Wednesday, March 09, 2005

NEIGHBORS>> Three’s not a crowd at the Haley home

No, you’re not seeing triple. There really are three of them.

The Haley home, just outside Cabot, is filled with blond-haired, blue-eyed, 1-year-old boys in matching outfits who are distinguishable to outsiders only by the differences in their height and weight.

But that’s only when they are standing side by side, which isn’t often.

The boys were just 2 months old when the Leader was first invited to meet them.

Arriving a month early and weighing a total of 17 pounds and 1 ounce, they were small for their age. But now, weighing in at 20, 21 and 22 pounds, they’d rather run than walk.

They have a growing vocabulary and they could hold their own in a patty cake contest.

Without a doubt, life has changed dramatically for their parents, Brian and Kelly Haley, who were quite surprised to learn in mid-2003 that their family was about to increase in number and dumbfounded to learn when Kelly was five months pregnant how great that number would be.

They don’t eat out anymore. In fact, they’ve only been out once for two hours on their anniversary since the babies arrived. And they’ve stopped trying to protect the living room carpet by entering through the kitchen. It’s simply easier to bring all those car seats and strollers in the front door and the carpet is starting to show the use.

“Our house isn’t as neat as it used to be,” Brian says of the kid clutter that surrounds him.

The living room is filled with large plastic toys in primary colors that don’t coordinate well with their earth-toned upholstered furniture, and racks of baby bottles and plastic bowls can be found air drying on the kitchen counter.

Mason and Logan, the older brothers, who were 10 and 8 when the triplets were born, now share a bedroom. The triplets’ cribs fill the other one, but Brian says there’s no way three twin beds will fit. It won’t be long before the family will be forced to find a larger house.

“It’s not a big deal now, but we figure it will be in a couple of years,” he said.

And how are they getting by on just one paycheck since Kelly had to quit her job at Magness Creek Elementary to stay home with the babies?

“We don’t know,” she says.

Going back to work before Gage, Gunnar and Greyson start kindergarten is out of the question.

“It’d be negative money to put them in daycare,” Kelly says. “I’d be paying just to get out of the house.”

But don’t think the original members of the Haley family aren’t happy with the new arrivals.

Kelly says the older boys willingly play with the little ones while she tends to household chores.

And the little ones have spent hours in car seats and strollers, if not watching their big brothers play football and basketball, at least not fussing too much about it.

The identical triplets were such a novelty when they were born last February at Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock, that hospital officials were eager to talk about their arrival. And according to their dad, “They still draw a lot of attention even with people who see them all the time.”

They were the first identical triplets Dr. Jimmy Chang had delivered in 19 years as an obstetrician. They are the result of a three-way split of a single egg sometime in the second week of gestation. One internet source says there were 6,742 triplet births in the United States in 2000 compared to 118,916 twin births.

Kelly said she thought since triplets are rare, they would garner more attention and possibly financial help from the corporate world, but she quickly learned that modern treatments for fertility problems have vastly increased the number of multiple births. Her little identical boys may cause strangers to do a double-take, but the big companies are not standing in line to pay for diapers and college.

Relatives and good friends from the older boys’ ball teams have helped clothe the boys. Jeannie Rollins, a teacher at Magness Creek Elementary, took up donations that filled the family’s living room with diapers just before Christmas. And a few companies have donated a few diapers, toys and the like.

“We’ve had a few things done, but Oprah has called,” Brian jokes. “Dr. Phil hasn’t called. Maybe we should call him.”

The hectic days of the first few months are now gone, Kelly says. The boys would sleep until 10 a.m. if she didn’t have to get them up to take their brothers to school. They take two-hour naps in the afternoon, until it’s time to pick up their brothers at school.

School – that’s four and a half years away for the triplets, Kelly says. Not that having them at home is anything less than a joy.

But Brian says they have considered breaking up the set for at least an evening so they can have a little time to themselves.

“Friends and family have volunteered to help out. But three at one time? I wouldn’t do that to anyone,” he said.

EDITORIAL >> Second unit pushes Social Security reform

The first team having failed to generate even a first down in the big Social Security showdown, the Bush administration this week sent the second unit to Arkansas in the person of Treasury Secretary John Snow. As far as we could tell, the yard marker never moved.

But if personnel were the problem, President Bush was at least as good a quarterback as Snow. Both had their lines down and were as peppy as anyone would want. The object is to persuade a considerable number of Arkansans that Social Security will collapse if we don’t begin to privatize it. Then people will prevail on U. S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln to support the president, she being the only member of the Arkansas delegation who seems the least shaky on Social Security.

