Governor Beebe spurned a plea by environmental organizations that he declare a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Arkansas, saying that the governor lacked that kind of authority. The groups wanted him to stop construction of the big new generating plant in southwest Arkansas, which will cough some 5 million tons of earth-heating carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year when it starts generating electricity.
We aren’t prepared to dispute Beebe’s view that he is powerless to stop the plant. Some argue that the power is implicit in the chief executive because construction of the plant rests with the prerogatives of two agencies under the governor’s aegis, the state Public Service Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality. Both have issued permits for multi-state utilities building the plant, though both decisions have been appealed.
Governors of other states have issued moratoria that stopped the construction of a number of coal-burning plants, but their constitutions may enumerate plenary powers for chief executives that the Arkansas Constitution does not. There are precedents in Arkansas, too, most notably Governor Orval Faubus’ use of the National Guard in 1957 to stop black students from attending Central High School under plans adopted by the local school board and the federal courts. He claimed the police power to override local government decision-making in order to prevent disorder. Beebe could make the same claim to protect public health, but he would not want to invoke the Faubus precedent.
Would he if he could? He has given no indication that he would other than frequent expressions of concern about climate change. Coal is dirty but it has to be a key part of the immediate energy future, he says.
More troubling are the consistent decisions of the two agencies under his command to speed the construction of the plant. The Public Service Commission ruled first, in 2006, that the plant was needed (its power will go primarily to Texas, which has halted construction of new coal plants in that state) and that it met the requirements for environmental safety. The Department of Environmental Quality held that the plant met all the existing pollution standards. That decision is on appeal to the state Pollution Control Commission but the commissioners, who mostly represent polluting industry and their constituent state agencies, have made it clear they will go with the utilities. Although permits are ordinarily held in abeyance until appeals are finished, the commission told the utilities to go pell-mell ahead with work on the giant plant.
Southwestern Electric Power Co. (Swepco) is rushing to finish the plant before the federal Environmental Protection Agency fixes rules for carbon dioxide emissions. The U. S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the federal government could not ignore the impact of carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. The Bush administration has dragged its feet developing CO2 standards and Congress is paralyzed by partisan deadlock, but that almost certainly will end with the Obama administration next month.
If the plant is on line by the time new standards are promulgated, it might be grandfathered and exempt from regulation.
Are we wrong to believe that state government ought to be as concerned about the health of the planet and the well-being of its people as the national government? Not here. The wishes of industry come first and last.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
EDITORIAL >>TIFs no way to raise taxes
Innovative city officials like North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays deserve both our admiration for trying to develop their cities and our forbearance for the shortage of good ways to raise tax monies to do it. But every innovation to raise that money is not worthy.
Mayor Hays has been ahead of the pack in employing one particularly harmful tool, the tax-increment-financing (TIF) district, which robs public-school treasuries to assist commercial developers. He proposes to use the tool to help a big developer construct a shopping mall in Dark Hollow, the swampy glade alongside Interstates 30 and 40. Now he is rushing to commit school taxes to build a parking deck for a hotel that may build downtown.
TIFs are a fairly recent innovation nationally. Future ad-valorem tax growth from rising property values are carved away from the local governments to which they are pledged and used instead to build infrastructure for commercial development in blighted areas. A constitutional amendment ratified in 2000 authorized Arkansas counties and municipalities to create TIF districts.
Hays would commit growth revenues from property taxes in three designated TIF areas in North Little Rock starting in 2009 to paying the mortgage for the parking deck. Most of the money would come from the already pinched public schools. The mayor’s plan seems plainly to violate the constitutional and statutory terms for TIF financing, but that is where sharp lawyers come in. Arkansas courts are not averse to crafty arguments for the Constitution not meaning what it says.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has already ruled that TIF districts cannot take money collected under the first 25 mills of taxes in any school district, but it has not ruled on the larger issue of whether they can take money collected under any school tax. The Constitution still says that property taxes levied by a vote of the people with the understanding that it is for the schools may never be diverted to any other purpose than education. For the sake of the schools, not merely in North Little Rock but all over Arkansas, that issue needs to be settled.
Mayor Hays is furnishing us with the perfect vehicle to establish the law. We like to think that in the right case the courts would side with children rather than developers, which we are sure is what people intended each time they ratified a constitutional amendment affecting school taxes.
Mayor Hays has been ahead of the pack in employing one particularly harmful tool, the tax-increment-financing (TIF) district, which robs public-school treasuries to assist commercial developers. He proposes to use the tool to help a big developer construct a shopping mall in Dark Hollow, the swampy glade alongside Interstates 30 and 40. Now he is rushing to commit school taxes to build a parking deck for a hotel that may build downtown.
TIFs are a fairly recent innovation nationally. Future ad-valorem tax growth from rising property values are carved away from the local governments to which they are pledged and used instead to build infrastructure for commercial development in blighted areas. A constitutional amendment ratified in 2000 authorized Arkansas counties and municipalities to create TIF districts.
Hays would commit growth revenues from property taxes in three designated TIF areas in North Little Rock starting in 2009 to paying the mortgage for the parking deck. Most of the money would come from the already pinched public schools. The mayor’s plan seems plainly to violate the constitutional and statutory terms for TIF financing, but that is where sharp lawyers come in. Arkansas courts are not averse to crafty arguments for the Constitution not meaning what it says.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has already ruled that TIF districts cannot take money collected under the first 25 mills of taxes in any school district, but it has not ruled on the larger issue of whether they can take money collected under any school tax. The Constitution still says that property taxes levied by a vote of the people with the understanding that it is for the schools may never be diverted to any other purpose than education. For the sake of the schools, not merely in North Little Rock but all over Arkansas, that issue needs to be settled.
Mayor Hays is furnishing us with the perfect vehicle to establish the law. We like to think that in the right case the courts would side with children rather than developers, which we are sure is what people intended each time they ratified a constitutional amendment affecting school taxes.
TOP STORY > >Reporter featured on documentary
John Hofheimer, The Leader’s senior staff reporter, will be featured on “Bill Moyers’ Journal” at 9 p.m. Friday on AETN.
The program examines privatization of base housing, much of it based on Hofheimer’s award-winning reporting in The Leader.
The program examines privatization of base housing, much of it based on Hofheimer’s award-winning reporting in The Leader.
TOP STORY > >Recipient of Bronze Star honored for Iraq service
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
For his contribution to Operation Iraqi Freedom, an Arkansas officer received a Bronze Star at a ceremony Monday afternoon at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Lt. Col. Paul “Rich” Stephenson, a training unit instructor with the 62nd Airlift Squadron, was awarded the medal for performing meritoriously while stationed for a year at Basra, Iraq, a large port city near the Persian Gulf. He served as a senior adviser and commander in efforts to help an Iraqi air force squadron rebuild its capabilities.
Col. Charles K. Hyde, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing, pinned the medal on Stephenson after the medal citation and narrative were read before a crowd of airman, his wife, Linda, and the mayors of Jacksonville, Cabot and Sherwood, who had gathered to witness the proud moment.
Hyde, who had trained some years ago under Stephenson at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, said that his expertise and leadership capabilities made him an ideal choice for the challenging mission.
“The Air Force sent someone over to mentor a nation under siege in a raging war,” Hyde said. “They selected someone who knows how to take care of a nation. He delivered that in spades.”
During his tour of duty, Stephenson, as commander of a 10-person U.S. Air Force team, mentored more than 130 Iraqi officers of the Iraqi Air Force’s 70th Reconnaissance Squadron. Work with the Iraqis encompassed all aspects of flight and intelligence operations, including communication and coordination with Iraqi and Coalition command centers, air craft maintenance and safety, and combat mission tactics. The Iraqi unit had eight planes.
The training provided by Stephenson built the Iraqis’ capabilities for missions at night and in adverse weather. That enabled the squadron to successfully fly 1,300 combat missions that entailed intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the Iraqi military’s effort to wrest the city of Basra from enemy control, Stephenson and his U.S.-Iraqi team suffered intense enemy attacks, but loss of life was minimized as a result of his leadership.
“Stephenson displayed unwavering courage and exceptional judgment while leading his team through over 125 enemy airfield attacks, numbering more than 450 Katyusha rockets,” stated the ceremony narrative. “The well-disciplined, immediate action procedures and accountability he drilled into his team and Iraqi Air Force personnel prevented injury or loss of life during frequent indirect fire attacks.”
Throughout the ceremony, Stephenson stood at attention, somber faced. After the pinning, he relaxed and broke into a smile.
“That was way more whoop-de-do than I ever wanted,” he joked.The medal was really a tribute to the entire team of airmen with whom he served, Stephenson claimed.
“When you get to be a major on up, any kind of an award like this is a reflection not on you, but the unit, the people you work with – not just Americans but also Iraqis,” he said. “What we were able to accomplish was just not because of me, but in a lot of ways, in spite of me.”
After the ceremony, Stephenson told reporters that the Iraqis are making great strides in building their air force capabilities, bringing the day closer when U.S. troops can come home. Other American airmen are continuing the work that Stephenson and his crew began in helping Iraqis build a myriad of capabilities – from piloting skills and aircraft maintenance to recruitment and payroll.
“They are making tremendous progress, though not progress quite by our standards; it will take some time to be really good at these things,” Stephenson said.
“The Iraqis are really good people,” he continued. “The folks I worked with on a day-to-day basis were heroes. Many had to come to work in a disguise. They risked their lives to help develop their country. They were happy we were there.”
Stephenson earned his commission in 1983 through the U.S. Air Force Academy with a degree in military history. He is a command pilot with more than 5,000 flying hours in a variety of aircraft, mostly the C-130. He previously served as the commander of the 517th Airlift Squadron in Elmendorf, Alaska. He received his first C-130 training at Little Rock AFB. His career includes three other assignments there prior to his deployment to Iraq.
The Bronze Star is awarded to individuals for heroic or meritorious service while serving with the U.S. military in any capacity, combat or non-combat, excluding aerial operations, during military engagement against an armed enemy. Of the 23 military decorations awarded to individual airmen or units, the Bronze Star is 11th in precedence, one rank above the Purple Heart and one below the Airman’s Medal. President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the Bronze Star by executive order in 1944, retroactive to 1941, to honor heroism of ground troops. The Airman’s Medal had been instituted two years earlier.
Leader staff writer
For his contribution to Operation Iraqi Freedom, an Arkansas officer received a Bronze Star at a ceremony Monday afternoon at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Lt. Col. Paul “Rich” Stephenson, a training unit instructor with the 62nd Airlift Squadron, was awarded the medal for performing meritoriously while stationed for a year at Basra, Iraq, a large port city near the Persian Gulf. He served as a senior adviser and commander in efforts to help an Iraqi air force squadron rebuild its capabilities.
Col. Charles K. Hyde, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing, pinned the medal on Stephenson after the medal citation and narrative were read before a crowd of airman, his wife, Linda, and the mayors of Jacksonville, Cabot and Sherwood, who had gathered to witness the proud moment.
Hyde, who had trained some years ago under Stephenson at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, said that his expertise and leadership capabilities made him an ideal choice for the challenging mission.
“The Air Force sent someone over to mentor a nation under siege in a raging war,” Hyde said. “They selected someone who knows how to take care of a nation. He delivered that in spades.”
During his tour of duty, Stephenson, as commander of a 10-person U.S. Air Force team, mentored more than 130 Iraqi officers of the Iraqi Air Force’s 70th Reconnaissance Squadron. Work with the Iraqis encompassed all aspects of flight and intelligence operations, including communication and coordination with Iraqi and Coalition command centers, air craft maintenance and safety, and combat mission tactics. The Iraqi unit had eight planes.
The training provided by Stephenson built the Iraqis’ capabilities for missions at night and in adverse weather. That enabled the squadron to successfully fly 1,300 combat missions that entailed intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the Iraqi military’s effort to wrest the city of Basra from enemy control, Stephenson and his U.S.-Iraqi team suffered intense enemy attacks, but loss of life was minimized as a result of his leadership.
“Stephenson displayed unwavering courage and exceptional judgment while leading his team through over 125 enemy airfield attacks, numbering more than 450 Katyusha rockets,” stated the ceremony narrative. “The well-disciplined, immediate action procedures and accountability he drilled into his team and Iraqi Air Force personnel prevented injury or loss of life during frequent indirect fire attacks.”
Throughout the ceremony, Stephenson stood at attention, somber faced. After the pinning, he relaxed and broke into a smile.
“That was way more whoop-de-do than I ever wanted,” he joked.The medal was really a tribute to the entire team of airmen with whom he served, Stephenson claimed.
“When you get to be a major on up, any kind of an award like this is a reflection not on you, but the unit, the people you work with – not just Americans but also Iraqis,” he said. “What we were able to accomplish was just not because of me, but in a lot of ways, in spite of me.”
After the ceremony, Stephenson told reporters that the Iraqis are making great strides in building their air force capabilities, bringing the day closer when U.S. troops can come home. Other American airmen are continuing the work that Stephenson and his crew began in helping Iraqis build a myriad of capabilities – from piloting skills and aircraft maintenance to recruitment and payroll.
“They are making tremendous progress, though not progress quite by our standards; it will take some time to be really good at these things,” Stephenson said.
“The Iraqis are really good people,” he continued. “The folks I worked with on a day-to-day basis were heroes. Many had to come to work in a disguise. They risked their lives to help develop their country. They were happy we were there.”
Stephenson earned his commission in 1983 through the U.S. Air Force Academy with a degree in military history. He is a command pilot with more than 5,000 flying hours in a variety of aircraft, mostly the C-130. He previously served as the commander of the 517th Airlift Squadron in Elmendorf, Alaska. He received his first C-130 training at Little Rock AFB. His career includes three other assignments there prior to his deployment to Iraq.
The Bronze Star is awarded to individuals for heroic or meritorious service while serving with the U.S. military in any capacity, combat or non-combat, excluding aerial operations, during military engagement against an armed enemy. Of the 23 military decorations awarded to individual airmen or units, the Bronze Star is 11th in precedence, one rank above the Purple Heart and one below the Airman’s Medal. President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the Bronze Star by executive order in 1944, retroactive to 1941, to honor heroism of ground troops. The Airman’s Medal had been instituted two years earlier.
TOP STORY > >Report says enrollment is stagnant
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
According to a recent report, the Pulaski County Special School District has a hard time attracting new students, although that will probably not have an impact on Jacksonville’s chances of forming its own school district.
“I don’t think this year’s (Pulaski County) enrollment data will in any way change the picture for the Pulaski County Special School District as far as any agreement they have made concerning the proposed Jacksonville district,” Andree Roaf, director of the Office of Desegregation Monitoring, said this week.
“Of course, the real questions right now are one, is the 8th Circuit (Court of Appeals) ever going to rule on the ap-peal from Judge (Bill) Wilson’s declaration that the LRSD has achieved unitary status, and two, can the PCSSD achieve unitary status in turn, if this case does not settle in the coming weeks or months?” Roaf said, referring to PCSSD’s desire to have itself declared desegregated.
“The numbers did not change significantly from last year,” said Roaf, addressing the findings in the “2008-2009 Enrollment and Racial Composition of the Pulaski County Special School District Report.”
Many Jacksonville area residents have worked hard for years to form their own school district. With a unanimous vote, the district has endorsed the idea of a stand-alone district provided that it didn’t interfere with a court-enforced desegregation order.
Currently, the fast route for a stand-alone district is thought to require approval by Judge Wilson, who has said he wants to wait until the 8th Circuit rules.
The report did reflect enrollment increase of three-tenths of 1 percent at Pulaski County Special School District to 18,063, but again, that’s largely attributable to the opening of the new Chenal Elementary School.
For most of the last 21 years, overall PCSSD enrollment has declined while the African American share of the enrollment has increased.
Seven of the district’s 38 schools will exceed the maximum target of black enrollment with African Americans accounting for 87 percent of the enrollment at one school.
Blacks account for 44 percent of the total enrollment at PCSSD, making it the only one of the three Pulaski County districts that still has a majority white enrollment.
“The numbers did not change significantly from last year,” accor-ding to Andre Roaf, head of the office.
“PCSSD actually has a slight increase in overall enrollment, which we suggest is due to the additional students coming into the new Chenal Elementary from the other districts and the resulting increase in M-to-M enrollment.”
According to the report, 48 percent of all public school students in the county attend Little Rock schools, 34 percent attend PCSSD and 18 percent attend North Little Rock.
Of black students in the county, 59 percent attend Little Rock Schools, 26 percent attend North Little Rock and 18 percent attend PCSSD schools.
Most white students, 46 percent, attend PCSSD schools, with 37 percent attending Little Rock Schools and 18 percent at North Little Rock.
County wide, 58 percent of students are black, 42 percent are white.
Among PCSSD students, 56 percent are white, 44 percent black. Among Little Rock students, 68 percent are black, 32 percent black and in North Little Rock, 59 percent of enrollment is black, 42 percent white.
PCSSD enrollment this year fills only 63 percent of the total capacity, leaving 10,772 seats available.
Three PCSSD schools elementary schools had noteworthy gains in enrollment in contrast to the continuing decline district wide.
Enrollment increased at eight of the elementary schools in the district. Scott Elementary gained 35 percent in enrollment and 13 percent at both Sylvan Hills and Tolleson.
Brenda Bowles, director of equity services at PCSSD, says the district is about out of options for trying to improve the racial balances at schools that are out of compliance. “All I can do is better permit control,” Bowles said. “We’re not busing or splitting geocodes by race. I don’t want to bus people from one side of the highway to the other.”
“Somebody needs to talk about the boys and girls schools (Jacksonville’s two single-gender middle schools),” said. “They have some things going on there but some people think not. The community is split.”
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Homer Adkins, which changed from an elementary to a pre-kindergarten in the 2006-2007 school year, lost seven students for a total of 99 students, 54 percent, black.
Arnold Drive Elementary School: decreased eight students to an enrollment of 257, 26 percent of whom are black.
Bayou Meto Elementary School: decreased two students to an enrollment of 379, 3 percent of whom are black.
Clinton Elementary School: decreased six students to enrollment of 759, 55 percent are black.
Warren Dupree Elementary School: decreased 26 students to 284, 48 percent of whom are black.
Harris Elementary School: decreased 13 students to 232, 87 percent of whom are black.
Jacksonville Elementary School: decreased five students to 537, 69 percent of whom are black.
Oakbrooke Elementary School: decreased 12 students to 504, 38 percent of whom are black.
Pinewood Elementary School: increased 26 students to 416, 53 percent of whom are black.
Scott Elementary School: increased 53 students to 206, 25 percent of whom are black.
Sherwood Elementary: decreased enrollment by one to 395, 37 percent of whom are black.
Sylvan Hills Elementary School: increased 40 students to 424, 45 of whom are black.
Murrell Taylor Elementary School: decrease0d 27 students to 407, 59 percent of whom are black.
Tolleson Elementary School: increased 42 students to 357, 32 percent of whom are black.
PCSSD elementary schools subtotal: increased 325 students to 9,741, 40 percent of whom are black.
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Jacksonville Girls School: decreased 45 students to 360, 56 percent of whom are black.
Jacksonville Boys School: decreased 22 students to 356, 54 percent of whom are black.
Northwood Middle School: increased five students to 637, 39 percent of whom are black.
Sylvan Hills Middle School: remained at 667, 51 percent of whom are black.
