Wednesday, November 21, 2007

SPORTS >>Owls fall short at St. Joe’s

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

The Owls finished tops at the Harmony Grove invitational Saturday night, and nearly upset one of the state’s toughest programs the night before. Abundant Life put on a clinic in the final round of the BHG tourney over the host team Cardinals to take a 79-34 win, after giving up a late lead to Conway St. Joseph in a 73-65 loss on Friday.

While the CSJ game was not tournament related, Abundant Life coach Tim Ballard believes the tough game Friday night led to an easier than expected win in the final tournament game Saturday.

“We were really concerned going into that game,” Ballard said. “The last time we played them, they took it down to the wire, and we had just played such a tough game the night before, so we didn’t really know what to expect. I guess going to see the best the state has helped us, because we were a step quicker and a little bit stronger than Harmony Grove all night.”

The Owls led at halftime 53-20, and even more defensive pressure in the second half held the Cardinals to only 14 points in the second half. Meanwhile, senior guard Colby Woolverton led with 20 points after playing sparsely in the first half due to a minor neck injury. Junior Dane Lottner added 10 points, all of which came in the first half, and senior post Robert Perry added 12 points for Abundant Life.

All four AL teams posted solid results in the tournament. The Lady Owls beat Spartan in the third-place consolation game convincingly at 54-22. The jr. Lady Owls made it to the bracket finals, but fell to hosts Harmony Grove 24-22 in the title game. The jr. Owls won their third-place game to give all Abundant Life teams top three finishes.

Friday’s loss to Conway St. Joseph promised to be a runaway affair for the Owls in the early going. Abundant Life rushed out to a 24-14 lead at the end of the first quarter, and maintained all but two of that interval during the next eight-minute frame to lead 40-32 at the intermission. Outstanding shooting for Woolverton and Lottner helped the Owls out to the early advantage. In fact, Lottner picked up half of his game totals in the first quarter with four three-point shots.

Woolverton would go on to lead Abundant Life in scoring with 28 points, and added eight assists in the game. Lottner ended up with 23 points against St. Joseph.

“They are definitely as good as advertised,” Ballard said of CSJ. “They poured it on the whole game, we were just pouring it back in the first half. We knew we wouldn’t be able to stop them, we were just trying to keep scoring with them.”

The Bulldogs would rally on the heels of a packed homecoming crowd in the second half. St. Joseph pulled to within one at 53-52 at the end of the third quarter, and got hot inside in the final eight minutes on the heels of senior post (NAME) Heathscott.

The Owls are now 8-2 on the season, and will host England next Tuesday night.

SPORTS >>Lady Devils start with win at Hall

By GARY PRICE
Special to The Leader

The Jacksonville Lady Red Devils opened the 2007 basketball season with a lot of new faces and a win, beating Little Rock Hall 62-52 at Hall. The Lady Devils are very young with only 1 senior on the roster, and counting heavily on sophomores to contribute immediately.

If Friday night was any indication, this team at the very least we compete hard every night out. Jacksonville played with intensity the whole night, in the end it paid off.

Lady Red Devil coach Katrina Mimms was glad to get a win, but thought her team could have played better.

“Like the old saying goes, an ugly win is better than a pretty loss,” Mimms said. “That’s kind of how I felt about this game. I thought we played better in the jamboree. We didn’t take care of the ball, we turned it over too much. The bottom line though is that we won by 10. A win is a win any way you can get it.”

Junior Tyra Terry opened the campaign with a very nice three point basket with 7:29 to play in the first and staked Jacksonville to a 3-0 lead. Terry had a great first period of play, scoring eight points and grabbing three steals and a block to lead the Lady Devils to a 15-7 first quarter advantage.

Jacksonville played its starters the entire first quarter and appeared to be in control of the game at that point. The Lady Warriors were able to take advantage of Jacksonville’s inexperience, forcing numerous turnovers in the second frame. Hall outscored Jacksonville 19-11 and tied the game at 26 heading to the locker room.

The Lady Devils came out of the locker room very determined as they picked up the intensity and added some defensive pressure. Jacksonville held a 30-26 after a nice steal by Junior Brittany Smith. The Lady Devils were paced in the third by the Senior Shanita Johnson’s eight points, and some nice play off the bench by Tiara Clark. The quarter close with the Lady Devils holding a 42-39 advantage.

The nerves appeared to be gone from the Lady Devils in the fourth quarter. They played their best when it counted the most. The bench really came thru in the closing frame. Jacksonville controlled the boards in the fourth and pushed the ball nicely getting several easy buckets. Jacksonville pushed the lead to 54-43 with 3:30 to play after Clark converted a layup off a nice pass from Kita Walker. Jacksonville was in control at that point as Hall was never able to get closer than eight points the rest of the game.

While Mimms wasn’t completely pleased with the execution, she recognizes that wins are important, especially to such a young team.

“We had as many as four sophomores on the floor at one time,” Mimms said. “They were pretty successful and ninth graders, and success breeds success. We’re still probably going to take some on the chin, but we’re going to get some crucial experience on the varsity level and we’re going to get better and better.”

Jacksonville had a very balanced attack placing three in double digits, Shanita Johnson had 16 while Tyra Terry and Tiara Clark contributed 12.

Jacksonville opened its home schedule Tuesday night hosting the LR Central Tigers.

SPORTS >>Beebe tops Clinton

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

The Badgers hung tough all night, and would eventually earn themselves a 2-0 record with a close 49-47 win over Clinton Friday night at The Badger Sports Arena. Beebe trailed most of the night, but a last-second steal and lay up by senior Charlie Spakes put the Badgers ahead when it counted the most.

Clinton ended up with the lead at the end of each frame, but the constant shift of momentum led to a number of lead changes throughout. For Beebe coach Brian Martin, it was a dramatic win in only his second game as head Badger.

“It was a game of runs,” Martin said. “The fourth quarter ended up being really close. They would have their run, and then we would get one. That was a big play by Charlie there at the end; sometimes you need some luck in close games like that.”

The first quarter ended in a near draw, with Clinton holding a 10-9 lead heading into the second frame. The Badgers faced their largest deficit of the game at a whopping three points heading into the intermission with Clinton leading 24-21.

Beebe closed that narrow gap in the third quarter. The Badgers’ shooting improved somewhat, but it was better work off the glass that helped set Beebe up for the momentum grabbing run in the final moments, along with better work in the lanes on the defensive side. Solid work inside by post players Dante Miles and Jordan Geirach kept Clinton from the bankers and lobs in the paint, as Spakes and junior guard Zach Kersey began to post what would become double digit scoring figures in the second half. The third quarter ended with Clinton still on top 36-35, setting up a final eight minute shoot out for the win.

The Badgers led by one point with less than thirty seconds remaining, when Geirach rebounded a missed Clinton shot, but was called for a travel. The senior posts’ protest of the call ended up with a technical, and Clinton made one of the freethrows to tie the game, but most importantly, they maintained possesion of the ball. They would inbound the ball at half court for one last shot at the win with less than seven seconds left to play.

Spakes, fresh off football season as the Badgers QB, proved that switching sports doesn’t always require an extended adjustment period. The senior read the Clinton inbounds perfectly, and his layup following the steal with two seconds remaining would seal the win to cap off an increadible performance for both teams.

“We struggled shooting from the perimeter, especially in the first half,” Martin said. “In the second half, we tried to win the battle in the lanes with them. We did a lot better job of attacking their defense in the second half. Defensively, we adjusted to keep them off the glass.”

Miles led the Badgers offensively with 16 points. Spakes and Kersey each added 10 points for Beebe. The Badgers are now 2-0 after a season-opening win against 4A contenders Heber Springs. The Lady Badgers also sport a 2-0 record with wins over Heber, and a double-overtime win against the Clinton ladies earlier Friday.

Beebe hosted Vilonia in a boys and girls varsity doubleheader last night after Leader deadlines.

EDITORIALS>>Road system’s cold reality

The choice between pleasurable fancy and disagreeable reality is hard for leaders to make any time. It is especially hard when people are imbued with the notion that taxes are way too high and led to expect their lowering, not raising.

So it is with transportation. Everyone loves good roads and streets and expects them. We would like to believe that the motor-fuel taxes and registration fees are high enough to maintain the road system and keep apace of the needs of a growing population.

Jim McKenzie, the Metroplan director, who is paid to peer into the future, told us this week what the cold reality is.
Congestion on central Arkansas’s highway system is going to get worse and worse, the roads will deteriorate under the pounding and current taxes will support less and less road work.

The arithmetic is elementary. Skyrocketing oil prices are driving the cost of road materials through the ceiling while gradually improving vehicle fuel efficiency produces fewer and fewer tax revenues per mile traveled. Under those circumstances the metropolitan area’s long-range transportation plan is no more than a dream, McKenzie said. Completing the North Belt Freeway and the widening of Highway 67-167 may be out of the question, too.

The state is not taking in enough highway taxes both to maintain the existing roads and undertake major expansions.
The state Highway and Transportation Department has been saying the same thing; it has always said the same thing. McKenzie localized the issue.

Visionary planner that he is, McKenzie offered two options, higher highway-user taxes or a wholesale commitment to mass transit. If you have traveled in continental Europe or the great American metropolises, mass transit does seem so smart.
You can zip across Europe or from berg to berg conveniently and relatively cheaply by the omnipresent trains and buses.

