Text The Times.

Text The Times.

Suggestion: For preparation of the Times for delivery…why not just fold it over once and put it in a 6-and-a-half-inch blue plastic sleeve bag like the Commercial Appeal does? This has to be easier and faster than rolling each paper and putting a rubber band on it..and it would be 100% easier for customers to hold and read it!! Holding that curlingup paper to try and read is so annoying! [ Editor’s Note: Well, we’ve got about a million little orange baggies and rubber bands to go through before we’ll be in the market for any new- fangled blue plastic sleeves. You know where your paper is never wrinkled and it never gets rained on? On the Evening Times web site!]

*** Explain this to me West Memphis PD. How can you give a Little Caesar Pizza employee a ticket for impeding a roadway on the sidewalk waving their sign to draw business but there is nothing you can do about pan handler IN the roadway begging for money? No wonder businesses don’t want to locate in West Memphis! [ Editor’s Note: I’m not sure those are comparable scenarios, but just to clarify, there are numerous city codes regarding solicitation, signs, advertising and permits, so before you get too far into your “ but what about…” argument. It’s definitely a violation unless Little Caesar’s has a permit for such a form of advertising. Now, it’s a little petty — assuming the employee was well off the actual road, not in the right- of- way, not on the easement, and not potentially blocking motorists from seeing the flow of traffic. That’s a high- volume area and there are cars coming from all directions, so it would be pretty hard to know if all of those particular boxes were checked at the time the citation was issued. Now, yes, the panhandlers are both a nuisance and a hazard, but one has nothing to do with the other]

*** In the article about mayor Fogleman he said he developed a recreational center. Where is that? I’m new to town. [ Editor’s Note: It wasn’t super clear, I guess, for the uninformed, but the Marion Sports Complex is a very nice patch of land just south of the new Marion Junior High School. There are a half- dozen baseball fields, two fishing ponds, picnic pavilions, a playground, and plenty of room for other activities. It also hosts the annual Esperanza Bonanza Rodeo and Barbecue Festival. For those of you who have been here a while and are now thinking “ Well, that stuff has been there a long time!” Let that be a reminder of how long Mayor Fogleman has been in office]

*** I early voted today, the first day of early voting. I really liked the new machines. I think they are a great improvement over the previous machines. However, I believe an incorrect ballot was nonetheless submitted to me. Though I live in Marion, and dutifully voted in the mayoral race, I was also presented the opportunity to express my support (or not) concerning the unopposed mayoral races of three other communities in our county, I questioned a workers as to why those races were mentioned on my ballot and she told me that they were on all the ballots, since the candidates were unopposed in the races anyway. It would be interesting if a majority of voters outside of those three communities would express being Against those unopposed candidates, to see how those candidates would react to being denied by voters not in their jurisdictions. Surely, this is an error in programing that needs to be corrected. By the way, I simply passed over those races since I think they are “none of my business.” [ Editor’s Note: The poll workers were, indeed correct. All of the “ unopposed” candidates are included in an ad hoc, single- block “ for” or “ against” ballot measure. It’s largely symbolic, since it would be virtually impossible for the block to “ lose.” But yes, they do appear on all ballots in any precinct in which any one of those candidates would be listed if they were running opposed]

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