HIGH SCHOOLS
Jacksonville High School has a decrease of 25 students to 1,047, 52 percent of whom are black.
North Pulaski High School decreased by 72 students to 548, 38 percent of whom are black.
Sylvan Hills High School has a decrease of five students to 914, 45 percent of whom were black.
PCSSD secondary schools subtotal shows a decrease of 278 to 8,322.
PCSSD school total: increase of 47 to 18,063, 44 percent of whom are black.
Leader senior staff writer
According to a recent report, the Pulaski County Special School District has a hard time attracting new students, although that will probably not have an impact on Jacksonville’s chances of forming its own school district.
“I don’t think this year’s (Pulaski County) enrollment data will in any way change the picture for the Pulaski County Special School District as far as any agreement they have made concerning the proposed Jacksonville district,” Andree Roaf, director of the Office of Desegregation Monitoring, said this week.
“Of course, the real questions right now are one, is the 8th Circuit (Court of Appeals) ever going to rule on the ap-peal from Judge (Bill) Wilson’s declaration that the LRSD has achieved unitary status, and two, can the PCSSD achieve unitary status in turn, if this case does not settle in the coming weeks or months?” Roaf said, referring to PCSSD’s desire to have itself declared desegregated.
“The numbers did not change significantly from last year,” said Roaf, addressing the findings in the “2008-2009 Enrollment and Racial Composition of the Pulaski County Special School District Report.”
Many Jacksonville area residents have worked hard for years to form their own school district. With a unanimous vote, the district has endorsed the idea of a stand-alone district provided that it didn’t interfere with a court-enforced desegregation order.
Currently, the fast route for a stand-alone district is thought to require approval by Judge Wilson, who has said he wants to wait until the 8th Circuit rules.
The report did reflect enrollment increase of three-tenths of 1 percent at Pulaski County Special School District to 18,063, but again, that’s largely attributable to the opening of the new Chenal Elementary School.
For most of the last 21 years, overall PCSSD enrollment has declined while the African American share of the enrollment has increased.
Seven of the district’s 38 schools will exceed the maximum target of black enrollment with African Americans accounting for 87 percent of the enrollment at one school.
Blacks account for 44 percent of the total enrollment at PCSSD, making it the only one of the three Pulaski County districts that still has a majority white enrollment.
“The numbers did not change significantly from last year,” accor-ding to Andre Roaf, head of the office.
“PCSSD actually has a slight increase in overall enrollment, which we suggest is due to the additional students coming into the new Chenal Elementary from the other districts and the resulting increase in M-to-M enrollment.”
According to the report, 48 percent of all public school students in the county attend Little Rock schools, 34 percent attend PCSSD and 18 percent attend North Little Rock.
Of black students in the county, 59 percent attend Little Rock Schools, 26 percent attend North Little Rock and 18 percent attend PCSSD schools.
Most white students, 46 percent, attend PCSSD schools, with 37 percent attending Little Rock Schools and 18 percent at North Little Rock.
County wide, 58 percent of students are black, 42 percent are white.
Among PCSSD students, 56 percent are white, 44 percent black. Among Little Rock students, 68 percent are black, 32 percent black and in North Little Rock, 59 percent of enrollment is black, 42 percent white.
PCSSD enrollment this year fills only 63 percent of the total capacity, leaving 10,772 seats available.
Three PCSSD schools elementary schools had noteworthy gains in enrollment in contrast to the continuing decline district wide.
Enrollment increased at eight of the elementary schools in the district. Scott Elementary gained 35 percent in enrollment and 13 percent at both Sylvan Hills and Tolleson.
Brenda Bowles, director of equity services at PCSSD, says the district is about out of options for trying to improve the racial balances at schools that are out of compliance. “All I can do is better permit control,” Bowles said. “We’re not busing or splitting geocodes by race. I don’t want to bus people from one side of the highway to the other.”
“Somebody needs to talk about the boys and girls schools (Jacksonville’s two single-gender middle schools),” said. “They have some things going on there but some people think not. The community is split.”
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Homer Adkins, which changed from an elementary to a pre-kindergarten in the 2006-2007 school year, lost seven students for a total of 99 students, 54 percent, black.
Arnold Drive Elementary School: decreased eight students to an enrollment of 257, 26 percent of whom are black.
Bayou Meto Elementary School: decreased two students to an enrollment of 379, 3 percent of whom are black.
Clinton Elementary School: decreased six students to enrollment of 759, 55 percent are black.
Warren Dupree Elementary School: decreased 26 students to 284, 48 percent of whom are black.
Harris Elementary School: decreased 13 students to 232, 87 percent of whom are black.
Jacksonville Elementary School: decreased five students to 537, 69 percent of whom are black.
Oakbrooke Elementary School: decreased 12 students to 504, 38 percent of whom are black.
Pinewood Elementary School: increased 26 students to 416, 53 percent of whom are black.
Scott Elementary School: increased 53 students to 206, 25 percent of whom are black.
Sherwood Elementary: decreased enrollment by one to 395, 37 percent of whom are black.
Sylvan Hills Elementary School: increased 40 students to 424, 45 of whom are black.
Murrell Taylor Elementary School: decrease0d 27 students to 407, 59 percent of whom are black.
Tolleson Elementary School: increased 42 students to 357, 32 percent of whom are black.
PCSSD elementary schools subtotal: increased 325 students to 9,741, 40 percent of whom are black.
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Jacksonville Girls School: decreased 45 students to 360, 56 percent of whom are black.
Jacksonville Boys School: decreased 22 students to 356, 54 percent of whom are black.
Northwood Middle School: increased five students to 637, 39 percent of whom are black.
Sylvan Hills Middle School: remained at 667, 51 percent of whom are black.
HIGH SCHOOLS
Jacksonville High School has a decrease of 25 students to 1,047, 52 percent of whom are black.
North Pulaski High School decreased by 72 students to 548, 38 percent of whom are black.
Sylvan Hills High School has a decrease of five students to 914, 45 percent of whom were black.
PCSSD secondary schools subtotal shows a decrease of 278 to 8,322.
PCSSD school total: increase of 47 to 18,063, 44 percent of whom are black.
TOP STORY > >Local recyclers in it for the long haul
By NANCY DOCKTER and JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writers
To put it bluntly, the bottom has dropped out of the recycling industry, but don’t stop recyling.
Resale prices for aluminum, paper, plastic and assorted scrap metals have fallen so low that some dealers are stockpiling instead of selling in the hope that the market, which is known for ups and downs, will right itself.
But what does that mean for the faithful household recycler who sorts waste into bins for curbside pickup? Those in the recycling business, say nothing has changed – for now.
Even if it is not profitable right now to sell recyclable wastes, it would be even more costly to send it to a landfill. So until further notice, green-minded consumers should just keeping sorting, they say.
“Recycling is not a money-making project,” Jacksonville Mayor Tommy Swaim said last week. “It is not something we depend on for our budget. It is not just about what you make, but what you save in landfill costs and for the environment.”
Six months ago, local recyclers of cardboard, plastics, paper, and aluminum were enjoying a boom. With prices at a high, revenues were well over those for 2007.
“We had almost a 20 percent increase in 2008, and now, here we go, the bottom falls out,” said Jimmy Oakley, director of public works for the city of Jacksonville.
Before prices nose-dived in the last month, the city had reaped $100,000 from recyclable sales; last year’s sales totaled $80,000.
“Our (revenues) may drop by two thirds from the way it is sounding; that’s huge,” Oakley said.
Prices peaked last spring, with aluminum bringing $1.10 a pound, plastics 37 cents a pound, and cardboard $130 a ton. Late summer, prices began to slide but were still at a healthy level.
By late fall, as deflation was settling over world markets like a long winter freeze, local recyclers began to feel the chill. Last week, 37 cents per pound was the price quoted to Jacksonville for its aluminum.
Plastics are now going for 15 cents a pound, and cardboard has crashed to $15 per ton, a near 90 percent drop from its spring price. Newsprint, the biggest product by volume collected, plunged from $135 to $35 per ton in recent weeks.
Oakley remembers when cardboard was at an all-time high five years ago of $200 per ton. He has never seen the price as low as it is now. “Right now, we are really sweating it; we may not even be able to get rid of it,” he said.
The city of Jacksonville has provided curbside recycling since 1993. Garbage, yard waste, and recycling pick-up and disposal cost the city about $1.1 million annually.
Through recycling, the city diverts about 1.2 million pounds of trash from the landfill, saving the city $15,000 in landfill charges annually.
RECYCLERS CONSIDER SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
Oakley said it is too soon to say how the plunge in prices will affect recycling collections or sales. For now, both continue. The city’s free service to a few large industries to pick up their discarded cardboard may prove to be too costly. A fee may be charged to cover costs.
“Or we may ask businesses to bring it too us,” Oakley said. “We’ll need to find ways to run a little leaner.”
Predictions are that it will be well into 2009 before prices improve.
“We’re in for a very long cold winter; it will be Labor Day before it gets better,” says Martha Treece, who has been a broker in recyclables for a decade.
Treece and her husband, Bill, own ORE Recovered Materials, based in Clinton. They buy recyclables from Jacksonville and other municipal recyclers across Arkansas. Products are then sold to U.S. manufacturers or go on the international market.
From her global vantage point, Treece saw the impending crisis before it hit the local level. Several weeks ago, she called an emergency meeting of the board of the Arkansas Recycling Coalition, on which she serves, to come up with a plan to help small community recyclers. The first of a series of educational meetings for coalition members around the state was held in Arkadelphia last week to propose ways to weather the tough times.
She advised recyclers to scrutinize efficiencies and costs, and rely more on volunteers.
Kendrick Ketchum, owner of Service Recycling, the Heber Springs business that collects and sells recyclables picked up in Cabot, said prices for paper usually fall around this time of the year because the demand is not as high. Recycled paper is used for Christmas paper, boxes and bags, and those are already in the stores. But the severe drop in prices a few weeks ago can be attributed in great part to China, he said.
“The thing that is different with what’s happening now is that it was just all of a sudden. Just boom,” Ketchum said. “China’s not buying right now. “They overbought getting ready for the Olympics, and now they’re economy is doing what ours is and they’re just not buying.”
Indonesia was also a good customer, Ketchum said, but like China, it’s not buying now either.
Plastic? It’s made from oil, which is so cheap right now that it costs more to recycle old plastic than to make it new, Ketchum said.
Aluminum cans? Ketchum said they sold for 50 cents a pound all summer. Now they are down to 10 cents a pound.
Rusty Miller, an account manager with Waste Management, the company that picks up garbage and recyclables in Beebe, said the cereal boxes, junk mail and newspapers that are left in tubs on curbs in Beebe are warehoused in Little Rock because there is no market for it right now.
Miller said it’s not sent to Two Pine, the landfill the company owns, for several reasons: Waste Management’s contract with the city says those materials will be recycled, not buried. Recycling is the right thing to do for the environment. And Two Pine charges by the load, so for now, it’s cheaper to stockpile than to bury.
Mark Dewitt, with A. Tenen-baum Co. in North Little Rock, which purchases scrap metal of all kinds in several states, said the first three quarters 2008, he shipped 22 trailer-truck loads of aluminum cans a month to Alcoa where they are processed to make more aluminum cans. Now, he ships 10 to 12.
Michelle Gillham, a recycling coordinator with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said the Arkansas companies, cities and non-profit agencies that sell recyclables are a tight-knit group who keep each other posted about shifts in the market. And they will survive, she said, if they are able to hold expenses down during this slump and if they can educate the public about the importance of recycling.
“They need to let the public know recycling is a service,” she said. “And the public must look for materials with recycled content. If we’re not buying those, we’re not really recycling. The public creates the market for recyclables by buying those things made from recycled materials.”
Leader staff writers
To put it bluntly, the bottom has dropped out of the recycling industry, but don’t stop recyling.
Resale prices for aluminum, paper, plastic and assorted scrap metals have fallen so low that some dealers are stockpiling instead of selling in the hope that the market, which is known for ups and downs, will right itself.
But what does that mean for the faithful household recycler who sorts waste into bins for curbside pickup? Those in the recycling business, say nothing has changed – for now.
Even if it is not profitable right now to sell recyclable wastes, it would be even more costly to send it to a landfill. So until further notice, green-minded consumers should just keeping sorting, they say.
“Recycling is not a money-making project,” Jacksonville Mayor Tommy Swaim said last week. “It is not something we depend on for our budget. It is not just about what you make, but what you save in landfill costs and for the environment.”
Six months ago, local recyclers of cardboard, plastics, paper, and aluminum were enjoying a boom. With prices at a high, revenues were well over those for 2007.
“We had almost a 20 percent increase in 2008, and now, here we go, the bottom falls out,” said Jimmy Oakley, director of public works for the city of Jacksonville.
Before prices nose-dived in the last month, the city had reaped $100,000 from recyclable sales; last year’s sales totaled $80,000.
“Our (revenues) may drop by two thirds from the way it is sounding; that’s huge,” Oakley said.
Prices peaked last spring, with aluminum bringing $1.10 a pound, plastics 37 cents a pound, and cardboard $130 a ton. Late summer, prices began to slide but were still at a healthy level.
By late fall, as deflation was settling over world markets like a long winter freeze, local recyclers began to feel the chill. Last week, 37 cents per pound was the price quoted to Jacksonville for its aluminum.
Plastics are now going for 15 cents a pound, and cardboard has crashed to $15 per ton, a near 90 percent drop from its spring price. Newsprint, the biggest product by volume collected, plunged from $135 to $35 per ton in recent weeks.
Oakley remembers when cardboard was at an all-time high five years ago of $200 per ton. He has never seen the price as low as it is now. “Right now, we are really sweating it; we may not even be able to get rid of it,” he said.
The city of Jacksonville has provided curbside recycling since 1993. Garbage, yard waste, and recycling pick-up and disposal cost the city about $1.1 million annually.
Through recycling, the city diverts about 1.2 million pounds of trash from the landfill, saving the city $15,000 in landfill charges annually.
RECYCLERS CONSIDER SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
Oakley said it is too soon to say how the plunge in prices will affect recycling collections or sales. For now, both continue. The city’s free service to a few large industries to pick up their discarded cardboard may prove to be too costly. A fee may be charged to cover costs.
“Or we may ask businesses to bring it too us,” Oakley said. “We’ll need to find ways to run a little leaner.”
Predictions are that it will be well into 2009 before prices improve.
“We’re in for a very long cold winter; it will be Labor Day before it gets better,” says Martha Treece, who has been a broker in recyclables for a decade.
Treece and her husband, Bill, own ORE Recovered Materials, based in Clinton. They buy recyclables from Jacksonville and other municipal recyclers across Arkansas. Products are then sold to U.S. manufacturers or go on the international market.
From her global vantage point, Treece saw the impending crisis before it hit the local level. Several weeks ago, she called an emergency meeting of the board of the Arkansas Recycling Coalition, on which she serves, to come up with a plan to help small community recyclers. The first of a series of educational meetings for coalition members around the state was held in Arkadelphia last week to propose ways to weather the tough times.
She advised recyclers to scrutinize efficiencies and costs, and rely more on volunteers.
Kendrick Ketchum, owner of Service Recycling, the Heber Springs business that collects and sells recyclables picked up in Cabot, said prices for paper usually fall around this time of the year because the demand is not as high. Recycled paper is used for Christmas paper, boxes and bags, and those are already in the stores. But the severe drop in prices a few weeks ago can be attributed in great part to China, he said.
“The thing that is different with what’s happening now is that it was just all of a sudden. Just boom,” Ketchum said. “China’s not buying right now. “They overbought getting ready for the Olympics, and now they’re economy is doing what ours is and they’re just not buying.”
Indonesia was also a good customer, Ketchum said, but like China, it’s not buying now either.
Plastic? It’s made from oil, which is so cheap right now that it costs more to recycle old plastic than to make it new, Ketchum said.
Aluminum cans? Ketchum said they sold for 50 cents a pound all summer. Now they are down to 10 cents a pound.
Rusty Miller, an account manager with Waste Management, the company that picks up garbage and recyclables in Beebe, said the cereal boxes, junk mail and newspapers that are left in tubs on curbs in Beebe are warehoused in Little Rock because there is no market for it right now.
Miller said it’s not sent to Two Pine, the landfill the company owns, for several reasons: Waste Management’s contract with the city says those materials will be recycled, not buried. Recycling is the right thing to do for the environment. And Two Pine charges by the load, so for now, it’s cheaper to stockpile than to bury.
Mark Dewitt, with A. Tenen-baum Co. in North Little Rock, which purchases scrap metal of all kinds in several states, said the first three quarters 2008, he shipped 22 trailer-truck loads of aluminum cans a month to Alcoa where they are processed to make more aluminum cans. Now, he ships 10 to 12.
Michelle Gillham, a recycling coordinator with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said the Arkansas companies, cities and non-profit agencies that sell recyclables are a tight-knit group who keep each other posted about shifts in the market. And they will survive, she said, if they are able to hold expenses down during this slump and if they can educate the public about the importance of recycling.
“They need to let the public know recycling is a service,” she said. “And the public must look for materials with recycled content. If we’re not buying those, we’re not really recycling. The public creates the market for recyclables by buying those things made from recycled materials.”
TOP STORY > >Cabot council passes budget
By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
Five of Cabot’s eight city council members braved the icy roads Monday night to pass the mayor’s $8.4 million budget for 2009 — $600,000 more than this year — complete with 2.3 percent cost-of-living raises for themselves and a more substantial 4.8 percent raise for the city attorney, whose salary fell below the middle range in a survey of 16 cities similar to Cabot.
Among those who attended was Alderman Tom Armstrong, who is recovering from a brain tumor. Armstrong defeated former Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh who ran against him while Armstrong was being treated for the cancer in Florida. The meeting was
Armstrong’s first since he was diagnosed in the summer.
Alderman Becky Lemaster, who opposed the raises, did not attend. Also absent were Teri Miessner, who had a death in the family, and Virgil Teague, who suffered a stroke in mid-2007 and now lives in the nursing home down the street from city hall. None of the three who were absent will be on the council in 2009. Lemaster and Miessner were defeated and Teague did not run.
Cabot’s budgets are ordinances which generally require three readings during three different meetings to pass. To get around that technicality and pass ordinan-ces at a single meeting, city councils commonly suspend the rule with a two-thirds majority vote, meaning six members are needed to vote.
Mayor Eddie Joe Williams and the five members present briefly considered adjourning the meeting and reconvening at the nursing home so Teague could supply the sixth vote needed to pass the budget ordinance. But City Clerk Marva Verkler said she believed that since the budget ordinance is not of a permanent nature because it will automatically be rescinded at the end of 2009, it didn’t need to be read three times.
Taylor, who says he always takes a municipal code book with him to meetings because it’s impossible to remember everything, found the law Verkler had referenced and the budget passed with only one reading.
The mayor, who talked to this reporter by phone after the meeting, said he was very pleased that so many of the city’s aldermen were willing to make the effort to get the budget passed before the end of the year.
The $8.4 million budget for 2009 is an increase of $600,000 over 2008. It includes $77,250 for a new fire station, $60,000 for a new fire truck, which will be added to the $60,000 set aside in 2008, and $350,852 to start a city-operated garbage and trash service if bids from the private sector that will be opened Saturday are higher than the mayor thinks the residents should have to pay.
