Dogtown Wire

The family of Paul Suskie is just days away from having him back at home from his second deployment to the Middle East.

Our city’s ex-City Attorney and currently chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission Governor Mike Beebe appointed Suskie to has been in Iraq since January. He was serving with the Arkansas National Guard as a judge advocate general (JAG), as he did during a previous deployment to Afghanistan.

Below is a list of North Little Rock’s mayors. Voters elected Ross L. Lawhon, a Texan by birth, to six terms – one more than William F. “Casey” Laman and Patrick Hays.

But Hays, now in his 20th consecutive year as mayor, has served longer than anyone and may seek a record-tying sixth term in the November election.

During Lawhon’s tenure, the terms were two years and twice he didn’t finish out his terms. Accused of public drunkenness in January 1929, the flamboyant Lawhon resigned moments before the City Council intended to convene an impeachment hearing. At the same meeting, Lawhon announced he would run for a second term in that April’s mayor’s election, which he won handily.

Lawhon also won the mayor’s office in April 1931, but resigned a few months later to accept a position as North Little Rock postmaster. He returned to city politics in 1937, winning a fourth term as mayor. However, Otis W. Neely defeated Lawhon in 1939 and was elected mayor to four consecutive terms.

If you have a taste for Starbucks Coffee you better hurry. It won’t show up as store No. 4 located at 4120 E. McCain Blvd. on the caffeine company’s website much longer.

The North Little Rock Starbucks has been put on the list of the 600 stores it plans to close from now until March 2009.

My favorite store bought brand recently went from $5 to $8 for the big can that shows that the gas prices may be having an impact on other fuels.

The Arkansas Times has an article from yesterday about the Arkansas Clean Coal Technology Conference finishing up today at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.

The city’s buy-in of the Plum Point Unit No. 1 power plant is scheduled to come online in 2010 and is hoping to bring relief for electric customers in the city.

At that point the rate paid for our power is estimated to go from about $80 a megawatt to $45 and will satisfy about half of our normal power needs. There is a second phase to the city’s Electric Department plan in the works to buy-in to another power plant to take care of the other half of our estimated needs.

City Street Department empoyees finishing up the buried water lines at the city riverfront RV park Thursday.

The buried water and sewer lines at the city’s new RV park are scheduled to be essentially complete today, but they are installed without the required plan approval by the Arkansas Department of Health’s (ADH ) Engineering Department.

Jeff Stone, the head engineer for ADH, said Wednesday by phone that a construction site can be prepped for the placement of water and sewer piping, but no pipe can be placed or buried until plans have been approved.

It appears there may have been a communication problem between the city and the ADH during a meeting at the RV park project site late last week.

“When we down there they indicated that we just needed to get them some plans and that’s what I jumped on immediately, City Engineer Mike Smith said Thursday. “So we’re just waiting on their response now.”

Smith said the plans were delivered Tuesday and that he had called his contact at ADH earlier, but no one was available.  

(From UALR.edu/art)

Friday, July 18

Open Mic “Stanza Extravaganza” Night July 18 from 8:30 to 11 p.m. at the Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative at 1419 S. Main St. in Little Rock. Visit http://acacarkansas.wordpress.com/ or call 244-2979.

The Feminine Freak Show Burlesque at the Public Theatre at Seventh and Center streets in Little Rock starting at 9:30 p.m. Age 21-up, cost is $12 ~ Call 374-7529.

Godspell is playing at The Weekend Theatre at Seventh and Chester streets in Little Rock. Visit http://www.weekendtheater.org/upcoming-shows/ or call 374-3761.

Arkansas Art Center is open Tuesday - Saturday 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. The exhibits, Hot Color Cool Glass and Cereal Inquiries are running through July 27.
Visit http://www.arkarts.com/ or call 372-400.

The possibility that if Dwayne Dobbins is elected again for the House District 39 seat he once held he will be blocked from taking the seat by a rule being proposed by the soon-to-be House Speaker Robbie Wills.

KTHV posted the story on this just before noon.

Dobbins has been making the rounds in the district lately, including an appearance at the recent Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality meeting held last week in Protho to discuss a cleanup proposal at Koppers Inc.

Resident and local businessman Bubba Lloyd confirmed yesterday by phone he has picked up the petition paperwork Monday from City Clerk Diane Whitbey.

Lloyd said he hasn’t made the final decision whether he will run for mayor yet but added, getting the required 30 signatures from registered voters would be first step towards it.

 “I will proceed in getting the signatures to get that at out of the way for whatever decision I make,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd said he has been thinking about a run for the mayoral seat for quite a while now, but especially after projects such as the trolley car line and Big Dam Bridge were approved.

Mayor Pat Hays said he held resolution R-08-112 that would give the Arkansas Traveler’s the right to manage parking spots on Willow Street at Monday’s City Council meeting to look into further options.

Though there are some parking spots off the street that are built into the western edge of Dickey-Stephens Park that are actually within the boundaries of the ballpark. These were laid out in the design of the ballpark.

These do not seem to be as contested as the parking spots that existed before the construction of the ballpark to the east of Willow Street. This led to the mayor sponsoring this resolution.

These spots have been blocked off with cones for months now by a valet company hired by the Travelers’ organization owned Bill Valentine’s Restaurant for the use of its customers.

You may wonder about the safety of crossing the Junction Bridge after reading a Fox 16 story posted last night.

There appears to be some confusion over who is responsible for the North Little Rock side of the bridge that the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office said it would have a meeting on today.

The Junction Bridge has been the scene of the drowning death of 23-year-old Johnathan Pinkston and vandalism of one of its elevators since its opening.

Bill Ann Myers , chairperson of the Junction Bridge Facilities Board, has said she is looking into a ban on the use of skateboards on the bridge.

A June op-ed piece by contributing writer Eric Francis addresses concerns and possible solutions to safety issues after observatons of the crowd  during Riverfest.