The highways are good, too, though you don’t find the broad and busy expressways that you see around American metropolises, or even Little Rock.

The reason is that cars and trucks are smaller and far more efficient than those on U. S. roads. European vehicles average 36 miles per gallon, those on our roads a mere 21. A new generation of even smaller and far more economical cars will push the European average above 40 mpg, twice ours, by the end of the decade.

Smaller, faster cars and the diversion of so much travel to mass transit keeps crowded Europe mostly free of road congestion except for the occasional stau on the Autobahn.

The huge burden of fuel taxes all across Europe provides money to maintain a super transportation network and, of course, drives automakers and travelers to more and more efficient vehicles. We don’t have those incentives in the United States, not yet.

But a super mass transit system, including even the sparse light-rail network that urban planners have talked about, is not a realistic option for central Arkansas now.

The population is not dense enough and the cultural attachment to automobile travel too intense for government to force so dramatic a change of habit. A wholesale investment in mass transit, which would necessarily come at the expense of roadwork, is simply not salable. Before long we will have to commit higher highway taxes.

The legislature raises motor fuel taxes or vehicle registration fees, or both, about every 10 years. It typically raises gasoline and diesel by 2 to 4 cents a gallon.

It raised it once by a nickel a gallon. Gradually rising fuel efficiency means that the higher taxes usually offset the improved efficiency. Unless you drive a gas-guzzling old clunker — the misfortune of poorer people — you come out about even with the government after each tax increase.

Actually, Arkansans on average now pay less in taxes per mile traveled considering inflation than they did 75 years ago during the Great Depression. The rate has risen from 6 cents a gallon in 1932 to 21.5 cents a gallon. It was last raised, by 4 cents a gallon, in 1999.

In another 14 months, January 2009, the legislature will convene again and you should not be surprised and neither should you be disappointed if there is an effort to raise those taxes again, by more than a nickel a gallon. It is the price of civilization.

OBITUARIES >> 11-21-07

James Champlin

James Orville Champlin “Champ”, 80, of Cabot passed away Nov. 17, into the arms of his Heavenly Father.

He was born into this world on April 30, 1927, to James A. Champlin and Blanche Skinner Champlin of Austin.

He served in the Naval Seabees during the Second World War. He was instrumental in the building of a major causeway in Guam and later in the restoration of Pearl Harbor. He was very honored to serve his country so that others could continue to be free. He retired from Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, where he spent many hours making sure everyone had their telephones in working order. He used many of his skills and much knowledge helping victims of Hurricane Katrina in Bay St. Louis, Miss.

He was a member of Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Cabot, and was a member of Gideon’s International, and a Southwestern Bell Telephone Pioneer.

He was preceded in death by his father and mother, and an infant brother.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Mary Ellen Roland Champlin; two daughters, Janice and husband Bill Muse of Sherwood and Brenda and husband Garland Gene Yarbrough of Redfield; a sister and brother, Mildred Dickerson of Conway and Clarence Wilton Champlin of California; two grandchildren, DeNise and husband Bob Enck of Alabama and David and wife Cristin Groce of Rhode Island; two great-grandchildren and two step-great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were Nov. 20 at Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Cabot with burial in 16th Section Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Gideon’s International or Faith Missionary Baptist Church, 301 Bill Foster Memorial Hwy., Cabot, Ark. 72023.


Perinda Anderson

Perinda “Penny” Tippit Anderson, 50, of Ward died Nov. 19. She was born Dec. 29, 1956.

She was a former employee of Riley’s Oak Hill Manor North, and was a member of Grace Chapel.

She is survived by her husband, Houston Anderson; two sons, Ronald Caldwell and Justin Anderson, both of Cabot; her parents, Robert and Marcella Tippit of Cabot; grandmother, Vernie Tippit of Greenbrier; brother, Dwight and wife Bonnie Tippit of Orange Park, Fla.; sister, Anita and husband Buddy Hillenburg of Cabot.

Memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24 at Grace Chapel in Lonoke County by Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.


Anna Melhorn

Anna Marie Melhorn, 74, formerly of Jacksonville for 40 years, and retiree of General Telephone Company, died Nov. 9 at Medicalodge of Leavenworth, Kan. She was born Oct. 10, 1933, in Loretto, Pa., to Nelson and Zita “Sherry” Boley.

She married Vaughn J. Melhorn on June 6, 1953, in Cresson, Pa.

She will be remembered as a loving wife, devoted mother and caring grandmother.

She was preceded in death by her husband on April 15, 2002 as well as her sons, Vaughn J. Melhorn II and Aldah A. “Buddy” Melhorn and her brothers, James and Robert Boley.

She is survived by her daughter, Barbara A. Haake of Lansing, Kan.; sister, Ella Mae Armstrong; brothers, Joseph Boley and Gene Boley; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Burial will be with her husband at Leavenworth National Cemetery in Leavenworth.


Leveda Branscum

Leveda Ann Branscum of Salem died Nov. 16 in Little Rock. She is survived by her father, Donald Branscum and wife Murlie, and daughter, Crystal Dorton of Garner. Funeral arrangements are by Little Rock Funeral Home.


Margurene Jones

Margurene “Marge” Jones, 89, of Hot Springs died Oct. 27.

She was born Nov. 26, 1917 at Butlerville to Homer and Lucy Glover Baldwin.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Floyd Jones; her parents and a brother, Daniel Baldwin. She is survived by two sons, Robert Jones and wife Marilyn of Mabank, Texas, and David Jones and wife Melissa of Cabot; granddaughter, Kristie Jones of Lubbock, Texas, and brother, Oris Baldwin of Fort Worth, Texas. Graveside services were Nov. 5 at Hebron Cemetery in Carlisle by Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.

TOP STORY >>Parents question Jacksonville charter school plan

By ALIYA FELDMAN
Leader staff writer

Many of the parents at a North Pulaski High School Monday night meeting said they weren’t interested in a Jacksonville charter school if it took away funds from the Pulaski County Special School District.

Thirty parents were at a special parent-teacher association meeting brought to them by Jacksonville lawyer and former state Rep. Mike Wilson, who said he isn’t satisfied with Jacksonville’s schools generally.

“Jacksonville needs alternatives,” Wilson said. A charter school is funded by taxes but is exempt from certain state regulations. Nearly 5,000 students attend 20 charter schools across the state. Denice Todd-Flournoy, mother of one North Pulaski student, asked how diverse charter schools are.

“They are not in a box like a regular public school, but it’s the beauty of the program,” Mary Ann Brown, who regulates and helps approve charter school applications for the state Department of Education, told her.

Wilson said alternatives are already in use for Jacksonville’s children whose parents have found public education to be inadequate. These include private schools, virtual or online schools.

After an August meeting when parents met at the community center to discuss creating a charter school in Jacksonville, the mayor and city council created a steering committee as part of an effort to create such a school.

Members have not yet been appointed.

Wilson said he learned at that meeting what would be required to create a charter school.

“Schools should emphasize accountability, curriculum, discipline,” Wilson said.

Brown said charter schools are public schools intended to provide unique and innovative programs.

When an organization applies to the board of education to create a charter school, it asks for exemption from state regulations.

Charter schools can be exempt from the traditional school calendar or length of the school day, for example.

Mandated salary requirements for teachers are also exempted. In return, schools are scrutinized under stricter accountability standards, Brown said.

Two kinds of charter schools exist in the state: open enrollment and district conversion.

Students from outside the district’s boundaries can attend open enrollment schools.

Conversion schools are public schools converted to charter schools. Only students from within the district boundaries can attend conversion schools.

Brown said parents, teachers and community leaders, public schools and nonprofit organizations have created charter schools in the state. Charter schools receive financing per student, just as traditional public schools.

“When those students go to charter schools, they take the funding with them,” Brown said.

Charter schools do not receive transportation or facility funding unless under the district’s jurisdiction. She said none of the state’s charter schools have opened in new buildings.

Charter schools are a growing movement in the state.

This year, three new schools have opened, in Hope, Rogers and Little Rock. Two closed last year.

“The first year is crucial,” Brown said. “Like raising a baby.”

She said the schools that closed did not have the background and knowledge necessary to understand public school financing.

The Department of Education highlights increased opportunity for learning, choice for parents and students, accountability, innovation in teaching, new professional opportunities for teachers, encouraged parental involvement and creation of competition among public schools as benefits of charter schools.

“In Arkansas, laws were made as to how those opportunities could be afforded to Arkansas students,” Brown said.

No charter school is exempt from providing the state’s core-required curriculum or special education, according to Brown.
Parents expressed concern that charter schools seek to take the smartest, highest-achieving children out of public schools.
Charter schools do not have an application process but if enrollment exceeds capacity, who attends the school is decided by lottery.

“A charter school is a private school with state funding,” Cindy Milby, a mother of two North Pulaski students said.
She said she thinks the district would want a charter school because it would be cheaper.

TOP STORY >>Ex-Lonoke mayor in no-contest plea

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

Former Lonoke Mayor Thomas Privett never denied that he had two state work-release inmates hang his Christmas decorations or fix his air conditioner, so following his “no-contest” plea to a count of theft of services Monday, Circuit Judge John Cole fined him $300, charged him $150 in court costs and sentenced him to one year unsupervised probation.

Thus ends the saga of a local official whose bad judgment made him a footnote in the sprawling, lurid prosecution featuring a police chief, his wife, a jailer and two bail bondsmen on a bevy of conspiracy, theft and drug charges.

