The late sportscaster Paul Eels might justifiably have shouted his familiar cry of "Oh my!" had he read what's been going on of late in the beleaguered government of little Cave Springs.
Between the incessant infighting and abdication of responsibility, the burg last week appeared on the verge of losing roughly a fourth of its annual budget because its city council somehow failed to pass an annual ordinance authorizing collection of the town's property taxes. Don't ask me how it happened. I don't live there. But the matter's become serious enough for a court to decide.
At stake is some $391,000 of a $1.7 million general fund budget the community may not receive because of its blunder so historic that not even Don Zimmerman, yoda of all things community in Arkansas down at the Municipal League, recalls ever hearing about something like it.
No one seems to know just why the council failed to authorize the property tax that is then routinely forwarded to the county, which collects the tax for the town. Cave Springs was aware enough of its responsibility to submit last year's authorization to the county, which was, well, last year's version rather than this year's.
So that didn't work very well, legally speaking.
News accounts say services like water and wastewater utilities thankfully would survive. But the severe cuts along with limited reserves could drastically reduce the town's budget to the point of eliminating the police department or cutting deeply into city administrative positions.
However this shakes out for the poor residents of Cave Springs, the powers that be in that community of 3,800 souls have a far more serious and painful job facing them than simply authorizing the property tax collections, wouldn't you agree?
Losing ground
The recent deluges across Northwest Arkansas have taken their toll in various ways. Lives have been lost and property damaged or destroyed from incessant flooding since early April.
One potentially serious problem we don't hear as much about is the enormous erosion of stream banks as these creeks continually overflow their banks. It's especially true for rural residents who live near the many streams that flow through the region.
These gullywashers can quickly eat away at stream banks, leaving the roots of mature trees exposed and gouging out enormous chunks of soil that wind up heading downstream. Reporter Scarlet Sims wrote of this problem the other day, including an interview with a dismayed property owner in rural Washington County.
The 88-year-old lady has watched the stream that flows into Baron Fork in the Beaver Lake watershed go from flowing some 50 feet from her home to edging to within 12 feet in some spots this spring. And along with the relentless washing has come almost 200,000 tons of sediment and phosphorus winding up in Beaver Lake.
Sims' story quotes Nicole Hardiman, who heads the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, describing the aftermath to the watershed as disastrous in terms of lost trees and lost property. She said these heavy rains wash away nearly 60,000 tons of sediment each year in the 47-mile area of stream beds analyzed, which is only a small percentage of the stream banks in Northwest Arkansas.
I've witnessed enormous changes from erosion in the ever-widening banks of Crooked Creek over the years, enough to change the character of that world-class smallmouth stream.
Not last
Ouchy! The personal finance website WalletHub, which regularly uses in-depth analyses to measure various rankings between the states before announcing its results to the world, says our beloved Arkansas ranks 50th in annual median household income.
With our state's unemployment as low as it's been in years, I guess that must mean the compensation for all those jobs is well below that of most other states. Hmm.
The site also says we are 39th in startup activity, 49th in the percentage of jobs in high-tech industries and 43rd in exports per capita.
WalletHub used 27 indicators of economic performance and strength to arrive at its rankings which, of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, placed us as having the fourth-worst state economy.
Cheer up, valued readers, we did finish ahead of West Virginia, Louisiana and ... waaait for it ... waait now ... thankful for Mississippi!
Washington led the states as having the best economy, with California a close second--little wonder there, considering the land of fruits and nuts sports an economy claimed as the sixth-largest on the planet.
Change coming
For valued readers who have faithfully followed, agreed and disagreed with, been pleased or bothered by the opinions I've shared three times weekly for 16 years in this box, I'm repeating a bit of news today.
As you may already have noticed, the paper's opinion section is reducing my columns from three to two columns effective July 1. In more specific language, this Saturday column is going by the wayside come July. Afterwards, I hope you will continue to smile, smirk, laugh or frown with me each Sunday and Tuesday and, as always, let me know your own thoughts in response.
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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 06/10/2017