Stories from Thursday, April 8, 2004

Members of the Arkansas Legislative Subcommittee on Tourism got a whirlwind tour of the greater Eureka Springs area and listened to locals talk about how the legislature could help with local issues last week. State Sen. Randy Laverty of Jasper and Rep. Larry Prater of Cedarville are co-chairmen of the committee that gathered here Wednesday evening and stayed through Friday noon...

Petitions with 153 certified signatures asking for a change from the mayor/alderman form of city government in Eureka Springs to a city administrator system have been sent to the Arkansas Secretary of State. Carroll County Clerk Shirley Doss said she was "putting them in the mail" Monday...

The Holiday Island Planning Commission (HIPC) is still working on a draft of its revised building regulations for 2004, and Secretary Myrna Peterson presented some draft definitions Friday. HIPC's "Regulations for Construction and Residential Habitation" was last revised in June 2001. Since then, the commission has changed its policies or discussed changing its policies on a number of issues. Sign dimensions, log homes, fencing and covenant enforcement are some of these issues...

Carroll County Sheriff's investigators found another abandoned methamphetamine lab in a field in the area of County Road 501 south of Berryville Friday evening, according to Sheriff Chuck Medford. Investigators Jason Hunt and Alan Hoos were called to the area by a member of the public who found the remains of an anhydrous ammonia meth lab that had apparently been abandoned by the users...

BERRYVILLE ---- Quorum Court members on Friday toured the new 46,000-square-foot jail facility that is under construction on Hailey Road. The 106-bed county jail is "on schedule" and slated for completion in December. Several Justices of the Peace, along with media personnel and County Judge Mike Botelho, met with Bill Hoff, site manager with M.B. Kahn Construction Company, to view progress at the site...

State Senator Randy Laverty and State Representative Phil Jackson presented a check for $10,290 in Arkansas General Improvement Funds to the Carroll County Airport Commission during its regular meeting Thursday night. The check represents 51 percent of the state's $21,000 appropriation to the airport for 2004, which is earmarked to establish fuel service at the airport...

GREEN FOREST ---- Jerry Lowery, founder of Made in the Ozarks, a business that reportedly raked in more than a million dollars a year, has launched a second venture ---- Made in America, Inc., which he says "has the potential to do $30 million in sales annually."...