Text The Times.
Text The Times.
870-225-1456
Here’s what everyone is talking about this week:
It is sad that MLK day received so little space in ur paper [ Editor’s Note: I can see how you might think that, but it’s important to note that we go to press at 7 in the morning. All of the MLK day events took place on Monday. Hopefully, you saw Wednesday and Thursday’s papers wherein we provided what I hope is an acceptable level of coverage of those comemmorating the holiday]
*** It is all well and good to see the pretty lights at missouri street over pass but what about the roads in that area they so bad wake up West Memphis look down not up I am sure day time people never see those lights [ Editor’s Note: Those lights, along with all of the landscaping you see in the “ greenprint” around that intersection ( as well as the trees along the 7th Street overpass, the lights and landscaping along the College Boulevard overpass and the landscaping at Ingram Boulevard) were paid for through a specifically-earmarked city beautification grant. That’s the thing about these types of grants — the money can only be spent on specific projects. It’s a method of safeguarding against cities simply taking grant funds and putting them into the general fund. While it seems silly to spend tens of thousands of dollars on lights and trees, there really wasn’t any way for the city to spend the money on anything more practical]
*** I’m not sure if the Marion public is aware that recently the Marion police dept. lost an officer to retirement and they are loosing 2 more because they’re moving to other police depts. The Police dept. is loosing officers as fast as they can get them. Ask how many in the last year and why? What is going on? We, the citizens of Marion, need to know. [ Editor’s Note: I assume the retired officer you speak of is Cathy Wood, or as many students have come to know her, “ Miss Cathy,” because of all the years she spent as the resource officer for the Marion School District. I saw her retirement reception on the Marion Police Department Facebook page, and the department was nice enough to put something together for us to put in the paper. I’m sure she will be missed. As for the MPD losing officers, the West Memphis Fire Department is seeing similar issues. I’m again going to assume the primary motivating factor is better pay and/ or better opportunity. I have no idea about the inner workings of fire and police business, but I’d imagine anyone working in these smaller cities falls into one of two categories: a) those, like Officer Woods, who want to stay in the community and serve and make a career out of it, and b) those, like you describe, who have aspirations or goals that include using Marion or West Memphis to gain experience and use that experience as a springboard to a larger ( or higher- paying) city with more room for advancement, etc. I don’t really see a problem with either one of those, unless there’s some other underlying issue of which I am unaware]
*** In regards to the Criner column about the drone….if I see a drone over my property, there will be one less drone in the sky to worry about because I will shoot it down. I bet whoever is flying these things and spying on folks or messing things up for hunters wouldnt be very happy if the same thing was happening to them would they? [ Editor’s Note: I think there are a lot of cool and practical uses for these drones. For example, I’ve been told there are farmers who use them to check on their fields, which is pretty neat. And kids, I’m sure could have fun flying them around. I was recently at a volleyball tournament and someone had a small drone flying around the gym recording the festivities. So, I guess what I’m saying is, not everyone who has a drone is out there causing trouble. It does, however, always seem like whatever the new technology comes along, there are always plenty of folks who will use it for something bad ( look at e- mail spam, online identity theft, sexting, etc.).
Drones are still new enough that we’re still trying to get regulations and such into place. While I’m sure the police would tell you not to shoot a drone down, if it’s flying over your backyard, you’d probably have a decent chance in court.
That was the case last September when a Kentucky man decided an overhead drone was hovering too close to his sunbathing teenage daughter and shot it down. He was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and discharging a firearm in city limits. The judge, however, ruled in his favor. Similar cases have gone in a different direction, however, but the FAA and state agencies are working to put more universal regulations in place quickly]
