Stories from Wednesday, December 29, 2004

According to Dwight Witcher, President of Environmental Process Systems in Conway, Ark., the city of Eureka Springs chose the highest bid, at taxpayer expense, for wastewater treatment plant improvements. According to Robert Forrest, Eureka Springs Public Works Director, there were four bids placed: Jack Tyler, out of Springdale, bid approximately $604,000; Texas Hydronics had an incomplete bid; Environmental Process Systems bid $597,646; and ETEC Services of Little Rock bid $715,644...

Why would anyone do this: agree to be on call, possibly to be pulled away from work, play, family time, dinner, or a cozy bed in the middle of the night, to go out in hot weather or cold and take care of people who are injured or possibly dying -- and not get paid for it?...

Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) is searching for a new Golf Pro as of the first of next year. Current Golf Pro Steve Cain recently gave notice to the district he has accepted a job in Lawton, Okla., at the Lawton Country Club. Cain came to Holiday Island in 2002 from an impressive career. He was the assistant to no less a golf luminary than Ben Hogan, the champ who preceded Arnold Palmer. Hogan won four U.S. Opens...

by Kathryn Lucariello Call me Scrooge, but I don't care much for the holidays. Bah, humbug! The whole Christmas thing, to my way of thinking, has been co-opted by everyone out to make a buck. And they start early to torture you with it, even before Halloween. What's that about?...

While Prosecuting Attorney Tony Rogers has managed to get raises approved for his support staff in the 2005 county budget, there remains a possibility that the quorum court, which approved its general revenue budget by attachment at its regular December meeting, may readdress his department's budget when it holds its final meeting on Dec. 29 at 10 a.m...

Reports of a change order in the construction of the new county detention facility, at a cost to county taxpayers, is unfounded, according to County Judge Mike Botelho and Andy Douglas, on-site construction manager with M.B. Kahn. The allegations first came out during the Dec. 2 quorum court meeting when former candidate for county judge Richard Williams stated that he had a then-unnamed informed source who indicated that a change order had been effected at a cost to the county...

County employees should be getting a break on the cost of health insurance for their dependents after the county insurance committee voted to accept a bid from Robert Enzor Insurance of Camden Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 22. While the county's costs goes up $15, from $305 to $320 per month per employee, it is still $160 less than budgeted for 2005...