Correction: Courtney W. Paul is commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Little Rock District. His name was incorrect in this article.
HEBER SPRINGS - Former President Bill Clinton extolled the virtues of political cooperation and civility Thursday while commemorating the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the Greers Ferry Dam, where President John F. Kennedy spoke in his last Arkansas appearance weeks before he was killed in Dallas.
Speaking at the John F.Kennedy Overlook before more than 5,000 people, Clinton recalled that Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus hosted Kennedy when “they were on polar opposites of the civil-rights debate.
“Kennedy was gracious to Faubus by talking about how they both believed in land conservation and he complimented what Arkansas had done and how it reinforced what he was tryingto do and what Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt were trying to do,” he said. “And Faubus, who didn’t like the president, brought his [own] father along.
“They were trying to figure out how to make things work,” Clinton said.
“They would never, with all the fights they had going on, let the government shut down or let the country default on its debts and hurt us in the face of the rest of the world,” he said.
Thursday was the third day of the federal government shutdown, resulting from a partisan impasse over government funding and the federal health overhaul enacted in 2010. Congress will soon consider whether to increase the federal government’s debt ceiling.
“The real great test of our time is whether we can build a common future of shared responsibilities and shared prosperity or are we going to build a common future of constant conflict with nobody finally saying, ‘OK, let’s keep fighting about this, but how can we get the show on the road?’” Clinton said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated that more than 5,000 people attended Thursday’s event, including 2,900 students. Heber Springs’ population is 7,165, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
Paul Courtney, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Little Rock District, told the crowd that Congress authorized the construction of the dam in 1954 and construction began in 1957. The damwas completed by 1962 to be filled with water and started generating power by 1964.
He said the dam cost more than $46 million to construct - an amount that he said is more than $350 million in today’s dollars.
Courtney said the dam has prevented more than $50 million in flood damage since its construction, and it’s been vital to farms, businesses and homes in the region.
The project has produced more than 9 million megawatt hours of electricity that has been sold for more than $64 million through the Southwestern Power Administration, he said. Two world-class fisheries also thrive as a result of the dam, he said.
At the end of the ceremony, Cecil Alexander of Heber Springs, a former state House speaker and lobbyist, joked: “I guess, Mr. President and governor, all this means is that the Democrats had the vision to build it so that all these good Republicans could come here and enjoy it.”
Clinton said Kennedy credited decisions stretching back to the New Deal and Great Depression for leading to the dam’s dedication in 1963.
He recalled that he shook hands with Kennedy at the American Legion Boys Nation about nine weeks before Kennedy arrived in Heber Springs to dedicate the Greers Ferry Dam on Oct. 3, 1963.
Clinton said Kennedy died a month and 19 days after leaving the podium overlooking the dam that Clinton spoke from Thursday.
To his generation, Clinton said Kennedy became “the symbol of the eternal future, the symbol of what we always had to become and that America always was going to be a country on the move and always becoming and always redefining itself - not having [any] political debates, not having [any] fights - but always finding a way to find something we agreed on, something that we should continue fighting on and some way to keep moving together into tomorrow.”
Clinton said Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s ability to bring people together across party lines to do good things that benefit the public “is something we need more of in every mind and heart in Washington.”
Earlier, Beebe said it’s ironic that Kennedy talked at the dam’s dedication aboutthe wisdom and the influence of Arkansas’ congressional delegation, particularly U.S. House Ways and Mean Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, “and yet today we see a lot of dysfunction in Washington across the board.”
The division on Capitol Hill and the furlough of federal employees threatened to derail Thursday’s celebration.
“In fact, we almost had some situations where we wondered whether this ceremony was going to proceed,” he said, and “a lot of people are working for nothing so this didn’t get sacrificed.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/04/2013