Recollections

50 Years Ago

Pea Ridge Graphic

Vol. 4 No. 34

Thursday, Aug. 21, 1969

An irate Pea Ridge City Council, meeting in regular session Thursday night, took a long, hard look at the situation in which it says that its decision are being overridden or ignored. Triggering the ire of the governing body was action taken since the July meeting by the local Water Department in what the council said was disregarding a decision of the council. The council expressed deep concern over the financial status of the city unless curtailments are made on "unauthorized" spending. In connection with the subject the council discussed other instances in which "someone" was disregarding official actions of the governing body. The council foreseeing such a possibility several months ago, had passed a ruling that purchases of $300 or more would have to have council approval. It was discussed at Thursday night's meeting that $300 was too lax and that a tighter rein was going to have to be drawn on city expenditures, possibly one saying that the council would pay no bills that had not been authorized by the council, itself.

Dale H. Rice, chairman of the Benton County Republican Committee, announced that at a recent meeting of the committee members representing various sections of the county, the committee unanimously supported the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport authority and recommended approval of the issuance of Amendment No. 49 Bonds which will provide for a regional airport to serve Benton and Washington counties. This is believed to be the first group in Benton County to publicly endorse the passage of special funds necessary to create an all-weather airport.

A band director has been hired for the Pea Ridge schools. School superintendent Andrew Widener announces that the new director is C. A .Hartley.

It is said that Ozarka Water Co. of Eureka Springs shipped the greatest volume of water by rail from Garfield last month that it has ever shipped in a single month -- a total of 20 carloads, or about 200,000 gallons. All of the spring water was headed for Texas and Oklahoma.

40 Years Ago

Pea Ridge Graphic Scene

Vol. 14 No. 34

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 1979

At a special meeting Saturday morning, the Pea Ridge City Council interviewed applicants for employment with the city's Street and Water departments and approved the hiring of one. Interviewed were Bob Guyll and Rick Webb. The council approved Guyll for employment on a 90-day probationary period at a wage of $4.95 per hour. He has been working for the City of Rogers. Hardy offered the job to Guyll, who accepted and will begin working in Pea Ridge Sept. 4.

Fund raising, an anniversary open house, and board structure were considered by the Pea Ridge Community Library Board Tuesday night. In another fund raising project, it was reported that the sewing machine donated by Adeline Sanger had brought a contribution of $30 to the special fund earmarked for restoring the library's Wednesday hours, which had been cut for lack of city funds.

Blackhawk Boosters of Pea Ridge held their first meeting of the new school year, elected officers, discussed activities and fed watermelon to the athletes. Elected president succeeding Fred Sutton was Rick Webb; Randy Easterling was elected vice-president and Patsy Dye was re-elected secretary and treasurer. Upon receipt of the financial report, the club members voted to pay the balance due on the football sled instead of waiting until the due date. Webb appointed Easterling to be chairman of the season tickets sales this year with help from committee members Shirley Sutton and Betty Davis. Webb will serve as membership chairman and appoint helpers later.

30 Years Ago

The TIMES of Northeast Benton County

Vol. 24 No. 34

Thursday, Aug. 24, 1989

Passage of a bond issue in a Sept. 19 referendum will permit the Pea Ridge School District to construct a library/media center to serve all 12 grades, said superintendent Marvin Higginbottom. Higginbottom said that the 4,000-square-foot facility would be built adjacent to the band room at a cost of $115,000. He said that the center would house all of the video aids such as VCRs and projectors. Higginbottom said that the center would be a depository for new and better research materials. He said that an additional $45,000 would be used on computers and equipment.The center and computers, he said, would allow "training on computer literacy and research." Chew said. "There's no reason anymore for Pea Ridge to be isolated from information."

In a special session last Thursday, the Pea Ridge City Council opened sealed bids it received for the 1978 Malibu and 1979 Chevrolet police cars. The cars were retired from the Police Department when it purchased two 1989 police units approximately two weeks ago. The council voted to donate to the high school the 1977 Dodge. The franchise tax with Continental Telephone was put into law and be seen by subscribers on their January 1990 telephone bill. The franchise tax by the city is 4% of the monthly base rate. The tax will generate approximately $3,000 annually for the city's general fund.

20 Years Ago

The TIMES of Northeast Benton County

Vol. 34 No. 34

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1999

A welding shop was a total loss after a Friday afternoon fire on Gann Ridge road in Garfield. Firefighters responded to the fire at the shop, owned by Renard Bray, at 5:09 p.m. A nearby trailer was not damaged. "It was a big welding shop, and had all kinds of other stuff in it. It was pretty well involved when we got there," said NEBCO Fire Chief Joe Phillippe. A man who had been working at the scene of the fire said he had heard a popping noise near an electrical box, Phillippe said. Firefighters from NEBCO Fire Department were assisted by the Avoca Fire Department, the Pea Ridge Fire Department and the Seligman, Mo., Fire Department.

"We teach children music, not music to children," says David Dickey, band director at Pea Ridge Schools for the last 10 years. When he began, the band program had 80 students, new uniforms and a fairly new parents' booster organization. In 10 years, the program has grown to 140 students with a band that wins ones and twos at state and regional contests. They are also half way to their fund-raising goal to buy new uniforms for next year when Pea Ridge moves into it new high school building. Dickey credits a supportive administration, School Board and booster organization for the continuing success of the program. During this year at Pea Ridge, he was the only music teacher, handling band, choir and elementary music.

The Pea Ridge City Council passed a rezoning ordinance and authorized preparing an ordinance to raise water and sewer rates. The rezoning ordinance, which changes two lots on Smith Street from residential to commercial, clears the way for the construction for a larger IGA store, to be built adjacent to the current store on the north side. Scherer said the new IGA store will increase revenues approximately 30 percent and employee five to seven more workers. The new business in the old store will employ 20-25 people and add $1 million in revenue for the city.

10 Years Ago

The TIMES of Northeast Benton County

Vol. 44 No. 34

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009

For now, the campaign is called "Move the Pea Bowl." Community members and reminiscing Pea Ridge High School alumni met Tuesday at the school to discuss the prospect of building a new stadium, field and fieldhouse on campus. The school has allotted $500,000 for a new stadium, but the entire project is estimated to cost $3 million. "There's got to be substantial money raised before (the school)says we can have that money," Joshua Ramsey said. "Once the community sees something happening, they're going to want to get involved, especially people like you and me who went to school here," Daniel Fletcher said. The group discussed fundraising options, tag lines, marketing schemes and forming an official board, but no major action was taken.

Michael Ogburn is the new chairman of the Pea Ridge Parks Commission. Appointed by the mayor the preceding week at a meeting with Mayor Jackie Crabtree and fellow commission member Bill Ryan, Ogburn chaired the regular monthly meeting in the mayor's office. The Parks Commission oversees the design and maintenance of the city's parks properties. For several years, the commission ran the Mule Jump which is now being organized by a community group. Discussion centered on what the agenda for the commission should be and how to bring the city park up to legal codes required for handicap accessible facilities. "Getting it up to codes, bathrooms, handicapped accessible..." Ogburn said of the immediate needs for the commission.

Selecting the same engineering firm which constructed the city's sewer treatment plant, City Council members accepted the recommendation from Mayor Jackie Crabtree and water/wastewater superintendent Ken Hayes for McGoodwin, Williams and Yates to assist in the work needed to bring the city's facilities up to standard. Hayes told the council members last month that the city had received warning from the state Health Department that work needed to be done to the plant. The possible increase of city sewer rates was discussed but no action was taken.