District school board meeting focuses on St. Paul School

BY JANELLE RIDDLE White River Valley News

The Nov. 10 meeting of the Huntsville School District board took place in the cafeteria on the St. Paul School campus. All board members came early to tour the campus and have supper prepared by lunchroom supervisor Linda Shackelford and her assistants. Following the opening ceremony and unanimous approval of the consent agenda, Superintendent Shelby Sisemore said, “The focus of our board meeting tonight is St. Paul. We toured the facilities this evening, and they look really good.” Sisemore asked St. Paul Principal David Borg to present a status update about St. Paul School. “Welcome to the Best Small School in Arkansas,” Borg began. “I truly believe that we are the best for many reasons.” He said that high school enrollment at St. Paul is currently 138 with 127 students in the elementary. “While this is down 6 percent from last year, this can be largely accounted for by comparing this year’s kindergarten class of 13 to last year’s graduating class of 28.” Borg presented a lengthy list of achievements and ne - Thursday, November 20, 2008

State champs Elkins Cross Country Team takes state championship

ELKINS -- Saturday, November 8th proved to be a special day for the Elkins High School Cross Country Teams. Both the Boys and Girls Teams won State Championships in the competition held in Hot Springs. This is an especially big honor as this is the first time Elkins has ever won the State Championship. From the beginning of the season, until the end, the team was amazing. Coach Beverly Mabry said “This is one of the most united teams I ever had the privilege to coach.” For the 3A State Championship the top seven runners are scored to come up with the team score results and it was a 5k run. In the Girl’s competition Elkins Junior, Grace Heymsfield placed first with a time of 18:45.64 and sophomore, Taylor Fennell placed seventh with a time of 22:00.56. Both girls made the All State Cross Country Team as well. In the Boy’s competition, freshman, Christian Heymsfield placed second with a time of 17:06.21. Christian also received All State Honors and placed second overall. - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Community Events

Elkins Fundraiser A Cross Country fundraiser Soup Supper will be held Tuesday, Nov. 25, at the Elkins High School Cafeteria from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Bids to go out for trash pick up

BY PAT HARRIS White River Valley News

ELKINS -- Trash pick up could be changing in the city next year either with higher rates or a different waste management company. Chairman of the Water and Sewer Committee Mike Lemaster announced at its meeting Thursday that Roll Off, the company currently serving Elkins, is planning to increase its rates January 1 due to increased costs at the landfill. If the city remains with Roll Off the rates on the smallest residential trash container would go from $8 a month to $9.12, the medium container would go from $12.10 a month to $18.81; and the largest container would go from $16.50 to $18.81 a month. Commercial containers would increase from $3.17 per yard to $3.61 per yard. “What we’re proposing is to take bids again,” Lemaster said. - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Commission gives OK to lot split

BY PAT HARRIS White River Valley News

ELKINS -- The Elkins Planning Commission held a brief meeting Monday evening to make a decision on a lot split and discuss a potentially dangerous drainage ditch. Vice chairman Jeremy Stevens called the meeting to order. The county lot split for Justin Jorgenson was approved by all members who were present for the meeting with only a question about easements on the property. Planning Commission leader Don Cryder asked each member to take a look at a property on Kelly Lynn Street that has a drainage ditch at the edge of it. It drains onto the next property and the owner of it considers it to be a danger. “The drain runs through his property, but he’s not concerned about the erosion -- he’s concerned about safety,” Cryder said. “He’s concerned a child could get into it and drown.” Cryder said he would invite both the developer of the Kelly Lynn property in the Miller’s Meadows subdivision and the owner of the other property to the next meeting. “We’ll see what can be done then after you take a look at it.” The - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Holiday time can be stressful time of year

To see a world in a grain of sand: This time of year begins a period which has become a time of stressful expectation as well as a welcome anticipation. There is pressure to shop, entertain, be celebratory, cook, travel, visit, give and receivegifts, and overextend ourselves financially and emotionally. An ideal image of perfect occasions has led to many a let-down when it turns out nothing can be perfect. The holiday gathering that becomes a free-for-all accusatory visit has become a sad, classic, “entertainment” plot for too many movies and television shows. We actually do have much for which to be thankful. But the most sincere gratitudes are generated not by force or expectation or requirement. Please join me in an attempt to not rush the season, but instead to take the time we here in the United States have designated to give thanks. Last week, I listed eight words which are used to define the word thankful. Two of those synonyms are “happy” and “pleased.” These words seem more self-centered than others - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Two local high schools ditch lockers

BY BRETT BENNETT Northwest Arkansas Times

High school lockers often represent more than just a place to store books and materials between classes. The locker is a place where boys ask girls on dates, students meet up with each other and plans are made. It can also provide a place where students can develop interior decorating skills, and many plot-propelling scenes in high school movies take place at lockers in the school hallways. At two Washington County high schools, however, student life is different. Greenland and Prairie Grove high schools do not provide lockers for their students. “I believe any school that wanted to do this could. It’s just a matter of commitment,” Prairie Grove Principal Ron Bond said. “Some people are a little surprised, but overall, we haven’t had complaints about it,” Greenland Principal Hope Dorman said. - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Following God's words

I’m wondering if socialism is our culture’s answer the Jesus-followers have created by NOT following what Jesus says regarding the poor and needy: a “pure and undefiled religion” is to care for the orphans and widows in their distress and to love our neighbors as ourselves. - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Greenland considers sales tax to prop up schools

BY BRETT BENNETT Northwest Arkansas Times

The Greenland City Council will consider holding an election next year to levy a sales tax in support of the local school district. Greenland Public Schools is currently under state control and is on the Arkansas Department of Education’s fiscal distress list. Alderman Bill Groom, who was also president of the Greenland Board of Education before the takeover, discussed the idea at a council meeting this week. His proposal involves asking voters to extend an existing tax that is set to expire. The city currently has a sales tax levy of 2 cents on the dollar. A 1-cent portion of the tax dedicated to a sewer project is set to expire, and it could be replaced with a 1-cent tax that would divert money to the schools, Groom said. “The timetable I’ve looked at is probably having an election in February or March. Then the tax would take effect July 1, 2009,”he said. Based on current revenues, he estimated the tax would generate $100,000 annually that could help the school district. One issue that remains to be discus - Thursday, November 20, 2008

St. Paul city council hears environmental concerns

BY JANELLE RIDDLE White River Valley News

Following routine city council business on Nov. 11, St. Paul Mayor Richard Burton and city council members listened to Boston Mountain Solid Waste District Deputy Enforcement Officer Mike Harp as he presented the results of a recent assessment of environmental law violations in St. Paul. Acting on an anonymous complaint about St, Paul School children having respiratory problems caused by smoke from burn barrels being used in the vicinity of the school’s playgrounds, Harp and Burton recently toured the town and found “three-four burn barrels within a one-block radius of the school,” Harp said. He told the group that burning and dumping of household trash has been illegal in Arkansas since 1972. He said that burning yard waste was permissible, however. Harp said that a private landfill had recently been cleaned up not too far from St. Paul and that 70 tons of waste had been removed from it. “The land owner has to pay the expense of cleaning up such sites,” Harp said. It was the consensus of the city council mem - Thursday, November 20, 2008

Lights of the Ozarks going on

Northwest Arkansas Times

Fayetteville residents will carry on a longtime tradition Saturday with this year’s Lights of the Ozarks. The lighting of the Fayetteville Square has been set for 6:15 p.m., preceded by a parade. Each year, Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Division workers spend more than 2,000 hours decorating the downtown Square with 450,000 lights. Light the Night has been chosen as the theme for this year’s event. - Thursday, November 20, 2008