No, the problem is the game plan itself. The more the president calls attention to the long-range funding problems of Social Security, the more people learn about it and the more certain they are that the president’s notions would make the problems far worse much quicker. The polls reflect that every week that the president is on the stump preaching Social Security collapse and the wonders of privatization the more unpopular his idea becomes.

In their closely scripted and cloistered Arkansas appearances, Mr. Bush and his treasury secretary warned ominously that Social Security was headed over a cliff. By now, nearly everyone knows the facts. In about 13 years, unless the economy has a robust job-creating streak, benefit payouts will begin to exceed current payroll taxes. Then, sometime after 2042 — after 2052, according to the Congressional Budget Office — the mammoth surplus in the Social Security trust fund will have winnowed away and monthly benefits will have to be cut significantly (although still considerably more than current retirees’ benefits, even adjusted for inflation).

That is all uncontested, but even people in the president’s camp — the vice president, for example — acknowledge that the president’s plan to allow people under the age of 55 to divert two-thirds of their payroll taxes to closely circumscribed private investment accounts would not delay the 2042 or 2052 crisis by even a single day. It would, in fact, speed that day of reckoning.
The still unspoken part of the president’s plan that would address that issue is a reduction in benefits.

Neither Bush nor Snow nor anyone else in the administration will take questions about that, although it is the central feature of the option to which the president vaguely alludes from time to time. A deep reduction in benefits, which would begin in a few years, would not play well in these forums, so it is just left unmentioned.

But while Snow was making his pitch for Arkansas support at Fayetteville, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan let the cat out of the bag in Washington. Regardless of what happens to the president’s privatization plan, he said the country would either have to make adjustments in Social Security taxes or reduce benefits. His preference is to cut benefits.

Greenspan got to the heart of what the sudden Social Security “crisis” is all about. Reining in Social Security payouts will make the country’s deficits shrink. Since soon after Bush took office, the government has been using Social Security payroll taxes (about $170 billion a year of it now) to pay for the wars in Iraq and higher defense and homeland security spending. And that is true as far as the eye can see. The crisis in Social Security will make it easier to do the dirty work of cutting benefits, which will help pay for his extravagance in spending and tax cutting for the wealthy.

And where do private accounts fit in all this? If Bush can sell the idea of great wealth accumulation from private accounts, people will just shrug off the reduction in the regular pensions. But think about this: What if the George W. Bush era and not the Bill Clinton era is the real harbinger of markets in the next 25 years?

Stocks had a fantastic run yesterday, but the Dow Jones still closed below the average on the day of Bush’s election nearly four and a half years ago. The NASDAQ was only about 65 percent of its Nov. 7, 2000 close.

Who would stake her sunset years on that prospect?

EDITORIAL>> Deltic Timber tries Trojan Horse gambit

Just when it appears that people in Central Arkansas can celebrate the prospect of another quarter-century of clean water the word comes that the developers have been reading classical mythology. They resurrected the Trojan Horse.

Owing at least partly to the good leadership of House Speaker Bill Stovall of Quitman, the bill to effectively strip Central Arkansas Water of its power to protect the waters of Lake Maumelle looks to be dead in the City, County and Local Affairs Committee of the House of Representa-tives. Deltic Timber Corp., which wants to build a 225-mansion subdivision on the scenic slopes around the intake that supplies water to Jacksonville, Sherwood, Cabot and the rest of the urban community, does not have the votes to get the bill out of the committee.

It turns out that the waterworks’ own governing commission, under pressure from the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and development interests, may be about to back down. Commissioners are weighing resolutions that would accept a moratorium.

Deltic would not start building homes immediately and the water company would not exercise eminent domain for a couple of years while a comprehensive management plan is put into place and an “independent” expert consulted on whether runoff from the huge development would do much harm to the waters.

The waterworks director, Jim Harvey, and the professionals at the agency are mystified and apoplectic, as should be all of us who enjoy or who soon will enjoy the best water in America.

The moratorium would give Deltic, which owns some 400,000 acres of timber and development land in Arkansas, time to influence a few legislative elections and change the composition of the House sufficiently to assure passage of the bill in 2007. Stovall will be gone. The bullheaded and courageous Jim Harvey is retiring.

When hundreds of millions of dollars of profits are hanging in the balance, what’s two more years?

The water commission will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday in Little Rock. It needs to hear the voices of consumers. You can be sure they’ve heard the developers.

EDITORIAL>> End death penalty for young people

Arkansas is one of only 21 small dominions on earth where an eye for an eye is still the operating theology with juveniles.

Just the other day, the state Senate moved to correct that by voting solidly to ban the death penalty for people who commit capital crimes before they turn 18. Last week, the U. S. Supreme Court finished the job for the legislature by ending the execution of youngsters forever. Every other nation on earth bars the execution of juveniles.

