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Into the mist – The end kites on Cat Gabrel’s 60-kite
train disappear into the fog during the 23rd Annual Eureka Springs Kite Festival at Turpentine Creek March 23. Gabrel, from Stillwater, Okla., has flown kites at events in Brazil and Denmark and plans to fly for the first time in Germany this year. In spite of foggy, cold weather a surprising number of kite flyers turned out for the event. Photo by David Frank Dempsey
This Week’s
INDEPENDENT Thinkers
Photo from TEDX
Youth continues to give our planet hope. Nineteen year-old Boyan Slat of the Netherlands figured out how to attach seawater processors to the seabed by using floating booms attached to solar and current powered platforms. Already rotating currents would deliver plastic waste to the platform where it would be put in containers and collected. Yes, we don’t understand it either, but what if the ocean could clean itself? And the recycled plastic could be sold to pay for the technology? And what if we didn’t dump any more crap in the rivers? It all just gives us the flutters.
Merchants nix Spring Street fair N icky B oyette Sandy Martin, Chair of the Eureka Springs Arts Council, and Marsha Havens, owner of Eureka Thyme, spoke at the March 25 city council meeting explaining a proposed event on Saturday, May 25, in which the downtown portion of Spring Street would be blocked off to most traffic, and artists’ booths and food vendors would be set up. “We want to create a fresh, high-end event to bring people to town,” Martin said. She explained details were still being worked out, but the idea had come from a public meeting of the Arts Council. An event to close out May Festival of the Arts grabbed everyone’s attention and her group has been trying to make it happen, she said. Mayor Morris Pate said it was his idea to close the street during the day, and Marsha Havens has canvassed merchants downtown to gauge interest and found support. However, the idea had its detractors. Four people spoke against the idea, including Darlene Schrum, who passed
around copies of a petition with 44 signatures urging council not to close the street. She said such an event would limit parking on a busy weekend. Delivery trucks would not be able to deliver goods to businesses and she claimed downtown merchants had not been contacted about the idea. Mel Shipley, owner of Silly Chili on Spring Street, said the event would prevent trolleys from running, and he “can gauge when the trolleys roll by simply by the increase in foot traffic, and stopping trolleys takes away customers.” Bob Jasinski said he was opposed to the idea of bringing in vendors to compete with local merchants. Kamal Attwal said simply, “Whenever you take our parking, we’re done.” He thought closing the street would not work, and suggested using the parking lot of the old high school instead. He said he was not speaking just for himself but other merchants, and “if you take our Saturday and Sunday, we will never be in business.”
Happy Easter to all you wild hares.
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