Archive - News Article
June 6th, 2012
There are three incidents that easily made Eric Porter the clear choice of the Benton Police Department's 2011 Officer of the Year recipient.
In 2011, 30-year-old Porter literally walked into fire and smoke filled apartments; despite a man with a weapon holding his family hostage, Porter snuck the two children out and convinced the man to put down his weapons and walk out; and third, he talked a suicidal man off the Alcoa Road overpass, which is directly above Interstate 30. But probably his greatest attribute, is that he gives the recognition of a "well-done-job" to those around him.
June 4th
Last summer The Saline Courier introduced readers to a 2-year-old boy named Easton Begoon who had been diagnosed on July 25, 2011, with T-cell leukemia.
The community responded in droves to help the family with everything from financial aid — and the medical bills still continue to mount today — to prayers and emotional support. In fact, Alan Gibson of the Red Cross told the Courier how overwhelmed his staff was to see Saline County residents donate 150 pints of blood at three different events in three days.
June 1st
An Alexander man arrested early Wednesday for allegedly having hundreds of images of child pornography told authorities that his son-in-law is the city's mayor.
John Darrell Green, 69, faces 236 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of attempting to influence a public official. During his arrest, Green told officers that his son-in-law is Mayor Paul Mitchell.
May 30th
The Benton Parks Commission has compiled a list of specific areas into which the group wants local accounting firm Yoakum, Lovell and Co. to investigate.
The audit was approved by the commission in April following a review of concession stand cash transactions handled by the Benton Parks Department at Tyndall Park in 2011.
The review, conducted by the city of Benton Finance Manager Karen Scott, revealed a lack of documents such as receipts and invoices to track transactions from the fund.
Award-winning Elvis Tribute Artist and entertainer Tony Witt will be returning soon to the stage of the Royal Theatre in Benton.
A concert by Witt is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, June 9. Doors will open at 6 p.m., with the show beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door and may be purchased by calling KingSized Entertainment at 501-952-6005 or by visiting www.tonywitt.com.
May 29th
Among the Bryant High School seniors receiving their diplomas tonight will be a young man who pursued his dream and next fall will join the drum line of the Arkansas Razorbacks Marching Band.
Payne Roberts, defying the advice of well-meaning family members, auditioned to play snare drums with the prestigious band on April 28 and was among the 10 chosen for the drum line.
Interestingly, Payne isn't an experienced musician as are most selected for college band membership. Indeed, he didn't pursue this interest until his sophomore year of high school.
May 23rd
It was arguably one of the most heated campaigns in Saline County in many years, but incumbent Bruce Pennington won a decided victory Tuesday in the Republican Party's preferential primary election.
Pennington is now the party's nominee and will face Democratic challenger Rodney Goshien Sr. in the Nov. 6 general election.
On Tuesay, Pennington, 61, soundly defeated James Ward by receiving 64.81 percentage of the total votes to 35.19 percent for Ward. Of the 10,287 ballots cast, 6,667 votes were for Pennington and 3,620 for Ward.
May 21st
The Ralph Bunche Community Action Committee has one primary mission: To level the playing field for schoolchildren.
The focus of the event is the annual back-to-school picnic held at Ralph Bunche Community Park shortly before the start of the new school year. This year's event is scheduled for Aug. 4.
Oveta Pledger, president of the sponsoring organization, said funds are being raised now to be able to once again sponsor this project that has helped many, many children in the community.
May 16th
Law enforcement in Saline County are search for an inmate that walked away from the Saline County Courthouse today.
Timothy Berthelson, 46, whose home address is listed as 22660 Interstate 30 in Bryant reportedly walked away around 2:45 p.m. while performing work duty at the courthouse. Berthelson was served a warrant on Sunday for three counts of failure to appear on four counts of hot check, traffic and other violations. According to the Saline County Sheriff's Office, Berthelson had been incarcerated for 33 days, but was expected to be released — pending a court appearance — tomorrow.
Benton City Council took measures Monday night to address a growing concern about increased utilities deposits imposed by Ordinance 14 of 2010.
The council approved a resolution, submitted at the request of the Benton Utilities Commission, to review the section of the ordinance that "provides a method for determining whether or not an increase in deposit should be demanded as a condition of continued service."