The brutish Iranians and Pakistanis partnered with us until not long ago but they no longer had the stomach for it. Arkansas and a few other states until this week were the only places on earth that exacted the last full measure of revenge upon the immature, as well as men who are seasoned to kill.

But does the Supreme Court’s decision relieve Arkansas of the burden?

We don’t think it does.

If this is, indeed, the standard of civilized conduct in the United States as well as in the rest of the world — and the Senate’s vote, the backing of the governor and major religious groups and polls say that it is even in Arkansas — then let it be reflected in our own laws even if it is a week or two behind the deed.

Let us join the caravan of civilization, not hide and watch.

The House of Representatives should take up the bill and pass it lustily.

EDITORIAL>> Committee favors slumlord protection

“Tenants have very few rights under current Arkansas law.”

That is the opening line of an informational Web site on landlord-tenant law operated by the Arkansas attorney general. It spells out what those “limited” rights are. All the rights are on the side of the landlord. But someone worries that the Arkansas Supreme Court, in some case involving a particularly heinous disregard of a renter’s safety or dignity, will one day decide that a renter may actually own some inalienable rights that aren’t spelled out in the statutes and hold a landlord liable for what he has done.

Naturally, the Arkansas legislature cannot let that happen. State Rep. Robert Thompson of Paragould filed a bill to put the matter clearly into the law: A landlord is never to be liable for what happens to tenants unless the landlord chooses to assume liability or refuses to make a repair that he had promised to make.

It is the Slumlord Protection Act of 2005. The House of Representatives on Monday passed it 62 to 24 with another 13 who were conscience-stricken enough to vote “present.” The Senate will vote shortly.

Even a couple of landlords on the Senate Judiciary Committee were bothered by the nakedness of the self-interest and greed. Sen. Mary Anne Salmon of North Little Rock, a landlord, said the bill would guarantee the protection of slum landlords whose greed and carelessness put tenants in danger. She recalled the recent incident in which 60 residents of a mobile home park in Little Rock had their natural gas service cut off in the dead of winter when the owner would not repair leaks in pipes to the homes.

The city relocated the tenants to get them out of the cold. Thompson’s bill would see that the owner was never held liable.

Sen. Irma Hunter Brown represents a part of Little Rock rife with slum rental dwellings.

“I am concerned that too many times, especially in the urban areas, we have landlords that have just deplorable situations,” Brown said. “It is awful to even rent some of these properties to people. To allow that kind of landlord not to have any liability is just something that I can’t conscionably sit here and support.” That sort of argument doesn’t work.

There is a wordless doctrine that seems to prevail in the halls where law is made, that it is the mission of the elected to preserve and strengthen the advantages held by the powerful and the propertied.

The framers had in mind that they might make a place for justice, too.

SPORTS>> AL Owls overpower Comets

IN SHORT: Offensive bursts in first and third innings lead Owls to win over Mills

BY RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor

Abundant Life bounced back from its first loss of the season by pounding Little Rock Mills 12-1 in four innings during the First Arkansas Bank and Trust-Red Devil Classic in Jacksonville.

After winning the Metro Conference preseason tournament, the Owls opened the Red Devil Classic by losing to Little Rock Catholic 7-3 on Saturday.

Missed opportunities was the story for the Owls in the loss to the Rockets.

Abundant Life loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning, but failed to bring a run across the plate.

“That’s hard to overcome against a pitcher like they had going in that one,” Abundant Life coach Wes Johnson said. “We just didn’t take advantage of the chances we had and we lost. It’s pretty simple.”

On Monday, the Owls wasted no time taking advantage of opportunities.

Jake Chambers led off the top of the first inning with a walk, and Payton Seelinger singled two batters later to put runners on first and third for senior right fielder Zac Ray.

Ray responded to the situation by sending the first pitch he saw sailing over the 375-foot sign in straightaway centerfield.
In the second inning, Jerry Lawson walked with one out, and was driven in by a two-out single from Seelinger for the only run of the inning.

Abundant Life made its own opportunities in the third inning, scoring three runs with two outs after the first two batters of the inning failed to reach base.

“This was definitely a different game.” Johnson said. “We made the most of the chances we had and we created some good things on our won. I’m pleased. It was a good win for us after Saturday.”

David Simpson got a two-out single and Lawson then doubled to bring home both runners. He then scored on an RBI single by Colby Woolverton to give the Owls a 7-1 advantage.

The Comets added a single tally in the bottom of the third with a pair of hits sandwiching a Mills walk in the frame, but Abundant Life made certain of an early end to the matchup with five runs in the top of the fourth inning.

junior indfielder Josh Cantrell led off the fourth inning with a double and Seelinger walked to put runners on first and second.
Ray added his fourth RBI with a single and Matt Fink singled to drive in another run.

