Botanical garden gets new director
FAYETTEVILLE - The Botanical Garden of the Ozarks looked to expertise in fundraising and networking with other nonprofits, local governments and donors as its top criteria when it hired Ron Cox as its new executive director.
“He is ideal for what we need for the next 29 months to get us to financial sustainability,” said Walt Eilers, president of the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks Board of Directors. Cox’s executive director position is being funded by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, which has roughly two and half more years of funding remaining.
Cox, a Fayetteville resident, formerly served as vice president of network development for St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith. He is also a certified fundraising executive with the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
What Cox lacks in professional gardening and horticultural experience, he brings in knowledge of philanthropy, Eilers said.
“Even if he were to write 1,000 books on horticulture and gardening, without the funding we can’t exist,” Eilers said.
Cox was chosen from 27 applicants, Eilers said. He’s taking the place of Rae Von Holdt, who resigned in May after six months on the job because of personal health reasons. Von Holdt is a professional horticulturist.
- NORTHWEST ARKANSAS TIMES
Jury considers death penalty
LAS VEGAS - Jurors in Nevada found a 61-year-old convicted Arkansas sex offender guilty in the 1985 rape and murder of a woman in Las Vegas.
The same Clark County District Court jury that found Charles Conner guilty on Wednesday in the slaying of 23-year-old Beth Lynn Jardine is now determining if Conner should be sentenced to death.
Jardine was an Airman 2nd Class at Nellis Air Force Base, not far from the apartment where she was found dead in June 1985. Authorities say she was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned with a claw hammer.
Prosecutors were expected to tell jurors of Conner’s 1996 conviction for the kidnap and rape of a 10-yearold girl in Arkansas.
DNA evidence led Las Vegas cold-case detectives to Conner in Pea Ridge in 2007.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Left wing failed in plane crash
UMPIRE - The crash of a small plane that killed four De Queen residents near Umpire last month was the result of the failure of the aircraft’s left wing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Investigators said the wing failed shortly after the plane took off the morning of June 13.
The crash of the Piper PA-28-181 occurred during the search of the Little Missouri River after a campground flood killed 20 people, but the plane was notassociated with the search.
Officials say the plane was flying from De Queen to Gaston’s Resort in Lakeview on the White River.
The left wing was found about 400 feet away from the main area of wreckage.
The victims were pilot Michael Lee Hunt andwife Terri, and Carl Edwin Davis and wife Carolyn.
-THE ASSOCIATED PRESSCrash kills 2
in Locust Grove
Two people died Wednesday morning in a head-on collision on Arkansas 25 in the Independence County town of Locust Grove, state police reported.
Bob M. Morris, 28, of Cave City was driving a 1991 Plymouth van south about 5:30 a.m., when he crossed the center line and struck a northbound 2001 Dodge pickup driven by James Alexander, 31, of Concord, the report said.
Both drivers died.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEOfficers on leave after PB shooting
PINE BLUFF - Two police officers were placed on administrative leave Wednesday night after shooting a person in the 800 block of W. 28th Ave. in Pine Bluff.
The victim was reported dead, but medical personnel at Jefferson Regional Medical Center were able to revive him and get him stabilized, according to a news release Thursday from the Pine Bluff Police Department.
The release said no other information would be available until the conclusion of an investigation by the department’s office of professional standards.
It is department procedure to place officers on administrative leave after a shooting.
The city did not respond by Thursday evening to an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request to Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones, Mayor Carl Redus Jr. and City Attorney Carol Billings, seeking the names of the officers and any police reports, e-mails or memos about the shooting.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Refuges to get
visitor stations
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is awarding a $2.8 million contract to build visitor stations and a maintenance building at three national wildlife refuges in Arkansas.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the grants Thursday for the projects in central Arkansas.
Visitors stations will be built at Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge, Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge and Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge. A maintenance building will also be built at Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
The existing buildings will be demolished.
-THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 07/23/2010