It also includes $350,000 for parks, up $100,000 from the budgeted amount for 2008. Although only $250,000 was budgeted for parks this year, the city council actually approved paying an additional $300,000.
Of that amount, $100,000 was used to help run parks and $200,000 had to be paid to the Internal Revenue Service for the parks department after money for federal income taxes was withheld from employees’ paychecks but not sent to the IRS.
City Attorney Jim Taylor has been working with the IRS to put the matter to rest. The parks department, which is run by an autonomous commission, is under investigation by the Arkansas State Police.
Leader staff writer
Five of Cabot’s eight city council members braved the icy roads Monday night to pass the mayor’s $8.4 million budget for 2009 — $600,000 more than this year — complete with 2.3 percent cost-of-living raises for themselves and a more substantial 4.8 percent raise for the city attorney, whose salary fell below the middle range in a survey of 16 cities similar to Cabot.
Among those who attended was Alderman Tom Armstrong, who is recovering from a brain tumor. Armstrong defeated former Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh who ran against him while Armstrong was being treated for the cancer in Florida. The meeting was
Armstrong’s first since he was diagnosed in the summer.
Alderman Becky Lemaster, who opposed the raises, did not attend. Also absent were Teri Miessner, who had a death in the family, and Virgil Teague, who suffered a stroke in mid-2007 and now lives in the nursing home down the street from city hall. None of the three who were absent will be on the council in 2009. Lemaster and Miessner were defeated and Teague did not run.
Cabot’s budgets are ordinances which generally require three readings during three different meetings to pass. To get around that technicality and pass ordinan-ces at a single meeting, city councils commonly suspend the rule with a two-thirds majority vote, meaning six members are needed to vote.
Mayor Eddie Joe Williams and the five members present briefly considered adjourning the meeting and reconvening at the nursing home so Teague could supply the sixth vote needed to pass the budget ordinance. But City Clerk Marva Verkler said she believed that since the budget ordinance is not of a permanent nature because it will automatically be rescinded at the end of 2009, it didn’t need to be read three times.
Taylor, who says he always takes a municipal code book with him to meetings because it’s impossible to remember everything, found the law Verkler had referenced and the budget passed with only one reading.
The mayor, who talked to this reporter by phone after the meeting, said he was very pleased that so many of the city’s aldermen were willing to make the effort to get the budget passed before the end of the year.
The $8.4 million budget for 2009 is an increase of $600,000 over 2008. It includes $77,250 for a new fire station, $60,000 for a new fire truck, which will be added to the $60,000 set aside in 2008, and $350,852 to start a city-operated garbage and trash service if bids from the private sector that will be opened Saturday are higher than the mayor thinks the residents should have to pay.
It also includes $350,000 for parks, up $100,000 from the budgeted amount for 2008. Although only $250,000 was budgeted for parks this year, the city council actually approved paying an additional $300,000.
Of that amount, $100,000 was used to help run parks and $200,000 had to be paid to the Internal Revenue Service for the parks department after money for federal income taxes was withheld from employees’ paychecks but not sent to the IRS.
City Attorney Jim Taylor has been working with the IRS to put the matter to rest. The parks department, which is run by an autonomous commission, is under investigation by the Arkansas State Police.
TOP STORY > >Ice storm factor in traffic death
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Freezing drizzle that hit the area Monday night caused at least one traffic fatality, a heart attack, closed all school districts in central Arkansas for at least one day and increased ambulance runs by 36 percent.
The local area was hit with about three-tenths of an inch of sleet coating roadways and bridges with just enough ice to make travel treacherous and even deadly for one Jacksonville resident.
Lester Holmes, 47, died from injuries received in a four-car accident Monday evening at Broadway and Palm in North Little Rock. The accident is still under investigation by the State Police to determine who was at fault and how much of a factor weather played in the accident. Two other people were injured in the accident and taken to area hospitals.
In Cabot, an 18-wheeler slid off Hwy. 67/167 near exit 19 and shortly afterward the driver had a heart attack. Late Tuesday afternoon, Cabot Mayor Eddie Jo Williams said the driver had been transported to the hospital, but he didn’t know the driver’s current condition.
Williams called Cabot “pretty devastating from a traffic stand- point.”
“I just wished everyone had stayed home Tuesday,” he said, adding, “we’ve had a lot of issues and several roads were closed most of the day. Our street department has been out all day and we’ve asked for state support.”
Sgt. Brent Lucas of the Cabot Police Department said, “We’ve definitely been busy with accidents all day.”
What worried the Cabot mayor the most Tuesday was that he felt the storm issues were “not over yet.”
State Police with Troop A, which covers Faulkner, Lonoke, Pulaski and Saline counties, worked 70 accidents from 6 p.m.
Monday to noon Tuesday, including the one fatality.
Little Rock Air Force Base was closed Tuesday to all non-essential personnel and those same people were told to wait to report until noon Wednesday.
Both Jacksonville and Sher-wood police said they worked some minor accidents, but overall things were quiet on the city streets.
Sherwood Police Lt. Cheryl Williams said, “We had about six reported accidents between 5 and 7 p.m. Monday and assisted State Police with one accident on Hwy. 67/167. Tuesday morning we had about 15-20 assists. These were not necessarily accidents, but people calling for help because of the weather.”
Metropolitan Emergency Medical Service (MEMS) saw about a 36 percent increase in calls from 3 p.m. Monday to 2 p.m.
Tuesday compared to the same period the day before.
Jon Swanson, with MEMS, said, “We had 253 runs during the ice storm compared to 186 the day before.”
The ambulance service serves all of Pulaski County, except Jacksonville, and Cabot, as well as large portions of Faulkner and Grant counties.
“During the storm time period we had two calls in Sherwood city limits and 16 in Cabot,” Swanson said.
Swanson pointed out that even though there were a lot of vehicle accidents, most of the calls came from people injured in falls.
“When the weather is bad, most drivers slow down, so even though there are a lot of accidents, they aren’t as severe. But in falls, people are hitting their hips, heads, necks and often suffering serious injuries.” Swanson stressed the need to be very careful trying to walk on ice.
Jacksonville’s Public Works Department also stayed busy. “We had trucks out at start of the storm,” said Public Works Director Jim Oakley, “which was about 3:30 p.m. Monday and worked throughout the night, dumping loads of a salt-sand solution on city bridges and intersections, until about noon Tuesday.”
Overall, Oakley said, about 72 tons of the sand-salt solution were dumped on Jacksonville streets and bridges.
One of the city’s street department trucks was hit Tuesday morning when a driver slid through a stop sign into the truck.
“I felt sorry for the woman,” Oakley said. “She’s a nurse at North Metro and had made it all the way down from Mt. Vernon and then slid through a stop sign on Braden Road by the hospital.”
According to the National Weather Service in North Little Rock, sleet hit the area even though Monday’s high was 64 degrees.
The problem was that high was just after midnight Sunday, and by 6 a.m. Monday morning the temperature was 33 degrees.
The current forecast called for the possibility of more sleet or freezing rain Tuesday night since the high temperature for the day never went above freezing.
Today’s highs are forecasted to be in the mid-40s, and by Friday the mercury will hit the mid-60s, with a chance of rain each day.
City hall was closed in Beebe on Tuesday, but Police Sgt. Brian Duke said he was busy all day with accident reports mostly from Monday before area residents realized how bad the roads actually were.
As soon as the freezing rain started Monday afternoon, vehicles started sliding off the road, he said. One ran off the overpass on Hwy. 54.
Another slid off the overpass on Hwy. 31 and into a cedar tree. At about the same time a small truck collided with an empty school bus on top of the Hwy. 31 overpass. And later that evening, another ran off Dewitt Henry Drive.
There were no injuries in the Monday accidents and by 4 p.m. Tuesday, there were no new accidents.
Duke said many of the motorists simply left their vehicles where they came to rest and came in to the police department on Tuesday to fill out reports.
“That’s what I’ve been doing all day, catching up on accident reports,” he said.
Leader staff writer
Freezing drizzle that hit the area Monday night caused at least one traffic fatality, a heart attack, closed all school districts in central Arkansas for at least one day and increased ambulance runs by 36 percent.
The local area was hit with about three-tenths of an inch of sleet coating roadways and bridges with just enough ice to make travel treacherous and even deadly for one Jacksonville resident.
Lester Holmes, 47, died from injuries received in a four-car accident Monday evening at Broadway and Palm in North Little Rock. The accident is still under investigation by the State Police to determine who was at fault and how much of a factor weather played in the accident. Two other people were injured in the accident and taken to area hospitals.
In Cabot, an 18-wheeler slid off Hwy. 67/167 near exit 19 and shortly afterward the driver had a heart attack. Late Tuesday afternoon, Cabot Mayor Eddie Jo Williams said the driver had been transported to the hospital, but he didn’t know the driver’s current condition.
Williams called Cabot “pretty devastating from a traffic stand- point.”
“I just wished everyone had stayed home Tuesday,” he said, adding, “we’ve had a lot of issues and several roads were closed most of the day. Our street department has been out all day and we’ve asked for state support.”
Sgt. Brent Lucas of the Cabot Police Department said, “We’ve definitely been busy with accidents all day.”
What worried the Cabot mayor the most Tuesday was that he felt the storm issues were “not over yet.”
State Police with Troop A, which covers Faulkner, Lonoke, Pulaski and Saline counties, worked 70 accidents from 6 p.m.
Monday to noon Tuesday, including the one fatality.
Little Rock Air Force Base was closed Tuesday to all non-essential personnel and those same people were told to wait to report until noon Wednesday.
Both Jacksonville and Sher-wood police said they worked some minor accidents, but overall things were quiet on the city streets.
Sherwood Police Lt. Cheryl Williams said, “We had about six reported accidents between 5 and 7 p.m. Monday and assisted State Police with one accident on Hwy. 67/167. Tuesday morning we had about 15-20 assists. These were not necessarily accidents, but people calling for help because of the weather.”
Metropolitan Emergency Medical Service (MEMS) saw about a 36 percent increase in calls from 3 p.m. Monday to 2 p.m.
Tuesday compared to the same period the day before.
Jon Swanson, with MEMS, said, “We had 253 runs during the ice storm compared to 186 the day before.”
The ambulance service serves all of Pulaski County, except Jacksonville, and Cabot, as well as large portions of Faulkner and Grant counties.
“During the storm time period we had two calls in Sherwood city limits and 16 in Cabot,” Swanson said.
Swanson pointed out that even though there were a lot of vehicle accidents, most of the calls came from people injured in falls.
“When the weather is bad, most drivers slow down, so even though there are a lot of accidents, they aren’t as severe. But in falls, people are hitting their hips, heads, necks and often suffering serious injuries.” Swanson stressed the need to be very careful trying to walk on ice.
Jacksonville’s Public Works Department also stayed busy. “We had trucks out at start of the storm,” said Public Works Director Jim Oakley, “which was about 3:30 p.m. Monday and worked throughout the night, dumping loads of a salt-sand solution on city bridges and intersections, until about noon Tuesday.”
Overall, Oakley said, about 72 tons of the sand-salt solution were dumped on Jacksonville streets and bridges.
One of the city’s street department trucks was hit Tuesday morning when a driver slid through a stop sign into the truck.
“I felt sorry for the woman,” Oakley said. “She’s a nurse at North Metro and had made it all the way down from Mt. Vernon and then slid through a stop sign on Braden Road by the hospital.”
According to the National Weather Service in North Little Rock, sleet hit the area even though Monday’s high was 64 degrees.
The problem was that high was just after midnight Sunday, and by 6 a.m. Monday morning the temperature was 33 degrees.
The current forecast called for the possibility of more sleet or freezing rain Tuesday night since the high temperature for the day never went above freezing.
Today’s highs are forecasted to be in the mid-40s, and by Friday the mercury will hit the mid-60s, with a chance of rain each day.
City hall was closed in Beebe on Tuesday, but Police Sgt. Brian Duke said he was busy all day with accident reports mostly from Monday before area residents realized how bad the roads actually were.
As soon as the freezing rain started Monday afternoon, vehicles started sliding off the road, he said. One ran off the overpass on Hwy. 54.
Another slid off the overpass on Hwy. 31 and into a cedar tree. At about the same time a small truck collided with an empty school bus on top of the Hwy. 31 overpass. And later that evening, another ran off Dewitt Henry Drive.
There were no injuries in the Monday accidents and by 4 p.m. Tuesday, there were no new accidents.
Duke said many of the motorists simply left their vehicles where they came to rest and came in to the police department on Tuesday to fill out reports.
“That’s what I’ve been doing all day, catching up on accident reports,” he said.
SPORTS>>Panthers shake off first-round loss to beat Bruins, Mustangs
By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Panthers rebounded from a disappointing, self-destructive, opening-round loss in the CAC Invitational to win the consolation bracket with a see-saw 60-52 victory over host Central Arkansas Christian on Saturday afternoon.
On Thursday, the Panthers, now 7-2, failed to take care of the basketball down the stretch in a 65-62 loss to Mills, but bounced back on Friday with their second victory in five days over Pulaski Academy, 65-50.
The CAC game threatened to be taking the same form as the loss to Mills when the Panthers allowed a 10-point lead with 1:40 left in the game to dwindle to 53-48 with 58 seconds left after a CAC three-pointer, a turnover on the inbounds play and two Mustang free throws.
But Cabot, which missed three straight free throws late, made 7 of its final 8 to secure the win.
Adam Sterrenberg scored 13 of his 19 points after intermission, including two free throws with 47 seconds left that extended Cabot’s precarious lead to 55-48. CAC responded with a bucket to narrow the gap to five again and after Miles Monroe made 1 of 2 charities and CAC turned it over, Austin Johnson went to the line and made two free throws with 19 seconds to seal it.
It was a sluggish start for the Panthers who made only two of their first nine shots and fell behind the spirited Mustangs 8-2 in the early going. But Cabot got it going late in the period, knocking down its final four shots to take a 16-12 lead after one period.
Sharp-shooting guard Jack Bridges, who had been encouraged by his coach and father Jerry Bridges to look to pass first and shoot second in recent games, was given the green light on Saturday – and with good results. The senior made three consecutive three pointers over a two-minute, 23 second span as Cabot began to pull away.
The lead grew to 30-15 on Johnson’s insidebucket off a nice feed from Gary Clark at the 3:10 mark of the first half. A couple of late baskets inside by Scott Cook sent CAC to the locker room down 34-26.
Cabot got its fast break going early in the second half, scoring four times inside to open up a 45-28 lead. But the Panthers suddenly couldn’t find the rim and didn’t score over a six-minute, 58-second span, allowing the Mustangs to go on a 13-0 run and whittle the lead to 45-41 with 6:00 left in the game.
Monroe ended the drought with a rebound basket with 5:43 left and Johnson answered CAC’s ensuring basket with a drive from the left wing for a lay-up. Two free throws by Sterrenberg and Monroe’s lay-up appeared to have Cabot breathing easily with a 53-43 lead with 1:40 left.
CAC rallied with a Carter Trent three and two free throws by Ryan Lamberson after Cabot threw the inbounds pass away.
In addition to Sterrenberg’s 19 points, two assists and two steals, Bridges added 11 points, while Johnson dished out three assists, had two steals and scored 10 points. Monroe added nine points, eight boards, two assists and three steals. Clark scored six and had three assists and two steals. Seth Bloomberg came off the bench to make three steals.
Cabot had 12 steals and forced 20 turnovers, though the Panthers were outrebounded 31-27. They made 19 of 44 shots and dished out 13 assists.
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Panthers rebounded from a disappointing, self-destructive, opening-round loss in the CAC Invitational to win the consolation bracket with a see-saw 60-52 victory over host Central Arkansas Christian on Saturday afternoon.
On Thursday, the Panthers, now 7-2, failed to take care of the basketball down the stretch in a 65-62 loss to Mills, but bounced back on Friday with their second victory in five days over Pulaski Academy, 65-50.
The CAC game threatened to be taking the same form as the loss to Mills when the Panthers allowed a 10-point lead with 1:40 left in the game to dwindle to 53-48 with 58 seconds left after a CAC three-pointer, a turnover on the inbounds play and two Mustang free throws.
But Cabot, which missed three straight free throws late, made 7 of its final 8 to secure the win.
Adam Sterrenberg scored 13 of his 19 points after intermission, including two free throws with 47 seconds left that extended Cabot’s precarious lead to 55-48. CAC responded with a bucket to narrow the gap to five again and after Miles Monroe made 1 of 2 charities and CAC turned it over, Austin Johnson went to the line and made two free throws with 19 seconds to seal it.
It was a sluggish start for the Panthers who made only two of their first nine shots and fell behind the spirited Mustangs 8-2 in the early going. But Cabot got it going late in the period, knocking down its final four shots to take a 16-12 lead after one period.
Sharp-shooting guard Jack Bridges, who had been encouraged by his coach and father Jerry Bridges to look to pass first and shoot second in recent games, was given the green light on Saturday – and with good results. The senior made three consecutive three pointers over a two-minute, 23 second span as Cabot began to pull away.
The lead grew to 30-15 on Johnson’s insidebucket off a nice feed from Gary Clark at the 3:10 mark of the first half. A couple of late baskets inside by Scott Cook sent CAC to the locker room down 34-26.
Cabot got its fast break going early in the second half, scoring four times inside to open up a 45-28 lead. But the Panthers suddenly couldn’t find the rim and didn’t score over a six-minute, 58-second span, allowing the Mustangs to go on a 13-0 run and whittle the lead to 45-41 with 6:00 left in the game.
Monroe ended the drought with a rebound basket with 5:43 left and Johnson answered CAC’s ensuring basket with a drive from the left wing for a lay-up. Two free throws by Sterrenberg and Monroe’s lay-up appeared to have Cabot breathing easily with a 53-43 lead with 1:40 left.
CAC rallied with a Carter Trent three and two free throws by Ryan Lamberson after Cabot threw the inbounds pass away.
In addition to Sterrenberg’s 19 points, two assists and two steals, Bridges added 11 points, while Johnson dished out three assists, had two steals and scored 10 points. Monroe added nine points, eight boards, two assists and three steals. Clark scored six and had three assists and two steals. Seth Bloomberg came off the bench to make three steals.
Cabot had 12 steals and forced 20 turnovers, though the Panthers were outrebounded 31-27. They made 19 of 44 shots and dished out 13 assists.
SPORTS>>Surging UALR women stumble at Missouri State
By JOE ANGOLIA
UALR sports information
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—With 2:22 remaining in the game, Jaleshia Roberson knocked down a three-pointer that sparked a 7-0 run that gave Missouri State the lead and the victory 53-49 over the UALR women’s basketball team Sunday at JQH Arena. The Trojans are now 7-2 on the season.
Anshel Cooper led all scorers with 24 points going 11 of 27 from the field and led the team in steals with four. Chastity Reed led the team in rebounds with seven.
Missouri State gained the opening tip and scored the first six points including four by Jacque Griggs. The Trojans scored their first field goal at the 16:45 mark on a jumper by Cooper.
Over the next three minutes, the Lady Bears out scored UALR six to two with the Trojans points coming from Cooper. At the 13:26 mark, a jumper by Megan Williams sparked a 5-0 run by UALR to cut the MSU lead to 12-9.
The Trojans’ run continued with a jumper by Marian Kursh and four straight points by Cooper to take their first lead of the game at the 10:15 mark 15-12.
With 9:57 until the half, the Lady Bears regained a two-point lead with five straight points. Cooper knocked down a jumper and one to regain the 18-17 advantage.
The Lady Bears recorded five points to UALR’s two over the next three minutes to hold on to a two-point lead. With 1:33 until the half, Kim Sitzmann knocked down her first three-pointer of the game to give UALR a 23-22 half-time lead.
Missouri State opened the secondhalf with a jumper by Lacey Boshe. The Trojans answered with back-to-back jumpers by Cooper.
Over the next two minutes, UALR outscored the Lady Bears six to two including steals and fast break layups by Sitzmann and Cooper to extend their lead to 33-26.
MSU cut the lead to four over the next minute with Maggie Dwyer scoring six points to Cooper’s two. A jumper by Chastity Reed and a free throw by Cooper extended the lead back to 38-31 with 9:19 remaining.
The Lady Bears knocked down two free throws followed by a three-pointer by Jaleshia Roberson at the 8:28 mark to cut the Trojan lead to two.
After a free throw by Casey Garrison, UALR scored on a jumper by Cooper and a three-pointer by Sitzmann to bring the score to 43-37. The Lady Bears answered back with four straight points to cut the lead to two with 4:17 remaining.
Kursh knocked down a putback, before a three by Roberson for the Lady Bears cut the lead to one with 2:21 on the clock.
UALR’s missed free throws with 1:33 left allowed Missouri State to score five points off of free throws to take a 46-45 lead.
With 13.2 seconds remaining, Butler knocked down a layup to cut the lead to two.
MSU scored on four free throws in the remaining 11 second to UALR’s putback by Butler to win 53-49.
UALR continues road action today as they travel to Oxford, Miss., to face Ole Miss. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
UALR sports information
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—With 2:22 remaining in the game, Jaleshia Roberson knocked down a three-pointer that sparked a 7-0 run that gave Missouri State the lead and the victory 53-49 over the UALR women’s basketball team Sunday at JQH Arena. The Trojans are now 7-2 on the season.
Anshel Cooper led all scorers with 24 points going 11 of 27 from the field and led the team in steals with four. Chastity Reed led the team in rebounds with seven.
Missouri State gained the opening tip and scored the first six points including four by Jacque Griggs. The Trojans scored their first field goal at the 16:45 mark on a jumper by Cooper.
Over the next three minutes, the Lady Bears out scored UALR six to two with the Trojans points coming from Cooper. At the 13:26 mark, a jumper by Megan Williams sparked a 5-0 run by UALR to cut the MSU lead to 12-9.
The Trojans’ run continued with a jumper by Marian Kursh and four straight points by Cooper to take their first lead of the game at the 10:15 mark 15-12.
With 9:57 until the half, the Lady Bears regained a two-point lead with five straight points. Cooper knocked down a jumper and one to regain the 18-17 advantage.
The Lady Bears recorded five points to UALR’s two over the next three minutes to hold on to a two-point lead. With 1:33 until the half, Kim Sitzmann knocked down her first three-pointer of the game to give UALR a 23-22 half-time lead.
Missouri State opened the secondhalf with a jumper by Lacey Boshe. The Trojans answered with back-to-back jumpers by Cooper.
Over the next two minutes, UALR outscored the Lady Bears six to two including steals and fast break layups by Sitzmann and Cooper to extend their lead to 33-26.
MSU cut the lead to four over the next minute with Maggie Dwyer scoring six points to Cooper’s two. A jumper by Chastity Reed and a free throw by Cooper extended the lead back to 38-31 with 9:19 remaining.
The Lady Bears knocked down two free throws followed by a three-pointer by Jaleshia Roberson at the 8:28 mark to cut the Trojan lead to two.
After a free throw by Casey Garrison, UALR scored on a jumper by Cooper and a three-pointer by Sitzmann to bring the score to 43-37. The Lady Bears answered back with four straight points to cut the lead to two with 4:17 remaining.
Kursh knocked down a putback, before a three by Roberson for the Lady Bears cut the lead to one with 2:21 on the clock.
UALR’s missed free throws with 1:33 left allowed Missouri State to score five points off of free throws to take a 46-45 lead.
With 13.2 seconds remaining, Butler knocked down a layup to cut the lead to two.
MSU scored on four free throws in the remaining 11 second to UALR’s putback by Butler to win 53-49.
UALR continues road action today as they travel to Oxford, Miss., to face Ole Miss. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
SPORTS>>Lady Red Devils fall to Benton
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
They came back to make it a game in the second half, but the Jacksonville Lady Red Devils could never get completely over the hump created by Benton in the first half.
The result was a third-place finish for the Lady Panthers with a 52-40 win over Jacksonville during the final day of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational at Wampus Cat Arena in Conway on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Devils settled for fourth.
The second meeting between the two teams went much like the first contest, with Benton dominating the first half to claim a huge lead at halftime before the Lady Red Devils (3-5) came roaring back in the final two quarters. The LadyPanthers led by as much as 19 points midway through the second quarter, but increased defensive pressure by Jacksonville helped it close the gap.
“We had to pick up our pressure, and they did that,” Lady Red Devils coach Katrina Mimms said. “We talked about it at halftime that we were going to have to switch it because we were behind. We made one little adjustment and tried to work on it.”
The Lady Panthers put the pressure on Terry throughout the game, holding her without a field goal until the final five minutes.
“Tyra was having trouble handling the ball because they put a bigger girl on her,” Mimms said. “So what we did was try to relieve some of that pressure and to let Crystal do it. And when we did that, it worked. She just couldn’t do it the whole time.
We didn’t have anyone else that we could bring in there, so Tyra did have to run it some.
“The second half was great. It was just a flat, non-emotion, lackadaisical first half that beat us.”
Benton post player Mattison Chilton proved to be the difference for the Lady Panthers down the stretch, scoring nine of her game-high 18 points in the final quarter. Chilton, in fact, scored all but one of Benton’s points in that time with good feeds from her teammates.
“We were telling them to make her go the opposite way that she wanted to go,” Mimms said. “She’s left-handed, so she’s always going to go left. We were trying to get them to make her go right, we just didn’t do it. She’s an outstanding post player.”
The Lady Red Devils’ second-half run began at the 1:29 mark of the third quarter when Sherice Randell hit a jumper to make it 41-24. Appollonia Sims narrowed the gap even more before the end of the period with a pair of free throws with 1:08 left, and hit a basket in the final 30 seconds to cut it to 41-28 heading into the fourth. Sims went on to lead Jacksonville with 13 points and three steals.
A three-point basket by point guard Tyra Terry with 4:50 left to play made it 45-35, and Sims followed a Chilton goal for Benton with an and-one to make it 47-38 with 3:25 remaining. It was as close as the Lady Red Devils could get, however, as Chilton put up two more baskets in the final minutes for Benton.
Randell added 10 point for the Lady Red Devils, with seven for Terry. Jacksonville had only 13 total rebounds for the game.
Jacksonville was sent to the third-place game by the host Lady Wampus Cats with a 50-32 decision in Friday’s semifinals.
Terry and junior post Jessica Lanier each had 10 points for the Lady Red Devils.
Leader sportswriter
They came back to make it a game in the second half, but the Jacksonville Lady Red Devils could never get completely over the hump created by Benton in the first half.
The result was a third-place finish for the Lady Panthers with a 52-40 win over Jacksonville during the final day of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational at Wampus Cat Arena in Conway on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Devils settled for fourth.
The second meeting between the two teams went much like the first contest, with Benton dominating the first half to claim a huge lead at halftime before the Lady Red Devils (3-5) came roaring back in the final two quarters. The LadyPanthers led by as much as 19 points midway through the second quarter, but increased defensive pressure by Jacksonville helped it close the gap.
“We had to pick up our pressure, and they did that,” Lady Red Devils coach Katrina Mimms said. “We talked about it at halftime that we were going to have to switch it because we were behind. We made one little adjustment and tried to work on it.”
The Lady Panthers put the pressure on Terry throughout the game, holding her without a field goal until the final five minutes.
“Tyra was having trouble handling the ball because they put a bigger girl on her,” Mimms said. “So what we did was try to relieve some of that pressure and to let Crystal do it. And when we did that, it worked. She just couldn’t do it the whole time.
We didn’t have anyone else that we could bring in there, so Tyra did have to run it some.
“The second half was great. It was just a flat, non-emotion, lackadaisical first half that beat us.”
Benton post player Mattison Chilton proved to be the difference for the Lady Panthers down the stretch, scoring nine of her game-high 18 points in the final quarter. Chilton, in fact, scored all but one of Benton’s points in that time with good feeds from her teammates.
“We were telling them to make her go the opposite way that she wanted to go,” Mimms said. “She’s left-handed, so she’s always going to go left. We were trying to get them to make her go right, we just didn’t do it. She’s an outstanding post player.”
The Lady Red Devils’ second-half run began at the 1:29 mark of the third quarter when Sherice Randell hit a jumper to make it 41-24. Appollonia Sims narrowed the gap even more before the end of the period with a pair of free throws with 1:08 left, and hit a basket in the final 30 seconds to cut it to 41-28 heading into the fourth. Sims went on to lead Jacksonville with 13 points and three steals.
A three-point basket by point guard Tyra Terry with 4:50 left to play made it 45-35, and Sims followed a Chilton goal for Benton with an and-one to make it 47-38 with 3:25 remaining. It was as close as the Lady Red Devils could get, however, as Chilton put up two more baskets in the final minutes for Benton.
Randell added 10 point for the Lady Red Devils, with seven for Terry. Jacksonville had only 13 total rebounds for the game.
Jacksonville was sent to the third-place game by the host Lady Wampus Cats with a 50-32 decision in Friday’s semifinals.
Terry and junior post Jessica Lanier each had 10 points for the Lady Red Devils.
SPORTS>>Moore leads UALR past No. Illinois
By JOE ANGOLIA
UALR sports information
The UALR men’s basketball team (7-2) got back on track Sunday afternoon, as six players scored in double figures to lead the Trojans to a 97-85 win over Northern Illinois (4-6) at the Jack Stephens Center.
UALR shot a blistering 61.8 percent from the floor and reached 90 points in regulation against a Division-I opponent for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
“I’m proud of our guys for the way they responded after Friday night’s disappointing loss,” said UALR head coach Steve Shields.
“I thought we had really good energy level about us, and had a lot of enthusiasm and intensity on the defensive end in the first half.”
UALR junior Steven Moore totaled season highs of 22 points and eight assists, against zero turnovers, to lead the way for the Trojans. Senior Brandon Patterson, who played just seven minutes against Wright State because of the flu, recorded his first career double-double against NIU with 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
“(Brandon) gives us good length on the perimeter from a defensive standpoint, values the basketball and has poise on the offensive end,” added Shields. “He does so many different things for us, aside from just scoring the ball, and I thought he was really good tonight.”
Four other Trojans reached double digits in points as UALR had six double-figure scorers for the first time since a 74-73 loss to Western Kentucky on Feb. 16, 2006.
Sophomore Matt Mouzy went 4-of-9 from beyond the arc on his way to a 14-point effort, while senior John Fowler, junior Mike Smith and freshman Curtis Jackson each added 10 points a piece.
Smith collected nine rebounds in the game, falling one board short of his third double-double.
UALR led from wire-to-wire on Sunday afternoon, and broke the game open with a 21-2 first-half run. The Trojans took a 43-23 lead into the break after shooting 62.1 percent from the field with a +16 rebounding margin (23-7) over the first 20 minutes.
Nine different players got into the scoring column for the Trojans in the first half, with the UALR bench outscoring the starters 43-23.
Freshman Courtney Jackson led the Trojans with eight points in the first half, while Moore and Curtis Jackson chipped in seven points a piece.
The 20-point ballgame turned into a shootout in the second half, as the two teams combined to score 116 points over the final 20 minutes.
NIU cut its deficit to 13 points, 86-73, after a three-pointer with 3:21 to go, but Moore delivered a three pointer of his own on the other end to keep the Huskies on the ropes.
The Trojans did just enough at the free-throw line over the final two minutes, going 6 of 10 at the line, to keep NIU at bay.
UALR returns to action tonight when it travels to FedExForum to take on the No. 15/17 Memphis Tigers. “We know it is going to be a difficult game,” said Shields. “Our guys will be excited about going there, but we have to make sure that we value the basketball. Like I told them in the locker room, we can’t give up 18 offensive rebounds to Memphis like we did tonight.”
UALR sports information
The UALR men’s basketball team (7-2) got back on track Sunday afternoon, as six players scored in double figures to lead the Trojans to a 97-85 win over Northern Illinois (4-6) at the Jack Stephens Center.
UALR shot a blistering 61.8 percent from the floor and reached 90 points in regulation against a Division-I opponent for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
“I’m proud of our guys for the way they responded after Friday night’s disappointing loss,” said UALR head coach Steve Shields.
“I thought we had really good energy level about us, and had a lot of enthusiasm and intensity on the defensive end in the first half.”
UALR junior Steven Moore totaled season highs of 22 points and eight assists, against zero turnovers, to lead the way for the Trojans. Senior Brandon Patterson, who played just seven minutes against Wright State because of the flu, recorded his first career double-double against NIU with 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
“(Brandon) gives us good length on the perimeter from a defensive standpoint, values the basketball and has poise on the offensive end,” added Shields. “He does so many different things for us, aside from just scoring the ball, and I thought he was really good tonight.”
Four other Trojans reached double digits in points as UALR had six double-figure scorers for the first time since a 74-73 loss to Western Kentucky on Feb. 16, 2006.
Sophomore Matt Mouzy went 4-of-9 from beyond the arc on his way to a 14-point effort, while senior John Fowler, junior Mike Smith and freshman Curtis Jackson each added 10 points a piece.
Smith collected nine rebounds in the game, falling one board short of his third double-double.
UALR led from wire-to-wire on Sunday afternoon, and broke the game open with a 21-2 first-half run. The Trojans took a 43-23 lead into the break after shooting 62.1 percent from the field with a +16 rebounding margin (23-7) over the first 20 minutes.
Nine different players got into the scoring column for the Trojans in the first half, with the UALR bench outscoring the starters 43-23.
Freshman Courtney Jackson led the Trojans with eight points in the first half, while Moore and Curtis Jackson chipped in seven points a piece.
The 20-point ballgame turned into a shootout in the second half, as the two teams combined to score 116 points over the final 20 minutes.
NIU cut its deficit to 13 points, 86-73, after a three-pointer with 3:21 to go, but Moore delivered a three pointer of his own on the other end to keep the Huskies on the ropes.
The Trojans did just enough at the free-throw line over the final two minutes, going 6 of 10 at the line, to keep NIU at bay.
UALR returns to action tonight when it travels to FedExForum to take on the No. 15/17 Memphis Tigers. “We know it is going to be a difficult game,” said Shields. “Our guys will be excited about going there, but we have to make sure that we value the basketball. Like I told them in the locker room, we can’t give up 18 offensive rebounds to Memphis like we did tonight.”
SPORTS>>Red Devils take third
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The cross-town rivalry between Jacksonville and North Pulaski knows no boundaries.
That rivalry lived up to its reputation once again, as it spilled into the third-place game of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational basketball tournament on Saturday afternoon in Conway.
The Falcons (7-2) took the first meeting between the clubs two weeks earlier, but the Red Devils (4-2) evened the score Saturday with a 57-51 win.
Jacksonville controlled the tempo most of the way, as the Devils put their trademark flash-and-dash aside, opting instead for steady, fundamental play that allowed them to build a 23-13 lead at the half, and hold off a furious charge by DuQuan Bryant and the Falcons in the final period.
“It don’t matter what the records are, what classifications, it’s going to be a dogfight every time we play them,” said Jacksonville coach Victor Joyner. “We gave one away last night, and it hurt them. (North Pulaski) took one on the chin last night, too, so we both had motivation to come out and play each other. And that’s how it always is. It’s a classic, heavyweight fight.”
Jacksonville was coming off a heartbreaking one-point loss to Forrest City on Friday that denied it a trip to the tourney finals, while the Falcons took their first loss of the year to host Conway 85-69.
Stanley Appleby was the only leading scorer for Jacksonville who did not finish in double digits, but all of his eight points came when the Red Devilsneeded them most, with a resurgent Falcons team breathing down their necks late in the game.
Appleby hit three-pointers at the 6:02 mark and 4:59 mark of the fourth quarter that pushed the lead back to more than 10 points after baskets by the Falcons’ Bryant and Carlos Donley.
“We’re trying to slow down, and to get them to play the way we want them to play,” Joyner said. “And that’s why we had to put a few people on the bench. They’re going to start listening to us, that’s the bottom line.”
Appleby’s strong finish was set up by a solid performance throughout the game by forward Cortell Eskridge, who came up big on both the scoreboard and the glass. Eskridge finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, while senior post Antwan Lockhart had 11 points and four rebounds, along with two steals and a block.
“Eskridge stepped up like a man tonight,” Joyner said. “All of them did. They had heartbreak last night. I looked into their eyes, and they were hurt. I thought they showed a lot of resolve. They came out here tonight and battled on the boards. Eskridge stepped up, Lockhart stepped up. LaQuinton Miles has been in my doghouse a little bit, but he stepped up. Demetris stepped up, and little Stan stepped up and ran that point. That’s what we’ve got to have is a point guard, and Stan Appleby got that job tonight.
Joyner was pleased with both Appleby’s ball handling and clutch shooting.
“He’s finally getting his timing right from football,” he said. “He’s getting into his shooting rhythm and his timing. He’s getting his wind with his lung capacity back. He’s coming on.”
Eskridge, Lockhart and Apple-by’s scores all came at critical times for Jacksonville, but it was the quiet work of Demetris Harris that led to his team-high 12 points. Harris proved clutch in the final seconds with a pair of free throws that kept the Red Devils on top 56-49. He finished 6 of 7 at the foul line.
The Falcons were able to close the gap to four in the final 1:27 of the third quarter. A putback basket by Brian Coulson made it 29-25 before the Red Devils got back-to-back threes. Eskridge put up the first trey, and DeShone McClure beat the buzzer with a dazzling 28-footer for his only field goal of the night to put the Devils up 35-25.
Bryant got busy for the Falcons in the final period, scoring eight of his 13 points in that time. Junior point guard Aaron Cooper also found his way to the basket with eight of his own during that time, including a pair of three pointers. Cooper went on to lead all scorers with 16 points, while Bryant led the Falcons in rebounding with six boards.
The final minute played out at the charity stripe, with the Red Devils hitting 7 of 10 free throws in the final minute.
Joe Agee rounded out high scorers for North Pulaski with 10 points, including a pair of three-point baskets.
Leader sportswriter
The cross-town rivalry between Jacksonville and North Pulaski knows no boundaries.
That rivalry lived up to its reputation once again, as it spilled into the third-place game of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational basketball tournament on Saturday afternoon in Conway.
The Falcons (7-2) took the first meeting between the clubs two weeks earlier, but the Red Devils (4-2) evened the score Saturday with a 57-51 win.
Jacksonville controlled the tempo most of the way, as the Devils put their trademark flash-and-dash aside, opting instead for steady, fundamental play that allowed them to build a 23-13 lead at the half, and hold off a furious charge by DuQuan Bryant and the Falcons in the final period.
