Apparently the streets and public parking spaces on the streets do not belong to the public, at least as far as the City of NLR is concerned.  Valentines Restaurant has continued to block the public parkiing spaces on the public right of way along Willow Street for their valet parking every home game since my last post on this issue three weeks ago.  The NLR police are aware of this illegal use of public parking spaces and have elected not to enforce this violation as they probably believe a special arrnagement exists between the the Travelers and the Mayor's office. 

This is how things happen with public officials who may worry more about friends than the general public who they serve..  This way works well, because the Mayor's office can say they never authoirized such a deal and it can keep going on because the Mayor's office doesn't specifically direct the Police to enforce the law.  Plausible deniability....it is wonderful thing for an elected official. Problem is the public gets screwed, seeing things going on in the City that they couldn't get away and they lose faith in government and we all lose.  

But this situation took a turn for the worse over the weekend.  It is one thing to block public parking when the only people who might be affected are patrons of the ballpark on game nights.  However, on the 4th of July, Valentnes was blockng the parking spaces so people who wanted to watch the fireworks could not park along Willow Street as shown in the photograph above. .  There was no ballgame at the ballpark on the 4th.  

If the Mayor does not make the phone call to makle sure the parking ordinances are enforced at the ballpark, it will send a message.  That message is any business can block the public street parking daily for the convenience of their business.   I would really like to see Cregeens block the Mayor's parking spots on Main Street for Cregeen's patrons.  Anyone want to bet how long that would last?  So how would you justify selective enforcement?  

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Last summer this web site and members of the Argenta Neighborhood Boosters tried to clean up the church at the corner of 6th & Maple Streets. At that time, the owner of the church was leaving out large amounts of trash for the City to pick up, rarely mowing the grass, leaving the landscape grow to a point where the cgurch looked like a jungle.  The use of the property as a warehouse was the subject of a zoming complaint and appeal to the NLR Board of Adjustment and the neighborhood lost the appeal. 

The owner won and he could have kept doing the same things that so irritated the neighborhood, but to his credit he listened to our concerns and has addressed those concerns. 

This is a pioture of the church taken last week.  Note the well mowed lawn, lack of trash and cut shrubs so the church no longer looks like a jungle. The owner of this church, Mr. Bubba Lloyd deserves praise and credit for listening to the neighborhood and doing things to address our concerns.  Thank you Mr. Lloyd 

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This morning the whole familiy walked down to the Farmers Market in Argenta to stock up.  There are so many offerings this time of year, it is hard to choose.  We picked out some wonderful eggplant, new potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, bell peppers and tomatoes. The cantelope looked great, but we still have half a large cantelope left over from Tuesdays Farmers Market.  There were also peaches and blueberries, but we are still have homemade peach ice cream and and a blueberry/peach cobbler to finish.

If you don't go the Farmer's Market every week you really are missing something.  We try and make it a family event, showing our child how and where food really comes from and the difference between store bought food and direct from local farm food.   

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There was an article in Dogtown Wire about the resignation of the NLR Electric Dept. Director Joe Gertsch and buried in the last half of the article was very bad news for taxpayers.  Due to the high water level levels on the river as shown below, the NLR Hydro Plant has been generating very little power for the City since February.  At last report by the Mayor in about April, the City was about $600,000 below planned budget income for the Hydro Plant. Since then the Mayor has been very quiet about the Hydro Plant.  Prior to that, the Mayor was reporting on the income from the Hydro Plant at practically every Council Meeting.

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The Green Party has nominated a candidate to run against former state representative Dwayne Dobbins.  The Green Party has nominated Mr. Richard Carroll.  Argenta is located in District 39 and we will have an opportunity to vote for one of these  individuals ths Fall. Mr. Carroll is shown on the left in the photograph courtesy of the Arkansas Times and Mr. Dobbins is on the right.  There is an excellent article on both candidates in this week's Arkansas Times you can read by clicking here .  I strongly suggest you read this article, as this is a very important race and the winner will represent Argenta in the Arkansas House of Representatives for the next two years.

There is also a good article on this race in the NLR Times, however the Times delays updating thier web site for several days aftet the paper is issued on Thursdays and the NLR Times web site hasn't been updated as of today.  

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The 4th of July has traditionally been the second busiest traffic day in Argenta after the Riverfest fireworks night on Memorial Day weekend.  Tens of thousands of people will come down to Argenta, park and walk to the Northshore Park to watch the fireworks shot off the Main Street Bridge.  This means the Main Street Bridge will be closed most of the day on the 4th and the trolley will not be running over the River.  People will be parking all over Argenta and walking to the River,  The ballpark parking restrictions are NOT in effect since this is not a ballpark event. 

The Arkansas Symphony will begin playing at the amphitheater on the LR side at 8:30 pm and the fireworks will begin at 9:30 pm.  The Junction Bridge will be closed to the public at 8:00 pm. Dickey-Stephens will be open to the public with no admission charge to watch the fireworks and the concession stands will be open so you can munch on a hot dog while watching the fireworks.

I will be watching the fireworks from my driveway behind my house with friends and neighbors.   

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It's the 4th of July!!!.  Fly your flag.  My flag was put up today as shown above and will be up through the weekend

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This sign was spotted over at the commercail portion of the planned Rockwater development.  Notice the upper right hand corner.  Apparently the former Mayoir of Little Rock, Jim Dailey is selling commercial property on our side of the river in Rockwater.  Perhaps Mayour Hays has a second career selling real estate in Little Rock, when he is no longer mayor of North Little Rock.

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Now that Alltel has been sold to Verizon, should we rename Alltel Arena?  My suggestion is Verizon Venue.  What is your new name suggestion for Alltel Arena?

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So how do you know it is time to change the bulbs in your business sign?  When you can barely make out what the sign says or cannot read it at all, in my opinion. Go check it out yourself.

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