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USPS 035-740The Heart of the Arkansas River Valley for a Century

WEDNESDAY, January 14, 2009 — NO. 8

inside The Chronicle

Opinions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

School ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

sPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ,7

Legals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . 8

Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Atkins Chronicle50¢

Welcomed each week into the home of Arril Barton

Calendar

www.atkinschronicle.com

Winner of the arkansas press association general excellence award

ONE HUNDRED AND Fourteenth YEAR ATKINS (POPE COUNTY) ARKANSAS 72823

Thursday, Jan. 15 — Atkins Lions Club, noon, First United Methodist Church, visi-tors welcome

Thursday, Jan. 15 — Hector City Council, 7 p.m., city hall

Thursday, Jan. 15 — Pottsville School Board, 7 p.m., junior high school library

Monday, Jan. 19 — Pea Ridge Fire Department Board, 6 p.m. Pea Ridge Fire Station.

See Hector on page 8

Atkins After Prom is spon-soring a Macho Miss contest on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Atkins High School Auditorium. Join our celebrity judges for an evening of fun. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students. All proceeds will be going to the Atkins After Prom.

Macho Miss contest Saturday

2008 Year in reviewcontinued from last week’s isssue

About 34 People for a Better Atkins spent time in its first 2009 meeting Thursday night planning for annual events. On March 7 the group will honor the 2008 Citizen of the Year. President Chuck Col-f lesh appointed J. L. Austin as chair of the selection com-mittee which will also include John Sunderland, Mary Cole, Sherry Reel and Dottie Wright. See the attached story for more informa-tion.

Colflesh spent time consulting with members about com-mittee chairmen for the various events of Picklefest May 15-16. Most of those who headed committees last year agreed to do it again but said they would welcome a new person to take over. The group dis-cussed appointing co-chairs so that others would be learning how to take over the duties. J. L. Austin said he is in contact with someone who may donate pickles for the festival. John and Kay Sunderland will attend the Arkansas Festival annual meeting in January.

Memberships for the 2009 year are being accepted. The $5 per person fee can be paid to Sherry Reel (890-6421) or can be paid at The Atkins Chronicle.

Renee Taylor gave the financial

report, which indicated the group has $10,496.31 in the bank. This is after most transactions from the memorial Christmas in the Park sign project, the Christmas parade and the Christmas basket project have cleared. The sign project netted almost $1,300. A few bills from the basket project have not been paid.

David Lindsey told the group

206 Christmas baskets were given out. He said there was no problem finding recipients this year; however, more food and more toy donations were needed.

A problem was reported con-cerning the Christmas parade. PBA will need to be careful to police the Cotton Yard area at the Church of the Assumption where the parade begins each year. Beer cans and broken glass

were found there the day after the parade.

Charles Baker asked to be replaced as a member of the beautification committee, saying it was somewhat a con-flict of interest with his position as chair of the Atkins Planning Commission. Colflesh appointed Doyle Cook to fill the position of beautification chair with the

rest of the committee remaining the same as it was.

David Lind-sey reported on the Christmas lights and on the electrical access and brackets on the posts. He said many of the bulbs on the decorations are being blown out in the process of trans-porting them and putting them up. He suggested the group spend time before next year to replace missing brackets and make sure power is available. He also

said he has been working on the plug-ins on the posts so that they will be ready for Picklefest.

Colflesh also took a poll of those willing to take on jobs for the October Po’ Boy Dinner and Auction, one of the group’s big-gest fundraisers. People seemed willing to take on the same responsibilities they had last year.

The next PBA meeting will be Feb. 12.

The PBA Citizen of the Year Committee is seeking nominations for Atkins Citizen of the Year 2008. Nomi-nations should describe the accomplishments of the nominee, emphasizing what that person did in 2008. Contact information for the nominee and for the nomi-nator should be included. The chosen nominee will be honored at a special event at the W. J. Matthews Civic Center Saturday, March 7.

The deadline for the nominations is Feb. 10, 2009. They should be mailed to Citizen of the Year, c/o People for a Better Atkins at P. O. Box 474, Atkins, AR 72823. Or they can be submitted at The Atkins Chronicle at 204 Ave. One NE in Atkins.

Citizen-of-the-Year nominations needed

PBA launches plans for eventsThanks! — Chuck Colflesh, PBA president, right, gives Doyle Cook a plaque at Thursday’s meeting for his service as PBA president last year.