“It don’t matter what the records are, what classifications, it’s going to be a dogfight every time we play them,” said Jacksonville coach Victor Joyner. “We gave one away last night, and it hurt them. (North Pulaski) took one on the chin last night, too, so we both had motivation to come out and play each other. And that’s how it always is. It’s a classic, heavyweight fight.”
Jacksonville was coming off a heartbreaking one-point loss to Forrest City on Friday that denied it a trip to the tourney finals, while the Falcons took their first loss of the year to host Conway 85-69.
Stanley Appleby was the only leading scorer for Jacksonville who did not finish in double digits, but all of his eight points came when the Red Devilsneeded them most, with a resurgent Falcons team breathing down their necks late in the game.
Appleby hit three-pointers at the 6:02 mark and 4:59 mark of the fourth quarter that pushed the lead back to more than 10 points after baskets by the Falcons’ Bryant and Carlos Donley.
“We’re trying to slow down, and to get them to play the way we want them to play,” Joyner said. “And that’s why we had to put a few people on the bench. They’re going to start listening to us, that’s the bottom line.”
Appleby’s strong finish was set up by a solid performance throughout the game by forward Cortell Eskridge, who came up big on both the scoreboard and the glass. Eskridge finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, while senior post Antwan Lockhart had 11 points and four rebounds, along with two steals and a block.
“Eskridge stepped up like a man tonight,” Joyner said. “All of them did. They had heartbreak last night. I looked into their eyes, and they were hurt. I thought they showed a lot of resolve. They came out here tonight and battled on the boards. Eskridge stepped up, Lockhart stepped up. LaQuinton Miles has been in my doghouse a little bit, but he stepped up. Demetris stepped up, and little Stan stepped up and ran that point. That’s what we’ve got to have is a point guard, and Stan Appleby got that job tonight.
Joyner was pleased with both Appleby’s ball handling and clutch shooting.
“He’s finally getting his timing right from football,” he said. “He’s getting into his shooting rhythm and his timing. He’s getting his wind with his lung capacity back. He’s coming on.”
Eskridge, Lockhart and Apple-by’s scores all came at critical times for Jacksonville, but it was the quiet work of Demetris Harris that led to his team-high 12 points. Harris proved clutch in the final seconds with a pair of free throws that kept the Red Devils on top 56-49. He finished 6 of 7 at the foul line.
The Falcons were able to close the gap to four in the final 1:27 of the third quarter. A putback basket by Brian Coulson made it 29-25 before the Red Devils got back-to-back threes. Eskridge put up the first trey, and DeShone McClure beat the buzzer with a dazzling 28-footer for his only field goal of the night to put the Devils up 35-25.
Bryant got busy for the Falcons in the final period, scoring eight of his 13 points in that time. Junior point guard Aaron Cooper also found his way to the basket with eight of his own during that time, including a pair of three pointers. Cooper went on to lead all scorers with 16 points, while Bryant led the Falcons in rebounding with six boards.
The final minute played out at the charity stripe, with the Red Devils hitting 7 of 10 free throws in the final minute.
Joe Agee rounded out high scorers for North Pulaski with 10 points, including a pair of three-point baskets.
Monday, December 15, 2008
TOP STORY > > Long-time commission chair leaving
Thad Gray will be retiring from the Jacksonville Water Works Commission at the end of this year, after 13 years as its chairman and almost 21 years as a commission member.
Jim Peacock will become the new commission chairman in January 2009.
Gray has been on the commission most of the years it has been in existence.
The board was activated by city ordinance in 1978 with three members – Pat Wilson, Whit Davis, and Joe Phillips. Gray took the seat vacated by Phillips in March 1988. At the time, Wilson was chair.
When Wilson stepped down, Thad became chair in January 1996.
Under Gray’s leadership, the commission oversaw significant changes in water service as the city has grown.
Among major infrastructure improvements were construction of the 1-million-gallon Paradise storage tank and the laying of three 12-inch water mains to bring water into the city. In 2000, with a merger between the water utilities of Little Rock and North Little Rock, Central Arkansas Water was created.
That brought Jack-sonville Water Works, as a wholesale water purchaser from North Little Rock, into long-ranging regional planning to assure water quality and volume far into the future. Jacksonville is the largest wholesale customer of Central Arkansas Water.
The goal of the commission, says Gray, has always been “to provide quality water long-term for Jacksonville. Many communities in the United States don’t have what we have – quality, good-tasting water.”
Gray says his job as commission chair was made easy by the “very capable, quality, dedicated employees” at Jacksonville Water Works. “That made it a pleasure to serve on the commission.”
Ken Anderson was manager of Jacksonville Water Works when Gray came on board and resigned last summer. Of their years working together, Anderson described Gray as being “instrumental in helping Jacksonville to get with Little Rock and North Little Rock and work toward a future water source.”
“He has always been an excellent chair person and leader of the water works, always thinking to the future of what we needed to be doing so we’d have the best quality water and the quantity we’d need for the future,” Anderson added.
Mike Simpson, who became manager when Anderson resigned, also had high praise for Gray’s leadership and years of service to the city.
“It has been a real pleasure to serve with Thad; he has been a great chairman as well as commissioner,” Simpson said.
“He has seen the commission and the water works through many, many changes. He set the bar for all of us, and has always been about making sure we did things right and were fair to the rate payers,” Simpson continued.
The other incoming commission officers for 2009 will be Larry Wilson as vice chairman and Jack Danielson, secretary.
Jim Peacock will become the new commission chairman in January 2009.
Gray has been on the commission most of the years it has been in existence.
The board was activated by city ordinance in 1978 with three members – Pat Wilson, Whit Davis, and Joe Phillips. Gray took the seat vacated by Phillips in March 1988. At the time, Wilson was chair.
When Wilson stepped down, Thad became chair in January 1996.
Under Gray’s leadership, the commission oversaw significant changes in water service as the city has grown.
Among major infrastructure improvements were construction of the 1-million-gallon Paradise storage tank and the laying of three 12-inch water mains to bring water into the city. In 2000, with a merger between the water utilities of Little Rock and North Little Rock, Central Arkansas Water was created.
That brought Jack-sonville Water Works, as a wholesale water purchaser from North Little Rock, into long-ranging regional planning to assure water quality and volume far into the future. Jacksonville is the largest wholesale customer of Central Arkansas Water.
The goal of the commission, says Gray, has always been “to provide quality water long-term for Jacksonville. Many communities in the United States don’t have what we have – quality, good-tasting water.”
Gray says his job as commission chair was made easy by the “very capable, quality, dedicated employees” at Jacksonville Water Works. “That made it a pleasure to serve on the commission.”
Ken Anderson was manager of Jacksonville Water Works when Gray came on board and resigned last summer. Of their years working together, Anderson described Gray as being “instrumental in helping Jacksonville to get with Little Rock and North Little Rock and work toward a future water source.”
“He has always been an excellent chair person and leader of the water works, always thinking to the future of what we needed to be doing so we’d have the best quality water and the quantity we’d need for the future,” Anderson added.
Mike Simpson, who became manager when Anderson resigned, also had high praise for Gray’s leadership and years of service to the city.
“It has been a real pleasure to serve with Thad; he has been a great chairman as well as commissioner,” Simpson said.
“He has seen the commission and the water works through many, many changes. He set the bar for all of us, and has always been about making sure we did things right and were fair to the rate payers,” Simpson continued.
The other incoming commission officers for 2009 will be Larry Wilson as vice chairman and Jack Danielson, secretary.
Friday, December 12, 2008
EDITORIAL >>National plan for recovery
It should go without saying, but somehow in the maelstrom of the unemployment rate, the subprime- mortgage meltdown and the government’s recent acquisition of the better part of the U.S. banking system and auto industry, it’s easy to lose sight of what makes a stable society, something we haven’t heard much about recently: When people are healthy and have a place to call home, they are better able to contribute to a flourishing society.
Ensuring the stability of our country by meeting people’s basic needs is the surest way to create a thriving and lasting system.
The healthcare industry, designed to meet the most fundamental of needs—that of sustaining life—continues to expand.
Education, housing and transportation have the potential to grow also because of their essential nature and the guarantee they will never lose a customer base.
These industries are inextricably linked; they are also mismanaged. What has happened to the United States? The people who once thought of ourselves as founders of freedom, of the country on the hill, as a beacon of hope for people in war-torn, politically corrupt or poverty-stricken countries, a refuge for “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” are now wondering if the house will be foreclosed on, if we will ever get out of debt (as a country and as individuals), if we can afford our medical bills, send our children to college and assure our children have quality educations before then.
As many Americans have struggled in the last 10 years to make ends meet, trade rules have been loosened to make it easier for big business to ship jobs overseas even as they are sheltered from taxes here at home. That equates to lost financing for education and other imperative social programs that assure a stable populace that can get good jobs and afford houses, pay medical bills and other fundamentals that sustain our economy.
We are now witnessing the result of the collapse of a foundation of a sustainable and profitable economy.
Congress must join with top economists, job-readiness and other social-service experts, education specialists and healthcare reformers who will work to improve industries that are now lacking but that have the largest customer bases of any others.
Any economic-stimulus project should include the vast innovation potential of the education and health care sectors, which have millions of jobs waiting to be filled. Innovation in health care and education will happen if incentives are given for intelligent people to enter these fields. President-elect Obama can start by giving people tax incentives to continue their educations. There are several more initiatives that could help the economy:
Put young people on career paths early and foster environments at schools so that students will be able to contribute to society when they graduate. Create grants for artists and writers similar to what were given during the Great Depression. Such support generates ideas, criticism and progress and helps the economy.
Implement public-works programs that include public art, community projects in housing and schools and medical research.
Concentrate not only on what’s lacking in our cities and towns, but what contributions can be made to the indelible fabric that is America. Create jobs in infrastructure and other areas that need improvement such as business retention, schools and transportation. Provide support for small business loans that immediately invest in communities.
Business stimulus is not enough. Work on providing women’s health, mental-health care and drug-abuse services to help stabilize neighborhoods is imperative. Improvements to our libraries will engage and inspire learning as would career support and college loans for adults. Support for green technology will reduce highway costs and help the environment.
The legacy of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, the sweeping social-reform package brought about by the civil rights movement, has been blighted recently as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Smithsonian and public education, among many other institutions, have come under fire. Perhaps their legitimacy would not be questioned if their economic contributions were considered. Medicare and Medicaid are often the bulk of individual hospital financing. Without the National Endowment, there would be fewer museums and hardly any theater.
Yet it was not only the economy that inspired the Great Society. Johnson realized the disruption in American society that withholding support for medical care, arts, culture and education causes. He sought to temper an unhappy and disillusioned America, what he called “a soulless wealth,” when he envisioned the Great Society.
“The catalogue of ills is long: there is the decay of the centers and the despoiling of the suburbs. There is not enough housing for our people or transportation for our traffic. Open land is vanishing and old landmarks are violated,” Johnson said in 1964.
“Worst of all, expansion is eroding the precious and time-honored values of community with neighbors and communion with nature. The loss of these values breeds loneliness and boredom and indifference,” he said.
To read the speech in which he unveiled the largest social-reform package since the Great Deal, we cannot help reflect on how little has changed since then. Leaders in education, job creation and health care all need to be at the table during the construction of a new economy for America.
Ensuring the stability of our country by meeting people’s basic needs is the surest way to create a thriving and lasting system.
The healthcare industry, designed to meet the most fundamental of needs—that of sustaining life—continues to expand.
Education, housing and transportation have the potential to grow also because of their essential nature and the guarantee they will never lose a customer base.
These industries are inextricably linked; they are also mismanaged. What has happened to the United States? The people who once thought of ourselves as founders of freedom, of the country on the hill, as a beacon of hope for people in war-torn, politically corrupt or poverty-stricken countries, a refuge for “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” are now wondering if the house will be foreclosed on, if we will ever get out of debt (as a country and as individuals), if we can afford our medical bills, send our children to college and assure our children have quality educations before then.
As many Americans have struggled in the last 10 years to make ends meet, trade rules have been loosened to make it easier for big business to ship jobs overseas even as they are sheltered from taxes here at home. That equates to lost financing for education and other imperative social programs that assure a stable populace that can get good jobs and afford houses, pay medical bills and other fundamentals that sustain our economy.
We are now witnessing the result of the collapse of a foundation of a sustainable and profitable economy.
Congress must join with top economists, job-readiness and other social-service experts, education specialists and healthcare reformers who will work to improve industries that are now lacking but that have the largest customer bases of any others.
Any economic-stimulus project should include the vast innovation potential of the education and health care sectors, which have millions of jobs waiting to be filled. Innovation in health care and education will happen if incentives are given for intelligent people to enter these fields. President-elect Obama can start by giving people tax incentives to continue their educations. There are several more initiatives that could help the economy:
Put young people on career paths early and foster environments at schools so that students will be able to contribute to society when they graduate. Create grants for artists and writers similar to what were given during the Great Depression. Such support generates ideas, criticism and progress and helps the economy.
Implement public-works programs that include public art, community projects in housing and schools and medical research.
Concentrate not only on what’s lacking in our cities and towns, but what contributions can be made to the indelible fabric that is America. Create jobs in infrastructure and other areas that need improvement such as business retention, schools and transportation. Provide support for small business loans that immediately invest in communities.
Business stimulus is not enough. Work on providing women’s health, mental-health care and drug-abuse services to help stabilize neighborhoods is imperative. Improvements to our libraries will engage and inspire learning as would career support and college loans for adults. Support for green technology will reduce highway costs and help the environment.
The legacy of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, the sweeping social-reform package brought about by the civil rights movement, has been blighted recently as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Smithsonian and public education, among many other institutions, have come under fire. Perhaps their legitimacy would not be questioned if their economic contributions were considered. Medicare and Medicaid are often the bulk of individual hospital financing. Without the National Endowment, there would be fewer museums and hardly any theater.
Yet it was not only the economy that inspired the Great Society. Johnson realized the disruption in American society that withholding support for medical care, arts, culture and education causes. He sought to temper an unhappy and disillusioned America, what he called “a soulless wealth,” when he envisioned the Great Society.
“The catalogue of ills is long: there is the decay of the centers and the despoiling of the suburbs. There is not enough housing for our people or transportation for our traffic. Open land is vanishing and old landmarks are violated,” Johnson said in 1964.
“Worst of all, expansion is eroding the precious and time-honored values of community with neighbors and communion with nature. The loss of these values breeds loneliness and boredom and indifference,” he said.
To read the speech in which he unveiled the largest social-reform package since the Great Deal, we cannot help reflect on how little has changed since then. Leaders in education, job creation and health care all need to be at the table during the construction of a new economy for America.
TOP STORY > >Base residents meet new developers, are optimistic
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
No tumbleweeds swept along one wind-scrubbed Little Rock Air Force Base street Wednesday — past the shells of new homes and concrete slabs that American Eagle abandoned 18 months ago.
But the yards still need bush hogging, doorless garages stand open and empty, and Tyvek construction wrap slaps against water-swelled chipboard sheathing, a suburban ghost town awaiting the bulldozer.
But now there’s a new sheriff in town and airmen and their families are optimistic that long-promised housing relief is on the way.
In place of failed developer American Eagle stands Hunt-Pinnacle, a proven partnership that has built 67,000 military housing units—that’s Hunt—and Pinnacle, a 30-year-old property-management company that currently manages more than 175,000 units nationwide, including 15,000 military units on 20 different installations.
Brig. Gen. Rowayne Schatz is familiar withtheir work and readily vouches for them.
“I was stationed at Scott Air Force Base, so I already had experience with Hunt-Pinnacle,” the general said. “Right after the sale, the wing commander at Dover Air Force Base called me to praise the new developers.”
Schatz hosted a town meeting Wednesday night for base residents, who seemed pleased with the new, experienced developers who have taken over project, if the mood of approximately 60 residents attending the meeting is any indication.
“It was a very good, positive, upbeat meeting,” said Ken Williams, base spokesman. “People arrived and left with a positive outlook.”
Representatives of the new developers were on hand to answer questions.
In 2003, American Eagle Communities won an Air Force privatization contract to demolish about 500 homes, build 468 new housing units and remodel 732. But by May 2007, when the bankers pulled the plug on American Eagle for nonperformance, only 25 homes had been completed, another 25 started and perhaps 50 concrete slabs poured. Subconstractors and suppliers were owed millions of dollars at Little Rock and the other three Air Force bases where American Eagle had won privatization contracts.
Under the new name of The Landings at Little Rock, Hunt-Pinnacle will finish out 10 of those housing starts and tear down the balance, including the slabs, which don’t confirm to the new developer’s blue prints.
American Eagle, which was a partnership of Shaw Infrastructure of Baton Rouge and the managing partner, Carabetta Enterprises of Meridan Conn., similarly failed to live up to its agreement at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, Hanscomb in Maryland and Patrick in Florida.
Under pressure from the lenders and the Air Force, American Eagle Nov. 4 signed an agreement to sell the four projects as a bundle to Hunt-Pinnacle.
Top representatives of Hunt-Pinnacle were at the base this week and briefed reporters in the afternoon before answering questions for the residents at a later town meeting.
American Eagle’s contract was to build or renovate and manage 1,200 homes. The new, scaled-down contract calls for Hunt-Pinnacle to build or complete 141 new homes, renovate 834 units and retain the 25 occupied homes the old developer completed for a total of 1,000 units.
“Everything American Eagle built was built very well,” said Derek Veerkamp, a Hunt Group vice president.
The renovations will include new siding, roofs, guttering, floor coverings and bathroom and kitchen upgrades, according to Veerkamp.
They will open a construction office by the middle of this month and begin the clean up of construction sites in January.
Completion of the partially built homes should begin in February, renovations in April and new construction should begin in June.
When possible, the new developers will use the same contractors and suppliers that American Eagle used, Veerkamp said.
“We’ve been on site and started performing maintenance on day one,” said Paula Baker, investment manager for Pinnacle.
Schatz said American Eagle was way behind schedule and over cost when the bankers shut down the construction money in May 2007.
“They had 25 houses complete and there should have been almost 200,” he said.
“We tried to work with them but by July we decided the best solution would be (for American Eagle) so sell their contract to someone else who could perform,” the general said.
He said he was more comfortable with the current contract calling for 1,000 housing units instead of the original contract, which called for 1,200.
He said the economy and market forces made 1,000 units more logical.
Schatz said there was a 40-month construction schedule.
Remodeling costs will cost the developer about $50,000 a unit and the new units will cost about $150,000 to bring in, the general estimated.
Existing residents will be moved into available house as substandard housing is demolished or renovated, according to Baker.
She said efforts would be made to minimize disruption.
Leader senior staff writer
No tumbleweeds swept along one wind-scrubbed Little Rock Air Force Base street Wednesday — past the shells of new homes and concrete slabs that American Eagle abandoned 18 months ago.
But the yards still need bush hogging, doorless garages stand open and empty, and Tyvek construction wrap slaps against water-swelled chipboard sheathing, a suburban ghost town awaiting the bulldozer.
But now there’s a new sheriff in town and airmen and their families are optimistic that long-promised housing relief is on the way.
In place of failed developer American Eagle stands Hunt-Pinnacle, a proven partnership that has built 67,000 military housing units—that’s Hunt—and Pinnacle, a 30-year-old property-management company that currently manages more than 175,000 units nationwide, including 15,000 military units on 20 different installations.
Brig. Gen. Rowayne Schatz is familiar withtheir work and readily vouches for them.
