NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — The last e-mail to hit The Guru’s inbox was supposed to read like this.
“Love your column but can’t believe the newspaper still pays you to write about traffic because the roads are much better,” it would start.
“Interstate 540, in particular, is fantastic! I left the Wal-Mart home office, never sped and made it to my son’s ballgame in 13 minutes. How I treasure being able to get to my boy’s games. Big thanks to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department for all the improvements!”
Never saw anything close to that e-mail in eight years.
Instead, the real e-mails to The Guru rarely wavered from their themes of wanting better roads, efficient traffic signals, and for slow drivers to stay in Interstate 540’s right lane. Readers wanted smooth railroad crossings and lower fares from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
Mayors, public works directors, Highway Department folks, city transportation engineers, airline spokesmen and airport bosses figured out these twice-a-week columns show the public what they do, how expensive things are, and why some projects take so long. Almost all the people who provided the answers saw the columns as a way to connect with people who didn’t write to them directly.
That is, except for former Benton County Judge Gary Black, who’s now in charge of the county’s Road Department. Black only a couple of weeks ago questioned the premise of a newspaper guy whose purpose was to help readers get answers.
“Why are they writing you?” Black asked The Guru. “Why don’t they go to someone who can do some good?”
The Guru made sure the people who could do good - people like Black - knew what readers thought.
If the road, public transportation, airport and airline bosses heard what a few hundred Northwest Arkansas people wanted because the Friday and Monday columns were slapped down on the left side of this page, it was worth all 10,800 newspaper inches published in eight years of these columns.
After The Guru found a job outside journalism, the newspaper decided not to have another person write these columns. Bummer.
A quick summary of everything else readers oughta know before the curtain goes down on this column:
Best improvement during those eight years? Springdale’s Don Tyson Parkway.
U.S. 62 toward Prairie Grove is a close second.
Allegiant Air? Great.
The website Biddingfortravel? Ugly but great.
Priceline? Better than great.
The Guru’s favorite emailer? Springdale’s Carolyn Fincher, writer of 54 e-mails to The Guru.
Trip insurance? Horrible.
I-540? The exits are better; still just four lanes.
Cable median barriers can’t come soon enough.
Bella Vista bypass?
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was in Hiwasse on Friday to give it an official kickoff. It’s a beginning.
The end is near. The Guru always wanted to write that.
Mostly, The Guru wanted to say thanks to his readers. It was fun.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 07/11/2011