Privett has said he paid the two inmates a small stipend and thought the work fell under the types of things they could do to earn spending money.

Act 309 inmates are state prison ers—trustees—on loan to counties or cities to do work like cooking at the jail or cleaning up trash.

“I’m pleased that this case is finally resolved and look forward to the trial of the two remaining defendants, (Bobby Junior) Cox and (Larry) Norwood,” said Lonoke County Prosecutor Lona McCastlain. “It will only be then that the citizens of the city of Lonoke will have closure.”

She said she expected the court to set a trial date this week for Cox and Norwood, two bail bondsmen charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.

Cox is also charged with being a member of an ongoing criminal enterprise.

“I’m glad to have it behind me,” Privett said Monday, but said he had mixed emotions.

He said the charge against him, although a misdemeanor, contributed to his being turned out of office after his second term.
“I doubt it,” he said when asked if he would run of office again. He said he’d continue to work in real estate and run his hardware store, he said.

Charges against Privett and against former Lonoke Jailer Amy Staley were lumped with charges against former Lonoke Police Chief Jay Campbell, his wife Kelly Harrison Campbell, and with bail bondsmen Bobby Cox and Larry Norwood.

Cole found Staley not guilty in a bench trial earlier this year of having sex with an inmate.

Like Privett, Campbell was charged with improper use of Act 309 inmates, but the case against the Campbells and the bail bondsmen were much larger.

Campbell was sentenced to 40 years in prison for running an on-going criminal enterprise, conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and 21 other charges including several residential burglaries and several counts receiving of a controlled substance by fraud. He’s in a Texas prison for his own safety, appealing his convictions.

His wife, Kelly, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for participating in an ongoing criminal enterprise, several theft and drug related counts and furnishing contraband to inmates, two of whom testified that they had sexual relations with her.

Cox and Norwood are charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and Cox is charged with participating in Campbell’s ongoing criminal enterprise.

There was testimony in the Campbell trial that Cox, then a codefendant, solicited Ron “Bear” Tyler to kill McCastlain and witness Ryan Adams, a meth cook. While currently neither Cox nor Norwood is charged with soliciting capital murder, Jegley instead of McCastlain will handle their charges.

FROM THE PUBLISHER >>Tough vet able to cry and smile

When you saw Bill Greer, he usually smiled like all his brothers. They said he never met a stranger, and he loved to pull pranks and scare people, but then he’d laugh some more and just be happy and everybody would forgive him.

Greer, who passed away last week, was a small-town cutup — he was raised in Poplar Bluff, Mo. — and he was a real character, before TV made everyone act and look the same — but his brothers and sisters were taught to be happy even when life was hard.

Life was tough, since their father drilled water wells for a living, and there was no work in the winter, but the family survived and did all right for themselves.

Bill Greer was the longtime meat manager for Knight’s Super Foods, and he never complained if we were late with his ads or if there was a mistake. He’d just say, “Don’t worry about it. It’s all right.”

Bill would smile and ask how you were doing, but he never let on that he was a Vietnam veteran who’d seen too many of his friends die, blown up in the jungles or swallowed up in the rice paddies back in 1965 and 1966, when he was in his early 20s and the war was escalating and hundreds of Americans were dying every week.

Bill Greer died last Thursday at the age of 64 from a massive aneurysm and cardiac arrest.

At the graveside service at Meadowbrook Memorial Gardens, shots rang out as a military honor guard saluted him for his service to his country and on a CD Johnny Cash sang “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “Amazing Grace.”

Johnny Cash was his favorite singer because Johnny also came from a poor family that worked the ground and he never forgot his roots, and he, too, had his personal demons. But Bill would only share the horrors of his past with his Jane and his family and a few friends.

After his funeral, his younger brothers Walt and Eugene were smiling just like Bill used to smile. If you knew Bill but hadn’t met Walt and Eugene before, you could tell right away they were brothers not only because they look alike but also from the big smiles on their faces.

His brother Walt said Bill was always having the time of his life, hiding behind curtains and jumping out and startling people, or working late at night at Knight’s Super Foods, where he was the meat supervisor for more than 30 years.

Bill loved his job and became a workaholic to keep his mind off his past.

“He’d open his wallet to anybody,” Walt said after the funeral. “He didn’t have an enemy in the world. He never met a stranger.”

He did scare the daylights out of Walt’s wife, the bakery supervisor who was trying to find the light switch at 3 a.m. when the store was closed and supposedly empty, and suddenly a man’s hand reached out, and she screamed. It was Bill, and she told him not to scare her like that anymore.

He liked to play games because when he was a young man, life was hell and he didn’t know if he’d live to see his 24th birthday.

“He saw hand-to-hand combat in Vietnam,” Walt said.

Bill kept his group going from one battle to the next with hardly a break. “The men would start getting tired, and he’d yell to keep them alert at all times. The enemy was everywhere.”

He saw a lot of death and destruction in Vietnam, but when his brother Eugene was about to be sent over there, Bill said he’d pull an extra year’s duty if Eugene didn’t have to go to Vietnam. The Army wouldn’t hear of it, so Eugene fought in Vietnam right after his brother came back home.

Bill’s wife Jean first heard that story after the funeral. “He’d rarely talk about the war,” she recalled, “but when he did talk, he’d tell the same stories over and over.”

There were the nightmares for the longest time. He’d close his eyes, and he could hear his buddies screaming.

“He used to jump out of helicopters,” Jane said. “They were the first ones to get killed.”

One day, they were out on patrol and were surrounded. His group was nearly wiped out.

“They’d run out of ammunition and were outnumbered 3-1,” his widow said.

The enemy fled when helicopters arrived to rescue Bill and his group.

“Only five in his group survived,” Jane said. “He carried so many bodies, he broke down and cried.”

He really tried to put the war behind him and succeeded most of the time, but then there’d be something in the news, and Bill would get depressed.

“During Desert Storm, his personality would change,” his wife explained. “His personality would change after he’d go to bed.”
His wife said Bill had real leadership qualities, and the Army wanted to make him an officer, but he was married and wanted to work and raise a family.

Bill helped build the Knight’s chain and had many friends and raised a big family who loved him. At least 100 people showed up for his funeral and heard Johnny Cash sing:

Will the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There’s a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.

The sun was setting, and an honor guard took the flag from Bill’s casket and folded it and gave it to Jane. The vice commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars gave her three shells.

She was moved by the gesture, and it seemed as if the flag and the shells were for all the men who didn’t make it back from Vietnam, or if they did survive, they never left the war behind.

TOP STORY >>Council freezes fees on builders

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

The Cabot City Council voted Monday night to stop collecting the impact fee on new construction for up to six months while a committee determines how much the fee has contributed to the slowdown in home construction.

Since the impact fee began a year ago, the number of building permits has dropped significantly from as many as 45 a month in years past to an average of 25 for most of 2007 but down to 11 in September and eight in October.

Council members and developers acknowledged that the economy could be partly to blame. But they said building is booming in Ward and Austin, which don’t have an impact fee but are in the Cabot School District which draws most new residents to the area.

With the return of Alderman Virgil Teague, absent due to illness for many months, all eight council members were present for the meeting. All except Ken Williams, a developer, voted for the moratorium, including Eddie Cook and Teri Miessner, who spoke against that action during committee meetings and the Monday night council meeting. Williams asked that the record show that he abstained.

If the council hadn’t called for the moratorium or a freeze on the amount collected, the impact fee would have doubled this month from $1,272 to $2,196 on a 3,000 – 3,900 square-foot house. The fee is also scheduled to increase in 2008 and 2009. By the third increase, the impact fee on a 3,000 – 3,900 square-foot house would be $4,037.

Cook, one of two aldermen who were on the council when the impact fee was passed, said he was fearful of a moratorium with no solid plan for beginning collections again.

Miessner, who has never favored a moratorium, said she was disappointed with the council for waiting until the fee was about to double before investigating the cause of the decline in new home construction.

“There’d better by gosh be some study done on it (now)” Miessner said.

Alderman Becky Lemaster called the impact fee a tax.

“It’s a tax on and industry that’s having a hard time already,” she said.

Alderman Tom Armstrong, who was on the council last year and was the only member to vote against the fee, still doesn’t want it.

“If we don’t abolish this, we’re cutting our nose off to spite our face,” he said.

About 10 representatives from the building industry attended the meeting to see how the council would vote on the issue.
Developer Jack King told the council that doubling the fees as scheduled would “break an already broken industry.

Bill O’Brian, a Realtor and developer, said houses were still selling, but no one is building more. He told the council that he was half owner in 80 lots that no one wants to build on.

When the council members discussed the fee last week during a budget meeting, no one was willing to chair a committee to determine whether it is responsible for the building slowdown.

But Miessner said Monday night that she had changed her mind. She would chair the committee if the builders and developers in the audience would serve on it. Most said they would.

If the fee is reinstated sometime in the next six months, it will almost certainly not include wastewater, which has collected about $35,000 in the past year. Council members say that since city voters passed a one-cent sales tax to pay for a new wastewater treatment plant, that department no longer needs the money to pay growth related expenses. And the commission that now runs water and wastewater has agreed to let it go.

TOP STORY >>Airman hero given medal

By HEATHER HARTSELL
Leader staff writer

For his leadership at Camp Bucca, Iraq, a Little Rock Air Force Base antiterrorism officer was awarded the Bronze Star at a ceremony on base Tuesday.

