives and Bobby Wright and wife Wendy; one sister, Barbara Campbell and many other family members and friends.
Funeral services were Oct. 23 at Thomas Funeral Service in Cabot. Burial was at Evans Cemetery in Cabot.
Etta Wright
Etta M. Wright, 99, of Ward died peacefully in her home on the morning of Oct. 20.
She was born April 5, 1908, at Des Arc to Sam and Martha Ford Williams. She was a member of Ward Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Carol Dewey Wright; one sister, Bonnie Dalton; and three brothers, Troy, Edward and Clarence Williams.
She is survived by one son, Rayford Wright and his wife Bonnie; one granddaughter, Jeri Lynne Wright; one grandson, Steve Wright; and two great-granddaughters, Alyssa and Tawna Wright, all of Springfield, Ill.; and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services were at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe Oct. 22. by the Rev. Frank Warden. Burial was at Johnson Chapel Cemetery.
James Sanders
James Leslie Sanders, 67, of Mabelvale died Oct. 18.
He was preceded in death by his father, James Phillip Sanders.
He is survived by his loving wife, Linda; sons, Norman Sanders and Jerry Sanders; daughter, Sandra Dailey; four grandchildren; sisters, Jeanette Wilson, Joyce Allen and Charlotte Curtis; mother, Dessie Mae Sanders.
Funeral services were Oct. 20 at North Jacksonville Church of Christ. Burial was Oct. 23 at Arkansas State Veterans’ Cemetery in North Little Rock. Funeral arrangements were by Wood Funeral Home of Jacksonville.
Ray Snell
Funeral services for Ray Williamson Snell, 84, who passed away Oct. 5 were held Oct. 8 at Oak Grove Baptist Church, Meridian, Miss., with the Rev. David Chandler officiating. Burial was in Oak Grove Cemetery with James F. Webb Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.
Snell was a retired postal worker and had worked in his father’s business, the Bob J. Snell Candy Company, for many years. He was a veteran of the Second World War and served in the Army Air Corps.
He was a member of the American Legion and a member of the E.J. Knox-King Solomon Lodge 130 F&AM.
Survivors include his brother, Reese Harris Snell and wife Carolyn of Hattiesburg, Miss.; niece, Sandy Snell Booth; great-nieces, Haley Booth and Abby Booth of Lawrence, Ga.; niece, Linda Snell McComb; great-nieces, Meredith McComb Eason and Morgan McComb of Clinton, Miss.; great-niece, Katey Evans and great-nephew, Derek Evans, of Jacksonville; niece, Jennifer Gullette Boyd and great-nephew, Jesse Boyd of Jacksonville; nephew, Bob J. Snell II; great-nephews, Reese Snell II and Ryder Snell of Jonesboro.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob J. Snell and Ella B. Williamson Snell; brother, Robert J. Snell; sister, Mary Kate Snell Gullette, and niece, Julia Kay Gullette Evans.
Lillian Ervin
Lillian Ervin, 78, of North Little Rock went to be with her Lord Sept. 29. She was born in Vermilion County, Ill., and attended schools in that area. She was interested and participated in bluegrass music and arts and crafts.
She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Donald; daughters, Donna Wilson and Carolyn and husband John Gloyd; three sisters, Ernestine, Barbara Jean and Wilma; two grandchildren, Terry Lott and Cody Speer.
Graveside services were at Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock by Huson Funeral Home of Sherwood.
Boyd Gilson
Boyd Roland Gilson, 70, of North Little Rock died Sept. 19 in Little Rock.He was born in Decorah, Iowa, Oct. 3, 1936 to the late W.L. Gilson and Esther N. Gilson. He spent 20 years in the Air Force and another 20 years as the butcher at Little Rock Air Force Base. He was also a member of Victory Missionary Baptist Church in Sherwood.
He had nine brothers, Bill and wife Marylin of Wicks, Phillip of Jacksonville, John and wife Bessie of Mena, Chucky of Conway, Mo., Ronnie and wife, Arlyss of Wright City, Mo., Norman of Texas, Larry of Arkansas, Duane and wife Veverly of Nixa, Mo., and Donnie who preceded him in death.
He is survived by his loving wife, Grace P. Jones Gilson of North Little Rock; two sons, James D. Gilson and wife Laura of North Little Rock, and John Gilson of Texas; two daughters, Esther Ashworth and husband Ben of Miss., and Elizabeth Hicks of Jacksonville; three grandsons, Brandon Ashworth, Chris Hicks and David Gilson; and a granddaughter, Allison Hicks; four sisters, Lucy Bowman of Galena, Mo., Nancy and husband Wayne Towe of Rogers, Cheryl Reid of Paris and Beth and husband T.M. Morgan of Mena; and many nieces and nephews. Cremation arrangements were by Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.
Joe Vann, Jr.
Joe “Poppy” Wilton Vann Jr., departed this life Oct. 22. He was born April 8, 1931.
He is survived by his wife, Marie; brother, John Sukeforth and wife Sharon; sister, Barbara Vann; children, Joe W. Vann III, Cheryl Vann Laar, Pamela Marie Walthers and Michael Ray Le Master; seven grandchildren; many nieces and nephews and one mother-in-law. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the chapel of Wood Funeral Home, Jacksonville.
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