Meetings to gather
input on bike plan
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department announced it will host a series of public meetings across the state to obtain public input to help update the state’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan.
The first meeting will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Legends Room of the Jack Stephens Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
A formal presentation will begin at 6:15 p.m. and will focus on central Arkansas.
The second meeting will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Thursday in the Sam’s Club Community Room of the Arvest Ballpark in Springdale. A formal presentation will begin at 6:15 p.m. and will focus on west and Northwest Arkansas.
Additional meetings in other areas of the state will be announced as they are scheduled. More information can be found at arkansasbikepedplan.com.
The meetings are the first in a series of statewide meetings designed to gather input from the public as the department prepares to incorporate updated policies and best practices into the plan, which was originally published in 1998. The plan serves as a blueprint for state agencies, local governments and affiliated organizations to work toward improving the environment for cyclists and pedestrians, according to the department.
Toole Design Group of Silver Spring, Md., is a national planning firm that the department hired to conduct the meetings and update the plan. The department has $300,000 in federal money available to pay the firm, an agency spokesman said.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Ouachita County
judge to exit post
Ouachita County Judge Mike Hesterly announced on Thursday that he will resign his office effective Thursday.
His announcement comes on the heels of a plea agreement reached by Harry Clemons Jr., Hesterly’s co-defendant in a bribery case.
Hesterly and Clemons, a Bearden contractor, were charged in January 2013 with conspiring to award a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster-relief contract to Clemons inreturn for a contribution to Hesterly’s 2010 re-election campaign.
Both men initially pleaded innocent in U.S. District Court in El Dorado.
Hesterly’s trial was set to begin on April 7, but citing health concerns, he and his lawyers, Pratt and Jack T. Lassiter, asked for a continuance.
According to Ouachita County Clerk Britt Williford, Hesterly’s resignation sets in motion a multistep process to fill the vacancy. A resolution has been prepared for the Ouachita County Quorum Court declaring a vacancy in the county judge’s office, which must be published for two weeks before justices of the peace can act upon it.
Williford said the Quorum Court is empowered to appoint a county judge, but as this is the first time its members have faced this type of situation, he was unsure how candidate information will be submitted and accepted.
The Quorum Court’s meeting will be postponed from the first Tuesday in April and will probably be held on April 14 to accommodate the resolution’s two-week publication requirement, Williford said.
- EL DORADO NEWS-TIMES
U.S.: Hotel barred vet, service animal
TULSA - The U.S.
Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against a Tulsa hotel, alleging it discriminated against a veteran with a service animal.
The complaint, filed Thursday, alleges the Days Inn and Conference Center Tulsa maintained a “no pet” policy that prohibited Jeffrey Crockett, his service animal and his family from staying there in 2010.
In the lawsuit, the U.S.
seeks an order declaring the hotel violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and requiring it to adopt a nondiscrimination policy.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, was filed against Sairam Enterprises Inc. LLC, which owns and operates the hotel.
No phone number was available for Sairam Enterprises, but the Days Inn Tulsa website lists Americans with Disabilities Act service animals as acceptable guests under its pet policy.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 03/29/2014