First Lt. George Hern, an airman from the 314th Security Forces Squadron, received the military’s highest honor for his actions during his September 2006 to June 2007 tour in southern Iraq.

As a flight commander at Camp Bucca, a holding facility for Iraqi insurgents, Hern was in charge of aiding personnel from multiple services with security outside of the base and during convoys.

Leading teams outside the wire was a tough situation, Brig. Gen. Rowayne Schatz, base commander, said of Hern’s responsibility.

“His calm, collective leadership brought everything under control and no one was hurt,” Schatz said. “It’s a tough mission when you are in insurgent country – normally you’re behind the wire in the safety of a defended base,” he said.

The general described one mission in which a convoy was attacked by an improvised explosive device (IED) and Hern successfully set up a defensive area around the convoy and took care of those involved.

Hern’s Bronze Star citation states, as read by Master Sgt. Mark Evans, narrator for the ceremony, “For exceptionally meritorious service during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His outstanding dedication to duty during combat operations in Iraq contributed to the overwhelming success of the command’s mission.”

Schatz said he told Hern while pinning on his medal that the citation did not adequately cover his actions and there was much more to it.

“Congratulations on a successful deployment and thank you for your services,” Schatz told him, adding, “we are awfully proud of the job you did there.”

Hern, 32, thanked his family, wife Adri, son Christian and parents George Sr. and Barbara (who came down from Ohio for the ceremony), for their love and support not only during this recent deployment, but also throughout his 13 years in the Air Force.

A security forces member from day one, Hern has been stationed at LRAFB since 2005. He was stationed here while a staff sergeant from 2001-2003 as a K-9 handler.

TOP STORY >>Housing on base has two finalists

By HEATHER HARTSELL AND
JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writers

Two development companies are left in the running to take over failed military housing-privatization contracts at four air bases including Little Rock Air Force Base, Brig. Gen. Rowayne Schatz said Tuesday.

American Eagle Communities LLC, a partnership between Carabetta Enterprises and Shaw Infrastructures, was to have remodeled or razed and built about 1,200 homes at the base by 2011, but three years into the project, with only about 25 homes completed, construction at LRAFB ground to a halt in May, with local suppliers and contractors owed at least hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Following a Monday teleconference with other interested parties, Schatz, who is the base commander, said that apparently a new developer will be chosen as early as mid January to take over the failed contracts at his base and at Patrick AFB in Florida, Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts and Moody AFB in Georgia.

Two experienced military housing-privatization companies left in the negotiations with the insurance bond holders, the Air Force and American Eagle, are Hunt and Pinnacle and also Forest City Enterprises.

Schatz said that in addition to the various bond holders, the Air Force Center for Engineering and Environment will join American Eagle representatives to look at a more detailed proposal on bundling the four projects together or dealing with them separately, with a target completion date of mid-December.

Following more negotiations, the Air Force hopes to have selected a proposal by mid-January and to begin negotiations to finalize details of the agreement and the financing.

“We’re still looking at summer of next year before Little Rock will really get moving again,” the general said. “In the meantime, we’ll continue to work with American Eagle on maintenance and aspects of managing current property to ensure that they maintain the high standard our airmen and their families deserve.”

Schatz has said the new project would likely be less ambitious than the original, aiming at 659 new and remodeled homes instead of the 1,200 new and remodeled homes specified in the contract won by Carabetta Enterprises and Shaw Infrastructure in August 2004.

American Eagle Communities LLC—a Carabetta-Shaw company managed by Carabetta—should have completed 125 new homes by now, according to the general, but only 25 were finished when the bondholders on the $127 million project shut the job down in May.

They refused to release any more funds on a project behind schedule with cost overruns of perhaps 50 percent, Schatz said.
Schatz has said that although American Eagle Communities owns the development, and maintenance and management contract for the next 50 years, it is the bondholders who are driving the new negotiations.

A partnership of Hunt Building Corporation of El Paso, Texas, and Pinnacle AMS Development Company, LLC of Irvine, California, was selected in February for the largest privatization award in Air Force history, including homes at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, Langley AFB in Virginia and Bolling AFB in Washington, D.C.

The project includes 3,189 homes for Air Force families, including 1,753 new homes and renovation of 362 historically significant homes.

Forest City Enterprises, Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, closed Tuesday on its acquisition of the 2,985-unit Navy privatization contract from Carabetta in the Puget Sound, Washington, area.

Forest City also has privatization contracts with the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, the Marines in Hawaii and the Navy in the Midwest.

GMH Communities Trust of Newtown Square, Pa., no longer being considered for the American Eagle contracts, has 12 military privatization contracts, including the 867-unit contract at Vandenberg AFB announced November 1.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

EDITORIALS>>Road system's cold reality

The choice between pleasurable fancy and disagreeable reality is hard for leaders to make any time. It is especially hard when people are imbued with the notion that taxes are way too high and led to expect their lowering, not raising.

So it is with transportation. Everyone loves good roads and streets and expects them. We would like to believe that the motor-fuel taxes and registration fees are high enough to maintain the road system and keep apace of the needs of a growing population.

Jim McKenzie, the Metroplan director, who is paid to peer into the future, told us this week what the cold reality is.
Congestion on central Arkansas’s highway system is going to get worse and worse, the roads will deteriorate under the pounding and current taxes will support less and less road work.

The arithmetic is elementary. Skyrocketing oil prices are driving the cost of road materials through the ceiling while gradually improving vehicle fuel efficiency produces fewer and fewer tax revenues per mile traveled. Under those circumstances the metropolitan area’s long-range transportation plan is no more than a dream, McKenzie said. Completing the North Belt Freeway and the widening of Highway 67-167 may be out of the question, too.

The state is not taking in enough highway taxes both to maintain the existing roads and undertake major expansions.
The state Highway and Transportation Department has been saying the same thing; it has always said the same thing. McKenzie localized the issue.

Visionary planner that he is, McKenzie offered two options, higher highway-user taxes or a wholesale commitment to mass transit. If you have traveled in continental Europe or the great American metropolises, mass transit does seem so smart.
You can zip across Europe or from berg to berg conveniently and relatively cheaply by the omnipresent trains and buses.
The highways are good, too, though you don’t find the broad and busy expressways that you see around American metropolises, or even Little Rock.

The reason is that cars and trucks are smaller and far more efficient than those on U. S. roads. European vehicles average 36 miles per gallon, those on our roads a mere 21. A new generation of even smaller and far more economical cars will push the European average above 40 mpg, twice ours, by the end of the decade.

Smaller, faster cars and the diversion of so much travel to mass transit keeps crowded Europe mostly free of road congestion except for the occasional stau on the Autobahn.

The huge burden of fuel taxes all across Europe provides money to maintain a super transportation network and, of course, drives automakers and travelers to more and more efficient vehicles. We don’t have those incentives in the United States, not yet.

But a super mass transit system, including even the sparse light-rail network that urban planners have talked about, is not a realistic option for central Arkansas now.

The population is not dense enough and the cultural attachment to automobile travel too intense for government to force so dramatic a change of habit. A wholesale investment in mass transit, which would necessarily come at the expense of roadwork, is simply not salable. Before long we will have to commit higher highway taxes.

The legislature raises motor fuel taxes or vehicle registration fees, or both, about every 10 years. It typically raises gasoline and diesel by 2 to 4 cents a gallon.

It raised it once by a nickel a gallon. Gradually rising fuel efficiency means that the higher taxes usually offset the improved efficiency. Unless you drive a gas-guzzling old clunker — the misfortune of poorer people — you come out about even with the government after each tax increase.

Actually, Arkansans on average now pay less in taxes per mile traveled considering inflation than they did 75 years ago during the Great Depression. The rate has risen from 6 cents a gallon in 1932 to 21.5 cents a gallon. It was last raised, by 4 cents a gallon, in 1999.

In another 14 months, January 2009, the legislature will convene again and you should not be surprised and neither should you be disappointed if there is an effort to raise those taxes again, by more than a nickel a gallon. It is the price of civilization.

Monday, November 19, 2007

SPORTS >>Panthers sweep Eagles in two exciting endings

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

Time was on the Panthers side Tuesday night in Vilonia, but just barely. Cabot made up a seven-point deficit in the final quarter to overtake the Eagles in the final minute before a put-back basket for Vilonia just after the final buzzer was disallowed, giving the Panthers a 44-42 win. The Lady Panthers also had to sweat out a close one in the final moments to take a 48-46 win in the opening game of the night.

The Panthers got their first lead of the game mid-way through the third quarter, when a jumper by junior guard Adam Sterrenberg lifted Cabot to a 29-28 advantage. Vilonia rallied quickly, scoring the final six points of the period to take a 34-29 lead heading into the final frame.

“I’m proud of my kids for fighting back,” Bridges said. “Both teams played really strong. Vilonia is a scrappy team, and they are very well coached. We felt like we were a little bit lucky to come away with the win, but sometimes you have to have a little luck on your side in basketball.”

The call at the end was very unpopular with the Vilonia crowd, which thought the shot should have been counted to send the game into overtime. The officials, who had sampled several plates of home cooking throughout both contests, seemed on top of the last call despite inconsistencies throughout the night. As for the head Panther, he took the fifth in so many words.

“That last put-back, I couldn’t tell if it was good or not looking at it on film,” Bridges said. “It was close. There wasn’t a light on the backboard, and that makes it even tougher to tell in situations like that. I do know that both teams played really hard, and it was a tough game to get through.”