“I was stationed at Scott Air Force Base, so I already had experience with Hunt-Pinnacle,” the general said. “Right after the sale, the wing commander at Dover Air Force Base called me to praise the new developers.”
Schatz hosted a town meeting Wednesday night for base residents, who seemed pleased with the new, experienced developers who have taken over project, if the mood of approximately 60 residents attending the meeting is any indication.
“It was a very good, positive, upbeat meeting,” said Ken Williams, base spokesman. “People arrived and left with a positive outlook.”
Representatives of the new developers were on hand to answer questions.
In 2003, American Eagle Communities won an Air Force privatization contract to demolish about 500 homes, build 468 new housing units and remodel 732. But by May 2007, when the bankers pulled the plug on American Eagle for nonperformance, only 25 homes had been completed, another 25 started and perhaps 50 concrete slabs poured. Subconstractors and suppliers were owed millions of dollars at Little Rock and the other three Air Force bases where American Eagle had won privatization contracts.
Under the new name of The Landings at Little Rock, Hunt-Pinnacle will finish out 10 of those housing starts and tear down the balance, including the slabs, which don’t confirm to the new developer’s blue prints.
American Eagle, which was a partnership of Shaw Infrastructure of Baton Rouge and the managing partner, Carabetta Enterprises of Meridan Conn., similarly failed to live up to its agreement at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, Hanscomb in Maryland and Patrick in Florida.
Under pressure from the lenders and the Air Force, American Eagle Nov. 4 signed an agreement to sell the four projects as a bundle to Hunt-Pinnacle.
Top representatives of Hunt-Pinnacle were at the base this week and briefed reporters in the afternoon before answering questions for the residents at a later town meeting.
American Eagle’s contract was to build or renovate and manage 1,200 homes. The new, scaled-down contract calls for Hunt-Pinnacle to build or complete 141 new homes, renovate 834 units and retain the 25 occupied homes the old developer completed for a total of 1,000 units.
“Everything American Eagle built was built very well,” said Derek Veerkamp, a Hunt Group vice president.
The renovations will include new siding, roofs, guttering, floor coverings and bathroom and kitchen upgrades, according to Veerkamp.
They will open a construction office by the middle of this month and begin the clean up of construction sites in January.
Completion of the partially built homes should begin in February, renovations in April and new construction should begin in June.
When possible, the new developers will use the same contractors and suppliers that American Eagle used, Veerkamp said.
“We’ve been on site and started performing maintenance on day one,” said Paula Baker, investment manager for Pinnacle.
Schatz said American Eagle was way behind schedule and over cost when the bankers shut down the construction money in May 2007.
“They had 25 houses complete and there should have been almost 200,” he said.
“We tried to work with them but by July we decided the best solution would be (for American Eagle) so sell their contract to someone else who could perform,” the general said.
He said he was more comfortable with the current contract calling for 1,000 housing units instead of the original contract, which called for 1,200.
He said the economy and market forces made 1,000 units more logical.
Schatz said there was a 40-month construction schedule.
Remodeling costs will cost the developer about $50,000 a unit and the new units will cost about $150,000 to bring in, the general estimated.
Existing residents will be moved into available house as substandard housing is demolished or renovated, according to Baker.
She said efforts would be made to minimize disruption.
TOP STORY > >Lonoke looking at slightly lower budget for 2009
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
The Lonoke City Council has ap-proved a tentative 2009 operating budget of $5,330,327, down from $5,382,941 this year, according to Treasurer Walls McCrary.
That’s a decrease of about $52,000, he said Monday, attributable to managers of all departments working to hold costs down in an uncertain economy. The final budget will be approved in January.
Former Lonoke County Clerk Prudie Perceful will take over McCrary’s position effective Jan. 1.
McCrary, a Democrat, is stepping down to become District 15 state representative. In November, he beat Republican Doug Hatcher and independent Trent Eilts to take the seat of Lenville Evans. Evans was ineligible because of term limits.
The operating budget includes funds for city administration, the municipal court, fire department, parks department, mosquito control, water, sewer and street department, the community center, industrial development and retail development, McCrary said.
At McCrary’s suggestion, thecouncil also raised the salary of the mayor from $25,000 to $27,500 next year and $30,000 the following year. The council members’ pay was raised from $1,250 to $1,550 next year and $1,850 by the following year.
In other action, the council authorized Water, Sewer and Street Supervisor Keith Whitworth to spend as much as $54,000 for a pair of trucks.
The council also deferred again any action on fixing the roof of the Pet Quarters building, which it owns. It also did not act on an offer to tear the building down for $52,000. Instead the city will have one or more appraisers place a current sale value on the building and then try hard to sell it.
It’s rented to Laster and Laster, which builds hitches for semi-trailers, through mid-spring.
The city also tabled a motion to take responsibility for maintaining a Kerr Community sewer system, saying the maintenance costs would far outweigh the revenue that came with it.
That community is about 15 miles away, and while a grant is available, the town’s first sewer system and pipe could be put into Lonoke for treatment.
Each of the 160 customers in that community would have a separate grinder pump, which councilman Pat Howell said was certain to break and need to be repaired at the city’s expense. Currently they cost about $400 each. Also, the addition of the community would probably require hiring a full-time employee.
In other action, A-Line painting of Lonoke won the contract to repair the roof at the city shop for $8,600. It’s a liquid roof repair with a five-year warranty.
Leader senior staff writer
The Lonoke City Council has ap-proved a tentative 2009 operating budget of $5,330,327, down from $5,382,941 this year, according to Treasurer Walls McCrary.
That’s a decrease of about $52,000, he said Monday, attributable to managers of all departments working to hold costs down in an uncertain economy. The final budget will be approved in January.
Former Lonoke County Clerk Prudie Perceful will take over McCrary’s position effective Jan. 1.
McCrary, a Democrat, is stepping down to become District 15 state representative. In November, he beat Republican Doug Hatcher and independent Trent Eilts to take the seat of Lenville Evans. Evans was ineligible because of term limits.
The operating budget includes funds for city administration, the municipal court, fire department, parks department, mosquito control, water, sewer and street department, the community center, industrial development and retail development, McCrary said.
At McCrary’s suggestion, thecouncil also raised the salary of the mayor from $25,000 to $27,500 next year and $30,000 the following year. The council members’ pay was raised from $1,250 to $1,550 next year and $1,850 by the following year.
In other action, the council authorized Water, Sewer and Street Supervisor Keith Whitworth to spend as much as $54,000 for a pair of trucks.
The council also deferred again any action on fixing the roof of the Pet Quarters building, which it owns. It also did not act on an offer to tear the building down for $52,000. Instead the city will have one or more appraisers place a current sale value on the building and then try hard to sell it.
It’s rented to Laster and Laster, which builds hitches for semi-trailers, through mid-spring.
The city also tabled a motion to take responsibility for maintaining a Kerr Community sewer system, saying the maintenance costs would far outweigh the revenue that came with it.
That community is about 15 miles away, and while a grant is available, the town’s first sewer system and pipe could be put into Lonoke for treatment.
Each of the 160 customers in that community would have a separate grinder pump, which councilman Pat Howell said was certain to break and need to be repaired at the city’s expense. Currently they cost about $400 each. Also, the addition of the community would probably require hiring a full-time employee.
In other action, A-Line painting of Lonoke won the contract to repair the roof at the city shop for $8,600. It’s a liquid roof repair with a five-year warranty.
TOP STORY > >Sports complex given funding without bids
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
The Sherwood City Council in special session Wednesday voted to forego competitive bidding on ballpark renovations at Sylvan Hills Sports Complex that are projected to cost the city $250,000. Only Alderman Butch Davis opposed the measure, which passed 5-1.
The money will be spent to rotate Legion Field so that the sun no longer glares directly into the eyes of the batter, catcher, and umpire. Since the field opened in 1990, the poor design has long been considered a safety hazard by many. Funds will also be used for repairs after an April 3 tornado put the field out of commission.
The storm demolished bleachers, fencing, light fixtures and the scoreboard. Debris scarred the playing field.
Funds will be drawn from the city’s $900,000 reserves to pay for the work.
At the special session Parks and Recreation director, Sonny Janssentold the council that with ball practice starting up in February, time had run out for competitive bidding for the job, which he said would take 15 days.
Janssen said he is ready to let Penaprime, a Maumelle company, do the work because it has shown an interest.
Janssen said he never let the job for bid. He called around to contractors for estimates and found that either they were too busy or their prices were “astronomical.”
City workers have done as much of the grading work as possible, but it is time to call in a professional, Janssen said.
“They’ll be able to level it off, fine tune it, lay sod on top for a nice beautiful field,” Janssen said.
Costs include $50,000 for drainage, $20,000 for topsoil, $30,000 for sod, $10,000 for a chain-link fence, $75,000 for grading and $15,000 for a scoreboard. Pepsi will contribute to the cost of the scoreboard.
A donation from the Optimist Club and volunteer labor will save the city almost $30,000 in erection of the outfield wall.
Alderman Becki Vassar, who was on the council when the ball park was built, remembered the consternation felt then when the mistake in design was realized.
“When we discovered what happened, we were in a panic – ‘what do we do now?’ – but were in a hurry to open it and always meant to fix it later,” Vassar said.
“I have been concerned all these years that someone would get hurt. This is doing what is right for the children and the city,” she added.
Other long-time council members said it was the first they heard of the risk associated with the ball field design.
“I had several parents call me this week,” Sheila Sulcer said. “I didn’t ever realize it was a safety hazard. Maybe it is because I have girls.”
Alleviating the problem will make life easier for families participating in leagues. Ball games at Legion Field had to be scheduled late in the day to avoid the glare from the sun, pushing games late into the evening.
“Games were starting at 9 or after, and kids have to get up and go to school the next day,” Janssen said.
Butch Davis said that he agreed the work was necessary but given the condition of the economy, the city should let the project. He would rather see such a large sum spent otherwise.
“I know it needs to be done, but this is wrong timing; we need to wait another year and see how things pan out,” Davis said. “I would rather see this money spent on the (city) employees.”
Leader staff writer
The Sherwood City Council in special session Wednesday voted to forego competitive bidding on ballpark renovations at Sylvan Hills Sports Complex that are projected to cost the city $250,000. Only Alderman Butch Davis opposed the measure, which passed 5-1.
The money will be spent to rotate Legion Field so that the sun no longer glares directly into the eyes of the batter, catcher, and umpire. Since the field opened in 1990, the poor design has long been considered a safety hazard by many. Funds will also be used for repairs after an April 3 tornado put the field out of commission.
The storm demolished bleachers, fencing, light fixtures and the scoreboard. Debris scarred the playing field.
Funds will be drawn from the city’s $900,000 reserves to pay for the work.
At the special session Parks and Recreation director, Sonny Janssentold the council that with ball practice starting up in February, time had run out for competitive bidding for the job, which he said would take 15 days.
Janssen said he is ready to let Penaprime, a Maumelle company, do the work because it has shown an interest.
Janssen said he never let the job for bid. He called around to contractors for estimates and found that either they were too busy or their prices were “astronomical.”
City workers have done as much of the grading work as possible, but it is time to call in a professional, Janssen said.
“They’ll be able to level it off, fine tune it, lay sod on top for a nice beautiful field,” Janssen said.
Costs include $50,000 for drainage, $20,000 for topsoil, $30,000 for sod, $10,000 for a chain-link fence, $75,000 for grading and $15,000 for a scoreboard. Pepsi will contribute to the cost of the scoreboard.
A donation from the Optimist Club and volunteer labor will save the city almost $30,000 in erection of the outfield wall.
Alderman Becki Vassar, who was on the council when the ball park was built, remembered the consternation felt then when the mistake in design was realized.
“When we discovered what happened, we were in a panic – ‘what do we do now?’ – but were in a hurry to open it and always meant to fix it later,” Vassar said.
“I have been concerned all these years that someone would get hurt. This is doing what is right for the children and the city,” she added.
Other long-time council members said it was the first they heard of the risk associated with the ball field design.
“I had several parents call me this week,” Sheila Sulcer said. “I didn’t ever realize it was a safety hazard. Maybe it is because I have girls.”
Alleviating the problem will make life easier for families participating in leagues. Ball games at Legion Field had to be scheduled late in the day to avoid the glare from the sun, pushing games late into the evening.
“Games were starting at 9 or after, and kids have to get up and go to school the next day,” Janssen said.
Butch Davis said that he agreed the work was necessary but given the condition of the economy, the city should let the project. He would rather see such a large sum spent otherwise.
“I know it needs to be done, but this is wrong timing; we need to wait another year and see how things pan out,” Davis said. “I would rather see this money spent on the (city) employees.”
TOP STORY > >Budget talks get heated in Cabot
By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
City council and committee meetings have been normally peaceful in Cabot for the past two years with aldermen sometimes disagreeing, but doing so politely, at least while they sat together around the council table.
But a humdrum committee meeting — held Tuesday night so the council members could have one last look at the budget before they vote on it Monday — turned into a short face-off between two aldermen, complete with raised voices and finger-wagging.
The question of whether Cabot’s elected officials should get pay raises like regular employees has been argued for almost two months, ever since the city council got its first look atMayor Eddie Joe Williams’ proposed $8.4 million budget for 2009.
Essentially, Alderman Becky Lemaster, who serves on the council’s budget committee but who lost her bid for re-election, says they shouldn’t, while all the other council members who have commented on the issue say they should get at least a 2.3 percent cost-of-living raise.
“They knew what the job paid when they ran for it,” Lemaster has said every time the subject has been broached.
And when she says “they,” she means all eight city council members as well as the mayor, city attorney and city clerk.
“Elected officials are elected officials,” Lemaster said Tuesday night, restating her argument. “We don’t draw our living from this.
“If the salaries need to be adjusted, do it in the next (election) cycle. But my God, don’t give raises in a downturned economy,” she said, then added the words that raised Alderman Ed Long’s hackles. “No one knows what the future holds with a Democrat as president.”
“Don’t start, Becky,” Long said, shaking his finger at Lemaster.
Lemaster, who has said in the past that she feels that the mayor and some council members make light of her concerns, reacted immediately to Long’s rebuke.
Shaking her finger at him, she said, “Ed Long, don’t do that. You will not disrespect me that way.
“You don’t know what the new president and a new administration will do,” she added.
As the tension died, Alderman Eddie Cook interjected that Lemaster need not be concerned about the money because the proposed raises would cost very little.
“You’re only arguing $8,000 at the most,” Cook said. “The people like Jimmy (city attorney Jim Taylor), the mayor and Marva (Verkler, the city clerk) who come to work every day should at least get a cost-of-living raise.”
“I know it’s not much money, but it’s money and right now we need to start thinking about insulating not spending,” Lemaster said.
The money that is figured into the 2009 raises for elected officials could fill pot holes in city streets, she said.
Lemaster, who is completing her second year on the city council, will be off in 2009. She lost her second race in a runoff to Ann Gilliam, so voting for or against the 2009 budget Monday evening will be one of her last official acts as a Cabot alderman.
Although the budget committee eventually agreed in principle to cut pay raises for elected officials, the 2009 budget proposal includes 4.8 percent raises for city council members, the city attorney and city clerk and a 2.3 percent pay raise for the mayor.
Alderman-elect Patrick Hutton, who attended the budget meeting, recommended that the proposed budget should be changed to give raises to the council members because they will be starting new two-year terms, but not to the other elected officials, who will be starting the third year or a four-year term. At the state and federal level, governing bodies can’t vote themselves raises, so they shouldn’t do it at the city level either, Hutton said.
Except for Lemaster, the aldermen who attended the committee meeting disagreed. Cook said the cost of living went up for all elected officials and the consensus the aldermen finally reached was that they would recommend 2.3 percent increases for all of them.
But whether the mayor incorporates those proposed decreases in the budget he presents to the full council for approval Monday night will be up to the mayor.
Leader staff writer
City council and committee meetings have been normally peaceful in Cabot for the past two years with aldermen sometimes disagreeing, but doing so politely, at least while they sat together around the council table.
But a humdrum committee meeting — held Tuesday night so the council members could have one last look at the budget before they vote on it Monday — turned into a short face-off between two aldermen, complete with raised voices and finger-wagging.
The question of whether Cabot’s elected officials should get pay raises like regular employees has been argued for almost two months, ever since the city council got its first look atMayor Eddie Joe Williams’ proposed $8.4 million budget for 2009.
Essentially, Alderman Becky Lemaster, who serves on the council’s budget committee but who lost her bid for re-election, says they shouldn’t, while all the other council members who have commented on the issue say they should get at least a 2.3 percent cost-of-living raise.
“They knew what the job paid when they ran for it,” Lemaster has said every time the subject has been broached.
And when she says “they,” she means all eight city council members as well as the mayor, city attorney and city clerk.
“Elected officials are elected officials,” Lemaster said Tuesday night, restating her argument. “We don’t draw our living from this.
“If the salaries need to be adjusted, do it in the next (election) cycle. But my God, don’t give raises in a downturned economy,” she said, then added the words that raised Alderman Ed Long’s hackles. “No one knows what the future holds with a Democrat as president.”
“Don’t start, Becky,” Long said, shaking his finger at Lemaster.
Lemaster, who has said in the past that she feels that the mayor and some council members make light of her concerns, reacted immediately to Long’s rebuke.
Shaking her finger at him, she said, “Ed Long, don’t do that. You will not disrespect me that way.
“You don’t know what the new president and a new administration will do,” she added.
As the tension died, Alderman Eddie Cook interjected that Lemaster need not be concerned about the money because the proposed raises would cost very little.
“You’re only arguing $8,000 at the most,” Cook said. “The people like Jimmy (city attorney Jim Taylor), the mayor and Marva (Verkler, the city clerk) who come to work every day should at least get a cost-of-living raise.”
“I know it’s not much money, but it’s money and right now we need to start thinking about insulating not spending,” Lemaster said.
The money that is figured into the 2009 raises for elected officials could fill pot holes in city streets, she said.
Lemaster, who is completing her second year on the city council, will be off in 2009. She lost her second race in a runoff to Ann Gilliam, so voting for or against the 2009 budget Monday evening will be one of her last official acts as a Cabot alderman.
Although the budget committee eventually agreed in principle to cut pay raises for elected officials, the 2009 budget proposal includes 4.8 percent raises for city council members, the city attorney and city clerk and a 2.3 percent pay raise for the mayor.
Alderman-elect Patrick Hutton, who attended the budget meeting, recommended that the proposed budget should be changed to give raises to the council members because they will be starting new two-year terms, but not to the other elected officials, who will be starting the third year or a four-year term. At the state and federal level, governing bodies can’t vote themselves raises, so they shouldn’t do it at the city level either, Hutton said.
Except for Lemaster, the aldermen who attended the committee meeting disagreed. Cook said the cost of living went up for all elected officials and the consensus the aldermen finally reached was that they would recommend 2.3 percent increases for all of them.
But whether the mayor incorporates those proposed decreases in the budget he presents to the full council for approval Monday night will be up to the mayor.
TOP STORY > >Board could fire Sharpe in February
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Those Pulaski County School Board members intent upon firing Superintendent James Sharpe will now have to wait until the Feb. 10 meeting.
As he left for work after the marathon executive session on Tuesday, but before the meeting’s end, board member Bill Vasquez of Jacksonville said some board members would be on vacation and unavailable to consider Sharpe’s contract at the
January meeting, suggesting they would instead by the February meeting.
