People often grumble here and on other Facebook groups about something needing to be done about panhandlers.

In 2020, a federal judge in Arkansas overturned the state’s 2017 anti-loitering law, which prevented panhandlers from asking for money.

This article discusses signage in Jonesboro aimed at deterring panhandling.

We’ve seen this used in other places, such as Grand Junction, Colorado, and Laramie, Wyoming.

It seems like this is a viable option that—while it won’t completely eliminate the issue—might be useful here and might very well reduce the problem.

Joe Roosa, the owner of 75 acres of development property north of I-40 on Exit 83 and west of Weir Road, posted a statement on LinkedIn regarding decision-making in Pope County. It can be found on the Roosa Corporation website’s News section.

It says:

Click on image to view Casino.org article.

By a vote of 7-6, the Pope County Quorum Court tabled a resolution that would have stated justices of the peace intend to not address the casino issue created by Amendment 100 in any manner, any further, since Judge Ben Cross issued a letter required by the amendment.

Cross told The Courier earlier this week that the resolution was designed as a statement to remain neutral and express to potential casino applicants that Pope County does not wish to entertain the constant onslaught of solicitation to garner support … and to the Arkansas Racing Commission, please act with due diligence to resolve this issue in the most expedient manner possible.  (See Facebook post for more.)

Thursday, the Russellville Planning Commission approved the Large Scale Development Plan for the new Owens Corning Foam Insulation Plant on Tyler Road.

Judsonia Weekly Advance,

1. “The Court House at Dover”. The New York Herald. No. 275 Vol XXVII. New York: James Gordon Bennett. September 30, 1872. p. 5. Retrieved 7 March 2023. “In the middle of the village, upon a square, stands the naked brick courthouse… It is fifty feet square, two stories high, and the roof rises from the four sides to the centre. In each side is a door, and from each of these doors the spectator can see four streets of the village, coming into the square at the corners.”
2. Dover was not the first county seat. When Pope County was established in 1829, a temporary county seat was established at the home of John Bollinger.  A county seat selection committee picked Scotia for the county seat in 1830.  When Johnson County was formed 3 years later Scotia was but half a mile from the county line. The county seat was moved to Dwight and, then, in 1834, to Norristown, a growing town of the Arkansas River upstream and across the river from Dardanelle. With the establishment of Yell County on December 5, 1840, the county seat was again on the periphery of the county and the county seat was moved to Dover—a more central location in the county—in 1841, after being selected by commissioners chosen for that purpose.
3. The first courthouse was a log structure. On April 8, 1865, much of Dover, including the courthouse, was burned “to keep the federals from occupying it.” (Fortunately, county records had been removed much earlier and hidden in a cave.)
4. Winds from a storm on March 8, 1878, damaged the county courthouse in Dover, rendering it “unfit and unsafe”. With the county having no funds to repair the structure, its condition became a consideration for some in the issue of moving the county seat, with citizens of Russellville offering a building site and $2,500 to build a new courthouse there at no cost to the taxpayers. A church was used for a courtroom during terms of the circuit court while the courthouse was unavailable.
5. 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.
6. Russellville’s incorporation as a city prompted a debate on moving the county seat, located in Dover since 1841, to one of two growing business centers adjacent to the new tracks. An act to move the county seat passed in the General Assembly in 1873 but was repealed during a special session of the General Assembly in 1874. On March 19, 1887, an election was held on whether to move the county seat to Russellville or to Atkins. Russellville was selected by a margin of 128 votes out of 2,670 total votes cast. The question on moving the county seat had also gone to the voters nearly a decade earlier on September 2, 1878, but the results were overturned in the courts.

The new Pope County Courthouse illumination system can be used for various occasions throughout the year.

The funding also includes the removal of the old holiday light system from the courthouse.

There used to be a small island just to the south of the visitor center at Lake Dardanelle State Park.

The first photo is from 2007. The second is from 2015. The last image is from Google Earth. All that’s left of the island is a small subsurface shoal.