Clayton House historical sweets

City Wire Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:11:44 -0500

Sunday’s chautauqua at the Clayton House centered on peach cobblers and Dutch ovens. Also, attendees got a preview of Van Buren’s Tales of the Crypt program coming up at Fairview Cemetery.
Oct. 19 @ 2:00pm
Fairview Cemetery
Van Buren, Arkansas
Posted in Arts, Education, History, Tourism Tagged: chautauqua, Clayton House, Fairview Cemetery, Tales of the Crypt, Van Buren [...]

Governor bestows national award on Fort Smith teacher

City Wire Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:00:59 -0500

FORT SMITH — Beth Parker brought a big honor to one of Fort Smith’s smallest schools Friday when she was named a 2008 Milken Family Foundation national educator.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe broke the weeks-long secret Friday during an assembly at the 195-student Cavanaugh Elementary School when he announced Parker’s name.
Source: Dave Hughes, Democrat Gazette
Posted in [...]

Operation Hope prepares law enforcement

City Wire Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:38:38 -0500

Practice makes perfect, right? Teamwork is a key in finding a missing child. That’s why Fort Smith law enforcement authorities are being proactive.
Several area law enforcement agencies will participate in a drill Wednesday searching for a “missing child” in Fort Smith.
The drill, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will involve at least 70 participants [...]

The Final Countdown on a KazooKaleyle

Feed Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:15:00 -0500

Technorati Tags: KazooKaleyle

I just don’t know what to say…

MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Glossy Screen now only $1,548.99 + FREE Parallels 3.0, Case & Printer after Rebate (was $2494)

LHC Photos and Countdown The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC will be going...
Military Increases Spending for Pinch Technorati Tags: Oceans 14,Basher,pinch,emp,military What is a pinch? [From Basher]: ...
Captain Kirk Chair I gotta get me one of these! Its supposed to...

ATV's FOR SALE

waunder — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:01:27 -0500

Two 07 model 4 wheelers For Sale, like new.

To look @ pictures and more infomation go to www.underwoodsproducts.com

classified page.

Quantum Encryption Unbreakable?

Feed Admin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:23:14 -0500

Technorati Tags: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle,Heisenberg Compensator,Star Trek

Scientists have developed an encryption method that challenges everyone with their claim that it is unbreakable. Based upon the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, basically it changes itself just by being observed from the outside.

Obviously, these scientists are unfamiliar with the Heisenberg Compensators that are used in normal, everyday teleportation, such as when beaming aboard the USS Enterprise.

Find out What’s New at ThinkGeek!

The spare dog

Tracy Winchell — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:21:40 -0500

Say hello to the spare dog at my house.
Yes, in many respects, he looks like Moose. Same black and white coloring. Related breeds. Moose was a Lhasa Apso. This little guy is a Shi Tzu. They are cousins and both are compared in ancient Chinese and Tibetan cultures to lions. They are protective creatures and [...]

1904 Eastgate Drive, Greenwood, Arkansas.. Fort Smith Real Estate

Fortsmithrealestate — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:31:39 -0500

Welcome to 1904 Eastgate Drive, Greenwood, Arkansas. This beautiful home is perfectly priced at $109,500, and this house is ready for you to make it a home. You can look and look,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Senator Works to Add More Doctors

Feed Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:37:20 -0500

Recently, the Fort Smith area has been experiencing a gap between medical needs and availability of health-care professionals to meet these needs. Fortunately, there are talks of adding between 50 and 60 new primary care physicians to the region to help bridge this gap.

Sparks Health System chief financial officer Dan Hamman said Wednesday the shortfall was very large and told Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., that anything she could do to help education programs for new physicians and other health-care professionals is "a must."

Lincoln spoke Wednesday in Fort Smith at the annual Arkansas Forestry Association meeting and visited Sparks Medical Center beforehand to talk to health system officials about the region's medical sector.

In response to a comment about the shortage of medical educators during discussions at Sparks, Lincoln said she is working diligently with other officials in Little Rock to get bring teaching medical doctors to Arkansas.

"For example, we're not producing enough geriatricians," Lincoln said. "We're especially not producing enough geriatricians working as academic professionals."

If there were to be more teaching doctors in Arkansas hospitals, the state would be able to produce more doctors, nurses, and other health-care professionals to help make up the shortfall the Fort Smith region is currently experiencing.

Lincoln said, since the medical education of physicians takes so many years to complete, even doing that won't produce enough doctors to meet the need for several years, but she believes that something needs to be changed immediately before conditions can get worse.

Additional action needs to be taken to give primary and secondary students a better grounding in math and science to prepare them for careers in medicine and guide them toward jobs in the health-care profession, Lincoln said.

Unfortunately, too many potential physicians are being lost to other competing career paths such as employment in high-technology jobs. When physicians are trained in residency programs in Arkansas, the Fort Smith region could accommodate more of them, according to Dr. Margaret Tremwell, Sparks chief quality officer.

"If we can bring some academic training out to the community, then we can stem some chronic illness" with better preventative care, Tremwell said.