Two batters later, junior Selby Lawson and Woolverton hit consecutive singles, with Lawson scoring the final run on Woolverton’s base rap.

Junior Richard Eberle got the win on the mound for the Owls, who improved to 5-1 on the season.

It was also Abundant Life’s second win over Mills this season. The Owls beat the Comets 22-10 in a marathon game in the Metro tournament two weekends ago.

“This one was a lot quicker because we didn’t let ‘em back in it like we did last time,” Johnson said.

Ray went 2 for 3 with a home run and four RBIs. Lawson went 2 for 2 with a walk, a double, two RBIs and three runs scored for Abundant Life from the eight hole.

Seelinger was also 2 for 2 with a walk and two runs scored.

Abundant Life’s next game will be against Tuesday night’s winner between Jacksonville and J.A. Fair. The Red Devils lost 8-0 to Greenbrier in the opening round while the War Eagles were on the short end of an 11-2 decision to Sylvan Hills.

Abundant Life gets conference play started later this week when it kicks off a blitz of 5AA-North games.

The Owls will take the field for six conference games in a week, and it starts with a road game against Little Rock Lutheran this Friday.

That will be followed by a doubleheader against Bigelow on Monday, a matchup with Little Rock Epsicopal Tuesday, Arkansas Baptist is scheduled for Thursday and the return match against Lutheran next Friday.

The Owls were undefeated in conference play last year and will be the odds on favorite to repeat as league champions for the third consecutive season.

OBITUARIES >> March 9, 2005

MILTON BURNS
Milton E. Bruns, 77, of Jacksonville, died March 6 at Fort Roots Hospice in North Little Rock. Born March 6, 1928, in Madison S.D., son of the late, Henry William and Lydia Edinger Bruns. Bruns served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He was a member of Second Baptist Church in Jacksonville and a member of the Air Force Sergeant’s Association.

He is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Eva Jean Gatlin Bruns of Jacksonville; three daughters and three sons-in-law, Linda C. and David Steele of Benton, Marsha and Larry Jordan of Bedford, Texas, Judy and Paul Carter of Delaware; one sister, Marcella Patton of Ridgefield, Wash.; beloved sister-in-law, Janet Lamb of Shannon Hills; four grandsons, James Steele, Joey Williams, Carl Cleary, and Paul Carter Jr.; three granddaughters Jeana Vanbell, Lauren Cleary, and Jamie Steele; two nephews, James Patton and Steven Sauls; two nieces, Suzan Burns and Sarah Sauls; seven great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be 11:30 a.m., Thursday at Moore’s Jackson-ville Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Ron Rains officiating. Burial will follow in Arkansas State Veteran’s Cemetery. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m., Wednesday at Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home. Military Honors provided by the U.S. Air Force.

Pallbearers are Joey Williams, Carl Cleary, Steven Sauls, Kevin Jordan, Paul Carter, David Steele, and honorary pallbearer, James Steele. Arrangements by Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.

CLAY ALLISON
Clay Derick Allison, 21, of Austin died March 7.

He was an employee of Fox Quality Pools. He was a 2002 graduate of Cabot High School and had attended ASU-Beebe.
Clay was a member of Sylvania Presbyterian Church. He is survived by his parents, Rodney and Jo Beth Allison; his grandparents, Bonnie and Gene Allison, all of Austin; his half brother, John Greer of Cabot; his aunt and uncle, Bill and Kay Spence and cousins Matt Spence of Austin and Jason Moore of Cabot; his aunt and uncle Dickie and Jan Hughes of Ward, his cousin Bethany and husband Shane Hill and their children, Tyler and Garrett Hill, of Cabot; his godmother, Charlene Patty of Ward, and a host of relatives and friends.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Westbrook Funeral Home, Beebe. Graveside service will be 10 a.m. Thursday at Sylvania Cemetery.

CHARLES PROVENCIO, JR.
Charles G. Provencio Jr., 85, Jacksonville, departed this life March 7.

He was preceded in death by parents, Charles Provencio, Praxcities Krespin, sons; Richard, Daniel, brother; Carmen, sister; Erma. He leaves to cherish his memory his children Victor Provencio of Jacksonville, Carol and Charlotte Marquez, Dolores Estrada, Ernest, Christine Provencio all of California, Rebecca Provencio of Nevada, brother, Ernest G. Provencio of California, 56 grandchildren, 134 great-grandchildren, and a host of relatives and friends. Family visitation will be Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. at Robinson Mortuary Chapel in Jacksonville. Graveside services will be held Friday at 1 a.m. at State Veterans Cemetery. Arrangements by Robinson Mortuary in Jacksonville.

