Other days
100 YEARS AGO Sept. 19, 1919
■ The formal call for the state convention of the American Legion to be held in Little Rock October 8 and 9 was sent out last night by J.J. Harrison, state chairman. The convention will be held at the Hotel Marion. Each local post in the state is entitled to one delegate and one alternate for each 15 members. The convention will be the first state meeting of the Legion, and every effort is being made to secure a large attendance.
50 YEARS AGO Sept. 19, 1969
■ Col. Elizabeth P. Hoisington, director of the Women’s Army Corps since August 1966, arrived in Little Rock Wednesday on a tour of Army installations in the five states of the Fourth Army area. She was met by Mrs. Gordon P. Oates of Little Rock and Mrs. Helen Cannon of Forrest City, Arkansas members of the President’s Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Service; Maj. Miles D. Waldron, commanding officer of the Little Rock Recruiting Station, and Sfc. Doris Moore, Arkansas women’s Army Corps Counselor. The regular tour for an enlisted WAC is three years, Colonel Hoisington said. A woman must be single to enter, though she can marry after enlistment.
25 YEARS AGO Sept. 19, 1994
■ Campobello Island is not the first deal involving Sheffield Nelson and Jerry Jones to attract media attention and become a political issue. The Arkla-Arkoma deal became a major issue in the 1990 governor’s race. That year, Nelson defeated then-Rep. Tommy Robinson, R-Ark., in the GOP primary before losing to then-Gov. Bill Clinton in the general election. In 1982, Nelson was chairman of Arkla Inc. (now NorAm Energy Corp.) when the company sold valuable natural gas leases to Jones’ Arkoma Production Co. Arkoma paid $15 million for the leases, and Jones pledged to spend at least $30 million to develop them. The deal turned against Arkla in the mid-1980s when natural gas prices plummeted. The utility was locked into a fixedprice deal with Arkoma known as a take-or-pay contract. The deal — and the huge profit earned by Jones — triggered actions on both political and legal fronts. In 1990, a specially appointed state Public Service Commission reviewed the deal and ordered Arkla to refund more than $17 million to ratepayers.
10 YEARS AGO Sept. 19, 2009
■ Work will begin in the next few weeks to repair two earthen slides along the Pig Trail Scenic Byway in Franklin County. The slides occurred along Arkansas 23 during heavy rains in the spring of 2008. Clay and shale underneath the shoulder of the road gave way, but the slides didn’t carve pavement out of the lanes. The southern-most rock slide affected 1,200 feet of Arkansas 23. It occurred 18.2 miles north of Interstate 40. The northern slide affected 200 feet of the highway about 1.3 miles north of the southern slide. Joe Shipman, district engineer for the Highway Department, said a $2.45 million contract was awarded to Kesser International of Little Rock last month to do the work. After the slides, the Highway Department placed orange barrels alongside the road to warn motorists of the drop-off.