The meeting didn’t conclude until after midnight, but the board suspended the rules and went into executive at 8:07 p.m. even as Assistant Superintendent Beverly Ruthven was preparing to start a Power-Point presentation.
The session was called by board member Tim Clark for purposes of personnel, but with no further explanation.
Those in attendance spent the next 83 minutes wondering about the purpose of the meeting, with teachers, union representatives, reporters and administrators plying each other for information and passing rumors and speculation.
Then, at 9:30 p.m., board member Danny Gilliland appeared in the door to summon Sharpe into the session. The superintendent emerged at 10:20 p.m. and 20 minutes later, after about two and a half hours, the board members emerged but took no action. One TV crew ordered and ate pizza in the interim.
An executive session was on the agenda for the end of the regular session, but upon leaving the meeting, Vasquez explained that the sudden executive session that left those attending abuzz was required so he could participate before leaving for his job.
Vasquez said Sharpe’s contract, which is routinely considered at the December meeting, would not be considered at the January meeting because some board members would not be attending.
He said he didn’t believe there would be a special session to consider Sharpe’s employment.
The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers executive board has had a vote of no confidence in Sharpe, and in recent board meetings, Clark, Vasquez and Gwen Williams have voted to terminate his employment immediately, but failed to get the fourth vote they needed.
With its new makeup, the board seems more inclined to accept a new contract with the Pulaski Association of Support Staff, but board president Mildred Tatum expressed some confusion over which contract with which provisions was the one being proposed.
The board seems prepared to approve the contract if it is for one year with a 1.66 percent pay increase, retroactive to July 1, as described by PASS president Emry Chesterfield.
Consideration of the contract could occur at the January meeting or sooner.
In other business, the board approved a motion declaring the unsafe roof at Clinton Elementary School constitutes “an emergency situation,” allowing the board to select an architect, engineer, contractor and others.
Those students are currently relocated at North Little Rock Assembly of God. Professionals have told the board that repairs could be completed on the roof and children back at Clinton four to six weeks after work begins.
A similar emergency declaration was approved earlier for the similarly afflicted Crystal Hill Elementary.
The board approved a revision to its policy on the types and amounts of expenses reimbursable to board members.
The issue arose out of concern over Williams’ December 2007 AT&T cell phone bill of $833, including $600 worth of roaming charges.
Also the board heard the first reading on new policies that would set rules for election of board officers and their recall, and also for getting an item placed on the agenda.
The board rehired as its attorneys the firm of Bequette and Billingsly, which it fired this fall.
Leader senior staff writer
Those Pulaski County School Board members intent upon firing Superintendent James Sharpe will now have to wait until the Feb. 10 meeting.
As he left for work after the marathon executive session on Tuesday, but before the meeting’s end, board member Bill Vasquez of Jacksonville said some board members would be on vacation and unavailable to consider Sharpe’s contract at the
January meeting, suggesting they would instead by the February meeting.
The meeting didn’t conclude until after midnight, but the board suspended the rules and went into executive at 8:07 p.m. even as Assistant Superintendent Beverly Ruthven was preparing to start a Power-Point presentation.
The session was called by board member Tim Clark for purposes of personnel, but with no further explanation.
Those in attendance spent the next 83 minutes wondering about the purpose of the meeting, with teachers, union representatives, reporters and administrators plying each other for information and passing rumors and speculation.
Then, at 9:30 p.m., board member Danny Gilliland appeared in the door to summon Sharpe into the session. The superintendent emerged at 10:20 p.m. and 20 minutes later, after about two and a half hours, the board members emerged but took no action. One TV crew ordered and ate pizza in the interim.
An executive session was on the agenda for the end of the regular session, but upon leaving the meeting, Vasquez explained that the sudden executive session that left those attending abuzz was required so he could participate before leaving for his job.
Vasquez said Sharpe’s contract, which is routinely considered at the December meeting, would not be considered at the January meeting because some board members would not be attending.
He said he didn’t believe there would be a special session to consider Sharpe’s employment.
The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers executive board has had a vote of no confidence in Sharpe, and in recent board meetings, Clark, Vasquez and Gwen Williams have voted to terminate his employment immediately, but failed to get the fourth vote they needed.
With its new makeup, the board seems more inclined to accept a new contract with the Pulaski Association of Support Staff, but board president Mildred Tatum expressed some confusion over which contract with which provisions was the one being proposed.
The board seems prepared to approve the contract if it is for one year with a 1.66 percent pay increase, retroactive to July 1, as described by PASS president Emry Chesterfield.
Consideration of the contract could occur at the January meeting or sooner.
In other business, the board approved a motion declaring the unsafe roof at Clinton Elementary School constitutes “an emergency situation,” allowing the board to select an architect, engineer, contractor and others.
Those students are currently relocated at North Little Rock Assembly of God. Professionals have told the board that repairs could be completed on the roof and children back at Clinton four to six weeks after work begins.
A similar emergency declaration was approved earlier for the similarly afflicted Crystal Hill Elementary.
The board approved a revision to its policy on the types and amounts of expenses reimbursable to board members.
The issue arose out of concern over Williams’ December 2007 AT&T cell phone bill of $833, including $600 worth of roaming charges.
Also the board heard the first reading on new policies that would set rules for election of board officers and their recall, and also for getting an item placed on the agenda.
The board rehired as its attorneys the firm of Bequette and Billingsly, which it fired this fall.
SPORTS>>Cabot girls have little problem with Lady Bruins
By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor
What a difference 72 hours can make.
Three days after going flat in a 33-29 loss to Lake Hamilton at the Bentonville tournament, the Cabot Lady Panthers matched that total in the first eight minutes and 45 seconds on Tuesday night in a 66-37 whipping of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock.
The Lady Panthers ran through and around the Lady Bruins’ constant full-court press for countless easy buckets. They got nearly as many easy lay-ups from their 19 steals in the contest.
“We played really well in the first two games of the Bentonville tournament,” said Cabot assistant coach Charles Ruple. “We shot 59 percent the first game and 55 percent in the second game. The last game, both teams were tired and we ended up shooting 26 percent.”
The Lady Panthers torched the nets for 30 of 53 shooting on Tuesday. With the going inside so easy, they took only three from
beyond the arc, but made two of those.
“We’re like every team – we like to get as many high quality shots as we can,” Ruple said.
The lead reached 21 at the half, 28 after three periods, allowing Cabot to play its entire squad.
In a little more than a half of action, Shelby Ashcraft scored 14 points, grabbed nine rebounds and two steals, and dished out three assists. Sarah Moore added 12 points to go along with six blocked shots. Jenna Bailey was the only other Lady Panther in doublefigures with 10 points and four rebounds.
Cabot raced past Pulaski Academy for 10 points over the first six minutes of the contest. Ashcraft scored off the opening tip, providing a sign of things to come. An 18-2 run over the final five-and-a-half minutes of the first period staked the Lady Panthers to a 24-7 lead.
It reached 31-7 after Bailey’s three and two baskets by Amalie Benjamin, who finished with eight points, three steals, two assists and four boards.
“Pulaski Academy likes to press and he’s going to play all his players,” Ruple said. “But we like to press, too. The chemistry on this team is really good. The seniors and the sophomores really complement each other. The kids like each other and the girls on the bench are always (cheering for) the girls on the floor.”
Stephanie Glover scored only six points, but grabbed eight rebounds and four steals, and dished out three assists. Amber Rock had four assists and three steals. While Cabot was hitting nearly 57 percent of its shots, the Lady Bruins struggled to a 15 of 46 night and made just 2 of 15 three-pointers. Cabot also dominated on the glass with a 41-23 advantage.
Leader sports editor
What a difference 72 hours can make.
Three days after going flat in a 33-29 loss to Lake Hamilton at the Bentonville tournament, the Cabot Lady Panthers matched that total in the first eight minutes and 45 seconds on Tuesday night in a 66-37 whipping of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock.
The Lady Panthers ran through and around the Lady Bruins’ constant full-court press for countless easy buckets. They got nearly as many easy lay-ups from their 19 steals in the contest.
“We played really well in the first two games of the Bentonville tournament,” said Cabot assistant coach Charles Ruple. “We shot 59 percent the first game and 55 percent in the second game. The last game, both teams were tired and we ended up shooting 26 percent.”
The Lady Panthers torched the nets for 30 of 53 shooting on Tuesday. With the going inside so easy, they took only three from
beyond the arc, but made two of those.
“We’re like every team – we like to get as many high quality shots as we can,” Ruple said.
The lead reached 21 at the half, 28 after three periods, allowing Cabot to play its entire squad.
In a little more than a half of action, Shelby Ashcraft scored 14 points, grabbed nine rebounds and two steals, and dished out three assists. Sarah Moore added 12 points to go along with six blocked shots. Jenna Bailey was the only other Lady Panther in doublefigures with 10 points and four rebounds.
Cabot raced past Pulaski Academy for 10 points over the first six minutes of the contest. Ashcraft scored off the opening tip, providing a sign of things to come. An 18-2 run over the final five-and-a-half minutes of the first period staked the Lady Panthers to a 24-7 lead.
It reached 31-7 after Bailey’s three and two baskets by Amalie Benjamin, who finished with eight points, three steals, two assists and four boards.
“Pulaski Academy likes to press and he’s going to play all his players,” Ruple said. “But we like to press, too. The chemistry on this team is really good. The seniors and the sophomores really complement each other. The kids like each other and the girls on the bench are always (cheering for) the girls on the floor.”
Stephanie Glover scored only six points, but grabbed eight rebounds and four steals, and dished out three assists. Amber Rock had four assists and three steals. While Cabot was hitting nearly 57 percent of its shots, the Lady Bruins struggled to a 15 of 46 night and made just 2 of 15 three-pointers. Cabot also dominated on the glass with a 41-23 advantage.
SPORTS>>Former Cabot star Sitzmann named Player of Week
By JOE ANGOLIA
UALR sports information
Junior Kim Sitzmann earned her first career Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week honors after leading the UALR women’s basketball team to a 2-0 week defeating Southern Miss and No. 17 Oklahoma State. Sitzmann averaged 20.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, four assists, and 5.5 steals helping the Trojans to receive votes on both the AP Poll released yesterday and the USA
Today ESPN Division I Coaches’ Poll released today.
Sitzmann, a 5-10 guard, record-ed a career-high 28 points, including a season-high five three-pointers, in the 66-44 win over Southern Miss. In the 65-51 win over No. 19/17 Oklahoma State, the Cabot native recorded 13 points, including three three-pointers, three rebounds, five assists, and a career-high of six steals.
Overall for the Trojans, Sitzmann is first on the team in steals, averaging 3.5 per contest, second in assists, averaging 3.5 per contest, and third in points averaging 12 per contest.
UALR sports information
Junior Kim Sitzmann earned her first career Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week honors after leading the UALR women’s basketball team to a 2-0 week defeating Southern Miss and No. 17 Oklahoma State. Sitzmann averaged 20.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, four assists, and 5.5 steals helping the Trojans to receive votes on both the AP Poll released yesterday and the USA
Today ESPN Division I Coaches’ Poll released today.
Sitzmann, a 5-10 guard, record-ed a career-high 28 points, including a season-high five three-pointers, in the 66-44 win over Southern Miss. In the 65-51 win over No. 19/17 Oklahoma State, the Cabot native recorded 13 points, including three three-pointers, three rebounds, five assists, and a career-high of six steals.
Overall for the Trojans, Sitzmann is first on the team in steals, averaging 3.5 per contest, second in assists, averaging 3.5 per contest, and third in points averaging 12 per contest.
SPORTS>>Panthers falter down stretch against Comets
By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor
No sooner had Cabot erased the sting of its disappointing loss to Conway last Saturday in the Searcy Bank Classic final than it got stung again.
The Panthers made some poor and hasty decisions down the stretch on Thursday afternoon and fell to Mills, 65-62, in the first round of the CAC Invitational. Cabot led by four points with less than three minutes remaining, but ill-advised shots and turnovers allowed the Comets to rally.
Nick Hansberry, whose three-pointer with 2:40 left narrowed the Cabot lead to one point, stepped to the line and hit two free throws with 5.3 seconds left to put the Comets up 63-62. Chris Hampton then stole a Cabot passin backcourt and finished it off with a lay-up at the buzzer for the final margin.
“You’d have thought we were the team behind,” said Cabot head coach Jerry Bridges, whose Panthers fell to 5-2. “I’ve got a senior ball club and, apparently, I haven’t done a good enough job of teaching them the decision-making process toward the end of the game. We had a bunch of boneheaded mistakes and I’ll take responsibility for that.”
Cabot had seven turnovers in the final period — four over the final two minutes, 24 seconds. The Panthers led 62-58 with 3:30 left in the game after Adam Sterrenberg, who led the way with 29 points and six steals, made 3 of 4 free throws over a 21-second span.
Hansberry hit a three from the left corner 50 seconds later to narrow the margin to one. After a Cabot turnover, the Panthers dodged a bullet when Mills missed a dead-on lay-up that would have given them the lead with 1:58 left, but Sterrenberg was called for a charge. The Comets misfired on a three, but this time, Austin Johnson traveled driving down the lane on the other end with 1:19 left.
It was during a timeout that Bridges could be heard imploring his team to realize that it was ahead, not behind.
“We’re the home team on the scoreboard, fellas,” he told them.
The Panthers played great defense over the next minute and Mills called a timeout with 11.4 seconds left. Hansberry drove across the lane from the right wing. Johnson was whistled for the foul that sent Hansberry to the line for the game winners.
In an extremely entertaining first half in which offense trumped defense, Cabot knocked down 6 of 10 three-pointers to lead 36-33. Sterrenberg knocked down a pair of threes over the first minute, 52 seconds to stake the Panthers to a 6-0 lead.
But the sharp-shooting, athletic Comets exploited Cabot’s 1-3-1 defense for easy buckets inside, and a pair of threes by Hampton that put Mills ahead 15-11 late in the first. It was tied at 17 after one when Johnson hit a three-pointer with three seconds left.
Neither team led by more than six points, which was Cabot’s lead after three periods. But three straight buckets by Montez Peterson and two Hansberry free throws capped off a Mills’ 8-1 run and gave it a 55-52 lead with 5:14 left in the game.
Sterrenberg tied it with a pull-up three 15 seconds later. Johnson’s rebound basket and two Sterrenberg free throws had Cabot up 59-55.
But another defensive breakdown on the other end allowed Kyle Jackson inside for a bucket and a free throw that cut the lead to one.
“We didn’t play defense, that’s the bottom line,” Bridges said. “We didn’t play with intensity the whole game. We didn’t put forth the effort and got outplayed and outhustled.”
The Panthers had 11 of their turnovers after half to finish with 14 and made only 8 of 24 second-half shots to finish 21 of 51.
After making 6 of 10 threes in the first half, Cabot missed 7 of 8 in the second half. Mills also dominated on the glass, enjoying a 37-27 advantage.
After getting a lot of people into the scoring column against Pulaski Academy on Tuesday, Cabot had only four players score against Mills. Sterrenberg had 29, while Johnson added 19. Miles Monroe, with nine points and 10 rebounds, and Jack Bridges, with five points, were the only other Panthers to score.
Cabot tried to bounce back in a consolation game against Pulaski Academy played after Leader deadlines yesterday.
“I hope we learn from this,” Bridges said. “We’re a veteran club, though we sure didn’t show that tonight.”
Leader sports editor
No sooner had Cabot erased the sting of its disappointing loss to Conway last Saturday in the Searcy Bank Classic final than it got stung again.
The Panthers made some poor and hasty decisions down the stretch on Thursday afternoon and fell to Mills, 65-62, in the first round of the CAC Invitational. Cabot led by four points with less than three minutes remaining, but ill-advised shots and turnovers allowed the Comets to rally.
Nick Hansberry, whose three-pointer with 2:40 left narrowed the Cabot lead to one point, stepped to the line and hit two free throws with 5.3 seconds left to put the Comets up 63-62. Chris Hampton then stole a Cabot passin backcourt and finished it off with a lay-up at the buzzer for the final margin.
“You’d have thought we were the team behind,” said Cabot head coach Jerry Bridges, whose Panthers fell to 5-2. “I’ve got a senior ball club and, apparently, I haven’t done a good enough job of teaching them the decision-making process toward the end of the game. We had a bunch of boneheaded mistakes and I’ll take responsibility for that.”
Cabot had seven turnovers in the final period — four over the final two minutes, 24 seconds. The Panthers led 62-58 with 3:30 left in the game after Adam Sterrenberg, who led the way with 29 points and six steals, made 3 of 4 free throws over a 21-second span.
Hansberry hit a three from the left corner 50 seconds later to narrow the margin to one. After a Cabot turnover, the Panthers dodged a bullet when Mills missed a dead-on lay-up that would have given them the lead with 1:58 left, but Sterrenberg was called for a charge. The Comets misfired on a three, but this time, Austin Johnson traveled driving down the lane on the other end with 1:19 left.
It was during a timeout that Bridges could be heard imploring his team to realize that it was ahead, not behind.
“We’re the home team on the scoreboard, fellas,” he told them.
The Panthers played great defense over the next minute and Mills called a timeout with 11.4 seconds left. Hansberry drove across the lane from the right wing. Johnson was whistled for the foul that sent Hansberry to the line for the game winners.
In an extremely entertaining first half in which offense trumped defense, Cabot knocked down 6 of 10 three-pointers to lead 36-33. Sterrenberg knocked down a pair of threes over the first minute, 52 seconds to stake the Panthers to a 6-0 lead.
But the sharp-shooting, athletic Comets exploited Cabot’s 1-3-1 defense for easy buckets inside, and a pair of threes by Hampton that put Mills ahead 15-11 late in the first. It was tied at 17 after one when Johnson hit a three-pointer with three seconds left.
Neither team led by more than six points, which was Cabot’s lead after three periods. But three straight buckets by Montez Peterson and two Hansberry free throws capped off a Mills’ 8-1 run and gave it a 55-52 lead with 5:14 left in the game.
Sterrenberg tied it with a pull-up three 15 seconds later. Johnson’s rebound basket and two Sterrenberg free throws had Cabot up 59-55.
But another defensive breakdown on the other end allowed Kyle Jackson inside for a bucket and a free throw that cut the lead to one.
“We didn’t play defense, that’s the bottom line,” Bridges said. “We didn’t play with intensity the whole game. We didn’t put forth the effort and got outplayed and outhustled.”
The Panthers had 11 of their turnovers after half to finish with 14 and made only 8 of 24 second-half shots to finish 21 of 51.
After making 6 of 10 threes in the first half, Cabot missed 7 of 8 in the second half. Mills also dominated on the glass, enjoying a 37-27 advantage.
After getting a lot of people into the scoring column against Pulaski Academy on Tuesday, Cabot had only four players score against Mills. Sterrenberg had 29, while Johnson added 19. Miles Monroe, with nine points and 10 rebounds, and Jack Bridges, with five points, were the only other Panthers to score.
Cabot tried to bounce back in a consolation game against Pulaski Academy played after Leader deadlines yesterday.
“I hope we learn from this,” Bridges said. “We’re a veteran club, though we sure didn’t show that tonight.”
SPORTS>> Lady Devils cruise past NP
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The Jacksonville Lady Red Devils took advantage of their superior depth against cross-town rival North Pulaski on Tuesday night. The second five got as much playing time as the starters in a 61-39 win at the Devils’ Den.