GARY ROBERTS JR.
Gary Lynn Roberts Jr., 33, of Jacksonville, passed away March 4. He was born on Dec. 21, 1971, in Cherry Point, N.C., to Garyl L. Roberts Sr. and Sandra Pruitt Mahoney. He was employed by North Little Rock SoftWater as a delivery driver.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Otis and Gladys Pruitt and a grandfather Otis Roberts. He is survived by his parents, Sandra and Robert A. Mahoney of Jacksonville, Gary Lynn and Regina Healey Roberts Sr. of Sherwood; four brothers, Robert Mahoney Jr. of Jacksonville, Adam Mahoney of Jacksonville, Marcus Mahoney of Austin and Aaron Roberts of Sherwood; two sisters, Cheryl Ann Roberts and Allison Grace Roberts both of Sherwood; grandparents, Vernon and Lavene Rodgers of North Little Rock and Velma Roberts of Cabot.

Funeral services will be 1 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church in Sherwood with Rev. Paul McClung and Rev. Royce Lowe officiating. Burial will follow at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Cabot. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Cabot Funeral Home.
Arrangements are under the direction of Moore’s Cabot Funeral Home.

OBITUARIES >> March 9, 2005

MILTON BURNS
Milton E. Bruns, 77, of Jacksonville, died March 6 at Fort Roots Hospice in North Little Rock. Born March 6, 1928, in Madison S.D., son of the late, Henry William and Lydia Edinger Bruns. Bruns served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He was a member of Second Baptist Church in Jacksonville and a member of the Air Force Sergeant’s Association.

He is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Eva Jean Gatlin Bruns of Jacksonville; three daughters and three sons-in-law, Linda C. and David Steele of Benton, Marsha and Larry Jordan of Bedford, Texas, Judy and Paul Carter of Delaware; one sister, Marcella Patton of Ridgefield, Wash.; beloved sister-in-law, Janet Lamb of Shannon Hills; four grandsons, James Steele, Joey Williams, Carl Cleary, and Paul Carter Jr.; three granddaughters Jeana Vanbell, Lauren Cleary, and Jamie Steele; two nephews, James Patton and Steven Sauls; two nieces, Suzan Burns and Sarah Sauls; seven great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be 11:30 a.m., Thursday at Moore’s Jackson-ville Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Ron Rains officiating. Burial will follow in Arkansas State Veteran’s Cemetery. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m., Wednesday at Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home. Military Honors provided by the U.S. Air Force.

Pallbearers are Joey Williams, Carl Cleary, Steven Sauls, Kevin Jordan, Paul Carter, David Steele, and honorary pallbearer, James Steele. Arrangements by Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.

CLAY ALLISON
Clay Derick Allison, 21, of Austin died March 7.

He was an employee of Fox Quality Pools. He was a 2002 graduate of Cabot High School and had attended ASU-Beebe.
Clay was a member of Sylvania Presbyterian Church. He is survived by his parents, Rodney and Jo Beth Allison; his grandparents, Bonnie and Gene Allison, all of Austin; his half brother, John Greer of Cabot; his aunt and uncle, Bill and Kay Spence and cousins Matt Spence of Austin and Jason Moore of Cabot; his aunt and uncle Dickie and Jan Hughes of Ward, his cousin Bethany and husband Shane Hill and their children, Tyler and Garrett Hill, of Cabot; his godmother, Charlene Patty of Ward, and a host of relatives and friends.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Westbrook Funeral Home, Beebe. Graveside service will be 10 a.m. Thursday at Sylvania Cemetery.

CHARLES PROVENCIO, JR.
Charles G. Provencio Jr., 85, Jacksonville, departed this life March 7.

He was preceded in death by parents, Charles Provencio, Praxcities Krespin, sons; Richard, Daniel, brother; Carmen, sister; Erma. He leaves to cherish his memory his children Victor Provencio of Jacksonville, Carol and Charlotte Marquez, Dolores Estrada, Ernest, Christine Provencio all of California, Rebecca Provencio of Nevada, brother, Ernest G. Provencio of California, 56 grandchildren, 134 great-grandchildren, and a host of relatives and friends. Family visitation will be Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. at Robinson Mortuary Chapel in Jacksonville. Graveside services will be held Friday at 1 a.m. at State Veterans Cemetery. Arrangements by Robinson Mortuary in Jacksonville.

