Monday June 16, 2008
11:30 AM

Amy came to Wynne last Wednesday and she drove the 2008 Pontiac and the 2008 Chevrolet. She said that she wanted the Grand Prix. I ask her if she wanted to drive the Toyota. She said that she did not and she wanted the Grand Prix. We bought it. It has a feature that she says that she will really enjoy---a remote start. I think that she will enjoy this feature.

The fence company has completed the fence on the new dog pound. They made a mistake on the placement of the gate into the pound. They placed it on the wrong end of the complex. I have called West Memphis Fence and they will make the change as soon as possible. They think that they will move the gate on Tuesday.

The plumber is almost through with his work. He needs to cut off two of the drain pipes and install a cover for the clean out on the drain. They will probably complete this today.

I have contacted Caldwell Lumber Company about sealer for the floor of the pound. When they get the information the city will purchase the sealer and install it before we begin using the pound.

The cover for the pound has been ordered. If we complete the sealing process before the cover arrives we will purchase some tarps to cover the pens until the cover arrives.

I talked with the animal control officer last week and he has purchased the water and food pans for the dogs. He has also purchased the dog houses that will be placed in the pens for the dogs. He has also purchased water hoses and a new pressure washer to aid in the cleaning of the pens.

This morning I performed a marriage for a young couple. All they wanted to do was get legally married. I performed the ceremony in a very short amount of time. They had rings, but they did not want a ring ceremony. All in a day of the life of a mayor.

Pat and I went to West Memphis to have lunch with Amy for Father's Day. We enjoyed our visit Amy and had an excellent lunch . Amy gave me a T-shirt for father's day. On the back of the shirt she had attached the following: PROUD PARENT OF A MORTICIAN. I will wear it with a great deal of pride in my daughter and her chosen profession. I am proud of her. I also gave her a small what I though was a hearse, but after talking to Amy and James at the funeral home, I understand that I gave her a Coach...

This week I will be attending the AML convention in Hot Springs. I look forward to seeing and visiting with my friend from around the state and attending the session held at the convention.

June 10, 2008
9:45 AM

The new dog pound for the dogs the city catches is well under way. The fence company was here last Friday and set the post for the cages. The city crews poured one half of the concrete yesterday and are pouring the rest today. The only concrete left to pour is the bottom of the drain in the center of the compound.

The plumbing has been stubbed in and they will complete their work in a few days. The fence company will return some time in the near future. I talked with the paint department at Caldwell Lumber yesterday about sealer for the floor. She told me that it had to be a special kind because of what will be spread on the floor. She told me that she will call when she has the information. Last Friday I ordered the cover for the pound. It should be here in about three weeks.

The work is continuing well on N. Killough. Gene and George are pleased with the contractor and the work he is doing. I look forward to using the improvement on this street.

Tonight is the regular city council meeting. We have a very short agenda. We only have one item, the report from VDCI. I do not remember, in my years of city government, having an agenda with only one item.

I have been car shopping for Amy. She plans to come to Wynne tomorrow and make her final decision. I think that we will probably buy a 2008 Grand Prix. The one we are looking at is a Bull Motor Company. It is red with a dark interior. It has 8,000 miles on the car. It has been a rental car that Bull purchased. Pat and I are going to make the payment for Amy.

Monday June 2, 2008
3:00 PM

I have just returned to the office from the dentist office. Saturday morning while drinking my coffee I felt a small hard object in my mouth. I removed it and it was a small piece of one of my teeth. I went to the dentist office the first thing this morning and made arrangements to see the dentist. He said that the tooth had a large filling and that he would suggest that the tooth be removed. I told him that he was the doctor and I would do what ever he thought was best. He then removed the tooth.

Work had started on the new dog holding area for the city. The city crews are going to pour the concrete and we will have outside companies do the rest of the work. Steve Stricklin will handle the plumbing. West Memphis Fence company will install the fence and a company out of memphis will place a roof over the cages. We should be able to use them in two to three weeks.

