Cow mooves bison by Jacob Brower

$ 25

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2011

The

Daily Citizen TheDailyCitizen.com

Serving Searcy and White County, Ark., since 1854

McRAE HOSTS ANNUAL COMMUNITY FESTIVAL HARDING HOSTS OBU ON HOMECOMING The annual McRae Community Festival provided activities for young and old alike Saturday. — PAGE 3A

The Bisons aimed to keep conference momentum going against the Tigers on homecoming. — PAGE 1B

2 local post offices face closure

Trick-orTreating Safety

Russell, Letona offices could be gone in 2012 U.S. Postal Service to discuss the financial state of the post office. Russell had a meeting on Tuesday and Letona will have a meeting on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Letona Community Center, 102 N. Brummit Street. Russell and Letona join a list of 179 post offices in the state that could face closure, and an even larger list of 3,700 post of-

BY MOLLY M. FLEMING mfleming@thedailycitizen.com

Two more cities in White County could lose their post offices by the beginning of 2012, depending on the study of the business activities at the offices. The post offices in Letona and Russell are the two most recent towns to have a public meeting with representatives from the

fices that are in a similar financial situation. At Tuesday’s meeting in Russell, which has a population of 212 people, Mayor Dennis Pierce said the USPS representative announced that the city’s post office lost $77,000 in 2010. “I don’t know what’s going to

County warns against giving alcohol to minors ■ Young trick-or-treaters should not be unaccompanied ■ Drivers need to be aware of trick-or-treaters Monday night ■

Post offices Two more White County post offices under review ■ Could be closed within nine months ■ Residents asked to attend public meeting ■

Trick-ortreating should be fun, safe

Please see POSTAL | 3A

HESTER CROWNED HARDING HOMECOMING QUEEN

Bison burgers Who: The Dollins family of Troy, Mo. What: Travels to Searcy annually for Harding University’s Homecoming; tailgates with Bison burgers before the football game

County warns against providing alcohol to minors BY MOLLY M. FLEMING mfleming@thedailycitizen.com

On Monday night, ghosts and goblins, witches and princesses will take to the streets of White County seeking their annual fix of sugary treats. The night can be fun and worry free if trick-or-treaters and drivers are aware of their surroundings, said Steve Hernandez with the White County Sheriff’s Office. “Trick-or-treaters need to watch out for traffic and be sure to wear something reflective on their costumes, especially if they are in a neighborhood with a lot of traffic,” Hernandez said. He said younger children should be accompanied by adults when they go trick-or-treating or to local festivals. He also offered advice for adults. “Don’t drink and drive, and if parents are going to have a party where alcohol might be served, they should not give any to a minor,” he said. “Getting prosecuted for contributing to a minor comes with a $250 fine.” Hernandez said that the sheriff’s office typically does not have a higher crime rate on Halloween night because many of the county residents are participating in festivals in other cities in the county. However, deputies do see the occasional toilet papering of houses. The U.S. Center for Disease Control offered other tips on how to keep safe while trick-or-treating. The CDC advised using face make-up on a small area first to check for an allergen, as well as using sidewalks as much as possible and not cutting through yards because of unknown hazards not seen at night. The CDC also recommended wear well-fitting masks, costumes, and shoes to avoid blocked vision, trips and falls and eating only factory-wrapped treats and

Marisa Lytle@thedailycitizen.com

This HU Bison cookie was made by a bakery in Missouri and brought to the university’s Homecoming tailgating party by alumni Rod and Susan Dollins. Their daughter, Brette, is a sophomore at Harding, while their son, Jordan, graduated from the university in May of this year.

Cow ‘moo’ves over for bison Family tailgates with bison meat burgers at HU Homecoming BY MARISA LYTLE mlytle@thedailycitizen.com

We are all well acquainted with the standard ground beef burger patty. What’s a summer cookout without it? And we don’t think twice when some of the more health-conscious among us opt for the ground turkey variety. Even the occasional veggie burger isn’t too far of a stretch for most people’s levels of comfort. But how many times have you jumped in line for a burger filled with lean, mean bison meat? One family can think of no better way to prepare this iconic American food than to substitute beef with bison meat and form it into a thick patty and slap it on a bun — when tailgating at Harding University’s Homecoming football game, they even brand each patty with a special bison logo. Rod and Susan Dollins and their daughter, Brette, of Troy, Mo., and their son, Jordan, of Searcy enjoy a family tradition of grilling bison burgers at HU’s Homecoming football game each year. Jordan is a spring 2011 graduate of Harding University and long-term substitute choir director at Harding Academy, while Brette is a sophomore at the university. Rod is a retired teacher and school administrator and Please see BISON | 2A

Jacob Brower/jbrower@thedailycitizen.com

Elisha Hester walks off field after being crowned Harding University’s homecoming queen at halftime of the Bisons’ football game against Ouachita Baptist Saturday afternoon. Hester is a senior family consumer science research major from Dexter, Mo. She was escorted by her father, Terry Hester.

Fort Smith seeking new tenant for Whirlpool plant Associated Press

FORT SMITH — The pending closure of the Whirlpool Corp. factory in Fort Smith next year has state and local officials trying to find a company to move into the plant, which has been a vital local employer since it opened in 1962. The shutdown will carry an immediate cost of 1,000 jobs, but an economist at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith says the impact will be more than twice that. Professor Latisha Settlage told Fort Smith television station KFSM that another 1,200 people

Please see TREAT | 3A

in the area who work for companies that supply the refrigerator plant will find themselves jobless. “We’re just seeing really something that’s happening all over the nation,” Settlage said, “We’re moving more from a manufacturing-based economy to one that’s centered on information services.” The future of the plant became uncertain in 2003, when Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool announced it would move some of its side-by-side refrigerator production to Mexico. The plant then employed around 4,600 people.

The Southwest Times Record reports that 1,200 workers were let go in 2006, and 800 more were given pink slips in the following two years. More layoffs followed. As demand for materials dropped, local suppliers felt the effects. Moll Industries, which produced plastic refrigerator parts, closed in November 2006; Southern Steel & Wire, which produced wire refrigerator baskets, shuttered in December 2010. Fortis Plastics announced last week it

INDEX FROM PAGE ONE, 2A, 3A OPINIONS, 4A LIFESTYLES, 5A CALENDAR/OBITUARIES, 6A SPORTS, 1B CLASSIFIEDS, 5B

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may have to close in November. Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders, who worked at Whirlpool for 32 years and retired from there in 1998, said he and other officials have had repeated meetings with the company about how to keep the plant open. “I know that Whirlpool worked very hard to retain operations here,” Sanders said. “Over the next number of days, we’ll be finalizing the details for us to be able to help market the plant to another employer — or a number of facilities to co-locate, perhaps.”

Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, the first often tasting like the second. EDWARD ABBEY American author

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