Dogtown Wire

Rose Law Firm lawyer Jane Dickey has sent a letter to the Central Arkansas Water Commission withdrawing her name for consideration for a second 7-year term as a commissioner of its board.

The Arkansas Times posted a story update on this issue made controversial by the fact that Dickey’s law firm handled the work for Deltic Timber that owns the lion share of land in the important Lake Maumelle watershed.

Previous details of this ongoing issue involving a possible conflict of interest are at a link found here.

Arkansas Business staff broke the story that a senior officer of Home BancShares Inc. – that Twin City Bank is affiliated with – was thinking his/her share of the money wasn’t large enough.

The story said the officer had embezzled roughly $2.1 million. Twin City Bank President Bob Birch did verify that Brent Geels, senior vice president of Twin City Bank of North Little Rock, was no longer on the payroll.

A Home BancShares Inc. document said that no bank customer would be effected by the unauthorized cash withdrawal.

City Council meeting on July 14 at 7:00 p.m.

COMMUNICATIONS

1.Mayor Hays letter to Mr. Johnny Skillen, President USS Rich Association, re: letter offering support regarding the relocation of the USS Orleck. 

2.Charlotte Thomas, Mayor’s Office memorandum re: Application for Sunday Alcoholic Beverage Sales - Mixed Drinks, for Wayne M. Bettoney, Permittee dba Boudreaux’s Grill & Bar, 9811 Maumelle Boulevard.

PUBLIC HEARING

Please complete a public comment card and return to City Clerk before speaking 7:05 p.m.

re: O-08-53 allowing a Special Use for a Day Resource Center for the Homeless in an R-4 zone (1021 East Washington)

Fireworks confiscated by police over the weekend.

As Capt. Mike Davis said last Thursday, extra police would be on patrol to handle the yearly calls for people who illegally use fireworks near and on the July 4 holiday.

Sgt. Terry Kuykendall said Tuesday that North Little Rock police officers responded to a total of 542 complaint calls for fireworks from Sunday June 29 to Sunday July 5.

The number of citations written for this type of offense wasn’t available yet, but Kuykendall said he was told that at least one arrest was made.

Neighborhoods could sprout signs like this in Argenta if residents decide to set up a parking district.

If you think parallel parking is tricky, you should see the difficulties some city officials are having maneuvering through our parking regulations.

Ward 2 Alderwoman Debi Ross, Ward 3 Alderman Cary Gaines, and Ward 4 Alderman Charlie Hight are behind the wheel in the effort to streamline the current parking regulations. Ward 4 was not represented in this third meeting that included City Attorney Jason Carter, Code Enforcement Director Tom Wadley, and Code Officer David Schalchlin.

They are streamlining the language of these regulations in preparation to allow neighborhoods to set up restricted parking districts if they so choose. The need to go through the tedious process of examining the 10 pages that make up the city parking regulations is simple.

Wadley said that Code and the police department want definitive language in place so when they write citations there are no gray areas. There is no question that when the matter goes to court that the citation will hold up.

Arkansas Business said that Havertys Furniture at 4200 Landers Road will be closing Sept. 21.

The story said some of the 14 North Little Rock employees will then be moved to Havertys Schackleford Road store until it closes in January 2009 when a new store is scheduled to open to “consolidate” the two local stores.

A 3:24 p.m. fire at a carport at 1005 W. 13^th St. Wednesday was put out in about 30 minutes by the responding crews.

Firefighters found the wooden cabinets sunken below the concrete slab at the back of the carport used as a storage area, and its wooden ceiling burning, said Capt. Lynn Dereuisseaux’s report.

No vehicles were parked in the carport at the time. No tarp, which were made illegal Aug. 28, 2007 by ordinance 0-07-70 that could have made the fire worse.

No one was at the rental property and Dereuisseaux said door hangers were left on both apartments to notify the occupants of the incident.

Except for breaking news, the staff at Dogtown Wire will be off the web today to celebrate Independence Day. Have a safe, fun weekend.

The adoption of the Declaration of Independence is the reason we celebrate this day every year now since 1776. To recognize this, the words that Thomas Jefferson and so many others signed their names to, and so many rallied behind to take a stand against tyranny is presented below.

The bad news is Electric Department Director Joe Gertsch resigned his position June 16 after 13 years at the department and will be leaving as of today.

The good news for us is Gertsch will be starting his new job Monday to use his law degree for Southwest Power Pool (SPP) that is a form of watchdog organization that ensures electric companies comply to rules crucial to keeping our electrical power flowing.

Gertsch also holds an engineering degree.

SPP’s website said, “SPP is mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices of electricity.”

Gertsch said he was asked by Mayor Pat Hays to not say anything about the resignation until last Friday to give him time to call people to inform them that Gertsch was leaving.

The police department is running a new mandatory training class for all its officers, and Sgt. Terry Kuykendall has the bruises to show for it.

Terrible lessons were learned from the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 that have resulted in decisions by law enforcement agencies on how to deal with people determined to take lives for reasons known only to them.

“It’s an active-shooter training all of our police officers at the police department have to go through,” said Kuykendall. “It’s being taught by SWAT Team member Officer Steve Chamness and SWAT Team leader, Sgt. Patrick Shoemaker.”

Strategies on how to handle incidents involving an armed, and sometimes heavily armed, gunman or gunmen have changed in the wake of Columbine, Kuykendall said. There are the occasions when police will deal with a potentially mentally imbalanced person taking hostages in an effort to publicize their perceived problem with society by using hostage negotiators.