Tremwell believes that enough talented medical doctors are here to train and educate even more resident physicians. Seven Arkansas Health Education Centers throughout the state provide clinical training to new doctors in residencies with an emphasis on primary care. In 2007, AHEC in Fort Smith was forced to decrease the number of residencies it has per year from eight to six due to limited funding.

"It always amazes me how hard we have to fight for AHEC. Why they always cut that program when it is so effective, I don't understand. In every budget, it is zeroed out," Lincoln said.

Fort Smith revenue bonds prove popular to investors

City Wire Admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:51:01 -0500

FORT SMITH — Investors responded eagerly, despite the chaotic economy, to Fort Smith’s offering of revenue bonds to raise money for sewer system improvements and the Police Department’s new radio system, a Fort Smith official said.
Acting City Administrator Ray Gosack said Tuesday institutional investors put in orders for all but $ 1. 5 million of [...]

An excellent opportunity for law officers & students

City Wire Admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:25:00 -0500

Two of the individuals credited for the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Safe Surrender program will be in Fort Smith Oct. 14 at 7:00pm - Riverfront West Event Room.
See more information on the YEL site.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: Jay Matthews, Law Enforcement, Operation Safe Surrender, Pete Elliott, U.S. Marshals Service

Talent, innovation, and green

City Wire Admin — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:39:32 -0500

Here’s a picture story of a very talented Fort Smith man who has converted his 1967 SAAB 95 v4 to run on hydrogen.
Cameron Clement of c3 Brandworks is one of the most creative people I’ve ever been around. He creates brands, markets and packages Silver Joe’s coffee, and now has retrofitted an incredibly cool retro [...]

Arkansas lawmakers study dental sciences programs

City Wire Admin — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:57:03 -0500

“Arkansas needs a small, dedicated group of planners and implementers that will focus on dental education,” Cranford said. “If we don’t have such a group, I fear that this whole issue will get lost among the myriad of priorities that are at UAMS and the budgetary constraints that are there.”
Source: Times Record
Guess what? UA Fort [...]

The much-anticipated Target

City Wire Admin — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:50:22 -0500

The much-anticipated Target store at Fort Smith Pavilion is preparing to open this weekend.

Regular store hours will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Flowers said during the holiday shopping season hours are extended an extra hour each day.

The 145,000-square-foot space also will be home to [...]

Long-Anticipated Target Store Approaches Grand Opening

Feed Admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:34:56 -0500

Employees of the Minneapolis-based discount retailer Target were putting the final touches on the Fort Smith-located store on Monday in preparation for its official opening this Saturday, October 11.

Michael Flowers, Target store team leader, says "We're about done, and I've been here since this site was covered in rubble."

The new store, which is located at the Fort Smith Pavilion shopping center on Phoenix Avenue, will open Saturday alongside 30 or 40 other Target stores in other states. All stores are opening on October 11 because a nationally-set goal administratively facilitates the volume-buying of fixtures, merchandise, and the other materials necessary to open and equip a new Target store, Flowers said. The company also has stores scheduled to open in both March and July 2009. Target currently operates about 1,500 stores in 47 states.

Store hours of the Fort Smith location will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Flowers notes that, during the holiday shopping season, hours are extended an extra hour each day.

The Fort Smith location boasts 145,000-square-feet of shopping, including a Starbucks cafe and a Pizza Hut Express restaurant. According to city building permit information, the construction value of the new Target store is roughly $5 million.

Fort Smith's new Target store will employ 180 people initially but, depending on the strength of business, may seek to employ 20 more workers.

Also in Fort Smith Pavilion, Best Buy officially opened last Friday and retailers and restaurants including Books-A-Million, Michael's, Shoe Carnival, Lane Bryant, Cheddar's, Chick-Fil-A, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy, Dress Barn, and Ulta, are scheduled to open in upcoming months.

Flowers attributes this great number of retailers coming to the Fort Smith Pavilion location because, "City planners are developing the roads around here. It's where things are happening, convenient to Interstate 540 and thoroughfares. The airport is nearby, and the view is great."

Fire up your online “radio tuner”

City Wire Admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:02:21 -0500

Learn how to spell RSS.
And if you’re not a subscriber (to this blog and others) today is a great day to start. RSS is a little like radio. Every blog and many news services ‘broadcast’ a tiny little signal that you can’t hear, but your RSS reader can. (It’s like a radio tuner). You tell [...]

UPDATE: Fort Smith Pavilion Stores

Feed Admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:38:11 -0500

As construction on the Fort Smith Pavilion trudges toward completion, more stores are joining the development. Old Navy and Books-A-Million have both submitted plumbing plans for stores at the pavilion, according to the Arkansas Department of Health Web site.

In addition to these two stores, Shoe Carnival, Best Buy, Lane Bryant, and Michael’s also plan to locate at the intersection of Phoenix Avenue and Old Greenwood Road. Bed Bath and Beyond and Cheddar's Casual Cafe, two new additions to the Fort Smith market, will also open here.

