Other days

100 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 1918

NEWPORT — The Missouri Pacific railroad will make extensive improvements in this city as soon as labor and material can be had. The passenger depot will be remodeled and plans are made to build an exclusive express room north of the present station. The building as planned will be of brick, 40 by 60 feet. The new improvements include concrete platforms approaching the tracks. It is expected that business at the Rock Island station will be consolidated with that at the Missouri Pacific Station.

50 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 1968

Voter registration workers say that about 75 per cent of the more than 192,000 eligible Negro voters will be registered in time for the November 5 general election. Most of these workers say that there is no “anti” vote or “for” vote being turned out — it’s just that the Negro wants to become a first class citizen. Nathaniel Morris of West Memphis, where Negroes were registering at the rate of 70 or more a day for a time in September, said he didn’t think the Negroes in his area were ready to bloc vote. He is working on his own, he says. More than 2,000 Negroes have registered in Crittenden County in the past year. “They just want to vote because it’s their right,” he said. “They’re waking up and want to vote.”

25 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 1993

FAYETTEVILLE — The training wheels have come off a plan to develop a comprehensive bikeway system in and around Fayetteville, thanks to a federal grant authorized by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. The $400,000 grant and $100,000 in city matching funds will allow a pilot project in the Butterfield School District to proceed, in advance of a threephase bikeway plan for the entire city. The grant was awarded under the federal Inter-modal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act.

10 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 2008

Department of Human Services listened Thursday to two hours of often emotional testimony on a state practice barring unmarried cohabiting couples from being foster parents, almost all of it from opponents. The ban has existed since February 2005, but department officials said an “oversight” kept it from being submitted to the Legislative Council or subject to a public hearing until now. A decision on whether to keep or discard the policy will be made shortly after the public comment period ends Oct. 18, said Julie Munsell, spokesman for the department. Eighteen of the 20 speakers opposed the ban.