The Panthers got in trouble early, as Vilonia rushed out to a 20-8 lead by the 3:36 mark of the first half. Cabot was in dire need of someone to step up offensively, and Jack Bridges filled that role with a pair of late three pointers, including one right before the buzzer that pulled the Panthers to within four points at 22-18.

The third quarter ended up fairly evenly matched, save for the final 1:27 of play. Sterrenberg, who was held to only one basket and a pair of free throws in the first half, finally found a lane worth using in the third quarter. Entering the paint from the left side, Sterrenberg had back-to-back goals to put Cabot in the lead for the first time all night. Vilonia answered with a basket by Clayton Clements, and Jordan Riley closed out the quarter for the Eagles with four unanswered points before the end of the period.

It was defense that would make the biggest difference for the Panthers down the stretch. Matt Ball hit a pair of free throws with 4:42 left that put the Eagles ahead 42-35, but that would be the end of the road for Vilonia’s offense. Cabot increased the pressure dramatically at that point, and the move would pay off with four late-game steals by Sterrenberg and forward Austin Johnson. Sterrenberg got the first steal that led to a point off a free throw, and Johnson’s pick with 1:53 remaining resulted in a put-back shot, also by Johnson, that pulled the Panthers to within two.

Johnson’s next steal came on the next trip down by Vilonia. He quickly got the ball out to Sterrenberg, who put the shot in to tie the game with 1:01 remaining. The Eagles went down court with the intention of holding for the final shot, but Sterrenberg had other plans. He stripped the ball for VHS guard Riley, and took the ball down court for a lay up. Instead entering from the side for a safe shot, Sterrenberg tried to dazzle with a lay up from the paint. The shot was unsuccessful, but he drew the foul fighting for the rebound, and hit both free throws to put the Panthers up 44-42 with only nine seconds left.

The Eagles put the ball in the hands of their best shooter in Ball for the final play, but his jumper was slightly off. Cody Wood got the rebound for Vilonia and quickly tried for the put-back, but the buzzer sounded before the shot left his hands.

Sterrenberg led the Panthers with 16 points. Bridges added 12 points off four three-point shots for Cabot. For Vilonia, Riley led with 14 points. The win gives the Panthers a 1-0 record. Cabot will not play again until the Bank Classic when they take on Vilonia once again in the first round on November 27.

The Lady Panthers led for most of the first half of the opening game, but fell behind by five points until the third quarter buzzer, when a three pointer by senior point guard Leah Watts pulled Cabot back to within two for the final eight minutes.

Watt’s shot pulled the motivation to the Lady Panthers’ side, as they were able to outlast three timeouts by Vilonia in the final 3.7 seconds of play to hold on for the win. Watts led the Lady Panthers with 11 points, with 10 points from junior post Shelby Ashcraft and nine for forward Lauren Walker. The win gave Cabot a 2-2 record. The Lady Panthers will host Pulaski Academy on November 27.

SPORTS >>Gravette runs away with win in playoffs

By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor

GRAVETTE – Lonoke had a punt blocked on its first possession, already trailing 7-0. One play and eight yards later, it was 14-0. A good drive stalled after a sack for a loss of 14 yards, and the Lions scored again. With 55 seconds left in the first quarter, it was 21-0 and all over but the crying.

Gravette added one more score before the half to make it 27-0, but the extra point was blocked, sending the game into intermission eight points shy of enacting the sportsmanship rule.

Gravette’s playmakers all season have been quarterback Ethan McKinzie, running back Teddy Selby and receiver Frankie Walburn, but on this night it was Travis Eden.

Eden scored two touchdowns and got three sacks in the first half.

The hosting Lions took the opening kickoff to their own 37, and needed just six plays to get the needed 63 yards for the score without even facing a third down.

The biggest play of the drive was a Teddy Selby run of 28 yards that put the ball on the Lonoke 21-yard line.

A pass from McKinzie to Eden put the ball on the 8, and Eden did the rest on the ground two plays later. The extra point made it 7-0 with 9:55 left in the opening frame.

Lonoke went three plays for four yards, and the punt was blocked by Jeremy Henry and covered by Lonoke’s Clarence Harris at the 8-yard line.

On the next play, Eden went eight yards again for the score. Richard McKee’s extra point made it 14-0 with 8:20 left in the quarter.

The Jackrabbits started on their own 24 on the ensuing drive, an rove to the Gravette 19, but Harris was sacked for a big loss on second down. Third down gained just two yards and a fourth-down pass was hurried and incomplete, giving the ball back to the Lions at the their 31.

Gravette then went that distance in eight plays and one Lonoke penalty. The Lions were faced with two third downs, but converted both. After the second one, a 2-yard push forward by Selby, McKinzie found Walburn in the end zone on first down from the 25.

The extra point made it 21-0 with 55 seconds left in the first quarter.

Lonoke went just seven yards on its next possession, but the defensive also held and forced a Gravette punt.

Rabbit running back Brandon Smith gave Lonoke some brief life with a 42-yard run to the Gravette 27. Three plays later, on fourth and 1, Lonoke appeared to get the first down, but the measurement showed it about a foot short.

Gravette then took over from a half yard past where Lonoke needed for the first, and from the 16-and-a-half yard line, Selby went 20 yards to the 36.

Two plays later, Walburn made a 2-yard reception. Michael Croasdell then went 29 yards on two carries. Selby then caught a screen pass for 23 yards, with a 10-yard penalty knocking 10 yards off the play. Two plays later on third and down, Selby found Zach Daily over the middle from the 12 for the score with 1:34 left in the half.

Lonoke made one last attempt at making a game of it at the start of the second half. The Jackrabbits drove to the Gravette 21, but failed to convert a fourth and 1 and gave it back to the Lions.

The Gravette offense picked up right where it left off, going 89 yards in eight plays, including an off-sides penalty on the Rabbits on fourth and 1.

After the penalty, Selby got loose for 21 yards to the Lonoke 24. McKinzie kept for seven and Selby did the rest. The extra point snap was fumbled, and Gravette led 33-0 with 5:55 left in the third.

Lonoke went four and out on its next possession and Gravette took over just 29 yards from the end zone. On the third play, McKinzie hit Walburn for 25 yards and the score to inact the sportsmanship rule.

The two team traded possessions with the clock running, and the Rabbits finally got on the board early in the fourth quarter.
The touchdown was set up by a screen pass to Harris for 50 yards to the 29. After a personal foul penalty on Gravette, Michael Howard scored from 10 yards out to make it 39-6.

After another stop, Lonoke was able to add another touchdown to the board. Harris picked up 50 yards on another short pass from Jacob Taylor. A few plays later Howard did the rest from 10 yards out. The two-point conversion was successful to set the final margin at 39-14.

Lonoke finishes the season 8-4 overall while Gravette improved to 9-2. The Lions will host Dardanelle next week in the quarterfinals.

SPORTS >>Wolves slash Bears Friday

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

PEARCY — The Bears’ amazing run finally came to an end Friday night at Wolf Stadium, as Lake Hamilton rolled off four first-half touchdowns on its way to a 44-16 win in the semifinal round of the 6A state playoffs. Sylvan Hills was able to score on their opening drive of the second half, but the Wolves answered right back with a scoring drive of their own that ate up the final seven minutes of the third quarter.

“We missed out on some opportunities tonight,” Sylvan Hills coach Jim Withrow said. “In a game like this, four or five plays can change the game for you, and it certainly did us tonight. I’m proud of our guys, though. Coming out 0-4 to start the season, they could have folded it up and quit, but they fought hard all year and got themselves in the semifinals of the playoffs. Lake Hamilton is a great team, and you can’t make mistakes against them if you want to give yourself a chance.”

For Wolves coach Jerry Clay, it was his team’s all-around effort on both sides of the football that he believed earned the win.

“We blocked well up front all night,” Clay said. “They have a lot of speed on defense, but not a lot of size. We thought we could run right at them. Our defense has played great all year, and tonight wasn’t any different. They have a good offense, and it took us a while to adjust to their speed.”

An omen of the Bears’ night to come showed itself before the game even started, as key receiver Devin Shaw suffered a shoulder injury during pre-game warm ups.

Lake Hamilton senior Cole Lorigan put the Wolves on the scoreboard on the opening kickoff. Addison Wynn actually caught the kick from Stephan Kettle, but handed the ball to with on a reverse, and he would take it all the way for a 90-yard touchdown kick return. Jordan Gay added the extra point to give Lake Hamilton a very early 7-0 lead with 11:47 remaining in the opening quarter.

The Bears drove into Lake Hamilton on their opening drive, but would eventually turn the ball over on downs. The Wolves would return the favor deep in Sylvan Hills territory, but the first major mistake of the night would occur on the Bears’ first-down play. A bobbled snap found its way to the turf, and Dylan McMahan was there to recover for the Wolves at the Sylvan Hills’ 9-yard line.

It didn’t take the Wolves long to strike again from there. A pass from QB Butterfield to Josh Whitney in the end zone put Lake Hamilton up by two scores with 4:47 left in the first quarter.

The Bears got on the scoreboard in the first half with a 25-yard field goal by Stepan Kettle to make it 14-3 with 11:50 left in the second quarter, but Lake Hamilton came right back with a seven play, 48 yard drive that was set up by a solid return by D. J. Bell. Butterfield kept on second and goal from the two yard line for the third Wolves’ TD of the night with 9:06 remaining in the first half.