Atkins Old-Timers basket-ball game, sponsored by the Atkins Booster Club, will be held Saturday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. at the Atkins High School gym. Players must have been out of school at least five years to play. Ladies, contact Kay Reel at 264-4280. Men, contact Leon Bobo at 857-5366.

Old-timers basketball game set

I ns i d

e

November 5A record election turnout was

happening. Pope County had more than 9,000 early voters.

The Quorum Court Budget Committee approved more than $350,000 in expenditures.

Halloween costumes were feature in color on the back page, include county courthouse employees.November 12

Barack Obama was elected as the first black American presi-dent, although losing to John McCain in Pope County and Arkansas. All five state ballot issues passed.

In Pope County, Aaron Duvall, Democrat, was elected sheriff, Karen Martin was reelected county assessor, and the Pottsville sales tax increase

passed. Andrea Lee and Robert Dale were elected to the legisla-ture.

Atkins Police Chief Charles Martin announced that he would retire at the end of the year, and Mayor Jerry Don Barrett said he would appoint Assistant Chief Tim Whittenburg as chief. November 19

The Atkins City Council was told about a cat problem at the J. M. Jones residence.

A pet Jack Russell terrier, lost out of his truck at Pottsville was found after several phone calls and help from several Pottsville residents. The Florida resident drove from Illinois to be reunited with the dog at the home of Tammy Kibler.

Atkins school district employ-ees got a bonus of $300.

November 26J. B. Murdoch of Atkins

received five medals for his World War II service, which he didn’t know he deserved until two years ago. One was a bronze star.

Pottsville employees got a $1,000 bonus.

Hector school employees got a $350 bonus.

The Harkey Fund is down because of the economy, the count Library Board was told.

Pottsville police will be allowed to be paid for unused vacation time. Vernon Lawhorn received a plaque for his service at Pottsville Fire Chief.

Jeff and Darla Embry are managing in difficult financial times.December 3

Senior Red Devils were grand

marshals of the Atkins Christ-mas parade.

Wal-Mart was evacuated by a by a bomb threat, but dogs found no bomb.

Chief Charles Martin was awarded his gun by Mayor Jerry Don Barrett upon his retire-ment.

The Atkins Water Department received a water fluoridation award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for 12 months of fluoridation.December 10

PBA asked for help for Christ-mas activities, including toys for Christmas baskets and help packing the baskets.

Wal-Mart had a second bomb threat and evacuation.

A section of Old Wire Road (Southeast Fourth Street) in Atkins

was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. It was one of the few remaining seg-ments of the old military road built in 1928 and used for the Chero-kee removal to Oklahoma. It was called the Little Rock to Canton-ment Gibson Road.December 17

The Atkins City Council approved a reduced budget, although income was expected to be higher.

Jack Pack and Sawyer Shan-non were named to the All-State football team.

Moira Murdoch won the Atkins middle school spell-ing bee and Bailey Thomas was runner-up. Both will go to the county bee.

The Pope County Quorum Court passed a 2009 budget.

By Ginnie TysonThe Atkins School Board

Monday night signed papers to issue construction bonds for the remaining $1,210,000 of the funds needed to complete the K-8 building project.

Buster Beardsley of First Security Beardsley Public Finance told the board he was surprised and very pleased that the new bonds will have an inter-est cost of only 4.604092%, a price submitted by Ross Sinclair & Associates, Inc. First Com-munity Bank of Batesville will serve as trustee. The Closing and transfer of funds is set for Jan. 22 at 10 a.m. in the offices of the Friday, Eldredge & Clark Law Firm. After bond issuance and other costs, the district will receive $1,178,105.13. The first payment of $30,107.29 is due to be paid Aug. 1, 2009, from the bond fund.

This second bond issue was necessary because it is advis-able to not issue more than $10 million at once. The $1,210,000 is the rest of the money the K-8 project needed.

Beardsley cautioned the board that meticulous record keeping must be maintained with estab-lished guidelines and chain of responsibility in order to avoid IRS or SEC audits or legislative audits.

The board spent more than a half hour in executive session before voting to rehire Superin-tendent Boyce Watkins through the 2011-2012 school year.

The board• Approved renewal of the

district’s business trip acciden-tal death and dismemberment insurance through the Arkansas School Board Association for $352.

• Agreed to hire Chester Cum-mins of the Mission Consult-ing Group for roughly $1,500 to facilitate a strategic planning process for the district. The first session will involve the board on April 4.

