WEDNESDAY, DEC. 12, 2012
TIMES RECORD
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Animal
Laws
On City
Agenda
REDECORATING
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Execution
Law To Be
Rewritten
LEASH PROPOSAL
A STICKING POINT
By Chad Hunter
TIMES RECORD • [email protected]
An overhaul of Fort Smith’s
animal ordinances is headed
for a vote despite differing
views surrounding changes
to the city’s leash law.
Following
months of DIRECTORS
DISCUSS
preparation,
proposed
TREE
changes to
REMOVAL
the city’s
PAGE 2A
animal laws
were discussed Tuesday at a Fort
Smith Board of Directors
study session.
The Fort Smith Animal
Services Advisory Board,
which directors created earlier this year to address animal-related issues in the city,
developed the changes.
Enough directors agreed
to vote Tuesday on the entire body of work after debate
over specific changes to the
city’s leash law, also called the
“running at large” ordinance.
TOP COURT STRUCK DOWN
ARKANSAS’ OLD PROTOCOL
By Rob Moritz
ARKANSAS NEWS BUREAU
[email protected]
RACHEL RODEMANN • TIMES RECORD
Kait Parker hangs ornaments on an aluminum tree Tuesday to replace
ornaments that were purchased at Designer Again Consignment Shop in Fort Smith.
SEE DIRECTORS PAGE 8A
Missouri I-49 Corridor Nearly Done
By Bill Draper
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
K A NSA S CITY, M o . —
Thanks to a decision made
decades ago to make U.S.
71 a four-lane highway, Missouri has been able to complete most of its section of
an interstate that eventually
will run from New Orleans
to the Canadian border.
A 180-mile stretch of U.S.
71 from Kansas City to Joplin
will be renamed Interstate
49 today, the culmination
of a project that started five
years ago to upgrade the existing four-lane expressway
to interstate standards. All
that’s left of Missouri’s part
of Interstate 49 is a five-mile
strip south of Pineville to
the state line, where it will
connect to a bypass around
Bella Vista.
“This is a big deal,” said
Gard Wayt, executive director of the Interstate 49 International Coalition, formed a
decade ago to push for the
nonstop, 1,700-mile northsouth route across the nation’s midsection. “It’s a
significant portion of the
mileage, and even more importantly it’s going to add
a lot of momentum to the
project.”
Wayt, of Shreveport, La.,
said Louisiana is expected to
finish a portion of I-49 connecting to the Arkansas border in the next six to seven
months.
Progress in Arkansas is
expected to be much slower, even after voters last
month approved a half-cent
sales tax to pay for highway
construction, including two
lanes of the Bella Vista bypass.
Sean Matlock, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s manager of the
I-49 project, said Missouri
has the money to finish its
five-mile portion of the bypass, but the state is waiting
until Arkansas gets the funds
to pay for its 13-mile section.
“We’ve told Arkansas that
whatever schedule it sets, we
will meet them at the state
line,” Matlock said. “It made
no sense to build a four-lane
highway that just dead ends
in the middle of nowhere.”
I-49 is mainly new construction in Arkansas, with
the cost to complete a
stretch between Interstates
30 and 40 through the Ouachita mountains estimated
at $2 billion, said Randy Ort,
spokesman for the Arkansas
Department of Transportation.
SEE I-49 PAGE 8A
LITTLE ROCK — A rewrite
of Arkansas’ execution law
is in the works for consideration in the upcoming General Assembly, lawmakers
heard Tuesday.
The state Supreme Court
struck down the law this
year, saying the Legislature
“abdicated its responsibility” by giving the Department of Correction too
much enforcement discretion in violation of the separation of powers doctrine.
Deputy Attorney General
Dennis Hansen told the
Senate Judiciary Committee the 2009 law is being rewritten to address the high
court decision. The Legislature convenes Jan. 14.
“The Supreme Court said
the Legislature had given
the Department of Correction too much discretion in
choosing the drug, or drugs,
that would be administered
as part of lethal injection,”
Hansen said, adding the
attorney general’s office is
working with prison officials “to come up with one
that we think will best meet
the rulings of both the Arkansas State Supreme Court
and the United States Supreme Court.”
