thenorphletpaperboy: Let's Stop the Tree Choppers!

thenorphletpaperboy: Let's Stop the Tree Choppers!:               ARKANSAS                                            BY                                  Richard Mason            ...

Let's Stop the Tree Choppers!

              ARKANSAS

                                          BY

                                Richard Mason

                                Let’s Stop the Tree Choppers

No, I’m not talking about the misguided folks who chop off their crepe myrtle trees; I’m after the big boys who ravage our street trees. These are the big time tree choppers.  They’re the folks we pay (via our electric bill) to come into our towns and cities and mutilate our trees. Yes, I know Entergy will tell you, “We only cut the limbs that could break and fall on power lines during an ice storm.” Oh, my gosh, that sounds as if Entergy is out there working to be sure we don’t lose power. But, we keep losing power almost every time it even rains. What’s up? Are we domed to have power outages every time it clouds up? Yes, we are, if we don’t change the way we distribute power. Since we are the ones who end up paying for all the tree mutilation that Entergy lavishes on us, maybe it’s up to us to tell them to quit doing a never ending job of trimming, and try something that actually works, and by doing it, preserve our urban tree canopy. It’s called “underground utilities.”

Yes, we all know our state doesn’t lead the nation in something like requiring underground electrical service in new subdivisions, or do we have a plan to systemically require a certain amount of our power grid to be placed underground each year. I don’t know our ranking, but I’ll be willing to bet we come out near the bottom.

 Entergy says it would be too expensive. Of course, they frequently forget or minimize the tremendous cost incurred each year by having to go back over roadway after roadway to cut what they cut only a few years ago. Yes, and they don’t give any value to our misery when we put up with those cold nights where we shiver because the power is out. Tree trimming always makes the next trimming job more expensive because the trimmed tree branches grow back more dense, and of course, as we see two lane roads around the state widened, just think of the dollars wasted in having to move the power lines.

If we look back over the past 50 years and consider the hundreds of power outages that resulted from trees or tree limbs falling on power lines, and then total up all the lost economic work time plus giving  the huge inconvenience of miserable customers some value, we would see the value in putting utilities underground. If we had just put a portion of the money spent to trim trees into underground utilities, then today, we could see big areas of our state where tree trimming wasn’t needed, and over the years those areas would save us millions of dollars in tree trimming expense.  

El Dorado, in the core of its Downtown, has underground utilities. The entire city can lose power and most of the time, unless there is an outlying power line outage that serves a station linking up Downtown, our Downtown has power. Yes, it did cost when we put in underground utilities, but considering the saving over the almost 40 years since they were placed underground, it is a certainty  not only did we save hundreds of thousands of dollars in tree-trimming, but millions of dollars in retail and banking wasn’t lost. It has been a money saving solution that should be used across Arkansas.

But it’s more than saving money. Almost every Arkansas town has an entryway street where multiple retail stores and restaurants are located, and virtually all of these towns have overhead                                                                                                                    utilities lining the street. It’s usually the ugliest street in town. Underground utilities and street trees would turn an eyesore into a pleasant gateway into your community.
 So when you see your legislator or power company official urge them to at the very least come up with a plan to eventually put all electrical lines underground. It’s happening in all the first world countries and in the most progressive states in our Nation there are mandates to put electrical lines underground. Instead of being content to bring up the rear again, we should look to the future and have a systemic plan to gradually add underground utilities. Must we always be last?

thenorphletpaperboy: Say Goodbye to the Buffalo National River

thenorphletpaperboy: Say Goodbye to the Buffalo National River:                Arkansas                               By                  Richard Mason               Say Goodbye to the Buffal...

Say Goodbye to the Buffalo National River

               Arkansas

                              By

                 Richard Mason

              Say Goodbye to the Buffalo National River

                                 (It’s going to be turned into a hog farm sewer.)

Yes, I know that sounds a little grim, but I believe I have the credentials to make that statement. If the Factory Hog Farm, located on the Buffalo National River’s watershed, is not moved to a more suitable location, it is almost a certainty that the river will suffer irreparable damage. I have the education as a geologist with an advanced degree to evaluate the landform on which the Factory Hog Farm is located, and I have the experience, from serving as president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, and as a former Commissioner and Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Department of Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, to judge environmental problems.

In my opinion, the permit to operate the Factory Hog Farm and to dispose of its waste on fields in the river’s watershed will sooner or later pollute the River, and if a Texas size rainstorm (such as the recent one that nearly washed Houston away.) hits north Arkansas and breaches the holding lagoon levees, thousands of gallons of hog manure will flood into Big Creek, which will flow into the Buffalo National River. It will make our National River a sewer.

I'm a geologist, and I did my surface mapping master's thesis on a 36 square mile northwest Arkansas quadrangle. A great deal of my mapping was on the weathered surface of the Boone Limestone. I had a thousand first-hand looks at the weathered Swiss cheese outcrops of the Boone, and I saw a lot of the formation underground. I was a member of the Ozark Hikers and our hiking was mostly cave exploring. Almost all of the northwest Arkansas's caves are weathered solution caves in the Boone Limestone. There are many caves where good size underground streams flow freely out of the limestone. This is the same formation on which the hog farm is located, and I can say, as a professional geologist, who is extremely familiar with the Boone Limestone that it is almost a certainty that someday, and probably in the very near future, hog waste seepage will flow into the underlying porous limestone and will work its way into streams that feed the Buffalo.

