It’s the public’s right to know

Last week, an editorial written by Billie Jines for the Feb. 8, 1968, edition of the paper ran in The Times.

Jines, the editor of the Pea Ridge Graphic, forerunner of The TIMES of Northeast Benton County, published that editorial several times over the years while she and her husband, Earle, published the paper.

According to Mrs. Jines in the Oct. 15, 1970, Graphic: “The Graphic will henceforth attempt to reprint this vital message at least every other year for the benefit of both citizens as a whole and city and school elective officials who may have assumed their new roles since the editorial was last printed. It is urgent that both the public and the public officials understand what the law says on the public’s right to know what is being done by its elected governing bodies.”

Billie Jines died April 6, 2003.

But, the vision of this newspaper did not.

I was privileged to know and greatly respect both Mrs. Jines and her successor, Mary Lou Beisner. It was with a grave sense of responsibility and privilege that I returned to Pea Ridge and the newspaper.

I love this community and its residents.

My goal for this newspaper is to both communicate the public business to the taxpayers and to tell the stories of our community, especially those of the citizens who are reticent to tell their own stories. Many people have built this community.

In reading through old copies of the newspaper, I read Mike Freeman’s editorial about the great privilege of living in America and the First Amendment with its freedoms. Mike and Barbara Freeman loved this community and ran the newspaper for many years.

The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

We truly are privileged to live in this country. We who’ve chosen Pea Ridge as our home are privileged to have the best of both worlds — small-town America where we know our neighbors and larger communities nearby with the amenities they provide.

Although some people consider the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act a law for the “media,” it is not. It is for all citizens. It provides a means for the public to know public business.

For whatever reason, sometimes ignorance, sometimes arrogance, there are those in public business who seek to keep public business private or secret. There are many citizens who don’t take the time to know the business of their communities, their state or their nation. But, their indifference does not preclude the right to know for everyone else.

Operating expenses and salaries of city, school, county, state and national employees are paid for by the taxes our citizens pay. It is public information. Whereas in private business it may be rude to ask a person about their finances, in public business it is good stewardship.

As much as we are able at The TIMES, we seek to keep the agendas of all public meetings in the newspaper the week before the meeting. Sometimes we don’t have that information in time to print it. Sometimes the agendas are changed between publication of the newspaper and the meeting time.

We attend (to the best of our ability) all public meetings in Pea Ridge. We write the accounts of those meetings, the business enacted, and publish it in the next edition of the newspaper. The TIMES is printed on Tuesdays in order to be delivered to the post office and be in the subscribers’ mailboxes by Wednesday. Therefore, Tuesday meetings are not in the next day’s paper.

We welcome input from our readers, the citizens of our community. Whether through a letter to the editor, a suggestion for a story, a photograph submitted or other news.

I’m grateful to each of you who’ve contributed to The TIMES. There are many people who call or write, who submit photographs, who keep us informed. Thank you.