Dogtown Wire

If you missed it yesterday, Argenta News has some shots of President Bush’s motorcade as it wound through the city yesterday afternoon.

Scott Miller laments about high end politicians not being able to walk amongst the unwashed masses anymore. The closest I ever got to a Washington politician was in 1968 when Bobby Kennedy drove through our little town Of North Cohocton one day. He was perched on the back seat of a big 60s convertible and as he stopped at the main stop sign (we only had four) he greeted and talked to a small crowd of towns folks for about five minutes.

Unfortunately the Wire wasn’t invited to the President’s round table on housing foreclosures hosted by Family Service Agency here in North Little Rock. This KTHV report will have to suffice for the news on his visit.

The Dogtown Wire hit a milestone yesterday when the 100^th reader registered to comment online. We want to say thank you “Shamrock” for helping us hit this mark and to everyone who has registered and are posting comments to the articles on the Wire.

We want to say thanks as well to the 3,420 unique visitors (which is defined as a visitor/viewer from a single computer) who have viewed the site whether they registered to comment or not. As of Friday this has garnered more than 20,000 pageviews for the site.

As with any publication traditional or online, the number of subscribers or viewers and their support is its life blood that tells the tale whether it will continue to publish.

With help from a small group of contributing writers, press releases and other pertinent information articles sent to us, and those sent as tips from readers we have published more than 250 pieces on the Wire in eight short weeks.

But we can do more, so we are still asking for and very much need to find residents to become citizen journalists to bring more local news to every street in the city. Any of our readers can send in stories, op-ed pieces, stand alone photos, or at least tips for stories by connecting through This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

McCain Mall has been at 3929 McCain Boulevard since 1973 and it is going to keep serving Central Arkansas for years to come, said Lisa Meyer, director of Mall Marketing last Thursday.

A link to the thread on the website UrbanPlanet.org about titled “McCain Mall, The demise of North Little Rock's mall” was emailed to the Wire back in early June which had a rumored $6 million renovation at McCain Mall.  

But a call to the Indianapolis, Ind.-based Simon Property Group Inc. that manages the mall bought only the fact that Meyers would be the person to answer questions regarding the mall once she came back from vacation.

The first question posed concerned the rumored high dollar renovation and was quickly put to rest.

“I don’t know of any $6 million renovation, I’m not aware of a renovation, but if there were one I’d tell you,” said Meyers, who has worked at the mall for 13 of its 35 years.

President George Walker Bush will be in North Little Rock today to discuss the housing foreclosure crisis at a round table discussion hosted by the Family Service Agency.

A story by of all media giants, Canadian Business Online , has the news of what will be discussed before the President heads to Little Rock for a $150-a-plate Arkansas Republican Party fundraiser. For $5,000 you get to a have your photo taken with Bush.

NWAnews.com has a story about a 12-year-old Conway boy who will meet the President to receive a President’s Volunteer Service Award.

It appears that we have a bicycling hero supporting our city kids.

Mayor Pat Hays proclaimed Saturday Peggy Muncy Day after Muncy returned from a 3,415 mile cross-country bike trip to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas.

Muncy is a former board member of the Boys and Girls Club and raised almost $20,000 on the ride. You can view some of the photos of Muncy’s trip at her blogsite .

About 12 Street and Electric Department employees were busy at the city's new riverfront RV park Monday.

North Little Rock Street and Electric departments employees were busy putting in utilities at the city’s new riverfront RV park Monday.

Excavation work on the park began last Monday with Electric Department employees showing up about two hours after his crew had opened up trenches for them, said Street Department Director Patrick Lane.

Lane said he has had about three large excavating machines on site to fill the two dump trucks. The crew includes two operators, two truck drivers and 2-3 employees to lay water pipes. There were about 4-5 Electric Department workers on hand Monday suing a smaller track hoe putting in conduit for the power boxes to be used by the recreational vehicles.

The city is building the RV park – the plans now show 68 RV pads, with all but five having water and electrical hookups – to first enable organizers and volunteers of the Family Motor Coach Assoc. (FMCA ) to park their RVs during its Sept. 24 to 28 rally.

Officials from UALR, Central Arkansas Water , and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Arkansas Water Science Center entered a partnership today that will integrate environmental education with valuable research aimed at protecting and enhancing the area’s drinking water sources.

The agreement, announced at the shore of Lake Maumelle , creates the Central Arkansas Watershed Center of Excellence. The collaboration will allow UALR students and faculty and USGS scientists to work together to improve water quality in Central Arkansas and to inspire students to pursue graduate education in scientific careers.

Capt. Don Payne said firefighters arrived Thursday morning at 11:44 a.m. and found heavy smoke and fire coming from the attached garage at the rear of the house in the Pike View neighborhood at 4717 West St.

A chainsaw was used to cut a hole in the roof for vertical ventilation, with positive-pressure fans used for additional ventilation. Firefighters placed an upright brace to the roof of the covered walkway leading to the garage from the side of the house that had been weakened by the fire.

After salvaging items within the house, a “salvage cover” was put in place to prevent further water damage.

North Little Rock is a bundle of small towns with names like Argenta, Baring Cross, Levy and Rose City, among others.

Throw in, too, the 19th century names of DeCantillon and Huntersville.

Each has a history of its own that rests as much on legend as fact.

Before the railroads took hold economically in the 1870s and ‘80s, the north side of the Arkansas River nourished a smattering of homesteads (and plantations down river). Agriculture, timber, hunting, mining and two ferry terminals provided livelihood in the locale, identified on Civil War era maps as “The north side of the Arkansas River opposite Little Rock.”

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ ) has scheduled a public meeting and hearing for Koppers, Inc. (Beazer East, Inc) to be held July 10, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Glenview Community Center, located at 4800 East 19th Street in North Little Rock, Arkansas.  Koppers, Inc. is located at 2201 Edmonds Street in North Little Rock. 

ADEQ received the Corrective Action Strategy Risk Management Plan (RMP) for Koppers, Inc, (Beazer East, Inc.) wood treating facility on March 6, 2007.  The RMP proposed remedial actions concerning releases of hazardous substances into the soil and groundwater.  The RMP was approved by ADEQ on October 31, 2007, and has developed a Remedial Action Decision Document (RADD) to implement the proposed remedies.  Based upon the comments received during the hearing and at the close of the comment period, ADEQ will prepare a final RADD containing the Department’s final decision.