The waste from the holding lagoons will be scattered over application fields, and eleven of those are adjacent to Big Creek, a major tributary to the Buffalo River. The Boone Limestone landform is called a Karst topography: From a freshman geology book: Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves.

Multiply sinkholes and caves by a million times a million and you will have an understanding of how Big Creek and the Buffalo National River receives their water. So what are the odds the lagoons will leak and the manure spread on the fields in that area will penetrate into the ground water? Let look at some examples.

 *In 1995 Missouri had 9 hog factory spills within just five months. That killed as estimated 250,000 fish and 25 miles of stream habitat was impacted. In North Carolina a study of 11 lagoons that were 7 years or older found that half leaked moderately too severely. In Minnesota their Pollution Control Agency estimates the average rate of leakage in their lagoons that are leaking is 500 gallons per lagoon acre per day. In the first nine months of 1995 four states reported a total of 16 spills. (*Taken from The Environment and Factory Farms in Rural America/ In Motion Magazine.)

The Factory Farm has been permitted to have 6500 animals on site. Those pigs will produce (each year) the equivalent waste of a town of 20,000. Just consider this: How would you feel if a town of that size decided to follow the example of the Factory Hog Farm, put their sewage in a holding ponds, and then spread it out on a field nearby after it settled? Yes, that is unthinkable, but that is exactly what the Factory Farm proposes to do. In my opinion, there is a near certainty that the Factory Farm sited on the Buffalo National River watershed, will sooner or later, pollute the River, unless we can convince the Department of Environmental Quality to revoke the permit. If you treasure the Buffalo, please contact the Department or a Commissioner and ask them to save our National River.

Making Your Town Grow Again

                    ARKANSAS

                            BY

                          RICHARD MASON

    

Making Your Town Grow Again

According to Seattle, Washington Destination Expert, Roger Brooks, there are some 60,000 small to medium size towns in the United States that are currently slowly losing population, or have become stagnant as far as growth in population is concerned. The root cause of no growth or a steady loss in population is, according to Mr. Brooks, because these towns don’t have the amenities that larger towns and cities have. The upward-mobile, educated workers who are so critical to population growth are voting with their feet to live in cities and towns that offer the quality of life amenities they want. It’s actually a very simple proposition to consider, and if we look at towns and cities around the country, you can easily prove the point.  The growing towns boast good restaurants, entertainment, and a variety of other amenities that add to their resident’s quality of life. In other words, they are a destination. These towns are growing simply because they are where people want to live.  

The reasons for stagnant growth in most town are very simple; the young, mobile job seekers and job creators want more than workers, an industrial park, and low wages. So where do they find what they want? Of course, they move to metropolitan areas like northwest Arkansas or large cities that offer good restaurants, entertainment, and other quality of life items.

About five years ago, Mr. Brooks spoke to a group of business leaders in El Dorado about the lack of population growth in El Dorado, and after this visit he was asked to return and make detailed recommendations as to how El Dorado could turn around its loss of population. He studied El Dorado for almost a year before he made his recommendations.

When Mr. Brooks returned to town he had a stated goal, which was to make El Dorado a destination. In other words: What can we do to make  El Dorado a place where people will visit, spend money, where businesses will boom, restaurants will open, and folks will start moving to El Dorado. The crux of Mr. Brook’s presentation is that El Dorado should become an entertainment destination to create amenities that will attract thousands of visitors a year, small business owners who will open businesses, and El Dorado grow again. His stated goal is to make El Dorado, The Festival City of the South, by doing the projects noted below:

Phase One---now under construction. This initial piece of the of the Murphy Arts District will include an 8000 capacity amphitheater, a 2200 seat indoor theater call the Griffin Auditorium, a fine dining restaurant, cabaret, bar, a farmers-public market, and a state of the art milti-purpose children’s playground complete with a water park. Phase One is 75% completed and it is expected to be finished by this fall. ZZ Top and Smokey Robinson with the South Arkansas Symphony will perform for the late September’s grand opening.

Phase Two will encompass the historic Rialto Theater, which will be restored to its original 1929 interior, and become a Broadway Play venue. In addition, the McWilliams Furniture building, across the street from the Griffin Auditorium, will be totally transformed into a three floor art museum called the McWilliams Gallery.  A possible connection to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville is being discussed. In addition to the above projects, a black box studio for smaller entertainment attractions will be part of the Phase Two construction, and a block north, around the courthouse square, several other entertainment venues are being planned. The overall budget of this ambitious entertainment project is approaching $100,000,000.

The Festival City of the South plan developed by Mr. Brooks is based on the success of Ashland, Oregon’s entertainment district, which features multi-stage venues very similar to what El Dorado’s Entertainment District will have. Downtown Ashland draws over 175,000 visitors a year and the multi-venue stages have resulted in the creation of over 500 jobs. The adjoining business district in Ashland is a major beneficiary because of the huge number of visitors, and downtown Ashland is booming! Mr. Brooks commented about El Dorado noting that our demographics were better than Ashland’s, our award-winning downtown is much superior, and the Rialto is, without question, a jewel that greatly helps the concept.

When the Murphy Arts District is finished, several hundred entertainment presentations a year will be offered in the various venues.

Naturally, every small to medium size town can’t duplicate the Entertainment District Concept, but the concept of becoming a destination by offering amenities that enhance the quality of life for its residents can revitalize many towns across the country.