The normal starters kept their seats at the start of the game, as Ciara Morant, Tyquia Robinson, Chyna Davis, Ebony Ghoshon and post Tanisha Cox took to the floor for the first quarter, and then proceeded to take it to the Lady Falcons.
It was the second win in two days for Jackson-ville, which advanced to the semifinal round of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational in Conway with an impressive 57-35 win over Alma.
“All of our starters saw a lot of time on Monday,” said Lady Red Devils coach Katrina Mimms. “So for Tuesday, we wanted the players that didn’t get much time to get in there.”
Ghoshon made the most of her start right away with two steals and two baskets in the first minute of the game. Her third lay-up missed, but Morant was there for the putback to give the Lady Red Devils a 6-0 lead just one minute into the game.
By the end of the period, Ghoshon had amassed eight of her team-high 14 points. Morant ended up with eight points, with nine for Robinson.
“They’re all coming around pretty well, it’s just been a slow process,” Mimms said. “Part of it has been not having much court time early on, but the other part of it was when we got the volleyball girls in, we had to go over so much so fast, it kind of bombarded them.
“Now we can start going slower and get them used to everything. When you start making a lot of changes all at once, they get confused. The ability is definitely there, we just have to get them ready for when our opponents change their strategy against us.”
The Lady Falcons got to face the Jacksonville starting five midway through the first quarter. Post player Rae Robinson kept North Pulaski close early on with a pair of inside baskets, with another from guard Quanita Hale. Hale went on to lead all scorers in the game with 20 points, including nine in the fourth quarter.
A Hale banker from 18 feet to start the second quarter pulled the Lady Falcons to 14-12. North Pulaski hung tough throughout the first half to trail by only four at the half, but Jacksonville slowly pulled away in the second half, changing out units every four minutes.
Meanwhile the Lady Falcons, only seven deep, had to struggle through limited substitutions.
Crystal Washington led the Lady Devil starters with eight points, while Apollonia Sims led all rebounders with nine. Tyra Terry and Sherice Randell each added five points.
The win improved Jacksonville’s record to 3-3.
With six games and a couple of tournaments under the Lady Devils’ belt, Mimms is pleased as far as defense is concerned, but wants to see more opportunities met on the offensive side.
“There’s always something to work on,” Mimms said. “You’re never completely satisfied, but we’ve seen some good things. I thought Tyra shot the ball really well against Alma, and Sherice and Apollonia both stepped up and shot well whenever they manned up on Tyra.
“We saw Crystal shoot better against North Pulaski, and hopefully that means she is back on track. We’ve been missing some of those quick, easy points she got for us a lot last year. She’s had some looks, but she’s struggled and missed some easy baskets. Lanier needs more points out of the post. Sometimes she’s real quick to pass it back out too fast instead of moving strong to the post.”
The Lady Red Devils continued tourney play in Conway last night after Leader deadlines against the host Lady Wampus Cats in the semifinal round.
Leader sportswriter
The Jacksonville Lady Red Devils took advantage of their superior depth against cross-town rival North Pulaski on Tuesday night. The second five got as much playing time as the starters in a 61-39 win at the Devils’ Den.
The normal starters kept their seats at the start of the game, as Ciara Morant, Tyquia Robinson, Chyna Davis, Ebony Ghoshon and post Tanisha Cox took to the floor for the first quarter, and then proceeded to take it to the Lady Falcons.
It was the second win in two days for Jackson-ville, which advanced to the semifinal round of the John Stanton/Wampus Cat Invitational in Conway with an impressive 57-35 win over Alma.
“All of our starters saw a lot of time on Monday,” said Lady Red Devils coach Katrina Mimms. “So for Tuesday, we wanted the players that didn’t get much time to get in there.”
Ghoshon made the most of her start right away with two steals and two baskets in the first minute of the game. Her third lay-up missed, but Morant was there for the putback to give the Lady Red Devils a 6-0 lead just one minute into the game.
By the end of the period, Ghoshon had amassed eight of her team-high 14 points. Morant ended up with eight points, with nine for Robinson.
“They’re all coming around pretty well, it’s just been a slow process,” Mimms said. “Part of it has been not having much court time early on, but the other part of it was when we got the volleyball girls in, we had to go over so much so fast, it kind of bombarded them.
“Now we can start going slower and get them used to everything. When you start making a lot of changes all at once, they get confused. The ability is definitely there, we just have to get them ready for when our opponents change their strategy against us.”
The Lady Falcons got to face the Jacksonville starting five midway through the first quarter. Post player Rae Robinson kept North Pulaski close early on with a pair of inside baskets, with another from guard Quanita Hale. Hale went on to lead all scorers in the game with 20 points, including nine in the fourth quarter.
A Hale banker from 18 feet to start the second quarter pulled the Lady Falcons to 14-12. North Pulaski hung tough throughout the first half to trail by only four at the half, but Jacksonville slowly pulled away in the second half, changing out units every four minutes.
Meanwhile the Lady Falcons, only seven deep, had to struggle through limited substitutions.
Crystal Washington led the Lady Devil starters with eight points, while Apollonia Sims led all rebounders with nine. Tyra Terry and Sherice Randell each added five points.
The win improved Jacksonville’s record to 3-3.
With six games and a couple of tournaments under the Lady Devils’ belt, Mimms is pleased as far as defense is concerned, but wants to see more opportunities met on the offensive side.
“There’s always something to work on,” Mimms said. “You’re never completely satisfied, but we’ve seen some good things. I thought Tyra shot the ball really well against Alma, and Sherice and Apollonia both stepped up and shot well whenever they manned up on Tyra.
“We saw Crystal shoot better against North Pulaski, and hopefully that means she is back on track. We’ve been missing some of those quick, easy points she got for us a lot last year. She’s had some looks, but she’s struggled and missed some easy baskets. Lanier needs more points out of the post. Sometimes she’s real quick to pass it back out too fast instead of moving strong to the post.”
The Lady Red Devils continued tourney play in Conway last night after Leader deadlines against the host Lady Wampus Cats in the semifinal round.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
TOP STORY > >New Lonoke jail top priority
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Building a new jail to replace the aging, substandard, overcrowded jail currently in use is Lonoke County’s highest priority over the next two years, according to Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman.
Toward that end, the county is working to buy up the last of the land upon which it will build its new jail next to the old one, according to Justice of the Peace Larry Odom, chairman of the building committee.
“The money is coming in — with us doing the legwork, it’s all falling together pretty good, ” Odom said.
The money in question is from a one-year, penny sales tax dedicated to construction of a new jail, perhaps 140 beds. Voters narrowly approved that tax last May. At the time, it was estimated to raise $6 million to $6.2 million.
Troutman said last week it was too early to know the troubled economy would lower the actual amount.
Odom said that Lonoke County is generally exempt from the wild swings in the economy.
The first of that money, collected in October, should be sent to the county treasurer by the end of this month, Troutman said.
“How much of a jail $6 million will build we won’t know until the architects are involved,” Troutman said.
On Block 19 in the Wright Addition in Lonoke, the county already owns the existing jail, the adjacent building and a house next door, currently used by the Lonoke County Literacy Council, according to Troutman.
“We have the money to buy those pieces of property,” Troutman said.
“We are in conversations with the family that owns the middle building and they have agreed in principle to allow the county to buy it,” Odom said.
The other house and parcel the county must buy belongs to a man living in Batesville. In the past he’s been agreeable to the idea of the county buying the land, but Odom said he’s having trouble getting in touch with the man now.
Odom said the county had tentative plans, when the time comes, to move the literacy council to the county’s building in the Cabot Mini Mall that used to house a branch of the county assessor’s office.
That office moved about two weeks ago into a new building owned by the state revenue office on Pine Street in Cabot near Hwy. 321.
The county is also interested in buying the land not used by the county library in the bock south of the jail. That land would be used for jail parking, Odom said.
Once the new jail is built, the old jail could be pressed into other use by the county, held in reserve as a temporary lockup or even torn down.
“My first opinion is to take a bulldozer to it,” Odom said.
Regardless, the 911 center built into the east side of the jail a few years ago is in good condition and would be preserved for that use, Troutman said.
The Dallas County Jail after which this jail will be modeled was built largely by inmate labor, with the sheriff, a contractor himself, acting as the contractor.
When voters approved the jail tax, many expected that Act 309 inmate trustees would do much of the work, but since then a trustee was caught having sex with a female prisoner. Sheriff Jim Roberson admitted that he took an inmate to look at a car problem his daughter had and Roberson surrendered the program, sending those sometimes-skilled inmates back to the state Correction Department.
Odom said the run-of-the-mill Lonoke jail inmates would be sufficient to provide much of the labor, while the skilled work such as plumbing, wiring and heating, ventilation and air conditioning would need to be done by licensed contractors anyway.
Odom said the county could buy the plans already drawn for the Dallas County Jail at a reduced cost from the architect. He said that a retired Cabot contractor had agreed to work as a county employee to oversee construction of the jail.
Leader senior staff writer
Building a new jail to replace the aging, substandard, overcrowded jail currently in use is Lonoke County’s highest priority over the next two years, according to Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman.
Toward that end, the county is working to buy up the last of the land upon which it will build its new jail next to the old one, according to Justice of the Peace Larry Odom, chairman of the building committee.
“The money is coming in — with us doing the legwork, it’s all falling together pretty good, ” Odom said.
The money in question is from a one-year, penny sales tax dedicated to construction of a new jail, perhaps 140 beds. Voters narrowly approved that tax last May. At the time, it was estimated to raise $6 million to $6.2 million.
Troutman said last week it was too early to know the troubled economy would lower the actual amount.
Odom said that Lonoke County is generally exempt from the wild swings in the economy.
The first of that money, collected in October, should be sent to the county treasurer by the end of this month, Troutman said.
“How much of a jail $6 million will build we won’t know until the architects are involved,” Troutman said.
On Block 19 in the Wright Addition in Lonoke, the county already owns the existing jail, the adjacent building and a house next door, currently used by the Lonoke County Literacy Council, according to Troutman.
“We have the money to buy those pieces of property,” Troutman said.
“We are in conversations with the family that owns the middle building and they have agreed in principle to allow the county to buy it,” Odom said.
The other house and parcel the county must buy belongs to a man living in Batesville. In the past he’s been agreeable to the idea of the county buying the land, but Odom said he’s having trouble getting in touch with the man now.
Odom said the county had tentative plans, when the time comes, to move the literacy council to the county’s building in the Cabot Mini Mall that used to house a branch of the county assessor’s office.
That office moved about two weeks ago into a new building owned by the state revenue office on Pine Street in Cabot near Hwy. 321.
The county is also interested in buying the land not used by the county library in the bock south of the jail. That land would be used for jail parking, Odom said.
Once the new jail is built, the old jail could be pressed into other use by the county, held in reserve as a temporary lockup or even torn down.
“My first opinion is to take a bulldozer to it,” Odom said.
Regardless, the 911 center built into the east side of the jail a few years ago is in good condition and would be preserved for that use, Troutman said.
The Dallas County Jail after which this jail will be modeled was built largely by inmate labor, with the sheriff, a contractor himself, acting as the contractor.
When voters approved the jail tax, many expected that Act 309 inmate trustees would do much of the work, but since then a trustee was caught having sex with a female prisoner. Sheriff Jim Roberson admitted that he took an inmate to look at a car problem his daughter had and Roberson surrendered the program, sending those sometimes-skilled inmates back to the state Correction Department.
Odom said the run-of-the-mill Lonoke jail inmates would be sufficient to provide much of the labor, while the skilled work such as plumbing, wiring and heating, ventilation and air conditioning would need to be done by licensed contractors anyway.
Odom said the county could buy the plans already drawn for the Dallas County Jail at a reduced cost from the architect. He said that a retired Cabot contractor had agreed to work as a county employee to oversee construction of the jail.
TOP STORY > >Charter school for Jacksonville moves forward
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The planned August opening of Jacksonville’s first charter school moved closer to fruition Monday night as the city’s planning commission approved the preliminary site plan for the Lighthouse Charter School.
Plans call for a 28,425-square-foot, single-story building to be constructed on 4.26 acres of land off of North First Street in the open area behind Dr. Joe Collins’ eye clinic. The building will eventually become home to 600 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Planning commissioner Chad Young excused himself from the vote Monday night as he is involved in the design of the new school. He said the school is geared toward an August 2009 opening.
Bond Engineering, which represented the charter school at the commission meeting, will be back at the next commission meeting in January with a more detailed plan prepared for final approval.
If all goes according to plan when the charter school opens in August 2009, it will have about 340 students, including two sections of students in grades kindergarten through sixth. One grade will be added each year until the school includes all the junior high and high school grades.
A charter school is a state-regulated public school, the purpose of which is to provide educational alternatives for communities. The state grants a charter for five years, after which renewal is based upon how well the school has met state accountability mandates. An open-enrollment charter school can be established by a government entity, community, institution of higher learning or non-sectarian group.
The school would be supported by public funds as part of the Pulaski County Special School District. Students attending the school, however, could live in a school district, city, or county other than where the school is located.
At a city council meeting earlier this year where the council approved a resolution backing the efforts to get a charter school in Jacksonville, Alderman Bob Stroud said the charter school was a good thing. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” he said. “This charter school will help our city improve, and when we get our own district it won’t hamper our growth.”
The resolution stated that the “creation of a charter school within Jacksonville can be achieved and serve as an additional source for quality education for students and additional employment opportunities for teachers of our community.”
The charter school will be operated by Lighthouse Academies, a nonprofit group out of New York. The group opened its first charter school in 2003 in the Bronx with just 123 students. Since then it has expanded to ten different locations in four states and the District of Columbia, serving more than 3,600 students.
Michael Ronan, president and CEO of Lighthouse Academies, says the group exists “because there is a staggering achievement gap in education today. We overcome the achievement gap by providing a rigorous arts-infused program, organizationally and financially viable schools, high quality teachers, relentless school leaders and a pervasive culture of achievement and respect among students and staff.”
What makes the Lighthouse Charter Academy different than the local PCSSD schools? The school proposes more instructional days and longer days. The charter school year has about 10 more instructional days built into its schedule, plus the school day is eight hours long compared to the 6.5 hours for most other area schools. Teachers also loop with their students, meaning each teacher spends two years with their students. For example, the first-year teacher will move up to second grade with his or her class, the second grade teacher will move up to third grade with his or her class, and so on. At the end of the two-year cycle, the teachers return to their starting grade and begin again.
The local president of the board of trustees is George Biggs, Jacksonville’s parks and recreation director.
Other local residents on the board include, Dr. Bobby Altom, a former assistant superintendent with PCSSD; Curtis Green, a deacon with Mount Pisgah Baptist Church; Keri Urquhart, an active member of the Parent Teacher Organization at Pinewood Ele-mentary who also heads the rehabilitation department at Woodland Hills Nursing and Rehab, and Rebel Flynn Wilson with First United Methodist Church of Jacksonville. She has extensive nonprofit leadership experience.
In other planning commission business:
Commissioners approved the final plat for the first three lots of Calvin Estates of S. Hwy. 161 on land formerly occupied by a trailer park.
The commission also ap-proved the preliminary plans for Penn Cottage Development, a 21-unit complex and clubhouse for senior citizens to be built off North James and Jeff Davis streets. The homes will be designed for seniors and run between 800 and 900 square feet.
Before work can begin, developer Dickie Penn will have to come back to the commission for a rezoning hearing. The 3-acre parcel is currently zoned R-0 for single-family homes and will have to be rezoned R-2 or R-3 for the complex even though each unit will be separate and detached from the others.
Leader staff writer
The planned August opening of Jacksonville’s first charter school moved closer to fruition Monday night as the city’s planning commission approved the preliminary site plan for the Lighthouse Charter School.
Plans call for a 28,425-square-foot, single-story building to be constructed on 4.26 acres of land off of North First Street in the open area behind Dr. Joe Collins’ eye clinic. The building will eventually become home to 600 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Planning commissioner Chad Young excused himself from the vote Monday night as he is involved in the design of the new school. He said the school is geared toward an August 2009 opening.
Bond Engineering, which represented the charter school at the commission meeting, will be back at the next commission meeting in January with a more detailed plan prepared for final approval.
If all goes according to plan when the charter school opens in August 2009, it will have about 340 students, including two sections of students in grades kindergarten through sixth. One grade will be added each year until the school includes all the junior high and high school grades.
A charter school is a state-regulated public school, the purpose of which is to provide educational alternatives for communities. The state grants a charter for five years, after which renewal is based upon how well the school has met state accountability mandates. An open-enrollment charter school can be established by a government entity, community, institution of higher learning or non-sectarian group.
The school would be supported by public funds as part of the Pulaski County Special School District. Students attending the school, however, could live in a school district, city, or county other than where the school is located.
At a city council meeting earlier this year where the council approved a resolution backing the efforts to get a charter school in Jacksonville, Alderman Bob Stroud said the charter school was a good thing. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” he said. “This charter school will help our city improve, and when we get our own district it won’t hamper our growth.”
The resolution stated that the “creation of a charter school within Jacksonville can be achieved and serve as an additional source for quality education for students and additional employment opportunities for teachers of our community.”
The charter school will be operated by Lighthouse Academies, a nonprofit group out of New York. The group opened its first charter school in 2003 in the Bronx with just 123 students. Since then it has expanded to ten different locations in four states and the District of Columbia, serving more than 3,600 students.
Michael Ronan, president and CEO of Lighthouse Academies, says the group exists “because there is a staggering achievement gap in education today. We overcome the achievement gap by providing a rigorous arts-infused program, organizationally and financially viable schools, high quality teachers, relentless school leaders and a pervasive culture of achievement and respect among students and staff.”
What makes the Lighthouse Charter Academy different than the local PCSSD schools? The school proposes more instructional days and longer days. The charter school year has about 10 more instructional days built into its schedule, plus the school day is eight hours long compared to the 6.5 hours for most other area schools. Teachers also loop with their students, meaning each teacher spends two years with their students. For example, the first-year teacher will move up to second grade with his or her class, the second grade teacher will move up to third grade with his or her class, and so on. At the end of the two-year cycle, the teachers return to their starting grade and begin again.
The local president of the board of trustees is George Biggs, Jacksonville’s parks and recreation director.
Other local residents on the board include, Dr. Bobby Altom, a former assistant superintendent with PCSSD; Curtis Green, a deacon with Mount Pisgah Baptist Church; Keri Urquhart, an active member of the Parent Teacher Organization at Pinewood Ele-mentary who also heads the rehabilitation department at Woodland Hills Nursing and Rehab, and Rebel Flynn Wilson with First United Methodist Church of Jacksonville. She has extensive nonprofit leadership experience.
In other planning commission business:
Commissioners approved the final plat for the first three lots of Calvin Estates of S. Hwy. 161 on land formerly occupied by a trailer park.
The commission also ap-proved the preliminary plans for Penn Cottage Development, a 21-unit complex and clubhouse for senior citizens to be built off North James and Jeff Davis streets. The homes will be designed for seniors and run between 800 and 900 square feet.
Before work can begin, developer Dickie Penn will have to come back to the commission for a rezoning hearing. The 3-acre parcel is currently zoned R-0 for single-family homes and will have to be rezoned R-2 or R-3 for the complex even though each unit will be separate and detached from the others.
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