Other days

100 YEARS AGO

March 26, 1920

■ Fire which originated in a small closet on the second floor of the west wing of the Arkansas School for the Blind, Eighteenth and Center streets at 7:30 o’clock last night practically destroyed the roof of that wing and damaged the ceiling. The damage, mostly caused by water, was estimated at $15,000. The first alarm was turned in by Mrs. W.T. Lane, a teacher at the institution. All students, numbering about 90, were studying in the chapel in the main building. Mrs. Lane screamed out that the building was burning, and George Thornburgh, superintendent of the institution, sounded the alarm.

50 YEARS AGO

March 26, 1970

■ The Hotel Marion, a landmark for 63 years, will close by May 1. The 350-room hotel will be offered for sale or lease, Houston J. Burford, general manager to Southwest Hotels, Inc., which owns the Marion, said Wednesday. The Marion is a victim of increasing costs, changing times and an exodus of businesses from downtown, he said.

25 YEARS AGO

March 26, 1995

■ An Arkansas state trooper and his canine sidekick have discovered 895 pounds of marijuana in four traffic stops over the past 10 days. Cpl. Karl Byrd and

L.B., a drug-sniffing golden retriever, patrol Interstate 30 through Pulaski County. “It’s a known fact that I-30 and I-40, and Interstate 55 to St. Louis, have always been conduits for drugs,” State Police spokesman Wayne Jordan said. “People that traffic drugs through here are going to have to deal with the Arkansas State Police.” Byrd is part of “Operation Safe Speed,” a state and local law enforcement effort targeted at speeders in Pulaski County that started last weekend. At $1,500 a pound, according to State Police, Byrd’s four drug busts netted about $1.3 million in marijuana.

10 YEARS AGO

March 26, 2010

■ State highway officials have begun work on a $1.6 million plan to stop the flow of sediment from an Arkansas 23 construction project into a Mulberry River tributary as state and federal environmental regulators consider penalties for the pollution. “Even if they were to completely be able to remediate the site right now, that still doesn’t necessarily resolve any possible penalty,” said Ryan Benefield, deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. Benefield said the department will continue its enforcement action against the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department while it reviews a mitigation plan that the agency submitted Wednesday.