BITS & PIECES: Covid at the jail

By JOEL PHELPS | The Arkadelphian

This Monday we were taken back to a time we’d rather forget. After taking notes from incident reports at the Arkadelphia Police Department, our next step would be just a short walk across the street to the Clark County Detention Facility. A sign on the sally port door read that masks were required and that anyone without a mask would be denied entry. During a conversation about something entirely different, the sheriff told us last week that there had been a Covid outbreak in the jail; we rolled our eyes at this information, then quickly tucked the news to the back of our mind until this note reminded us a few days later. We haven’t kept a mask in our vehicle since those two long years came to an end; in fact, we’d have to do some searching in the darkest corners of our closet to find one. The list of jail bookings will probably be pretty long by the time we find that mask and return to record that information.

July will mark two years in business for arkadelphian.com.

A local woman found herself in the media limelight during the recent Oceangate search efforts. Okolona resident Mikki (pronounced my•kuh) Hastings is the president of the National Association for Search and Rescue. Reporters from around the globe began requesting interviews with Hastings. Because those aboard the craft were wealthy, most journalists inquired who would be responsible for paying for the operation (answer: the public). Hastings tells us she was interviewed “at least” 20 times by media outlets that included The New York Times, Rolling Stone, BBC and others. Her takeaway: “The bottom line is whenever a call goes out for help there’s a not the time or moral stance to stop and try to evaluate the financial status of the person who is lost,” Hastings told us. Hastings is the former director of Clark County’s Office of Emergency Management and is now a science teacher at Prescott High School.

Arkadelphia was featured in a two-page spread in the July edition of Arkansas Living magazine.

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Joel Phelps is editor of arkadelphian.com. Opinions expressed in Bits & Pieces are his own. Flatulence is proof that fabric doesn’t keep air particles contained.