Dogtown Wire

The city is looking to fill two new jobs openings. The jobs are for office assistants, one class I and one class II. The deadline for applying for either job is June 30.

PAL has been using the two ball fields at the North Heights Community Center this season.

It took less than one minute for the plan 10 years in the making to be approved at the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting Monday.

  The Police Athletic League (PAL ) finally has a home at the North Heights Community Center at 4801 Allen St. PAL co-founder Sgt. Scott Yielding was on hand to receive the good news.

Parks and Rec Director Bob Rhoads said he had been given the authority to negotiate and execute the final contract with PAL, so no vote was required by the commission. There were some stumbling blocks in the negotiations, in particular the initial condition that PAL must pay a $13 fee for each of the more than 300 children who will use the ball field and new building.

Opening ceremony at Boys State.  (Steve Nawojczyk)

(Steve Nawojczyk helped set up and ran the city's Mayor's Office on Youth Services from its inception in 2000. He recently left this directorship to take a job as the Program Administrator for Community Services at the Arkansas Department of Human Services. We asked Nawojczyk to share his long connection and experiences with the annual Arkansas Boys State. The following is his account.)

 
During the first week of June for the last 16 years I have loaded up in my car and traveled the 30 miles to Conway for my yearly rejuvenation. 

Back when the gang violence was at epidemic proportions, I was serving as the Pulaski County coroner and had developed a national reputation as being one who was knowledgeable in the dynamics of gangs. 

For some reason, the people who put on the American Legion Boys State each year thought my message would be a good one for the thousand or so high school juniors from around the state to hear. 

It’s hard to call what the majority of Americans are going through as “feeling the pinch” anymore as we deal with higher prices at the gas pump, the grocery store household utilities, healthcare, higher education … the list seems endless.

We are all used to pinching pennies when dealing with the hills and valleys in our financial travels in life.

Perhaps “feeling the punch” should be the new phrase used.

As ever-increasing bills punch holes in our wallets it can’t be a surprise that the economy has overtaken the war in Iraq as the No. 1 concern of voters in recent polls .

The Rose City Crime Watch meets tonight at 7 p.m. at Rose City Police Substation at 4609 E. Broadway St. The election of a new president will be on the agenda tonight after longtime President Bobby Taylor announced his resignation.

The Airport Commission meets at 6 p.m. at the Emma W. Hall Administration Building at 204 Aviation Way on the grounds of the North Little Rock Airport.

The Baring Cross Neighborhood Assn. meets at 6:30 p.m. in the New Life Church at 13^th and Franklin streets.

The HOLT Crime Watch meets at 6:30 at the Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church at 1723 Schaer St.

City Beautiful meets at 6:30 p.m. at the Jolly Family Dentistry at 4601 Fairway Ave.

North Little Rock Landlords Assn . meets at 7 p.m. at the North Little Rock Community Center at 2700 Willow St.

The Parks and Recreation Commission meets tonight at 5 p.m. at the North Little Rock Community Center at 2700 N. Willow St.

There are two agenda items of interest before the commission. One is on the negotiations to permit the Police Athletic League (PAL ) use of the North Heights Community Center at 4801 Allen Street for its baseball program.

PAL wants to construct a building at the center that would help in running the program.

Another item involves an ongoing decision to allow a private for-profit business to teach tennis lessons at Burns Park in conjunction with the use of the tennis courts by the Little Rock-based Arkansas Tennis Assoc. (ATA ). The ATA has a lease agreement contract to use and mange the Burns Park tennis facilities in place now.

The City Attorney’s Office has been working on the legal end of clarifying who can use the city owned tennis facilities to address this issue. City Attorney Jason Carter asked for commission member input at the May 19 meeting to help him define what they want to do with this issue.

KARK-4 News interviewed family members of Timmy Nichols, 35, of North Little Rock.

The shooting took place Saturday near 15^th and Crutcher streets in the Baring Cross neighborhood.

Nichols’ brother-in-law indentified Nichols as a father which makes his death all the more tragic coming the day before Father’s Day. This is the fifth homicide of 2008.

Two boardwalks may lead people out to pavilions to take in the view of the Arkansas River in Baring Cross .

The Little Rock-based North Bluffs Development Corp. has applied for a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers to build the boardwalks off River Road. North Bluffs was founded by husband and wife team, Jim Jackson and Lisa Ferrell to bring about their Rockwater Village project to the Lower Baring Cross neighborhood.

A letter written to Mayor Pat Hays and the City Council announced the application to the Army Corps of Engineers. Ferrell asked the mayor to send a letter to the Corps affirming the city would permit the construction of the boardwalks, which is a requirement for the Corps approval process, she said.

Ferrell said the pavilions will be open to the public.

AR Travelers June Home Games: Home games played at the Dickey-Stephens Park. 6/12-6/15 vs. Tulsa; 6/16- 6/19 vs. Springfield; 6/26-6/28 vs. Midland; 6/28-6/30 vs. Frisco. Visit www.travs.com for a complete schedule and game times. For tickets call 501-664-1555.

AR Twisters June Home Games: All Home Games are played at Alltel Arena. 6/28 vs. Iowa Barnstormers for 7p.m. For tickets call 501-975-KICK (5425) or visit www.arkansastwisters.com.

June 14-21: Southern B/G 18’s Closed at the Burns Park Tennis Center. For details call 501-791-8585 or visit www.burnsparktennis.com.

June 21: XTERRA Dawg Dayz Off-Road Triathlon in Burns Park. For details visit www.dltmultisport.com or call Fred Phillips at 870-246-6686.

The dad’s in the Pacific Time Zone in the state of Washington may be some of the last to wake up today to be greeted with shouts of “Happy Father’s Day,” but they have a special tie to the day.

Sonora Smart Dodd is said to have held the first observation of Father’s Day on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Wa. to honor  her father William Jackson Smart. Dodd appropriately chose her father’s birthday which became a national holiday in 1966.

So, what did you get your dad?

Better yet, what did your dad give to you?