Thursday thumbs

Two “bridges” form a path toward the future

It’s a new year, which presents new opportunities to embrace the great aspects of living in Northwest Arkansas and occasionally recognize some of the less-than-great news that arises from the region or around the nation. Lest anyone think we’re sitting on our thumbs, here’s a collection of them to get us rolling in 2017.

Talk about the ultimate in recycling: The Woolsey Bridge in southern Washington County is being taken apart and stored at the city of West Fork’s recycling center after its recent retirement as a vehicle crossing of the White River. West Fork will eventually use the 1925, one-lane camelback truss bridge as part of its future trail system, placing it near Riverside Park. The city is hoping for some grants and donations to help install the bridge. West Fork is making an investment in its trails and hopes they will one day connect to the Razorback Greenway, but they’ll cross that bridge when they get to it.

Did you see that Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville has put out an ad for a director of its contemporary arts venue set to open in 2019. That’s an exciting step for a facility with a great deal of potential to boost Bentonville’s recognition as an art appreciator’s destination. The museum is transforming a former Kraft Foods plant into a 63,000-square-foot contemporary art space, and, of course, these Walton family-backed endeavors are transforming the birthplace of their patriarch’s retail behemoth into a haven for the arts.

President-elect Trump, to the surprise of some detractors, helped put the kibosh on efforts by some in his party to weaken the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics. Whoever concocted the idea has a lousy sense of political timing. This newspaper has played the role of watchdog a few times over the years, so it’s no surprise to us that any worthwhile watchdog organization would prove unpopular among those who are being watched. Our downturned digit in this case goes to U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, who represents Arkansas 4th Congressional District that includes all or parts of Madison, Newton, Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Sebastian and Scott counties along with most of southwest Arkansas. Westerman, for some reason, was the only Arkansas congressman to support the poorly conceived revamp of the ethics office, but he eventually said he was fine with the outcome of the GOP vote to reject the changes. There’s still talk of a bipartisan effort to change the way the office does its business. Westerman said no congressman deserves to have his name sullied without an opportunity to fully face his accusers and fend off groundless accusations. We can agree with that, but retooling the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics was a lousy first effort by the new Congress.

Allanah Rodriguez of We the Deaf People and Gene Page, a Bentonville police officer, came up with an idea of a placard deaf people could keep in their cars to help communicate if they should be pulled over by a police officer. That’s a small segment of Arkansas’ population, but if we’ve learned nothing else, we know communication is vital and especially so in the stress-inducing circumstances of being pulled over by a law enforcement officer. A simple idea that’s simple to carry out. That sounds like it’s got high potential for success.

A few stats to wrap up this edition: ESPN reported that of the 102 football teams that trailed by 24 points or more at halftime in 2016, none of them overcame the deficit to earn a win. In 10 years, teams trailing by 24 points or more at halftime of bowl games won in only one instance. After Dec. 29, it became two instances, leaving Arkansas fans dismayed and heartbroken. In the Hogs’ final two games, the season became a very memorable, but for the wrong reasons. Let’s hope nobody will be in a rush to add the Belk Bowl to the already depressing “Bowl Alley” placards on Razorback Stadium’s western concourse commemorating the Hogs 42 bowl appearances (15 wins, 24 losses and three ties.)