The expansion of North Killough has started. They actually started last monday but today is the first time much progress has been accomplished. The gas company had to move some of the gas lines and the contractor had to wait on them to begin much work.

This morning I was sitting in my truck at the bank working on some personal items when a friend of my tapped on the window. I rolled the window down and he ask me if I had had any complaints about N. Killough. I told him that I had not received a single piece of negative feedback.

I rolled the window back up and began my work again. A few seconds later I heard a peck on my window and I rolled the window down. A woman was standing there and she informed me that she was unhappy with the way we were making improvements to N. Killough. She told me that she wanted curbs and pipes underground for the water. I told her that is was simply money that was available for the project and that the city council had chosen to make the improvements that were underway. She said that the city had plenty of money. I ask her to come to the city hall and I would show her the amount of money that the city has to complete this project and other projects in the city as well as run the city on a daily basis. She said she was not interested in looking at the financial statements of the city.

She told me that we were going to use the money to build a new city hall. I told her that we had no plans to build a new city hall with the funds that we now have to operate the city. She walked off in an angry manner.

Monday May 19, 2008
2:00 PM

Saturday I finally mounted the post to the hog an dog that Amy gave me for Christmas. They look good.

I placed the bulldog in the small hedge bed by the edge of the carport. It really looks good. I will display the hog at a later time.

This morning I asked Mike to call the animal control officer and report that there was a large bulldog in the yard of my home address. He called the officer and he went to investigate When he arrived he saw what had happened and called Mike and ask if that dog had on a sweater. Mike told him yes.

He then called me and ask me if I had a tag for the bulldog. I told him that I did not.

I later saw him at the city hall. He told me that he enjoyed the little prank we had arranged. He said that it provided him with a good laugh, and that he had needed one this morning.

Thursday May 15, 2008
7:30 AM

The city council met on Tuesday and accepted a bid to make improvements to N. Killough. The low bidder was Roland Leslie. The street will be made 6 feet wider. All of the width will be on the east side. This was done because the easement is more on the east side and the number of driveways to be replaced will be five and on the west side the number is 13.

This project will begin at Eldridge an go just past the First Assembly of God Church. These improvements will make the traffic flow on this street.

The city council also agreed to change the way we handle dogs that we pick up. We will build twenty new pens to hold our dogs. The Friends of Animals had been taking care of our dogs and we were paying them $1,000.00 a month. We will discontinue this contribution and use the money to build the new pens.

I went to Paragould yesterday to attend the AML executive committee meeting. We had a very good meeting and it was very long. I enjoyed visiting Paragould and seeing their community center complex.

Friday April 25, 2008
9:15 AM

Our new garbage plan is not going to work. There is too much class one mixed in with the class three. We do not want to cause any problem for our contractor or the city. We will go back to the old system on Monday.

I had though that this would work and save the city several thousand dollars, but it did not. At least we tried. Sometime in the future we may be able to develop a system that will work and save some money.

The cost of fuel is steady going up. We will have to make some cuts in our budgets to allow us to purchase fuel. I do not look forward to making cuts, but we must stay in our budgets.

Tuesday April 22
4:00 PM

I have not written in several days.

The Killough Street project plans have been completed and we are now seeking bids. We will open bids on 5-2-08 and award the project at the May city council meeting.

The new garbage system is going well. We have have a very few complaints. Most of the comments have been very positive.

Today we changed the way we pick up commercial trash. We now seperate the class one and three. This will mean two trips to the compactor station/landfill each day, but the savings will be several dollars each day. I hope that this new system will work well.

I talked with Martin Smith this morning about the park project. Everything is on schedule, we are waiting on the highway dept. for approval to put the project out for bids. I look forward to the completion of this project.

The cemetery business has been slow for the past few days. Today we started our second mowing. I told Bruce that he could apply the grass killer any time he wanted to during the next few days. He said that he was ready--he said that he did not like to use the string trimmer.

I got a new cell phone today. I was only going to get a new battery, but Kevin said that it would be almost the same price if I got a new phone. We have no way of knowing if the battery would have corrected the problem, so I got a new phone.