The old bridge over Illinois Bayou on Highway 7.“Lost” three-span pony truss bridge over Illinois Bayou on AR 7 just northwest of Dover.
“Lost” means that the bridge doesn’t exist anymore.
The bridge was built in 1933 and replaced in 2003.
Design: Three riveted, 10-panel Parker pony trusses
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 102.0 ft
Total length: 444.8 ft
Deck width: 23.9 ft.
They started out with a local initiative that passed and became Ordinance 2018-O-42, requiring that the judge and/or quorum court get permission from the voters before providing support documents for any casino applicants. That ordinance was found to be unconstitutional.
They have filed several lawsuits related to the casino and never won.
They are also the folks behind FAIRPLAY FOR ARKANSAS 2022, a failed attempt to get their initiative to remove Pope County from Amendment 100 on the 2022 general election ballot. That attempt was mostly funded by CHOCTAW.
It is thought that they were also behind the dark money political campaigns in 2000 & 2022 against several local county officials, funded, of course, it is believed, by CHOCTAW.
Civilian Conservation Corps—Camp Victor workers on new forest service road in northern Pope County (1936)
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service photo from the National Archives.
(click on the image to open pdf)
Here is the Arkansas Racing Commission‘s Reply Brief in the case I like to call Gulfside 2.0.
Note: This is the last brief that needed to be filed. Now we wait to see what the Supreme Court does.
This case should be decided in favor of the Arkansas Racing Commission; Cherokee Nation Businesses, LLC (CNB); and Legends Resort and Casino LLC for four reasons: (1) there is no subject-matter jurisdiction under the Arkansas Administrative Procedures Act (APA), (2) there is no subject-matter jurisdiction under the declaratory-judgment statute, (3) Gulfside Casino Partnership and the Choctaw Nation do not have standing, and (4) the Racing Commission properly awarded the Pope County casino license.
First, for subject-matter jurisdiction to exist under the APA, the law must require notice and hearing before the agency’s decision. Neither the Appellees nor the Appellants have found any such requirement here.
Second, to bring a declaratory judgment, the party must have an independent cause of action. The Appellees have never identified one.
Third, to have standing, a party must point to a specific action that caused it a specific injury. The Appellees have not identified such an act or injury because they can never be a qualified applicant for the Pope County casino license and would have the same so-called “injury” no matter who is awarded the license.
Fourth, Amendment 100 gives the Racing Commission discretion to craft how an applicant can demonstrate casino-gaming experience. That discretion includes the ability to peek behind the curtain to see who is running the show. The Appellees do not dispute this.
For these reasons, and all those in the Appellants’ opening briefs, the Racing Commission asks the Court to vacate the order below and dismiss the case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Alternatively, the Racing Commission asks the Court to reverse the circuit court’s order granting summary judgment and affirm the Racing Commission’s finding that CNB and Legends demonstrated casino-gaming experience
Photo original caption: “This building was the Pope County Courthouse, in years before the change of the county seat to Russellville in 1888. Here such men as W. H. Pynter and Reece Hogan were familiar figures.”
The photo was originally published in The Courier-Democrat, Sept. 6, 1933.
Also, the county seat was moved in 1887, not 1888.
The article about the building’s demolition is from the Judsonia Weekly Advance, April 4, 1917.
The article has the wrong date for the move of the county seat to Russellville. It wasn’t 1884. The vote that moved it was March 19, 1887, but it was tied up in litigation until June.
Pope County Majority has had 100 new members join in the last 3 weeks.
Welcome to all the new members!
Facebook keeps nagging the admins to welcome new members with a post, virtually every day. Posting that often would be annoying.
(Google Street View September 2019)
Source: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System
(no location in town provided)
(Click on the image to open pdf)
Note: this extension is not a result of anything that CFABPC or Jim Knight did. The court reporter apparently associated with hearings of this case had issues in another case, was dismissed, and surrendered her license. In the order, the judge wrote, “While the Court is in the process of obtaining the services of a substitute court reporter to take over some or all of the required transcribing for the former court reporter, the Court has not yet obtained those substitute court reporting services.”
This is the Judge’s order granting an extension requested by the plaintiffs for lodging the appeal with the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Legends and CNB’s application detailed the over 100 years of combined casino gaming experience that the association of these two companies with CNE and their officers, directors, employees, and agents bring to bear on the Pope County casino project. It is, among other things, this dedication and depth that convinced Pope County Judge Ben Cross to trust Legends and CNB with his exclusive support for the Pope County casino license. Two out-of-state, unqualified entities lack standing to challenge the administrative (not adjudicatory) decisions of the ARC to consider this application. Especially, when they failed to challenge the agency rules by which the ARC administered and regulated the issuance of the casino license.
For these reasons, the Circuit Court’s Orders should be reversed, and the ARC’s decision should be affirmed.