2008: Local news ranged from images to murder
Posted on Friday, January 2, 2009
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Jerry Sykes sits in Judge William Storey's courtroom Oct. 15, 2008, during the first day of his trial at the Washington County Courthouse. Sykes is on trial for capital murder, kidnapping, robbery and theft in connection with the death of his 56-year-old girlfriend, Sandra Stokes, on March 2, 2007.
Editor's note: Over the course of the year, a lot more than 10 stories capture the community's attention. The Northwest Arkansas Times staff each year develops its Top 10 list of stories and writes about them as a bit of a look back at the mileposts marked by the community. But the list developed by the staff, however, always includes more than 10 stories. Today the Times briefly reviews some of the other stories that drew a lot of attention in 2008 that didn't make the Top 10 published over the last week.
A Bella Vista couple sued McDonald's nude pictures of the wife saved on her husband's phone that he left at the restaurant ended up on the Internet.
Local news reports of the lawsuit quickly spread to national and international news outlets and Web sites. Comedians David Letterman and Jay Leno both made jokes about it on their latenight shows.
Phillip and Tina Sherman filed the lawsuit in November against McDonald's Corp., Matthews Management Co., the owner of the local franchise, and Aaron Brummley, a manager of the restaurant.
The couple are seeking more than $3 million in damages after Tina Sherman's nude photos were posted on a Web site and she received threatening and harassing text and voice messages.
Phillip Sherman left his cell phone in the McDonald's restaurant on Sixth Street in Fayetteville on July 5. His wife had previously sent nude pictures of herself to his cell phone for his personal use, according to the complaint.
Brummley called Phillip Sherman's mother using the cell phone and said he would keep the device until Phillip Sherman could pick it up. Before Phillip Sherman could return to the restaurant, his wife received text messages from his phone.
"I've seen your pictures Tina, I liked what I saw," one message read, according to the complaint.
Sykes gets life
for girlfriend's murder
A Washington County jury convicted Jerry Don Sykes of capital murder, kidnapping, robbery and theft of property in October after he was captured on the lam in Honduras and extradited.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for capital murder and fined a total of $18,000.
Sykes, 55, was accused of killing his 56-year-old girlfriend, Sandra Stokes, on March 2, 2007, and stealing money from her bank account. She was " hog tied " with duct tape while fully clothed. Her hands and feet were tied behind her back and her mouth was covered with tape. She died of suffocation.
Stokes was found by her then 11-year-old daughter in the loft of their home on Shoreline Road in the Beav-O-Rama community in northeast Washington County.
Sykes left the Stokes home, where he had been staying, and went to Mexico using money he got using Stokes' bank debit card.
Sykes was captured Sept. 19 near Tegucigalpa, Honduras, by Honduran officials and special agents of the U. S. State Department Office of Diplomatic Security. He was deported by the Honduran government and taken into custody by U. S. deputy marshals.
Convicted flasher
Holland arrested
while out on bond
A Washington County jury took less than 30 minutes before convicting Vernon Holland of indecent exposure during a trial in May.
Holland, 70, of Summers was sentenced to six months in the Washington County Detention Center and fined 1,000 in the case, which was an appeal of a conviction in West Fork District Court.
His attorney filed an appeal and Holland was out on bond when he was arrested about a month after the trial after he reportedly exposed himself to a Lincoln couple.
Holland's appeal bond was revoked and he was sent to the county jail to serve his sentence.
Holland is well-known in west Washington County for wearing women's lingerie or nothing at all on the front porch of his hillside home along U.S. 62 near Summers. He's also been reported exposing himself at the roadside park at the intersection of U.S. 62 and Arkansas 59 near his home, as well as other places.
Holland has been booked into the Washington County Detention Center 25 times for various reasons, including public indecency, according to booking records since 1993 available on the Sheriff's Office computer system.
Spring storms rock area
Spring storms brought flooding and even two tornados to Washington County in 2008.
Heavy rains in early April caused flooding throughout the county, dumping 2-4 inches of rain in less than 24 hours.
Washington County Department of Emergency Management officials, county road crews, firefighters, police and volunteers began responding to reports of flooding on the south end of the county. Nearly 20 West Fork residents were evacuated from flooded homes.
