Fence fiasco

At the cemetery

It's difficult to believe no lesser a bureaucracy than the National Park Service chose years ago to engage in what's become a needless and sustained conflict with little Newton County over the location of a Civil War-era graveyard along the Buffalo National River at Pruitt.

County Quorum Court members have been upset enough over the expensive and tedious mess to seek help from much of our state's Congressional delegation.

The argument centers around where the line is that separates federal property from the long-established Shaddox Cemetery. A recent news account from the Harrison Daily Times says the skirmish began in earnest about five years back after elk herds began rooting in the cemetery and damaging headstones.

The good folks of Newton County were none too pleased by that development, so the cemetery board lodged a request with the Park Service to erect an elk-proof fence. The agency then demanded a survey to determine legal boundaries.

Shaddox officials complied, believing all was well. Then they erected a sturdy, pipe-railed fence around the active and historic graveyard.

The Park Service said the initial survey was in error. And, as a result, this 1,000-foot fence had intruded on its property. So, the cemetery board said, they demanded a second survey. The Park Service said the cemetery board should pay for it all, the news story says. Newton County is among the poorest in Arkansas.

Buffalo National River Superintendent Kevin Cheri claimed everything would have been just fine had the board's first controversial survey been completed properly.

The Times also reported that Will Rockefeller, projects director for Sen. John Boozman, in 2013 visited with cemetery officials and apparently was told then that the controversy boiled down to a matter of private versus public property rights.

Cheri disagreed. The superintendent said that same year he'd chosen to try and resolve the flap as peacefully as possible, and without going to court to sue over damaged park property.

At that point, 3rd District Rep. Steve Womack arranged for members of the cemetery board to meet with the Park Service's regional director. It was there the board asked that Cheri be replaced as superintendent. The director also was informed that two cemeteries in Searcy County were having their own difficulties with the agency.

Last month, the Park Service sent workers to dismantle the fence. If that in-your-face move was intended as peaceful, I'd say it fell a tad short in the eyes of many across Newton County and beyond.

Most recently, the Newton County Quorum Court fired back, adopting a resolution alleging the destruction of its fence amounted to an "unjustified" government invasion of private property, the news story said.

Part of the resolution said the cemetery board was planning to replace the fence without Park Service assistance. Well, OK, I suppose. But seems to me they'd better take care in determining where the post holes are drilled this time.

As of the other day, the Park Service also had yet to refund the $20,000 in costs of materials cemetery officials say were seized when it tore down their fence.

Lots of folks have become encircled by the fence fiasco at Pruitt. The news account said the resolution asked that Senators Boozman and Tom Cotton along with Womack ensure the Shaddox boundaries have been redrawn in a manner acceptable to everyone. By the way, the beleaguered Shaddox caretakers would like all this surveying and rebuilding to begin very soon before winter weather moves in.

As mentioned above, this conflict steadily devolved into a preventable test of wills over a relatively minor matter that should have been initially resolved by a meeting of reasonable minds, measuring twice and fencing once, and even the slightest dash of pure-dee Ozarks common sense.

Shoulda watched on TV

Speaking of common sense, some rational types who care about 37-year-old agriculture Assistant Professor Lawton Lanier Nalley might consider taking him 'neath their wing and escorting him to the next meeting of Razorbacks Anger Management Anonymous.

It's not every day an admittedly embarrassed U of A educator is arrested after choosing to scream obscenities at the head Razorback coach in the wake of that frustrating home-field beatdown the Hogs suffered at the hands of Alabama.

Charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication, the police report alleges Nalley went to a corner of Razorback Stadium after the 49-30 defeat and screamed profane insults at Coach Bret Bielema. Someone should have advised him it was bad form for a professor to needlessly create a newsmaking spectacle.

A remorse-soaked Nalley later publicly apologized, admitting acute embarrassment. Bielema blew the incident off.

The university winced but thankfully allowed Nalley to retain his position. He gets to explain his guilt or innocence in court next month.

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

Editorial on 10/16/2016

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