What, no Howitzer?

LITTLE ROCK — Let me try to get this story as straight as a story can be, according to a news account this week, anyway.

Faulkner County hired a “road officer” in 2008, commissioned by Sheriff Karl Byrd yet answerable to County Judge Preston Scroggin. His sole responsibility was to weigh and ticket overweight trucks on the county roads.

But the officer wrote up just seven violations in his four years on the job. Instead, he apparently chose (in the name of enhancing business) to weigh potential violators on their private lots before they ever rolled onto the public roads.

And yes, reporter Debra Hale-Shelton wrote that correctly, seven violations in four years of drawing a public salary. And apparently none were for overweight trucks.

But it gets better, so much better.

Sheriff Byrd formally decommissioned county road officer Jason Bell from his job in early September, which he said was because of alleged domestic abuse and somehow convincing the county to arm him with a veritable arsenal.

In fact, Faulkner County generously shelled out $4,420 to purchase various weapons that Bell apparently claimed were necessary to confront the perils of potentially overweight trucks and ladling out all seven of those tickets.

The impressive stash of firepower Bell accumulated included not one, but two .223-caliber AR-15-style rifles, a Mini-14 rifle, a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol with three magazines.

What, no Howitzer?

My questions: Why all those weapons, and who approved such purchases? Just how did he plan to arm himself with five weapons at once? It would take the better part of Little Rock’s SWAT team to effectively man that arsenal.

Oh, and the county also purchased$8,450 in ammunition for that bevy of armaments, public records show. Bell has said that he’d stockpiled enough ammunition to last until 2020.

That’s nearly $13,000 in tax supported weaponry for one truck ticketer who averaged writing less than two citations each year.

Why, Barney Fife only needed one revolver and a single bullet (which he never used) to enforce the law.

Yes, there is a grand finale to this unlikely story. Bell reported that the Mini-14 and shotgun had been “stolen,” the news story said. (My best guess is by hunter wannabes without guns.) Bell’s remaining weapons and the ammunition were turned over to the Damascus Police Department, which should now be armed well enough to deflect a minor invasion, considering the town’s population is fewer than 400 mostly law-abiding souls.

The Damascus police chief initially said Bell’s pistol had not been turned in along with the others. But apparently the weapon turned up at the office a few days later and the chief said the office will use it as a “backup pistol.” The federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is now taking a hard look at all this, as it should be.

You just can’t make this stuff up here in the state we all love.

UA’s lot improves

It’s becoming increasingly clear the University of Arkansas can find ways to be ranked among the nation’s best other than with its football team.

Higher-education leaders across the country recently included the University of Arkansas among the nation’s top “up-and-coming” national universities making “the most promising and innovative changes” to advance academics and the students’ learning experience.

And considering all the colleges and universities sprinkled across the land, that’s one enormous achievement.

U.S. News and World Report announced the findings as part of its annual list of best colleges released this month.

Among public universities on the national up-and-comer list, Arkansas was ranked ninth; it ranked 14th among all colleges on that list. The schools were rated on positives that include promising and innovative noteworthy advances in both academic quality and student life.

Chancellor David Gearhart called the honor a “tremendous reflection on the university’s rise as a nationally prominent university.”

I wholeheartedly concur.

More national honor

The Washington County Assessor’s Office is justifiably basking in the afterglow of the state’s only national recognition for outstanding property “assessorying” (my new word) bestowed the other day by the International Association of Assessing Officers.

That group gave the county the “Certificate of Excellence in Assessment Administration” at a recent conference. For the judging process, Assessor Jeff Williams’ office in Fayetteville submitted some 1,500 documents detailing the county’s assessment operation. And Washington County was the only Arkansas office among 10 assessing jurisdictions to receive the award this year, including four Florida counties and two appraisal districts in Texas.

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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].