The Fort Smith Pavilion plans to encompass 425,000 square feet with about 20 to 25 national chain stores, according to site plans previously submitted to the city. Target, the development’s anchor store, is scheduled to open in October and its fellow stores will follow.

Marshals Museum - $30 million target

City Wire Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:33:33 -0500

After a presentation Tuesday by Jim Hackney of the consulting firm Alexander Haas Martin and Partners, the 20-member Museum Board unanimously adopted Hackney’s proposed 24-month fundraising campaign strategy and unanimously committed to contributing financially to the museum, without setting any required board member-funding levels.
Read all about it in the Times Record.
Posted in Arts, Economic Development, [...]

Marshals Museum - search for architect

City Wire Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:31:43 -0500

The search is on for an architectural team - to design a facility befitting the story of the U.S. Marshals Service and our nation’s history.
Babb said the timeline is intended to end with an architect’s selection by January 2009. “It is intended to create a level playing field with rules applied consistently so everybody interested [...]

Marshals Museum calendar - final days

City Wire Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:27:14 -0500

Don’t forget to pre-order your 2009 Marshals Museum calendar! Sales close in a couple of weeks and the calendars will NOT be offered for sale to the general public after they’re printed.
Marshals Museum calendar
Posted in History, Tourism Tagged: U.S. Marshals Museum, U.S. Marshals Museum 2009 calendar

The bus stops here - at Target

City Wire Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:24:44 -0500

Fort Smith bus riders can look forward to a new bus stop in the Pavilion shopping center within weeks of the Target store’s grand opening this month.
Transit Director Ken Savage told Transit Advisory Commission members last week that the new service will entail altering the existing Towson Avenue route.
The closest stop to the Pavilion on [...]

"Local and State Economic Bright Spots Illuminate an Otherwise Dismal Economic Picture"

Feed Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:27:31 -0500

According to Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas, and Georgia Hale, associate dean of the College of Business at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, the local economies of the River Valley area are not following the downward national market trends. These two women spoke at a First Friday breakfast last Friday, October 3, organized by the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Arvest Bank.

The speakers were introduced by Arvest's Fort Smith market president, John Womack, who said that national markets may be in turmoil but now may be a good time for Arvest to acquire other suffering banks.

The Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area's (Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian counties in Arkansas as well as Le Flore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma) economy is "distressed by not down and out," according to Hale.

Roughly 6 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Fort Smith have been lost already this year, but other sectors are holding steady employment or showing some improvement, Hale said. Though the manufacturing sector makes up 20 percent of the area's economy, Hale thinks that it gets most of the attention even thought he trade and transportation sector makes up an equal share. It, along with other sectors like financial services, leisure and travel, and government, haven't seen any contractions.

Moody's Investor Services projected an area gross domestic product expansion from $7.9 billion to $8 billion from fourth quarter 2008 to second quarter 2010, Hale said. Hale also said that manufacturing may continue to decline, but she expects the service sector to expand. The number of western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma business in the natural resource sector may lead to further expansion in that part of the economy if energy prices stay high.

Deck believes that companies involved in natural gas exploration and production or supporting it are well-located geographically to utilize runoff business from the increasing developments of the Fayetteville Shale Play in north central Arkansas and Haynesville Shale Play in both Louisiana and Texas. Deck also predicts further unemployment in the manufacturing sector but does expect them to moderate and decline their pace.

Trade and transportation jobs, since they rely on both manufacturing activity and the consumer sector, will experience muted employment growth, Deck predicts. As soon as the national economic numbers are released for the third and fourth quarters of 2008, economists predict they will show us to be in the early stages of recession.

Arkansas' housing sector is a "mixed package" but better-off than the national sector, and the state's comparatively strong employment levels are also "slightly counter-cyclical," Deck says.

Emma Watts, an assistant professor in the College of Applied Science and Technology at UAFS who attended the First Friday breakfast to hear Hale and Deck speak, says, "I feel better about the local economy (now), but the national economy is a little bit scary. The local economy eventually will be affected by the national economy."

Fort Chaffee’s new leader

City Wire Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:22:04 -0500

Lt. Col. Robert Embrey is the new commander at Fort Chaffee. Ougoing commander Col. Louis Landreth is deploying to combat duty.
Landreth’s major accomplishments were the support given to Arkansas’ 39 th Infantry Combat Team and the Illinois 33 rd Brigade Combat Team as they trained at Fort Chaffee for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan respectively, [...]

188th FW - A command to change

City Wire Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:18:37 -0500

Col. Tom Anderson is the new commander at the 188th Fighter Wing - Arkansas Air National Guard unit. Anderson and outgoing commander, Col. Kevin Wear were instrumental in saving the unit from a 2005 BRAC action.
The 188th is currently converting from F-16s to A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.
Col. Anderson pledged during the change of command ceremony [...]

Not your father’s campus

City Wire Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:58:35 -0500

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette features an informative profile of UA Fort Smith and its transition to a 4 year institution.
FORT SMITH — Since joining the state’s largest university system six years ago, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has left the Westark College name behind and become a four-year college with ambitious goals to [...]

Recent posts