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Hazen students attend techonology fair. (See page 6.)
Volume 121 Number 4 - USPS 225-680
Serving all of Prairie County and the Grand Prairie
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Community Calendar of Events
Wednesday January 26 Hazen 10th grade parent’s meeting to plan for auction 5:30 p.m. Thursday January 27 Food Distribution Hazen Methodist Church 10:00 a.m.-noon Creation Station Program at Carlisle Public Library 4:00 p.m. Tuesday February 1 Black History Month Begins Wednesday February 2 Groundhog Day Wednesday February 3 Bingo at Hazen Public Library 11:00 a.m. Tuesday February 8 Quorum Court Meeting Des Arc Annex 6:00 p.m. Thursday February 10 DeValls Bluff City Council meeting City Hall 6:00 p.m.
Community events brought to you by Hazen Chamber of Commerce
and the Please call F&M Bank (255-3042) or The Grand Prairie Herald (255-4538) to list events.
Hazen City Council members listen to the water tank maintenance presentation given by Water System Consultant Brian Woodring.
Hazen Council enters into tank maintenance agreement The Hazen City Council met to discuss the cleaning and updating of the city's two water tanks at its regular January meeting held on the 20th in the city hall. Brian Woodring, a water system consultant from Utility Service Co, Inc., presented a proposal for cleaning and updating the two city water tanks to Council Members Tim Juola, Larry Anthony, Dallas Taylor, and Steve Chlapecka and Mayor David Hardle and Recorder/Treasurer David Hoover. Woodring showed the council pictures of the present state of the tanks and informed them of the present state regulations pertaining to water tanks. His company says that under the proposed contract the tanks will be upgraded to meet state standards and will be cleaned and maintained as needed. The city formerly had a contract that maintained the tanks from 1997 until 2014, when the contract was canceled..
Woodring said that his company will work with the city to extend the life of the tanks indefinitely and keep them in “like new” conditions. They will be checked each year and will be washed out every other year. The annual fee includes any emergency repair that might be needed alson with interior and exterior renovations. The yearly contract can be canceled by the city at any time, but it cannot be canceled by the company. Maintenance fees can go up or down depending upon the services and the cost of labor and materials. The council passed ordinance 505 which enters into a contract with the company through 2028. The city will pay the company $100,000 plus a maintenance fee of $3820 per month. The upgrades to the tanks include extending the overflow pipes on each tank to within 24 inches from the ground, installing a state required mixing system, installing a
safety climb, and installing covered vents. In 2029 the sitting council can vote to extend the maintenance contract. The present board hopes to cap any increases to the contract to 5% at that time. The council also passed ordinance 506 which hires Johnny Raper as the city’s electrical inspector and sets the new electrical inspection fees. Inspection fees for residential and commercial structures will be based upon their square footage, and all meter loop inspections will be $25. Add-on construction or renovation will have a minimum fee of $60.00. Mayor Hardke told the council that the state legislative auditing committee had found no faults in the Hazen financial accounts for the year ending in December of 2020. He also told them that the city had received $1477.22 from the County and Municipal Aid Distribution for December 2021. Utility Department
Manager Chad Swaim reported that he and other members of his department are in the process of renewing their certifications. He also said that they have been cleaning brush and limbs from roads and doing maintenance work on equipment and the water plant. Hardke reported that the court has a new phone system from Nextel that cost $5510. He also asked for the council members’ input on moving the playground area in the city
park on the east side of town closer to the pavilion. The mayor intends to improve the playground equipment and upgrade the mulch in the area. The estimated cost for the project is $14,385.41, but some of the work will be done by city maintenance workers so the cost will be lower. The city also intends to buy some new playground equipment, including small-child swings. The new mulch will be made of engineered wood fiber.
Des Arc Council approves raises By Lisa Mills In a Zoom meeting held on January 18th, the Des Arc City Council approved a 5% raise for full time city employees and a 10% raise for city police officers. The raises will be retroactive to January 1st. Janice Huffstickler was approved as the new Recorder/Treasurer to
finish out Chrisanna Knupp’s term. A motion was approved to remove Knupp from bank signature card and add Huffstickler after she has been sworn in. Attending the Zoom meeting were Mayor Jim Garth and Council Members Gary Burnett, Anna Beth Fisher, Gail King, Jodie Mayher and Nicole Fisher.
Local school districts in ACHI pink zone for first time LITTLE ROCK ― For the first time, all of Arkansas’s 234 contiguous public school districts have COVID-19 infection rates of 50 or more new known infections per 10,000 district residents over a 14-day period, up from 226 ― the previous record high from last week ― the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement reported Thursday, January 20, citing its analysis of Arkansas Department of Health data current as of Monday, January 17. ACHI has added a new color, pink, to the maps on its COVID-19 dashboard, available at achi.net/covid19, to signify an infection rate of 200 or more new known infections per 10,000 district residents over the past 14 days, or at least 2% of the district’s population. A district with 100 to 199 new known infections per 10,000 residents is shaded purple, and a district with 50 to 99 new known infections
per 10,000 residents is shaded red. The map released Thursday, January 20, includes seven districts in red, 57 in purple, and 170, or 73% of districts, in pink. Last week, ACHI reported that 48 districts were in red, 120 were in purple, and 58 were in pink. “Every school district being in red, purple, or pink on our map means that COVID-19 is spreading uncontrolled in all our communities.” said ACHI President and CEO Dr. Joe Thompson. “In nearly three-fourths of the districts, at least 2% of the local population is infected. In four districts, more than 5% of the population, or one out of every 20 people, is newly infected.” The districts with more than 5% of the local population newly infected are Brookland, Clarendon, Marmaduke, and Stuttgart. The Carlisle, Hazen, and Des Arc school districts are listed as having a rate of
200 or more new known infections per 10K residents. Thompson urged school boards and school leaders to act to protect students and staff. “Every available tool needs to be used to halt this hopefully short-term surge driven by the
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highly infectious omicron variant,” he said. “That means requiring masks indoors; it means employing social distancing, good hand hygiene, and optimal ventilation; it means being prepared to make a temporary shift to virtual learning; and it means encourag-
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ing vaccination and ensuring everyone eligible gets boosted. With omicron, full vaccination and a booster shot are necessary for maximum protection, but unfortunately, only about a third of Arkansans are both fully vaccinated and boosted.”
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