NPC Board of Trustees endorses campaign

The National Park College Board of Trustees endorsed Mid-America Science Museum’s proposed expansion Wednesday during its regular monthly meeting.

Diane LaFollette, the museum’s executive director, spoke to the board and was accompanied by members of the museum’s board of directors, including Chairwoman Libby Vines, Past Chairman Brian Gehrki, and Carla Mouton.

A special election will be held Sept. 11, with early voting beginning at the Garland County Election Commission on Sept. 4, on a $2 million bond issue to expand the museum’s exhibit area. The bonds would be repaid through a pledge of the existing 3-percent advertising and promotion tax.

LaFollette said the museum will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2019, and to prepare the museum staff has been researching the institution’s impact over the years.

“Since 1979 when we opened we’ve

arrived at the high school property, according to a newspaper photographer at the scene at around 10:40 a.m. A U-Haul box truck, with its gate still open, was located a short distance from the ATM.

Police said in a news release that the truck and the forklift were stolen. The release did not state whether the excavator was also stolen. A police officer at the scene said the forklift was stolen from a construction site on Central Avenue.

Hot Springs School District Superintendent Stephanie Nehus told The Sentinel-Record on Thursday that a district maintenance employee found the ATM while going to access a storage building behind the school’s baseball and softball fields at the back of the Hot Springs High School campus. Nehus said the ATM and other items were in an area behind the fields and behind a storage area.

Nehus said no district daily routines were impacted. “We are continuing with school as normal,” she said.

Officers were called to the credit union at 5:15 a.m., police said in a news release, and noted “extensive damage” to the roof over the ATM area.

According to an employee of the credit union, the thief reportedly left the forklift behind once the ATM was loaded onto the truck. Police released a still frame from a security video of the U-Haul at the credit union, and of a suspect operating the forklift.

Officers were called to the high school campus at 10:40 a.m. Thursday, the release said.

Parts of the roof of the credit union were hanging from the building Thursday morning, while debris from the building and the ATM were scattered around the drive-through area. A credit union surveillance camera had also been destroyed.