Another LH touchdown off a 49-yard pass play from Butterfield to Josh Profitt with 1:52 left in the first half gave the Wolves a 28-3 lead at halftime.

The Bears came up energized for their first drive of the second half. The drive started out rather shaky, with Miller slipping in the pocket while scrambling, which resulted in a 9 yard loss. A late hit penalty against the Wolves got that yardage back and then some, but an incomplete pass intended for Mark Turpin resulted in a fourth and two, and the Bears lined up to punt.

The punt turned out to be a fake, and Deyonte Davis ran the snap upfield for a gain of five yards, giving the Bears a fresh set of downs at their own 32-yard line. It began to look like the Bears of old from there, as Miller and fullback Lawrence Hodges shared rushing duties to take the ball into Lake Hamilton territory, and Miler capped off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run with seven minutes left in the third quarter. Kettle added the extra-point to make it 28-10.

The Wolves extented their lead with a 30-yard field goal by Gay at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and added another touchdown moments later after a fumble by Sylvan Hills gave the ball back to Lake Hamilton. This time, it was Nic Utley that took it in for the Wolves.

Michael Watkins scored the final Wolves’ touchdown of the night with 3:37 remaining, but Miller and the Bears’ offense had one last trick up their sleeves.

Miller found Davis for a 65-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field on the fourth play of the ensuing drive. Davis pulled down the spiral from Miller and shook his defender at the LH 40, and rumbled the rest of the way for the score.

Miller finished the game with 10 completions on 23 attempts for 150 yards and a touchdown, with one interception. Hodges had 14 carries for 64 yards, and Turpin had seven receptions for 62 yards. Davis added three catches for 88 yards and a touchdown. For Lake Hamilton, Butterfield led with 9 of 13 passing for 134 yards. The Bears finished the season with a final record of 7-5. Lake Hamilton stayed undefeated with a 12-0 record, and will face conference rival Texarkana in the state finals.

EDITORIALS>>Watch out for deer

Paragould Daily Press — Yes, it’s deer season again. But no, we aren’t talking about on what days one may hunt, or with what weapons.

We are talking about the unintended weapons with which many unwary motorists manage to get themselves a deer, however accidentally: collisions between deer on the one hand, and cars or trucks on the other.

It’s the time of year that the deer are out, crossing roads at just the time when they cannot be seen: dawn, dusk and the first few hours of darkness. And anyone who has even had a near-miss will tell you they tend to spring out and hit the road at a dead run just as your vehicle approaches.

Some might even suggest the deer are engaged in playing chicken with the vehicles, for whatever reason.

Of course, that’s not true, but the fact remains that, according to published statistics made available by the U.S. Army, there are an average of 2,200 collisions between deer and vehicles each year.

Most of these collisions are in the mid- to late fall. That’s the time of year we are right now so we are all at some risk. Such collisions do an average of $3,000 damage to the vehicles, occasionally leaving a given vehicle undriveable.

But the damage or the frequency of such collisions is not the major issue. What if the deer you hit comes up onto and past the hood of your car? Where does it go?

Right into your windshield, that’s where. And even granted that hitting the deer with the front of your car will dissipate some of the energy of the collision, it’s still up to 250 pounds of deer coming through the windshield at speeds up to 60 miles an hour.

Everyone in the front seat is therefore at risk of serious injury, even death, from such a collision.

So the threat is real. What to do about it is pretty straightforward, if not a 100 percent guarantee of collision avoidance.
According to published sources including those of the U.S. Army, the areas containing the greatest threats of deer-vehicle collisions are wooded areas and fields. You know just like what we have around here alongside roads even inside Paragould. So extra vigilance and slower speeds are necessary in these areas.

Keep your eyes peeled during low-light conditions. Generally we are talking dusk, dawn and the first few hours of darkness. Even so, some of us have seen and barely missed deer in early afternoons of sunny days.

Drive with your lights on high beam when there is not oncoming traffic. The extra light will reflect out of the deer’s eyes so you can see the eyes before you actually see the deer.

At this time of the year, especially with the onset of hunting season, deer are apt to become panicky in efforts to evade real or imagined hunters.

Stay alert and watch the sides of the road as well as the center.

EDITORIALS>>Hospitable to Mexicans

It turns out that we have Mike Huckabee, along with taxpayers and a northeast Arkansas developer, to thank for that new Mexican consulate over in Little Rock. Lots of people will not believe that thanks is what the former governor deserves, but we do.

Huckabee never detailed his role and the private arrangements that brought the consulate to Little Rock rather than Oklahoma City, Memphis or another regional hub. That might be because he figured it would be unhelpful in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Hospitality for immigrants, especially illegal ones, is not a virtue in the Republican constituency.

A conservative online journal, WordNetDaily, broke the story this week. It quoted developer Bruce Burrow of Jonesboro as explaining how Huckabee had packaged the deal to subsidize a consular building for the Mexican government as an incentive to capture the office for Arkansas. Huckabee had met with Mexican President Vicente Fox and the consulate came up.

Huckabee said he would try to make arrangements for it to be at Little Rock. He talked Burrow into buying and renovating a building for the Mexican offices at no profit to his company. The project cost $1.2 million. Huckabee put up $10,000 from a state development fund and persuaded the city of Little Rock to pitch in $50,000. The Mexican government leases the building and Burrow expects the government to buy it.

State Rep. Rick Green of Dripping Springs, a Republican critic of Huckabee, saw it as another example of Huckabee encouraging illegal immigrants to come to Arkansas. Border-security activist Joe McCutchen, who had obtained government documents on the project through the Freedom of Information Act, said Huckabee made the deal with Mexico to attract illegal immigrants to give Arkansas businesses cheap immigrant workers.

As governor, Huckabee demonstrated unusual compassion toward immigrant workers. He sought to provide state-funded scholarships for children of Hispanic workers, including illegal ones. He called for compassion rather than hatred.

But as a candidate for president, he discovered a different constituency. He has roused cheers from conservative groups by demanding that the government wall off Mexico to halt illegal immigration and vowed to prevent any kind of amnesty for those already here. The conservative journal quoted the governor as saying that his goal had been to assist Arkansas companies in export-import business with Mexico, not to attract illegal workers, and that the consulate would help immigrants get the proper papers.

To most people, Huckabee need not apologize. He ought to ask those constituencies in Iowa and at the values summits to embrace the country’s better values.

OBITUARIES >> 11-17-07

William Greer

William Harvey “Bill” Greer, Sr., 64, of Beebe died Nov. 15.

He was born Jan. 29, 1943, at Mt. Clemens, Mich., to Frederick H. and Norma E. Patterson Greer. He was a wonderful husband, super father, awesome granddaddy and best friend. After serving his country in Vietnam with the Army Airmobile Unit, he worked at Knight’s Grocery for 33 years. He was preceded in death by his parents and three brothers, Howell, Fred and Joseph Johnny Greer.

He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Jane Smoot Greer; two sons, William H. “Bill” Greer, Jr. of Beebe and John Howell Greer and wife April of Vilonia; a special child, Niki Kinder; grandchildren, Jacob, Josh, Jayce, Bridget, Bailey, Diane and Sommer Greer; brothers, Delbert Greer, Eugene Greer and Walter Greer; sisters, Joyce Mercurio, Nettie Coleman, Sandra Ketchens and Grace McKnight.

Graveside service will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at Meadowbrook Memorial Gardens in Beebe by Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.


Christopher Mettler

Christopher Lee Mettler, 31, of Cabot passed away Nov. 13 at his home in Cabot. He was born Feb. 17, 1976 in Minot, North Dakota to Charles J. Mettler and the late Sheila K. Legleiter Mettler.

Survivors include his father, Charles Mettler of Cabot; aunt, Karen Legleiter-Viergever and husband David of Morton, Ill. and their children, Katrina M. Pender and Jessica Pender of Pekin, Ill. and Andrew Viergever of Morton, Ill.; grandparents, Gilbert and Freada Legleiter of Winfield, Kan.; grandmother, Flora Mae Korbe-Harris of Morton, Ill.; grandparents, Herman and Bernadine Mettler of Nicolet, Mn.; uncles, Jim Mettler, Joe Mettler and wife Judy, Denny Mettler and wife LaNae and Rick Mettler, all of Nicollet, Mn., and Doug Mettler and wife Cherri of Converse, Texas; aunts, Kathy and Sandy Mettler, Deb Hulke and husband Randy, Shirley Meurer and husband Wayne, all of Nicollet, Mn. as well as Liz and Larry Kohout of Redwood Falls, Mn., as well as many other cousins and friends.

A memorial service was held Friday in the chapel of Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home with Father Les Farley officiating.


Ima Gridley

Ima Pauline Gridley, 85, of Jacksonville, formerly of Conway, went to be with the Lord Nov. 14 at Northridge Nursing Home.
She was born Feb. 11, 1922 in Searcy to the late Oscar C. and Stella Emily Davis Lamb.  She was preceded in death by her husband Elmer D. Gridley, two brothers, Vernon Lamb and O.C. Lamb and two sisters, Edna Wortham and Bertha Ahrens.  

She is survived by nieces, J. Frances Whitsell and husband Ed “Doc”, Nancy K. Wilson and husband Kent, Roxanne House and husband Rick, Dean Owens, Bobby Long, Betty Robinette, Carolyn Izard, Shirley Perry; nephews Larry Lamb and Tommy Lamb and many great-nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. today in the chapel of Moore’s Funeral Home.  Burial will be at 3 p.m. in Crestlawn Cemetery in Conway.  