The twisters, which were classified as EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, touched ground near Evansville and Round Mountain in April, with wind speeds up to 135 mph.
"We've seen a lot of tornado activity this year," National Weather Meteorologist Craig Sullivan said in May. "It seems above average, compared to previous years."
In early May, a severe line of thunderstorms rolled through Northwest Arkansas and 15-year-old Eliana Chacon of Siloam Springs died when a tree blew through the roof of the mobile home she was in.
Downed power lines and trees were reported throughout Washington County. That storm brought an additional half inch of rain, bringing total rainfall for the year to 25 inches - more than 11 inches above the average amount of rainfall for the area.
On March 18, Washington County sustained about $235,000 in infrastructure damage and recorded one fatality after more than six inches of rain fell. State and federal officials assessed area damage on March 31 - just hours before a second storm rolled in. That storm produced about an inch of rain during a one-hour period.
Washington County was labeled as a disaster area. State and federal officials determined that residents and businesses in Washington County qualified for individual assistance.
The county also was told it would receive funding assistance to repair flood-damaged infrastructure, thanks to the federal government's public assistance program.
Two men drown in county
Spring storms were responsible for the drowning of Clint Caudle, 48, of West Fork.
Caudle disappeared on March 18 after his pickup truck got stuck while he was attempting to cross Dye Creek during heavy rains.
Officials said he attemped to pull his vehicle from the water using a tractor borrowed from a neighbor. The neighbor discovered the tractor missing and went to search for it. He found the tractor in the creek with Caudle's cell phone lying in the driver's seat. His older model Ford truck was submerged in water.
His body was found nearly two weeks later about a mile south of the Tilly Willy Bridge on the bank of the West Fork of the White River after crews spent the day searching 17 miles of river and surrounding areas.
In June, 37-year-old Michael Huffman of Fayetteville drowned in the Middle Fork of the White River.
He had been out for a Sunday swim with friends who thought he had left the river early to go home. When Huffman couldn't be located the next day, he was reported missing. Two hours later his body was found.
Huffman was found in about 5 feet of water just north of the bridge.
Health Department
evacuated
Officials are still not sure what caused staff and patients to get sick at the Washington County Health Department on June 19.
Nearly 100 people were forced to evacuate the building and 32 people ended up in area emergency rooms.
Fayetteville police, firefighters, Central Emergency Medical Service and Washington County Department of Emergency Management officials, Springdale first responders and members of the Fayetteville Fire Department's hazmat team were called to the health department at 3270 Wimberly Drive. Also on the scene was the National Guard's 61st Community Support Team, which found nothing out of the ordinary. At the time, it was believed the illnesses were caused by a pesticide or floor stripping substance used at the facility, but that was never proven.
The people transported to the hospital experienced nausea, vomiting, cramps and headaches. Most were treated at the Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, while three requested transport to the Northwest Medical Center in Springdale.
Most of the illnesses were confined to the women's wing of the facility, and none of the symptoms was life threatening.
The outbreak moved through the staff too quickly to have been a flu or any other communicable illness, officials said, and an external factor was likely the cause.
Regional Mobility
Authority created
An organization that will pursue major transportation projects that aren't likely to get done relying on state and federal funding alone - at least not soon - has gone from idea to reality in Northwest Arkansas.
Now, the Northwest Arkansas Regional Mobility Authority appears to be ready to get down to business.
Members of the authority's board are mayors and county judges from 13 first-class cities and Benton and Washington counties, or their designees. The group has determined that its mission is "to provide leadership in the implementation of regionally
significant highway and transit transportation projects and initiatives to meet the present and future mobility needs of the region."
The 13 first-class cities that voted to be part of the authority and are represented on its board are Bella Vista, Bentonville, Centerton, Farmington, Fayetteville, Gentry, Lincoln, Lowell, Prairie Grove, Rogers, Siloam Springs, Springdale and West Fork.
Malone said Pea Ridge, which is not a first-class city, may join the authority soon as a nonvoting member. Only representatives from statedesignated first-class cities have a vote.
The authority is the first of its kind in the state. Its creation was authorized in 2005 by new legislation that was tweaked in 2007 to address some funding issues that had made the creation of authorities less attractive.