GARY ROBERTS JR.
Gary Lynn Roberts Jr., 33, of Jacksonville, passed away March 4. He was born on Dec. 21, 1971, in Cherry Point, N.C., to Garyl L. Roberts Sr. and Sandra Pruitt Mahoney. He was employed by North Little Rock SoftWater as a delivery driver.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Otis and Gladys Pruitt and a grandfather Otis Roberts. He is survived by his parents, Sandra and Robert A. Mahoney of Jacksonville, Gary Lynn and Regina Healey Roberts Sr. of Sherwood; four brothers, Robert Mahoney Jr. of Jacksonville, Adam Mahoney of Jacksonville, Marcus Mahoney of Austin and Aaron Roberts of Sherwood; two sisters, Cheryl Ann Roberts and Allison Grace Roberts both of Sherwood; grandparents, Vernon and Lavene Rodgers of North Little Rock and Velma Roberts of Cabot.

Funeral services will be 1 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church in Sherwood with Rev. Paul McClung and Rev. Royce Lowe officiating. Burial will follow at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Cabot. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Cabot Funeral Home.
Arrangements are under the direction of Moore’s Cabot Funeral Home.

FROM THE PUBLISHER>> Developer determined to win over legislature

BY GARRICK FELDMAN

If you walk into a fancy restaurant in Little Rock, chances are you’ll see a bunch of dark suits entertaining groups of legislators in light polyester sport coats with shirt collars open and ties loose.

Lobbyists from Deltic Timber are among the special interests entertaining our citizen-legislators, and they will let Deltic pollute Lake Maumelle in return for free food and booze, and the public be damned.

Deltic needs the support of legislators because it hates the idea of Central Arkansas Water controlling development near the lake. CAW has made Lake Maumelle the centerpiece of an ambitious project that would meet the region’s water needs for the next half-century.

CAW has the right of eminent domain around the lake, thus preventing future development that would jeopardize the water supply.

This is an old legal concept that protects the public interest: We cannot let developers pollute an important water source for our growing region, which needs a dependable supply of clean water.

Lake Maumelle is that source, but pollution would result if you let Deltic build a couple hundred million-dollar homes there.

This is the reason why Central Arkansas Water has been dead set against the development, and so is virtually every central Arkansas legislator whose communities rely on Lake Maumelle for water.

But Deltic has several tricks up its sleeves. It can pressure the board of CAW into a compromise over the proposed development when no compromise is justified. Lake Maumelle doesn’t need a subdivision anymore than it needs a pig farm.

Deltic has such economic muscle that it could win this battle in the long run, or even in the short run if it can convince CAW commissioners, who meet Thursday in Little Rock, that a compromise might not be a bad idea after all. But the professionals at the water utility oppose any compromise with Deltic.

While trying an end-run around Central Arkansas Water, Deltic convinced the state Senate last month to strip CAW of its right to control development at the lake. Deltic is also working on the state House, where a committee headed by Rep. Will Bond (D-Jacksonville) will hold a hearing March 23 on Deltic’s development plans.

Bond says he’ll give both sides a fair shake, but he believes this is a case where “the needs of the many outweigh the wants of the few.”

Talk about corporate irresponsibility.

Deltic might even pick the next Speaker of the Arkansas House, preferring Rep. Benny Petrus (D-Stuttgart) over Bond, who says he’ll seek the post in two years.

Deltic and its friends in the legislature recently had a big bash at Petrus’ Little Rock pad, with lots of food and beverages for everybody.

Even if Deltic doesn’t have the votes in the House right now, it will find more support during the next session as more experienced legislators leave because of term limits and more amateurs in bright polyester suits show up at the state Capitol, willing to trade votes for fine wine and dining.

Instead of drinking polluted water, Deltic’s friendly legislators can wash down that New York strip with a bottle of fine California wine on the corporate expense account.

We’ll find out pretty soon who runs this state: The people of Arkansas who need safe drinking water, or huge business interests like Deltic Timber, which thinks what Arkansas really needs is more million-dollar mansions.

The rest of us will just have to drink bottled water.

TOP STORY>> PCSSD votes to separate boy, girls

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer

When some Jacksonville-area students return to classes in August, the boys will head to the junior high campus and the girls to the middle school campus, the Pulaski County Special School District Board decided by a 6-1 vote Tuesday night.

Upon a motion by Bishop James Bolden III and a second by Carol Burgett—both of whom represent some area students—and with assurances that the plan has the blessing of the community and its success would be monitored, all but Gwen Williams approved the motion.

The board approved unanimously a recommendation by its attorney, Sam Jones, to seek release from unitary school status for most provisions of the plan 2000—the desegregation plan under which the district has operated for more than 22 years. Jones said there were three areas in which the district might not be ready to be released from the desegregation plan: assignment of students, discipline and staffing.

The board authorized Jones to continue talking with various parties and negotiating proposed stipulations that would move the district towards getting off unitary status.

Regarding the changes for Jacksonville Middle School students, Marvin W. Jeter III, assistant superintendent for learning services, said that for core curriculum, the boys and girls would be separated, but that for electives, the classes would be coeducational.