• Heard Superintendent Boyce Watkins outline some of the con-cerns school administrators will have in interacting with the new legislative session. Especially they will oppose any unfunded mandates.

Watkins told the board that the balance of money in the operating fund at the end of December was $2,518,009.41. The cafeteria fund balance was $64,603.41. The building fund balance was $7,197,678.65.

All members of the board were present, including Gary Simmons, who has recently had surgery, Philip Haney, Carl Warren, Paul Wayne Duvall and Stevie Duvall.

School board issues $1.2 million in bonds

By Van A. TysonA petition submitted to the

Southwest Atkins Water Users Association did not contain enough valid signatures, the association chairman was told in a letter last week.

John Choate of Tri County Regional Water Distribution Dis-trict wrote to Jerry Markham, Southwest chairman, saying that a petition calling for his resigna-tion was two signatures short of the 10 percent of eligible members required by the district bylaws.

Choate said the district has 458 members, so it would require 46 verifiable signatures for the petition to be valid. He said of the 67 names on the petition, only 44 matched with customers with accounts and “only 23 had an address to back up the signature for partial verification.”

“With the current information it is my opinion that the petition is not valid,” Choate wrote.

He also wrote, “I would suggest that at the next board meeting, you (SWA Board) consider setting some qualification requirements (account number, printed name, signature, address, etc) for future petitions.”

Markham said Monday that any future petitioners should be prepared to appear at a meeting of the membership to speak. He said the bylaws state that anyone accused will have the opportunity to answer their accusers. He said that anyone signing a petition should realize he or she is making an accusation and could be sub-

poenaed to appear at the meeting to testify about their beliefs.

The petition asked for Markham to resign or for the board to call a meeting about replacing him.

The allegations in the peti-tion were that (1) Markham was appointed to the board until July 2008, (2) the election was held improperly by not posting all open positions, (3) incorrect information was given to South-west Atkins association members regarding bylaws, and (4) the board has been “knowingly not following the Freedom of Infor-mation Act.”

Markham says he was elected properly and he has been announc-ing meetings in The Chronicle.

Gary Duvall, husband of board member Debbie Duvall, said Tuesday he disagrees with Choate’s assessment, saying that more than the 46 required signa-tures should have been counted. He named some people who signed the petition who were eli-gible voters and were not counted. He said he had discussed his con-cerns with Choate.

He also said that there were only 450 customers in October, which would require only 45 signatures, one more than those counted by Choate. He also says that Southwest Atkins board members have had some meet-ings that were not announced and the press was not notified.

He said he had no plans to pre-pare another petition because he felt that this one was valid.

SW Atkins petition found invalid

By Van A. TysonThe Hector School Board gave

Superintendent Karen Smith a 5-percent raise for 2009-10 after formally evaluating her and then heard some good and bad news about students at the regular monthly meeting Monday night.

Board President Sherri Selman said, “We have evalu-ated the superintendent and she met or exceeds all our criteria. We have increased her pay by 5 percent.”

The action came after a two-hour, 46-minute executive ses-sion.

Good news about students included a report that Dusty Duvall, a seventh-grader, was in the top 12 in the state in an essay contest in which she was com-peting with 1,500 applicants. She had to win a district and regional competitions to get to the state level.

The contest, sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, required an essay titled “Why America’s Veterans Should Be Honored.”

Hector had two of the top three in the district competition, Smith said.

She also announced that Kimberly Streetman was the winner of the school spelling bee and will be in the county spell-ing bee.

The bad news was that preg-nancy has become a problem in the schools, and high school principal Christ Rink proposed expanding sex education to the junior high level. He said one of the pregnant girls is an eighth grader out of at least five total.

Rink said he would like to provide a “watered down” ver-

Hector board hears good and bad student news

Phoenix singing to be Saturday

The monthly singing will be held this Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Phoenix Church on Buck Mountain.

The pastor, Rev. Bud Walker, who is the president, invites everybody to attend and join in.

Atkins High School is spon-soring a parent financial aid night on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 6:30 p.m., in the high school Library.

Parents and students in grades 11-12 are invited to hear Shirley Goines, Director of Financial Aid at Arkansas Tech University.

If you have questions, contact Lou Wenger, AHS Counselor, 641-1002.

AHS to hold financial aid parent night

Brr-r! Extreme cold is predicted!