Other days

100 YEARS AGO May 28, 1922

EL DORADO — A standard rig, a runway engine house and a derrick on the Fidelity Oil Corporation lease, in 28-18-28, were badly damaged by the fire Thursday night. The loss was estimated at $6,000.

50 YEARS AGO May 28, 1972

RUSSELLVILLE — A grant of $24,000 has been received by Arkansas Tech from the Social and Rehabilitation Service of the Health, Education, and Welfare Department to continue the college’s undergraduate training program in Social Rehabilitation Services Education. The primary purpose of the program is to train personnel for employment with social and rehabilitation service agencies and other institutions at the beginning professional level.

25 YEARS AGO May 28, 1997

• There will be no historic district designation for the Edgemont section of Park Hill in North Little Rock — at least for the time being. The North Little Rock City Council voted 5-2 against an amendment Tuesday night to the ordinance that would have created the district. That vote effectively killed the proposal. Ward 1 Alderman Martin Gipson, who sponsored the ordinance, said he and Edgemont’s residents didn’t do a good enough job selling it. Gipson said it would be up to the residents to start the process again if they wished. Gipson offered a substitute ordinance as an amendment that would have weakened the historic designation, which he said would have addressed some of the concerns raised by opponents of the proposal. But Ward 1 Alderman Clark McGlothin said the amendment differed from the proposal that had been the subject of a year’s worth of public hearings required under state law.

10 YEARS AGO May 28, 2012

• Canoes, kayaks and people on stand-up paddleboards can race — or mosey — down the Arkansas River on Saturday, thanks to this calm, dry weather. For the first time in several years, no small craft warnings have been issued in the week before the annual Arkansas River Kayak and Canoe Race. “There’s no current out there right now, basically,” says race organizer Phil Capel. “I paddled yesterday and went faster upstream than down, because the wind was at my back.” Although most racers come from outside the region and they include some of the nation’s fastest teams, Capel says he’d like to see local people take advantage of the opportunity to experience the river as a beautiful, not-scary float trip. “You get out there and it’s really pretty,” he says, “and this is a chance to paddle with safety boats watching after you.” The paddling begins at 9 a.m. in the river near the Little Rock shore. Paddlers will launch from a boat ramp near the Murray Park soccer fields and race 5.5 miles, finishing under the Interstate 30 bridge downtown.