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George Campora
TUESDAY, June 13, 2017 / Vol. 3 Issue 24 / 75 cents
Fire chief has eye on raising sales tax
Botanical beauty – Nellie McIntre, winner of The 16 West Beautification Project "Spring Edition," explains how she hybridized this variety of daylily. Read more about her garden in the Crabtree News, Page 2. (Photo by Jeff Burgess)
The Clinton fire chief is preparing an ordinance to present to the City Council in July calling for a special election to raise the city’s sales tax by a quarter of a cent to fund the department. Chief D.L. Webb told the council at its meeting last Thursday that if the ordinance is approved next month, the soonest the election could be held is Oct. 3. The department has been without basic funding since an illegally collected fee
was removed from city dwellers’ water and sewer bills about two years ago. County residents pay a voluntary fee to their fire departments. Also at the meeting, Police Chief John Willoughby said his officers wrote 79 speeding tickets in the past month and issued 120 citations and 87 warnings. In his monthly report, Water Department manager Richard Hink said the sewer repair project in the Northside
Shopping Mall is under way and should be completed soon. He also said McEntire Construction was awarded a $20,000 project to clean out the sediment ponds at the water treatment plant. Hink then asked for a budget amendment to add a line item to move $800,000 to the water department’s budget, on the advice of the Municipal League. The council had approved spending $300,000
for one project and another $500,000 to start the 10-year water improvement plan at its May meeting. Councilwoman Gayla Bradley said she would prefer not to sign off on the entire amount yet, putting only $300,000 in the line item until it’s time to start the bigger project. She and Shon Hastings voted against approving the line item; three councilors voted yes. Timothy Barnes was not present at the meeting.
SNYP director shares plans The Clinton mayor gained approval from the City Council at its last meeting to pay $17,500 to the county for the city’s share of funding the animal shelter. The non-profit group SNYP Arkansas is taking over the shelter on July 1. Director Lori Treat filled in the councilors on some of her plans for the shelter. She said last month’s Spay-ghetti Supper raised about $1,200. The leftover spaghetti was donated to Meals on Wheels, she said, adding that they discovered that many elderly folks who receive the meals share them with their pets. She would like
to start a pantry so that pet food can be delivered along with those meals. Treat said she intends to continue providing pets, mostly dogs, to a rescue group from Massachusetts. She said rescue groups will pay $50 for each pet, while residents who want to adopt will be charged $75 per animal. Aside from an animal control officer, which the county will continue to provide, Treat said she will have two or three part-time employees, and is actively looking for volunteers to walk and bathe dogs as well as foster homes. Those foster homes will be
supplied with food and veterinary care, she said. Treat said the next big fundraiser for SNYP will be a concert at City Park on Aug. 5. She said she has lined up a band called Southern Grass and Elvis tribute artist Tom Christopher, and is waiting on an answer from a third band. She also is looking forward to Dogtoberfest in October, and is searching for vendors to take part on that day. The event will be the same day as the Buddy Walk at the park, she said. “We can’t do this without the community’s help,” Treat said.
Sunrise mist – A recent foggy morning in Van Buren County. (Photo by Robert Gaut)
2 face drug charges in separate cases On June 6, 2017, deputies from the Van Buren County sheriff’s office, while attempting to serve a domestic violence warrant for failure to pay fines and failure to appear on 30-year-old Joshua Perry at his residence in Bee Branch, found marijuana growing on his property, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. Deputies contacted Van Buren County CID and the 20th Judicial District Drug Crime Task Force for assistance. After obtaining a search warrant, agents discovered illegal drug paraphernalia and firearms in the residence, according to the sheriff’s office. A criminal check of Perry found him to be a convicted felon. Perry was ar-
Perry rested and is being charged with felony possession of firearms by certain persons, felony possession of drug paraphernalia, and misdemeanor manufacturing of schedule V drugs (marijuana). Perry is currently incarcerated at the Van Buren County Detention Center awaiting a first ap-
Bryant pearance. In a case from May, deputies arrested Justin Russell Bryant, 37, of North Little Rock during a traffic stop. During the stop on May 19, deputies found Bryant to be in possession of illegal drugs and paraphernalia, according to a news release. Bryant was arrested and
charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, unclassified driving on suspended registration, and unclassified no proof of liability insurance. Bryant later was released on bond.
July 4th news
The Voice of Van Buren County will go to press at its regular time on Monday, July 3, 2017, and will deliver the newspapers to the Clinton Post Office that afternoon. However, carriers will not be delivering mail on July 4, so the paper will arrive in mail boxes a day later than usual that week. The Voice will be available in news racks throughout the county on Tuesday, July 4.
Recycling news
After a short respite, Van Buren County Recycling Center and the Hippe Recycling Center of Fairfield Bay are able once again to take the old CRT type – Cathode Ray Tube – televisions and computer monitors for recycling.
The same charges as before will apply. For further information call 7452409 or 745-6996.
Earthquakes
Three earthquakes have been felt in Harrison, Arkansas in the past couple of days. On Saturday, June 10, a 3.6 and a 2.4 earthquake were felt about an hour apart, and on Sunday, a 2.5 magnitude quake shook Harrison, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. On May 14, a 2.4 magnitude quake was recorded in Marshall, Arkansas. About four months ago, there was a 2.2 magnitude quake in Greenbrier, and a 2.1 quake in Searcy. No earthquakes have been recorded in Van Buren County in 2017.