For the Month in Clark County History, we combed through bound copies of the Daily Siftings Herald housed in the archives at Ouachita Baptist University. Here are some front-page news briefs from editions dating 10, 20 and 30 years ago.
In January 1994:
• Around a dozen people gathered on New Year’s Eve of ’93 to discuss potential area problems of drug abuse and gangs.
• Ouachita Baptist University senior Kevin Chambliss, of Arkadelphia, a chemistry major and protégé of noted water research chemist Dr. Joe Nix, was awarded a Science Information Liaison Office Undergraduate Research Fellowship grant for the study of mercury in South Arkansas.
• Central Elementary School students were taught an important sociological lesson. With the theme of “Like Little Snowflakes, We’re All Different,” second-graders designed and cut snowflakes and placed them on a bulletin board in Debbie Robertson’s classroom.
• The Clark County Quorum Court discussed various election booth designs ranging in price from $4 cardboard screens to $125 self-contained units.
• Ouachita Baptist University gutted Cone Bottoms Dormitory to prepare it as the new administration building. Some residents of historic homes on Cherry Street were concerned that the school wanted to build a four-story dorm to replace a recently demolished dorm.
• The old downtown Citizens First State Bank sign was lowered, making way for the bank to be renamed simply as Citizen’s First Bank.
• The Martin Luther King Jr. marade included marchers, horses and cars. I.V. Chapman led the parade with a banner reading “Remember the Dream” attached to his vehicle.
• New traffic signals were installed at 26th and Pine streets. Highway 8 had recently been widened to five lanes from that intersection to near Interstate 30.
• Henderson State University’s Office of Student Affairs contended there would be a number of “firsts” for their area in 1994, including the hiring of Cindy McDaniel, the first female hired by Mike Maroney of the campus security office.
In January 2004:
• The Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department was in the process of milling and overlaying several miles of U.S. Highway 67 between Gurdon and Arkadelphia.
Jay Wilson takes a spill while trying to ride a skateboard down a ramp at the Arkadelphia skate park during a Sunday afternoon in 1994. His father, L.J. Wilson, kept a watchful eye. It was a good day for shorts and T-shirts until a cold front moved through about 30 minutes after the photographer left the scene.
• Renovations were under way for the Bismarck fire station to turn the old meeting hall and large “living room” into separate rooms that housed the ambulance and others for bedrooms and bathroom for its crew.
In January 2014:
• River Ridge made its debut as an ice cream and pizza parlor, located in the vacant Regions Bank building at Pine Plaza.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities, held at the Community Family Enrichment Center, included a workshop on the effects of social media on youth, as well as a discussion by Johnny Harris on the 1/2-cent economic development sales tax.
• Former Ouachita Baptist University student Barrett Baber performed for a group of people gathered in Los Angeles. Baber had also booked the gig of a lifetime with being able to perform at the Grammys after winning the nationwide Grammy Gig of a Lifetime competition.
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