Joining the boys in a separate wing of the junior high building will be the area’s alternative education students currently housed at a cost of about $19,000 a year at the old Siam restaurant.

Jacksonville Chamber of Com-merce executive director Bonita Rownd and Pat Griggs, a Pinewood Elementary School parent, were among a small Jacksonville contingent attending the meeting.

TOP STORY>> Franchise tax hike to pay ambulance

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

Cabot aldermen meeting as the finance committee Saturday morning discussed raising franchise fees to pay for building an ambulance service for the city.

The matter is now in the hands of City Attorney Ken Williams who is researching whether it is legal to raise the fees of all five companies doing business in Cabot from the current level to the proposed 5 percent that would be needed.

Franchise fees are added to customers’ bills, collected by the company and turned over to the city.

Finance Director Dale Walker says if the fees are raised to 5 percent, the increase in city revenue would be $165,000 a year.
The current fees are as follows: Entergy 4.25 percent, First Electric Coop. 4.5 percent, Centurytel 2 percent, Classic Cable 3 percent and Centerpoint Energy Arkla 4.25 percent.

Alderman David Polantz proposed increasing the franchise fees. Polantz said with the growing tax base from new businesses moving in and increasing the franchise fees, Cabot will be positioned within the next few years to offer better services than any other city in central Arkansas.

But for now, the franchise fee is the only stable funding stream available to pay for building a city-run ambulance service, he said.
Alderman Patrick Hutton said the discussion is a little premature. The council’s public safety committee needs to first decide exactly what sort of emergency program the city needs to build.

He also wants to know exactly how much the increase in fees would generate.

“Write it down,” he said.

Since the full council will eventually have to deal with the issues discussed in committee meetings, Hutton says all the questions need to be answered before any decisions are made.

“What we’re doing here is increasing taxes,” Hutton said of the proposal to raise franchise fees.

Polantz didn’t disagree, but he said the extra money would enable the city to build “the premier ambulance service in the area,” the kind of service city residents expect.

“Yes, we’re increasing taxes. I won’t make any bones about that,” Polantz said.

But while Polantz was drawing the big picture, complete with training the city’s firefighters as paramedics to eventually staff the ambulances and Hutton was concerned about the unanswered questions, Alderman Eddie Cook, wanted to talk about the here and now.

Where is the money coming from to subsidize MEMS?

An increase in the franchise fee would not provide the money needed now to pay the subsidy.

A city-owned and operated ambulance service is at least three years away and until that time a private company will have to provide the service.

MEMS is temporarily providing the service while Cabot puts the contract out to bid, but the city must pay a subsidy to MEMS of $8,000 a month, about half the amount MEMS officials say they are losing in Cabot each month because of low run volume.

The 2005 budget includes $15,000 to pay the firefighters’ tuition for paramedic classes.

Fire Chief Gary Meadows told the committee that he has tentatively selected the program at ASU-Searcy because it is nearby and night courses are available so firefighters could continue working their regular shifts and attend classes during off-hours.

Cook pointed out that the money won’t be needed until fall and could be used to help subsidize MEMS until a new contract is awarded.

Arkansas Emergency Transport held a three-year contract with the city but the council took it away earlier this year following disputes over response times and the number of ambulances AET would keep in the city.

MEMS officials have implied that no subsidy would be required if MEMS is given the three-year contract.

Southern Paramedic Service also wants the contract and its executive director has said no subsidy would be required.

TOP STORY>> Overpass faces money hurdles, uncertainty on area annexation

IN SHORT: Federal money to build a railroad overpass in Cabot could become available this year, but the city would need between $600,000 and $800,000 for matching funds. Compli-cating matters is the possibility that Austin might annex a part of the area near Hwy. 367 and Hwy. 38, where the overpass would go up.

BY JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

Federal money to build a railroad overpass near Cabot’s industrial park could be available this year, but construction would depend upon whether Cabot comes up with its 20 percent match for the estimated $3 million to $4 million project.

The city has about $250,000 set aside for the project, but another $350,000 to $550,000 would be needed, according to officials with Metroplan, which will dispense the federal funds to pay the balance.

The rest could be borrowed, according to Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh, but whether city officials are willing to do so could depend upon whether a planned subdivision is annexed into Cabot or Austin.

If the annexation goes to Austin, Stum-baugh says it’s only fair that Austin pay for part of the construction of the railroad overpass.
Austin Mayor Bernie Chamberlain says she knew the project was on the horizon, but she didn’t know it could possibly be funded this fiscal year. She hasn’t talked to Stumbaugh about Austin paying for part of the overpass, she said. But she points out that the subdivision hasn’t been annexed yet and she says she wonders, “If it stays in the county, are they going to ask the county to pay a part?”

