Of the people, By the people, For the people
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Bryan Ayers
TUESDAY, September 4, 2018 / Vol. 4 Issue 36 / 75 cents
Back to drawing board for 911 panel
Fighting spirit - Devon Wooten leads the Yellow Jackets out onto the field Friday night for their game against Heber Springs. Devon is currently battling brain cancer, and had returned home from Arkansas Children’s Hospital. His family was presented a check for $10,000 at halftime to help with medical expenses. Game photos and coverage, Pages 6-8. (Photo by Robert R. Gaut)
Clinton High receives honor The Clinton High School Community Emergency Response Team Program was recognized Thursday in Hot Springs as a National Program of Excellence by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Tony Robinson, regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-FEMA Region VI, presented the award during the 2018 Arkansas Emergency Management Conference. Clinton Resource
Officer/CERT Instructor David Hess, former CERT Instructor Steve Bannick, Van Buren County Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Jeana Williams, and Clinton Superintendent Joe Fisher were present to re-
ceive the award along with CERT students Cody Bagley, Trenton Waller, Taylor Kirkendoll, and Serenity Bannick. The CERT Program is beginning its second year at Clinton High School.
Lacking an agreement from the city of Clinton to pay any of the costs for the 911 dispatch center, a meeting of the Quorum Court Safety Review Committee was called last week. It appeared that no elected officials from Clinton were informed of the meeting. “We’re back where we began,” said committee Chairwoman Mary Philips. “How are we going to fix it?” Justice of the Peace Dale James said he had been hearing concerns from Clinton residents that 911 calls in the city limits would not be answered. That isn’t true, he said. “We’re not going to stop taking 911 calls. We don’t need to scare the citizens to death.” JP John Bradford said it might be “good” if they think that. Bradford represents the Damascus area on the Quorum Court. Damascus’ share of 911 expenses is paid by Fairfield Bay, as is Shirley’s. Estimates put Damascus and Shirley emergency calls at 1 percent each of the total number handled by 911 dispatch. John Galbraith, a candidate for county coroner, agreed with Bradford. “We should take the toy from the baby” and not answer Clinton 911 calls, he said. Carol Crews, acting as the county’s attorney, said because
Clinton had never signed an agreement there was no legal way to make them pay anything. Clinton officials say they need to see how their budget looks at the end of the third quarter before deciding if they can pay the requested money, which is about $44,000. Asked if Clinton could be billed for each 911 call placed by a city resident, Crews said it could be billed, but "you can't make them pay it." Fairfield Bay representatives said their city will pay its share even if Clinton doesn’t pay anything, but will no longer pay Clinton’s share. That brought a comment from an audience member who said their “altruism” was costing Fairfield Bay taxpayers and if Clinton wasn’t going to pay, neither should Fairfield Bay. James stated that 911 is a county entity and it will be the county that has to pick up any unpaid costs. In the past, a $1.25 tax on land line telephones more than paid the 911 costs, but the number of land lines has dwindled in favor of cell phones. The tax on cell phones is 65 cents for 911. Fairfield Bay officials say the center has cost the city $800,000 over the past 10 years.
Races history for 2018
This Pontiac was reported stolen from Taco Bell before it was wrecked Aug. 25.
Car stolen, wrecked; driver flees police A Shirley woman stole a car then wrecked it and ran from a Clinton police officer, according to reports. The accident was a rollover just off Highway 65 in Clinton at the Little Red River bridge. The car had just been stolen from the Taco Bell parking lot earlier that afternoon on Aug. 25. The car left about 300 feet of skid marks in the grass, and witnesses told police it was traveling at a high rate of speed when it struck the curb, went airborne, struck two street lights and rolled over, the report states. Kelley Gardner, 51, left the wrecked Pontiac and was walking
The chuck wagons rolled into town last week for a fish fry to kick off the week of races, music and contests.
Cowboys, campers, trailers and horses headed out of town Sunday afternoon as the races ended. Several injuries to horses and humans were reported.
(Photo by Robert Snyder)
(Photo by Freeda Baker Nichols)
Woman charged with assault on officer
Gardner down Con Agra Road when the police officer arrived, according to an affidavit for arrest. The officer parked his car in front of Gardner and told her to stop. She ignored him and began to walk away quickly, someSee Wreck on page 5
A Greenbrier woman was arrested Aug. 11 after an alleged assault on a law enforcement officer. A caller told police that a possibly intoxicated woman was breaking things at an address on Douglas Lane in Clinton. When officers arrived, they found Leslie Nicole Ward, 34, sitting in a car. They told her to get out of the car and she replied with an expletive, according to an affidavit for arrest. One of the officers
tried to pull her out and she lunged at him, the report states, kicking him, and biting him on the right hand above the thumb, breaking the skin and drawing blood. Both officers used pepper spray on Ward, pulled her out of the car and handcuffed her, the report states. The officer was treated and released at Ozark Health. While being detoxed at the jail, Ward became combative and bit a dispatcher,
according to the report. The jailer’s glove did not break. In an interview the next day, Ward told an officer that all she remembered was fighting back because two kids were trying to hurt her. She said she had been drinking Mellow Bobrun and didn’t remember anything else until she woke up in jail, according to the report. Ward has been charged with aggravated assault on a corrections/law enforce-
ment officer, a Class D felony; assault-first degree, criminal mischief-second degree, public intoxication and resisting arrest, all misdemeanors.
Ward