Dear editor:
Some thoughts while torrents of rainfall on Wednesday.
Where we live, not in Hot Springs, or Garland County even, but in the "suburb" of Bismarck, just down Arkansas Highway 7 a piece. It's that time of the year when foliage is mostly brown and the litter really stands out, especially the white Styrofoam items and shiny aluminum cans. It's getting to the serious part of Oaklawn's racing season, and lots of folks go there from Texas, and most of them use Highway 7 to get there.
It's a shame that people have such low regard for "The Natural State" as to toss, or allow to be tossed, as it were, all the stuff that lines both sides of the road. We live next to the highway and although I try to keep it picked up near our home, there's not much one person can do. It's sad that the counties of Garland, Hot Spring and Clark can't work together in some sort of task force to pick up the litter, especially before the Arkansas Derby in April.
Surely the jails in the three counties have a few "trustees" who are nonviolent offenders who might enjoy some fresh air and would be interested in litter pickup?
On another matter, it's hard to understand how a vibrant, caring city could allow an organization such as the Boys & Girls Club to shut down operations?
And on yet another matter, it was odd to read recently that the interstate bus lines, whether it was Greyhound or Trailways, I'm not sure, was expelled from the Transportation Depot. What's up with that? How are poor folk, lacking a car and unable to afford plane or train fare, supposed to access it now? Walk to Malvern, apparently, or hitchhike and risk being murdered, assaulted, robbed, etc. This expulsion surely passeth all understanding.
While I'm venting my spleen, I constantly wonder about the condition of the pavement on AR 7 (Central Avenue) in a couple of areas where it would seem that extra attention ought to be paid, but aren't: near the southern entrance to the Cornerstone shopping center, where the northern lanes of traffic take on a washboard-like texture, and in the vicinity of Oaklawn, in the northern lanes, specifically. Perhaps the city and the state like to assign paving duties to each other, resulting in neither one taking any action.
As The Beatles once sang, "It's all too much."
Jack W. Hill
Bismarck
Editorial on 02/23/2018