Several members of the Cabot City Council, who briefly discussed the overpass Saturday morning during a finance committee meeting, were dubious about the possibility of starting the project this year. The question of borrowing money did not come up.
Construction of the overpass is scheduled for 2008, not 2005, they said. And the city can save the money by 2008, end of discussion.

Jim McKenzie, executive director of Metroplan, the planning and distributing agency for federal highway project money, said he has talked to Stumbaugh and is aware of his reluctance to pay for an overpass that will increase the value of property that will likely become part of another city.

“I can understand if Cabot is reluctant to pay for something that will increase Austin’s tax base,” McKenzie said.

The subdivision is one of three that might go to Austin rather than Cabot because of the cost of tying onto Cabot sewer. Austin officials say their city must grow or risk being swallowed up by Cabot and bringing in three subdivisions with a total of 500 homes would be a good start. They told the developers last summer that they would work with them on connecting to the Austin sewer.
Cabot will not pay any of the cost of connecting to Cabot sewer.

The overpass will run through Cabot’s industrial park on Highway 367, connecting Highway 367 to Highway 38 near Northside Middle School.

Eventually, the overpass could become part of an $11 million interchange connecting to U.S. Highway 67-167 on Highway 5.
McKenzie said the Cabot project is one of 12 railroad overpasses that have been identified as priorities for several years.

Whether the federal money for the Cabot project is available this year will depend upon whether the cities that were ahead of Cabot on that priority list are able to come up with their 20 percent match, he said.

If they do, the Cabot project won’t be funded, he said.

“Right now, we’re just doing a status check,” he said.

TOP STORY>> Air Force favors keeping C-130Js

IN SHORT: Vice Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley has joined a top Marine general in calling for a review of the Pentagon’s decision to end the C-130J acquisition program, which, the generals say, would leave a hole in the nation’s ability to deliver troops and supplies where they are needed.

Leader Staff and News Service

A pair of studies currently underway are likely to demonstrate the need to reinstate C-130J production to the 2006 defense budget, a top Air Force general testified before the House Armed Services Committee late last week.

The Pentagon defense proposal would pull the plug on C-130J production in hopes of saving $5 billion. Little Rock Air Force Base is the premiere C-130 base in this country, responsible for virtually all flight and maintenance training.

Facilities here have been updated and expanded to prepare for the next generation of transport planes, the C-130J. The air base would get only a handful of new planes if the rest of the program is scrapped and would train far fewer C-130J pilots.

In his testimony before Congress, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force vice chief of staff, mentioned the 2005 mobility capability study and another by the joint chiefs of staff that the Air Force requested. “I think both of those will suggest we take another look at the C-130J,” said Moseley.

He said the Air Force has more than 500 C-130s. Two hundred are E models, more than 30 of which are grounded.

“And we’re looking at having to ground another 50 or so because of wing-spar and wing-box issues,” Moseley said.

On the other hand, the general said the C-130Js now in the field have a proven mission-capability rate of more than 95 percent.
The Pentagon hopes to free about $5 billion for the Army by cutting 51 Air Force-bound C-130Js—at an average cost of $83 million each—from the budgets between 2006 and 2011. Lockheed, which makes the planes, has delivered about 75 C-130Js to the U.S. military.

“We’ve got about 6,100 airplanes,” said Moseley, “and we’ve got about 2,200 airplanes that are either grounded or operating under some flight restriction.

“That flight restriction could be something very minimal. But, it could be something very significant, like the C-130Es, where we can’t carry the fuel, or we can’t carry the weight, or we can’t maneuver the airplane because of the wing box or the spar assembly (problems).”

Currently 35 of the workhorse transports assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base are either grounded or restricted, according to a base spokesman.

“We’re facing readiness challenges in a number of platforms,” Moseley said in his opening statement. “Our No. 1 challenge is to recapitalize aging systems.”

Also last week, Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, Jr., commander of U.S. Command and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that production of the C-130Js should continue.

Jones said the C-130J program was a much-needed program while he served as commandant of the Marine Corps because of the age of the C-130s in the fleet particularly during Operation Enduring Freeom.

He said it was only the skill of the pilots flying some very old aircraft that prompted him to elevate the C-130J program to the very top of the Marine acquisition objectives.

“The C-130Es are getting old,” Maj. Gen. William W. “Wayne” Hodges told members of LRAFB Community Council in January. “We’ll continue to modernize the avionics, but the metal is getting old.”

Hodges is chief of procurement for the Air Force airlift operations. He told the council the civilian supporters of the program would have to carry the fight to save the C-130Js.

Members of the Arkansas congressional delegation have been supportive of the program.

The Air Force Print News, John Hofheimer and Garrick Feldman contributed to this report.