Authorities have some governmental powers, such as eminent domain, but any sales taxes or tolls needed to fund projects must be approved by local government and voters.
The Northwest Arkansas authority will plan for projects that already have been identified by the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission in its long-range plan. Targeted projects in that plan include a new highway several miles west of Interstate 540 in the two-county area, the northern Springdale bypass and the Bella Vista U.S. 71 bypass.
County finally establishes new ambulance authority
Washington County finally formed a new ambulance authority that officially became the service provider for the county Thursday. Discussion of the creation of such an authority began in 2004.
The newly formed authority - which will become a quasi-governmental entity from the non-profit Central EMS Inc. - will be the exclusive ambulance service for emergency calls in the county, except for the area covered by the Springdale Fire and Ambulance Service. It will be the exclusive emergency and non-emergency provider for all incorporated cities of the county, excluding Springdale and the area north of Main Street in Johnson.
The service will be owned and operated by the county and the cities that are part of the agreement: Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Elkins, Lincoln, West Fork, Winslow, Johnson, Goshen and Greenland under the auspices of the Washington County Regional Ambulance Authority.
The system established will be the same service as is now provided by Central Emergency Medical Service Inc., which will become merged, owned and operated by the county and abovementioned cities, according to the ordinance passed Thursday.
The estimated cost of the
service is $6.5 million per year and will be funded by sales tax or other revenues of the cities and the county - in addition to fees to be charged to the recipients of services.
Sewer plant
finally completed
Fayetteville's new West Side Wastewater Treatment Facility finally was completed in 2008.
The Wastewater System Improvements Project was estimated to cost $125 million in 2001 with costs eventually reaching $186.5 million. The new sewer plant cost $60 million.
Water began flowing into the new $60 million plant May 29, and the first treated water flowed into Goose Creek on its way to the Illinois River on June 1.
The 10 million-gallon-perday facility provides a future capacity to serve a population of about 115,000. That almost doubles the system's former capacity of 12.6-21.2 million gallons per day.
The $60 million plant is the most visible sign of progress in the citywide $186 million Wastewater System Improvement Project. The project is off its initial timeline by about three years, but crews for Brasfield & Gorrie Contractors have poured enough concrete to make a small town since the project broke ground in February 2006.
The new plant was supposed to be online in 2005, but construction didn't begin until after that deadline. Once started, that project remained on schedule.
In addition to the plant, there are about $130 million worth of sewerline projects, with 21 miles being built to serve the plant. Those lines range in size, the largest of which is 48 inches.
Residents approved a 3/4-cent sales tax to finance up to $125 million of the project, which had a price tag of $120 million in 2001. To fund the increase in cost, residents were asked to approve another sales tax, which was coupled with transportation projects, all to be funded by a 1-cent sales tax.
Greenland lifts
development moratoriums
Greenland lifted its commercial and residential development moratoriums in August after the City Council adopted master land-use and street plans.
The council followed the plans' adoption by unanimously lifting both moratoriums. It's been a year and five months since the residential moratorium was passed and a year since the commercial moratorium was passed.
Both moratoriums were put in place to stop development from running rampant in a city with outdated land-use and street plans. In March, the council charged the Greenland Planning Commission with updating the plans instead of paying $90,000 for the professional design firm Community By Design in Fayetteville to handle the process.
The planning commission worked with different zonings to create a nice layout with buffer zones between high-impact commercial and singlefamily residential areas.
FHS band marches
in Macy's parade
Members of the Fayetteville High School Bulldog Marching Band marched and performed in the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The parade route lasted about 2.5 miles through Manhattan. The FHS Band was one of 10 total bands and six high school bands selected to attend.
Band boosters struggled to reach their fundraising goal before the trip, and when the band departed it was still $10,000 short of its fundraising goal. The boosters dipped into reserve funds to finance the trip, and it may make funds tighter for the spring semester.
However, none of the side events the band had planned - such as field trips to see the Statue of Liberty and a Broadway production - was canceled.
Each band member was expected to raise $1,250 to attend with total estimated cost of the trip and travel totalling $295,000.
None of the band's current members was a student at the school in 2005-06 when the band made the trop to Pasadena, Calif., to march in the Rose Bowl Parade.
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