Roundup of Arkansas editorials

How we see it: Some Petitions Best Avoided

It’s always wise to think before signing any document.

So, when someone approaches you, requesting your signature to support placing a certain issue on the ballot, remember: It’s just as easy to say “no thanks” as it is to pick up that pen.

Various groups are floating their interests throughout our communities, hoping to gather enough signatures to get their issues on the fall ballot.

Some of these issues deserve to be placed in front of voters. The wet-dry matter in Benton County is one of them.

Others deserve no such consideration.

There are two groups pushing around petitions in hopes of amending the state constitution so they may gain monopoly control of casino gambling in Arkansas.

One group is led by businessman Michael Wasserman of Texas. He wants an amendment that would allow casinos in Boone, Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson, Miller, Pulaski and Sebastian counties. It also would grant a single corporation (Wasserman’s, of course) the right to run those casinos. And casino gambling would be prohibited anywhere else in the state.

Simultaneously, in a separate effort, professional poker player Nancy Todd is pushing petitions to get on the ballot a proposal to permit casinos in Crittenden, Franklin, Miller and Pulaski counties. Todd’s Poker Palace LLC would get exclusive rights to casino gambling.

We don’t have strong feelings about gambling one way or another. Nor do we necessarily oppose inviting an out-of-state entity to come set up shop in Arkansas.

But we do have strong feelings about writing monopolies into the state constitution. Once they’re in the constitution, even the Legislature could do nothing about those rules.

Those who live in our area and who like casinos wouldn’t benefit much from either of these proposals. After all, if either proposal passed, both Benton and Washington counties would be excluded from the casino business.

To make the November general election ballot, supporters must gather 78,133 signatures of registered voters by July 6.

If both proposals make the ballot and are approved by voters, the one that garnered the most votes would prevail over the other.

Both proposals are awful ideas. They should not be passed by voters. We’d prefer they not make it to the ballot at all.

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Jonesboro Sun, June 11, 2012.

Construction a hassle, but progress worth it

It’s going to be a mess for the next several months, but residents and motorists need to be patient as the city works to repair, replace and add to several key roadways and drainage projects on the city’s priority list of ailing/failing infrastructure.

While it will be a pain in the shock absorbers for many motorists accustomed to taking the same routes to work and through town, the road and bridge projects are past due and will improve the quality of life in Jonesboro for many years to come.

Probably the biggest hassle will be the closure of the Bridge Street bridge, June 19 through November. It’s a popular crossing from north Jonesboro to the downtown (reverse that) and points beyond.

Built in 1936, the span is in desperate need of repair and structural maintenance. City officials were wise to put off reconstruction of the bridge until the Marion Berry Parkway was opened. Otherwise, traffic along Main Street and Washington, Johnson and Matthews avenues would have been an absolute nightmare — especially Main Street where most of the traffic would have been diverted.

Kudos to the city for not putting motorists through that traffic entanglement. As nice as Jonesboro residents are, it could have led to some nasty cases of middle-finger pointing skyward.

Also on tap for much-needed construction are drainage projects along Limestone Drive and Richardson Road. Motorists in the Colony Park area will be inconvenienced for up to the next eight weeks as crews install a half dozen reinforced concrete box culverts and widen and clean Viney Slough ditch to improve storm water runoff flow.

Residents of that southeast section of town are in peril from flooding, and the project should help prevent that should heavy rains engulf the region as happened last year.

The bridge at Matthews and Gee Street will continue to be closed for several more weeks as the Craighead County Road Department replaces the bridge. City and county officials deserve a pat on the back for working together to get this project completed at a huge savings to city taxpayers. Since city residents are also county residents and, thus, county taxpayers, it’s refreshing to see county officials recognize that fact by taking on the project.

The best thing motorists can do is plan alternate routes before heading out to work, shop or play. When traffic becomes ensnarled along the alternate routes, turn up the radio, take in the scenery and chill out.

In a few months, these projects will be completed, and getting to and from your destinations will be so much more pleasant down the road. Pun intended.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 11, 2012.

Another state heard from; Get to the bottom of this, please

You might remember The Story of the Missing Money for the Trip to Hawaii. You probably can’t forget it if you’re a member of the Fort Smith Southside band. Something that cancels a trip to Hawaii doesn’t just sting, it eats from the inside.

The kids had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars-hundreds of thousands of dollars-to pay for their trip to the 50th State and home of Maui, SCUBA and active volcanos. Oh, what a trip that was going to be. The students and their families had been working to raise the money for a couple of years.

But a travel agent from Utah is accused of . . . . Let’s say he’s been fingered as being in the vicinity when much of the money turned up missing. Specific charges could be coming in the future, but that’s up to authorities.

The attorney general’s office here in Arkansas has notified the Utah man of the complaint, but hasn’t heard back from him. It’s our considered editorial opinion that if an attorney general of any state notifies you about a complaint against you, you might want to return a phone call.

And now Missouri has been heard from.

The attorney general north of the (state) border has filed suit against a travel agent named Calliope “Ope” Saaga of Sarasota Springs, Utah. And what do you know, the travel agent that the folks at Fort Smith Southside had been dealing with before their money went missing was named Calliope “Ope” Saaga of Sarasota Springs, Utah. What a coincidence.

The folks in Missouri accuse their Ope Saaga of taking about $360,000 from the Willard Band Boosters — money that they were going to use to take a trip to Hawaii this summer. (Willard, Mo., is located just a few counties north of the Arkansas line in southwestern Missouri.)

It all sounds familiar.

The kids will be fine. Not all the money disappeared. The band and boosters at Fort Smith Southside still had enough dough left over to take a trip to Florida. That’s not Hawaii, but it’s not West Texas, either. They should have fun down there, and get enough photos for next year’s yearbook. Be sure to use sunscreen, y’all.

But just because the kids are resilient, all is not right.

Let’s get to the bottom of this. Something north of $267,000 doesn’t just disappear on its own. We look forward to the results of this investigation. As do a lot of other folks in Arkansas-and Missouri.

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P.S. The folks at the Visitor Aloha Society in Hawaii sent care packages full of cookies to our band students at Southside last month. It seems the news of the missing money has made it nationwide-and not just on the mainland.

Thank y’all for the kindness. It comforts to know that there are still kind people out there, even if sometimes we get to wondering.