By JOEL PHELPS | The Arkadelphian

The polls you find on our site serve the purpose of fulfilling our curiosity about our community. It’s too bad we reported in a recent poll that locals don’t visit DeGray Lake on a regular basis. Of the 76 votes, nearly 62% of our readers — whom we can only assume are locals — said they visit DeGray “rarely” or “hardly ever”. The next question we ponder is why locals don’t take advantage of what’s in their own backyard. Perhaps we all are too wrapped up in work and life, or maybe we take the lake for granted. If the same poll were applied to residents of a Florida beach town, our money would be on similar results.

A new poll shows that readers feel groceries are overpriced. Participate in that poll, which can be found in a green box on any page of the website (desktop users: simply look to the right of this article). The poll ends April 28. Got an idea for a poll? Drop us a line.

Our apologies for a lack of content being posted to the website on Monday. Some days are rocks. The afternoon was devoted to experimenting with a new look for the site. The new theme we purchased will give The Arkadelphian a more definitive “newspaper” look once we learn how to manipulate the back end. It should also be more easily navigable for our mobile users. We’ll likely plan a full day soon of site maintenance to launch the new look.

Lots of foot traffic Monday evening on Feaster Trail between 15th and 26th streets. Saw a lady walking her cat and an interesting character listening to what sounded like an air quality forecast on a portable radio. We should start keeping a tally on the number of trail users we encounter during our brief strolls, and carrying brass knuckles (excuse us: a “paper weight”). Officials remain hopeful that a pedestrian trail will connect Arkadelphia to DeGray Lake.

A little optimism goes a long way. Try it.

Clark County is on the brink of something major for Southwest Arkansas, as high-speed broadband Internet will soon be available to 100% of her residents (less six “off-the-grid” residents). Statistics from the Arkansas State Broadband Office estimate 600 Clark Countians are underserved. Statewide, 269,000 Arkansans do not have access to high-speed Internet. Clark County is ahead of the game because of South Central Connect LLC. This local company advertises with us, but we’re not being paid to toot their horn.

Another mole bites the dust. Three down, more to go. Might start a side gig. Wonder what mole extraction is worth.

Joel Phelps is editor of arkadelphian.com. Opinions in Bits & Pieces are his own. He can be reached by email at editor@arkadelphian.com. He’s never understood the hard feelings Ice Cube, Eazy E and MC Ren had toward Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland.