Recommended by Duncan Hines, 50 Air-conditioned and hot water heating, wall-to-wall carpeting, free TV, room phones, Courtesy coffee, combination tub and shower. Swimming pool. Doctor available. Restaurant nearby. Most credit cards accepted. Ed & Dolores Hicks. Owner-Managers. For reservations call 968-7774

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A shipment of cotton on the Dardanelle and Russellville Railroad, a 4.8-mile (7.7 km) shortline between North Dardanelle and Russellville, Arkansas in 1907. Photographer: Sherwood T. Grissom. Copyright recorded March 14, 1907 (H 91449)

The development of the D&R railroad was motivated by the desire for the development of Dardanelle and for better transportation of agricultural products—primarily cotton—from Dardanelle to the Little Rock and Fort Smith (LR&FS) Railway in Russellville. In an eight-month period in the early 1880s, 15,000 bales of cotton were shipped from Dardanelle. They were ferried across the river to North Dardanelle, hauled by wagon to Russellville, and then loaded on LR&FS freight cars. The road from North Dardanelle to Russellville was poor and frequently nearly impossible to travel. With the heavy wagon traffic over it, the road was cut into almost impassible gullies, freight teams suffered, it was destructive to wagons, fatiguing for teamsters, and expenses were high. On September 30, 1882, a meeting was held at the Yell County Courthouse to develop plans to connect the town to the Russellville depot. A three-man committee was established to raise financial support and to secure cooperation with the LR&FS Railway.

The line was initially chartered as the Dardanelle & Russellville Railway, and train operations began on August 15, 1883. After undergoing reorganization in 1900, operations continued as the Dardanelle & Russellville Railroad. When originally constructed, the railroad carried cotton and other agricultural products. The predominant traffic shifted to coal by 1900, thanks to extensive semi-anthracite coal production along the railroad. Coal production along the D&R ended in the mid-1950s when the last underground mines of McAlester Fuel Company were closed.

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THEY are working on another ballot initiative to try to take Pope County out of Amendment 100.

THEY are the same people who have filed multiple lawsuits on the same issue.

I have been researching the Pope County litigation. I know that it is fairly standard legal phrasing, but it really burns me to read the legal documents where THEY claim that they “will be immediately and irreparably harmed, and loss or damage will result…” and other similar phrases.

I happen to feel and believe that the harm, loss, and damage over the last 5 years has been because of:

• The 4 years of delays because of the Gulfside litigation
• The attempts by the local group to stop the casino. While they haven’t really had any real impact on delaying this, through their litigation and ballot initiatives, many people see this whole casino issue as a joke.

In my opinion, all that THEY have actually accomplished is to damage the perception that people here and elsewhere have of Pope County and, by association, Russellville.

Only four of the JP Districts will have candidates on the primary ballot.

In the November General Election,

• the winner of the District 3 race will face Rollin Wycoff (D).
• The winner of the District 6 position will face Cary Metz (I) and John Justice (D)
• Lane Scott (R) will face Allison Brucker (D)

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(cropped from a panorama by photographer Sherwood T. Grissom)

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2013646883/

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See this post:  Please write your JP if you wish to support building the casino—Legends—in Pope County.

Pope County Quorum Court Justice of the Peace

Find what district you are in using this Zoomable JP District Map

District 1—Phillip Haney, (479)857-1240, philip.haney@popecountyar.gov
District 2—Margaret Motley, (479)858-1575, Margaret.Motley@popecountyar.gov
District 3—Tim Whittenburg, (479)886-2915, tim.whittenburg@popecountyar.gov
District 4—Ronnie Wilbanks, (479)970-8986, Ronnie.Wilbanks@popecountyar.gov
District 5—Jackie Heflin, (479)970-0337, jackie.heflin@popecountyar.gov
District 6—Mary Metz-Blaylock
District 7—Blake Tarpley, (479)970-0564, Blake.Tarpley@popecountyar.gov
District 8—Aaron Carothers, (479)970-5826, Aaron.Carothers@popecountyar.gov
District 9—Bill Sparks, (479)264-8445, bill.sparks@popecountyar.gov
District 10—Allan George, (479)280-5395, Allan.George@popecountyar.gov
District 11—Lane Scott, (479)857-4024, lane.scott@popecountyar.gov
District 12—Jordan Sowers, (479)857-3996, Jordan.Sowers@popecountyar.gov
District 13—David Ivy, (479)280-1662, david.ivy@popecountyar.gov

Since there will almost certainly be a new license application period, I’m going back through old posts reviewing what was posted and written about Gulfside and Choctaw over the past 4 years and 5 months since Pope County Majority was established.

On October 23, 2019, I posted:

“OMG — I’m reading CNB’s motion to dismiss in the Gulfside case AND there are paragraphs arguing the GRAMMAR of Amendment 100! “

Of course, looking back, it’s no surprise that the judge I now believe to be biased, Tim Fox, didn’t dismiss the case on this point.

FOX would, though, go on later and deny CNB’s motion to intervene in the case, which the Arkansas Supreme Court (ASC) would subsequently reverse.

The irony, though, is that, TWO YEARS LATER, the same case, where Fox ruled FOR Gulfside, would ultimately be reversed and dismissed based on the GRAMMAR of Amendment 100!

After that ASC decision

• Gulfside lost the license, and,
• the Racing Commission awarded a license for the Pope County casino to Legends and CNB.