White river journal, oct 15, 2015

Page 1

75¢ The old “Swinging Bridge” at Des

Arc, built in 1928 as a toll bridge

...

removed in 1970.

View looking from Des Arc north

across White River

1 SECT IO N - 16 PAG ES V OLUME 109 (10TH WEEK OF 109TH YEAR - 5,645 WEEKS TOTAL)

SAT.. OCT. 17 Pee Wee Playoffs at Brinkley SAT., OCT. 17, 10 AM DeValls Bluff School Reunion SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 4th Annual Fall Festival Downtown Des Arc Becky Reed McCoy Pros. Atty, White/Prairie Counties

SAT., OCT. 17, 6:30 PM Republican Party Gumbo Gala Elementary School SUN., OCT. 18, 7 AM Men’s Fellowship Breakfast Methodist Church MON., OCT. 19, 9 AM Plea Day Hearings DeValls Bluff Courthouse TUES., OCT. 20, 8 TO 5 Flu Vaccine Clinics Des Arc Health Dept & Riverfront Park TUES., OCT. 20, 9 AM Plea Day Hearings Des Arc Courthouse

Jordan Smith Apprentice Information Systems

The Prairie County Quorum Court held their regular monthly meeting the Horne-Tipton in Courtroom at the Des Arc Courthouse Annex Tuesday evening. Business items included the following: 1. Judge Mike Skarda’s announcement that he would seek reelection in 2016. 2. Prairie/White County Prosecuting Attorney Becky Reed McCoy’s addressing the Court and expressing her “love of the job” and a significant increase (estimated 300 = 23%) in felony prosecutions over year 2014. 3. Review of new computers and digital automation equipment recently installed in the County Clerk’s office(s) at Des Arc

and DeValls Bluff. Jordan Smith with Apprentice Information Systems, Inc. of Rogers/Little Rock explained how the equipment would be utilized, the (already-paid) total cost of $56,571, which included hardware, software, training, installation, and $11,800 for data conversion. Additionally, there will be annual maintenance fee of $4511 (covering both the north and south district offices), plus a pending purchase of one digital “signature pad” for each office (approximately $700 each). County Clerk Vanessa Peters advised that the official records are now “live” and available for inoffice computer search by the public.

TUES., OCT. 20, 7 PM City Council Meeting Des Arc City Hall TUES., OCT. 20, 6 PM Master Gardenrs BancorpSouth, Hazen FRI., OCT. 23, 5:45 PM Daybreak TV Show High School Gym FRI. OCT. 23, 7 PM Battle of the Prairie Eagles vs Hornets Hinson-Rollins Field

4th Annual Fall Fest here Saturday The Fourth Annual Fall Festival, sponsored by the Des Arc Chamber of Commerce will be held this Saturday, October 17, with food, fun and prizes for all ages. The action will be in downtown Des Arc for all to see and enjoy, advvises Lana Smith, spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce.

P U B L I S H ED E A C H T H U R S D A Y S I N C E 1 9 0 7 THURSDAY,OCTOBER 15, 2015

County Sheriff seeks employee pay raises, additional 911 personnel from Quorum Court

ACTIVITIES CALENDAR

SAT., OCT. 17, START 10 AM Rice Festival Hazen City Park

“A FREE P RESS AND A FREE P EOPLE - A N U NBEATABLE TEAM ” D ES A RC , A RKANSAS (C OUNTY S EAT ) P RAIRIE C OUNTY

Dispatch Supervisor Amber Duerson presenting slide show at Court meeting

Darrell Turner County Jail Administrator

PRAIRIE COUNTY BURN BAN

4. The new County Jail Darrell Administrator, Turner, explained to the Court how the jail can legally produce revenue from the sale of miscellaneous items, including phone cards, commissary and snack items, post cards and over-the-counter medications. Presented by Turner as a new requested jail policy, the Court unanimously approved it. 5. On behalf of County Sheriff Gary Burnett, Dispatch Supervisor Amber Duerson presented a slide show of specially prepared charts which included: a. Comparison of average jail sal-aries for 10 other counties nearest in population to that of Prairie County. b. Breakdown of current and proposed jailer & dispatcher salaries in Prairie County. c. Average cost of living expenses compared to average take-home pay. Duerson explained to the Court that even though construction of the new County Jail will soon be completed and ‘ready for business’; the number of employees needed to operate it per requirements is just barely sufficient. And then, it will only be possible with the two lastminute jailer “hires” expected today, Oct. 15. The Court had previously authorized the hiring of three new jailers

only. But per Duerson, the Court needs to authorize four additional dispatcher positions in order to operate the second of two existing 911 stations. Dispatcher Duerson, Sheriff Burnett and Administrator Turner all concur that it has been extremely difficult to find employees willing to work in a jail environment for the existing base salary of $15,900 . . . this being equivalent to only $7.64 per hour, compared to Arkansas’ minimum wage of $7.50. Sheriff Burnett and dispatcher Duerson, “understanding the County’s financial situation”, proposed Tuesday night that the Court raise the base salary just $1,000 to $16,900. Putting the salaries of all twelve Correction (jail) and Communication (911) employees into perspective - (from those having only 2 months experience and may should be considered temporary - to those having 31+ years of law enforcement experience), the overall existing narrow salary range is from the beginning base of $15,900 to a high of $21,500. The Court postponed any consideration of salary adjustments until after the Budget Committee reviews department annual budgets to be submitted this week.

EFFECTIVE OCT. 14 UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE BY ORDER OF COUNTY JUDGE MIKE SKARDA Note: Total Des Arc rainfall between Sept. 9 and Oct. 14 (34 days) has been officially .13”, occurring Oct. 9

Obituaries Pg . 4

Richard Bailey, 73, Beebe Gracie Cochran, 90, Carlisle Bobby Crownover, 81, N. L. R. Theda Griffin, 79, Ward Thelma McClure, 86, Tennessee Berchie McCullum, 87, Bethpage Michelle Red, 42, Hazen Sue Rogers, 79, Hazen James Scott, 63, Ragtown Geneva Sherman, 93, Humphrey Blondell Vaughn, 86, Griffithville

City Utility crew repairing water leak on 5th St., Sun., Oct. 11 Closeup view of personnel and leak repairs (left)

SUBSCRIBER NOTICE

(Revised Oct. 15)

Please check your subscription expiration date on the mailing label at top of this page. The day-month-year are shown on the second line as six numerals, thusly: 00-00-00. As much as we would prefer not losing a single customer, all subscriptions which expired before August 15, 2015 will be deactivated and paper stopped, if full subscription payment isn’t received by November 1, 2015. Subscriptions expiring August 15 thru October will be allowed a “grace period” of 30 days or until Nov. 1, whichever period is longer. Payment should be sufficient to extend subscription period from expiration date to November 1, 2016 minimally. Also, beginning Nov. 1, subscriptions must be kept paid in advance - and will be deactivated (on a weekly basis) 30 days after expiration. To help subscribers keep track of the expiration date, we may selectively mail “postcard reminders” again, as done in years past. (This Oct. 15 revision supercedes previous notices.) We sincerely thank you for your continued loyalty and look forward to serving you in the future. The Publisher If you have any questions, please contact us:

Email: wrjnews1@centurytel.net

Mail: PO Box 1051, Des Arc, Ar 72040

Tel: 870-256-4254


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