The Methods of Execution Act, which the Legislature approved in 2009,
stated that a death sentence
is to be carried out by lethal
injection using one or more
chemicals “as determined in
kind and amount in the discretion of the director of the
Department of Correction.”
The law said the chemicals could be one or more
ultra short-acting barbiturates; one or more chemical
paralytic agents; potassium
chloride; and “any other
chemical or chemicals, including but not limited to,
saline solution.”
In 2011, Pulaski County
Circuit Judge Tim Fox
struck down the phrase “any
other chemical or chemicals
including but not limited
to” as unconstitutional. The
state Supreme Court in June
upheld Fox’s ruling.
“The court concluded that
the existing statute violated
the separation of powers doctrine in the Arkansas Constitution by delegating too
much authority to the Department of Correction, but
it was very vague in how the
statute should be changed.
It said the current statute
failed to provide sufficient
guidelines for the department,” Hansen told lawmakers Tuesday.
Hansen also said a change
could be as simple as removing any reference to the state
prison director having discretion in the execution process.
Department of Correction
Director Ray Hobbs said officials are looking at execution laws in other states and
federal laws for guidance.
SEE EXECUTIONS PAGE 8A
UAFS Graduates Join Elite Company
GETTING STARTED
By Chad Hunter
C O M M U N I T Y
C H R I S T M A S
TIMES RECORD • [email protected]
C A R D
A Perfect Way To Show You Care
The neighbor across the street who keeps an eye on the
house when you are on vacation. Your children’s teachers.
The trainer at the gym. The co-worker who gives you a ride
when your car is in the shop. The friend who really does seem
to have everything. What on earth will you give these people
for Christmas to show them how much they mean to you
throughout the year? And, even more puzzling,
when will you find time to do the shopping?
For your convenience and for the good
of our community, may we suggest a
contribution in the names of your dear
ones to The Sack Lunch Program through
the Community Christmas Card? Your
donation of just $2 per name, or more if
an especially generous spirit overtakes you,
will allow you to make a public statement of your affection
to neighbors, friends and relatives and to support a program
that will put 60,000 meals in the hands of those in need.
To participate in the Community Christmas Card, you may:
• Send your name and at least $2 per name to the Times
Record Christmas Card, P.O. Box 272, Fort Smith, AR 72902.
All names should be received by Dec. 20.
• Bring your name and cash, check, credit or debit card to
the cashier on the first floor of the Times Record building at
3600 Wheeler Ave.
• Call 784-0464 to pay by debit or credit card.
• Drop your cash or check at the Press Argus-Courier
offices at 100 N. 11th St. in Van Buren by noon Dec. 19.
Please make checks payable to The Sack Lunch Program.
Donations are sent to The Sack Lunch Program daily; so far
readers have contributed $14,165.
INDEX
TIMES RECORD
Volume 130, Number 347, 32 Pages
Hundreds of degrees were
bestowed upon students
Tuesday night during the
University of Arkansas at
Fort Smith’s fall commencement.
“You may
n o t re a l i ze
that receiving a university degree
sets you apart
from the genBeran
eral population,” UAFS chancellor Paul
Beran told the graduates. “In
Arkansas, fewer than 20 percent of the population has a
baccalaureate degree. About
the same number have an
associate or a technical certificate. The point is that you
just stepped into the role of
leader whether you realize
it or not. Because you have
that university degree, people
will look to you for knowledge, wisdom, advice, help.”
The university’s 88th
commencement, held at the
3,000-seat Stubblefield Center, saw 357 bachelor’s degrees, 191 associate degrees
Amusements
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CHAD HUNTER • TIMES RECORD
Members Of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith fall graduating
class prepare to receive diplomas Tuesday night.
and 77 technical certificates
between the fall and late
summer semesters.
In May, UAFS held a double ceremony for more than
740 graduates.
Beran spoke at both May
ceremonies. He also gave the
commencement address six
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years ago, just before taking
over as chancellor.
The previous May’s commencement saw 561 degrees
conferred.
Tuesday’s guest speaker was Melody Trimble,
chief executive officer for
Sparks Health System and
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Summit Medical Center.
“I found my place in health
care, and I can promise you,
the opportunity to help out
shows up every day in my
hospital,” she said. “I always
wanted to be a nurse. I always wanted to help people.”
SEE GRADUATES PAGE 8A
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