Alva Zimmerman

Alva “Pops” or “Mr. Z” Claude Zimmerman, 90, loving father and grandfather of Jacksonville passed away Nov. 13.

He is survived by his daughters, Lillian A. Dinwiddie, Kathie and husband Sid Brown, Pat J. and husband Raymond Herrington; sons, Leland H. “Yogi” Zimmerman and wife Marguerite, Alva C. Zimmerman, Jr., Walter L. Zimmerman, Tommy K. Zimmerman and Victor E. “Buzz” Zimmerman; one sister, Ettalee Lavender; 21 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
A military honors memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock.
Funeral arrangements will be by Wood Funeral Home in Jacksonville.


Margurene Jones

Margurene “Marge” Jones, 89, of Hot Springs died Oct. 27.

She was born Nov. 26, 1917, at Butlerville to Homer and Lucy Glover Baldwin.

She was preceded in death by her husband Floyd Jones; her parents and brother, Daniel Baldwin.

She is survived by two sons, Robert Jones and wife Marilyn of Mabank, Texas, David Jones and wife Melissa of Cabot; a granddaughter, Kristie Jones of Lubbock, Texas; and a brother, Oris Baldwin of Fort Worth, Texas.

Graveside services were Nov. 5 at Hebron Cemetery in Carlisle by Westbrook Funer5al Home in Beebe.

TOP STORY >>Cabot, builder settle dispute over $29,619

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

The Cabot City Council has told Mayor Eddie Joe Williams to pay a $29,619 bill still owed Kullander Construction for work on the community center in exchange for the construction company not charging the city for additional work on the parking lot and sidewalks to make that new city building comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Financially, the city will come out ahead about $20,000 on the deal. The ADA work is estimated at about $50,000. The mayor told the council that Mikel Kullander will make the changes even though they were not in the architect’s plan in exchange for the city paying for work his company did as change orders that were not approved by the city council or the architects in charge of the project, but by Jim Towe, who was head of public works at that time.

Williams hired an engineer to determine what changes need to be made to the new building to make it comply with the ADA. He said officials with the Department of Justice told him the building must meet federal guidelines.

In addition to making the building ADA compliant, Kullander Construction will also fix problems at the community center at no charge to the city: leaks around the inside door at the walking track and downstairs back door; leak and damaged ceiling in meeting room; cracked caulking at front desk; broken cabinet in kitchen; broekn outside door handle in the gym; malfunctioning drain in women’s locker room at the pool; high-pitched whistle in the air unit; loud exhaust fan in the meeting room; non-functioning showers; leaking pool pump; non-functioning lights on walking track; air unit in meeting room that is malfunctioning; and the front desk light for which replacement cannot be found.

The council did not tell the mayor to pay the $44,761 still owed to architects Taggard, Foster, Currence & Gray. Whether the bill will be paid without an order from a court is unclear.

Construction of the community center was scheduled for the fall of 2004 but was halted when the bids came in $1.2 million over budget. That amount was included in the $28 million bond issue voters also approved in 2005. But to make sure there was enough money to build and furnish the center, some design changes were made.

The city hired Kullander to manage the project and to work with the architects to make the design changes. The mayor said those changes were the cause of the ADA problems. The site-prep work was for the original design and was not modified for the new one, he said. The angle of the sidewalks does not accommodate wheelchairs and to rework those will require reworking part of the parking lot, he said.

The center was originally expected to cost $3.5 million, including the site-prep work, which cost about $500,000. The low bid for construction in 2004 was $4.2 million, about $1.2 million more than the city was able to raise by diverting existing tax revenue to support the bonds to pay for it.

Carroll Astin, the city’s parks director, hoped changes to the design would bring the cost to about $3.8 million. The final price was $4.1 million.

TOP STORY >>Lonoke JPs pass $6.1M '08 budget

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

With little discussion, the Lonoke County Quorum Court on Thursday night approved a $6.1 million budget for 2008, including 3 percent pay raises for county employees.

Budget committee chairman Mike Dolan thanked the members of the budget committee members for their hard work, but committee member Lynn Clarke objected that Dolan and County Judge Charlie Troutman pushed through the budget, pay hikes and all, even though Sheriff Jim Roberson received about $200,000 less than he said he needed to run the jail and his office and the jail budget received appropriations totaling $84,000 less than the sheriff said he needed.

Appropriations for other offices came up about $140,000 shy of the amount that county officials said they needed.

“In the course of a year, it will work out,” said Troutman.

Clarke said the committee heard from all elected officials about their office budgets, then just did what they wanted to.
“I oppose the budget,” Clarke said. “We’re going to have to postpone necessary county business to give salary increases.”

She was joined by fellow Republican women Jeanette Minton, Alexis Malham and Donna Peterson in voting against the budget, but it got the nine votes it needed to be approved in a single sitting.

“That’s money we actually needed to do the operations,” Roberson said Friday. “They were saying we didn’t have the money.

Roberson said if the jail addition gets built anytime soon, he’ll have to hire at least four new jailers at a cost of about $160,000 to accommodate the additional 20 inmates it can hold, plus they’ll have to feed them and provide healthcare.

Roberson, JP Larry Odom and Troutman all complained about the architects, Taggert and Foster, who they say brought the project in more than a year late.

The job was ready for bids to be let, but the jail standards committee said first there must be handicap-accessible cells and restrooms.

“I told them three times,” Roberson said. “I wanted to terminate the architects. This is ridiculous.”

Over the objection of Odom, who wanted to hold on to all money until the county is sure it can pay for the jail addition, the court also approved replacement of the obsolete computer systems in the offices of the county clerk and the treasurer.
Odom is head of the county building committee and has single-mindedly pursued fixing the old jail and expanding it in lieu of building a new one.

The quorum court agreed to pay $28,000 worth of overtime earned by deputies this year and raised the pay to $50 a day for sitting jurors.

JP Hollon Crum, just appointed to a vacancy by Gov. Mike Beebe, proposed an increase for jurors called but not chosen to $25 from the current level of $15, but the court postponed consideration of that until after the first of the year.

Also, Minton said she would not bring her motion for a county employee salary study before the court again until after the first of the year.

The meeting followed a reception for the quorum court members hosted by circuit judges Philip Whiteaker and Barbara Elmore in the new courtroom that the county had remodeled when the state create a third circuit in Lonoke County.

TOP STORY >>Council may end fees for builders

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

The impact fees on new construction that the Cabot City Council put in place in November 2006 are scheduled to almost double this month, but the council that is now made up of mostly new members is considering either halting the collection of the fees temporarily or freezing it at the current level until they figure out if it has played a part in the slowdown in residential construction.

A committee of council members working on the 2008 budget Thursday told City Attorney Jim Taylor to draft two ordinances for the Monday night council meeting, one calling for a moratorium on the fees and another freezing them at the current level. If neither is passed, the impact fees on a 3,000 – 3,999 -square-foot house will increase from $1,272 to $2,196.

The fees are also scheduled to increase in 2008 and 2009. By the third increase, the impact fees on a 3,000 – 3,999- square-foot house would be $4,037.

The council appears divided on which ordinance to pass, but all agree that the fee should be restructured so that none of the money collected goes to the wastewater department.

When the study for the impact fee was started, Cabot desperately needed a new wastewater treatment plant.

But before the fee was implemented, city voters approved a one-cent sales tax to pay for that plant, which is scheduled to open this year.

The commission that runs Cabot WaterWorks said when the impact fee ordinance was passed that wastewater should be included because growth would require improvements to the system.

But recently the commission has changed its position and now says wastewater can manage without its part of the money collected.

The council committee also talked at length about the impact fee when it met Tuesday night. At that time, Alderman Ed Long called for a moratorium on the fee until spring to try to determine whether the economy or the impact fee is causing the building slowdown.

In recent years, the city has averaged selling about 35 residential building permits a year.

This year, the average has been closer to 25 with 11 sold in September and eight in October.

“To me this is front burner on high. I need to know something,” the alderman said.

He reasoned that if the fee is the cause for the decline in building permits, a moratorium on the fee should slow the building boom now going on in Austin and Ward.

Alderman Tom Armstrong, one of two aldermen who were on the council when the impact fee was passed, said he didn’t vote for it and doesn’t want to keep it.

“It’s making the builders leave,” Armstrong said.

Alderman Eddie Cook, the other holdover from the 2006 council, voted for the impact fee ordinance and said he is opposed to a moratorium but not necessarily opposed to a temporary freeze.

Cook said he had talked to builder Tommy Ray who has left Cabot because there is no more land to build on.

Alderman Becky Lemaster said she talked to builder Barry Weathers who has left Cabot because of the impact fee.

Alderman Teri Miessner said a moratorium while a determination is made about how the fee affects the building industry is pointless because no one will actually study it.

Miessner said the committee of mostly builders and bankers who made up the committee that recommended the fee in 2006 should be asked to take another look at it.

Jerrel Maxwell, the head of public works, said Tuesday that although the sale of building permits is down, the sale of occupancy permits is up, which means houses are being sold.

TOP STORY >>Schools clean up as staph virus spreading

By ALIYA FELDMAN
Leader staff writer

In the wake of the Palestine-Wheatley school closures Tuesday after a student contracted a staph infection resistant to antibiotics, Beebe schools are taking an aggressive approach since a staph case was diagnosed in a high school student there Wednesday, while other local schools are taking some precautions against the bacteria.
“Yes, we have had a couple of staph infections, not the real serious kind,” Beebe Superintendent Belinda Shook said.
She said two middle school students had staph earlier this year, and the high school student went to a doctor for treatment and will be back to school next week.

Shook said she wasn’t sure how the staph was acquired.

She said the schools already take precautionary measures during the fall because it’s flu season.

The district is reminding people to wash hands and plans to put hand sanitizers in classrooms, she said.

“We’re putting out sanitizer. Most classrooms have it anyway,” she said.

At the middle school, anti-bacterial sanitizer sits outside the cafeteria. She said every child uses it before entering the meal room.

“We have encouraged the custodial department to disinfect and clean real well,” she said.

At Monday’s Beebe School Board meeting, member Lucy Mahoney suggested schools have disinfectant sprays to get rid of any harmful staph bacteria.

The Arkansas Department of Health reported that many parents across the state have expressed concern over the cleanliness of schools after an outbreak of community-acquired staph infections, heightened by the Palestine-Wheatley closures.
 ADH downplayed the seriousness of the infections in a notice sent to schools, calling antibiotic staph infections “nothing new.”

“We have received numerous calls from parents who are concerned that their schools aren’t closing and cleaning in order to prevent the spread of staph infections,” said Dr. James Phillips, branch chief of infectious diseases at ADH.

The antibiotic-resistant methicillin-resistant staph infection (MRSA) can cause severe infections and even death in otherwise healthy people. MRSA is also harder to treat than other staph infections.

Pulaski County Special School District is following the ADH advisory, which recommended parents tell their children to wash their hands because the transmission of the antibiotic-resistant staph is by person-to-person contact.

The Cabot School District posted the ADH information on its Web site, even though a Cabot student hasn’t had staph since earlier this year, when an elementary student acquired it.

“We sent out flyers earlier in the year to athletes. We were taking proactive, preventive steps to let people know not to panic,” health services director Robert Martin said.

Martin said the elementary school student was hospitalized and has been taught at home since the infection. There are currently no imminent cases or hospitalizations, Martin said.

“Coaches and custodial staff are well-versed. If kids are lifting weights, disinfect weights and (if) using towels, carry the towels,” Martin said. “If you have a sore don’t share towels,” he said.

“Education is the key here, and good personal hygiene is at the core of our messages for students,” Philips said.

At least 95 percent of community-acquired MRSA infections appear on the skin or in the soft tissues. Most of these infections start out looking like a pimple or spider bite and may develop into boils or soft tissue infection.

ADH recommends a physician visit for anyone concerned about developing a staph infection.

Cover all wounds with clean bandages, wash hands often, take frequent showers and practice good hygiene.

No staph infections have been reported at Pinewood, Bayou Meto, Jacksonville, Tolleson or Lawson elementary schools. PCSSD did not return phone calls for this article.

Karen Cook, nurse at Jacksonville and Pinewood elementary schools, said she has seen three cases this year but none in the last six weeks.

“We are encouraging hand washing and teachers are encouraged to clean rooms and use disinfectant,” she said.

She added that staph is passed from person to person, not through objects such as desks, and good hygiene is the best preventative against the bacteria.

“As long as children are washing hands and cleaning hands it shouldn’t be a problem,” she said.

Hand washing is being encouraged in Lonoke schools, too.

“The district continues to stress washing hands often and daily cleaning of facilities where infections might be spread,” Superintendent Sharron Havens said.

TOP STORY >>Pay raises for mayor, chiefs in the works

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

Most members of the Cabot City Council met twice this week to discuss the proposed $8.2 million budget for 2008 and found little fault with the numbers for public works, fire and police.

They will meet again Monday, Nov. 26 to go over Mayor Eddie Joe Williams’ request for $10,000 for raises for department heads to be divvied up as he sees fit. They also will likely discuss a raise for the mayor who at $58,643 is paid less than the city attorney and the police chief who are paid $66,621 and $58,879 respectively.

Alderman Eddie Cook, chairman of the budget committee, has said the mayor’s salary needs to be high enough to attract qualified candidates for office. At the current level, it attracts only retirees with other income sources, he said.

Alderman Ed Long, chairman of the public works committee, was unable to attend the Thursday meeting, which focused on fire and police, but he did attend the Tuesday meeting which covered public works.

Due to illness, Alderman Virgil Teague has not attended a meeting since early summer. But on Thursday night a partially constructed wheelchair ramp in the council chambers indicated that his return is imminent.

After a brief discussion Tuesday night, the council told the mayor to add about $8,000 to the budget so that all employees can be rewarded for staying with the city.

For many years, Cabot firefighters received bonuses of $30 a year for each year they have been employed. Former Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh extended the bonuses to the police.

Tuesday night, the mayor asked the council members to give the bonuses to all the other city employees as well. In a letter, the mayor told the council that 67 percent of city employees participated in a survey regarding rewards and recognition and 59 percent of those who said they wanted the longevity bonus.

The bonus will cost the city about $23,000 for all employees.

On Tuesday, council members talked about the $50,000 subsidy MEMS needs to keep providing ambulance service to Cabot. The mayor said he intends to cut that cost in part by housing MEMS employees in two FEMA trailers behind fire stations.

Currently, firefighters respond to all emergency calls and often arrive on scene before the ambulance. Council members said using large fire trucks to respond to medical calls is a practice that is too expensive to continue. And if the ambulances are located at the fire stations there will no longer be a response-time advantage to continuing, they said.

During an interview after the Thursday night meeting, Fire Chief Phil Robinson said included in his budget is $15,000 for an emergency vehicle that will take the place of large fire trucks for medical runs.

“There is just so much time when they need our help,” the chief said.

TOP STORY >>Metroplan: Road projects in jeopardy

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

More efficient cars, wider highways and ethanol production alone won’t alleviate traffic jams and foreign oil dependence or assure a viable future in the global economy, Metroplan Director Jim McKenzie warned Thursday, challenging the area’s Transportation Advisory Council to think bigger in crafting the new long-range plan rather than simply building more highways.

Mass transit and finding new revenues are two of the issues facing the architects of the next long-range transportation plan.
If central Arkansas residents want roads like they’ve become accustomed to, new revenues—probably gasoline taxes—will be required, according to McKenzie. Otherwise, there could be more and more people and more congestion on increasingly in-efficient, decaying roads and bridges.

Because of construction inflation—based in part on rising petroleum costs—already there will not be enough money to widen and build all highways that Metroplan and the state Highway and Transportation Department committed to five years ago in the federally mandated 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan.

Not even completion of the North Belt Freeway or the Hwy. 67/167 widening is assured, McKenzie confirmed Friday.

Both are big-ticket items without funding identified to complete them, and construction inflation is being projected to be two or three times greater than the projected increase in revenues, McKenzie told the board.

“Given the construction costs inflation, it’s certain that there’s not enough money, without new revenues, to do everything on the list,” he said.

A new Federal Highway Administration rule requires that the costs of projects be figured to include inflation, so by 2010, the highway plan must forecast the cost, for instance, of building an on-ramp or a mile of transit track and right-of-way that’s planned for 2035, McKenzie scoffed.

The state Legislature has authorized regional mobility authorities but has yet to give them the authority to raise taxes. Once they do, counties and regions can require that the money they raise be used within their borders, McKenzie said.

State Highway Department analysts have identified $19 billion worth of needs over the next 10 years, but revenues sufficient to pay for only about a quarter of that. Routine maintenance and resurfacing alone would cost twice the $4.4 billion in anticipated revenues, according to McKenzie.

“The future ain’t what it used to be,” said McKenzie, quoting noted futurist Yogi Berra.

“If you double gas prices in real terms, that significantly impacts everything in society,” McKenzie said, including land-use patterns, demand for highways, demand for transit, fuel efficiency for vehicles and work patterns.

“But we have no modeling,” McKenzie said. “Our challenge as planners is to ferret out what would likely change.”

The average American pays roughly $3 a gallon for gasoline and gets about 21 mpg from that gas, he said.

But in Europe, where gas is $6 a gallon, the average vehicle gets 36 miles per gallon and in Japan, where gas is $4 a gallon, vehicles average 31 mpg.

The Thursday meeting, held at Pulaski Technical College, was intended as a heads up for the Transportation Advisory Council, which bears some of the responsibility for updating the 2030 plan by August 2010 into the 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan for central Arkansas.

By 2035, the youngest of the baby boomers will be in their mid seventies and many will not be able to drive, increasing the need for some sort of mass transit, he said.

McKenzie has said in the past that the interstate highway system, started by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, was built out of federal coffers. Since then, the federal government has severely cut highway funds, which states used to depend upon for much of their highway needs.

As gas becomes more expensive, mass transit may become more acceptable to commuters, but without sufficient population density, mass transit is not very cost effective and it takes many years of planning to create a mass-transit system.
Corridors for light rail or dedicated bus service would have to be identified and purchased.

Even if all the farm land in the United States were dedicated to growing corn for ethanol, it would replace only 10 percent of the gas burned in cars and trucks.

McKenzie said some experts think that it takes a gallon of gas to produce a gallon of ethanol, making it an inefficient way to cut dependence on foreign oil.

He quoted a former OPEC official as saying that oil was “too important to burn” for fuel. It is used in making plastics, fertilizer and even important drugs.