LITTLE ROCK — River Market hall to open on Sundays
The River Market's Ottenheimer Hall will be open Sundays starting May 25, the last day of Riverfest Music & Arts Festival, through the end of July.
The hall of nearly a dozen food vendors will open at 11 a.m. on Sundays and close at 4 p.m. It's usually open Monday through Saturdays, but many of the vendors opened on Sundays during March when downtown was packed with a variety of events each weekend.
Depending on how the new summer hours treat vendors, they might be asked to stay open Sundays through Labor Day, said Shannon Light, the market's manager.
"We'll see how it goes," Light said.
City set to OK more
pipe-plant bonds
Little Rock city directors are set to approve more industrialdevelopment revenue bonds next week for the India-based Welspun Group, which is building a steel-pipe plant near the Arkansas River that will cost about $50 million more than previously stated.
Since August 2007, city officials have approved three different bond sales worth $100 million for the plant's construction at 9301 Frazier Pike. On Tuesday, the Board of Directors will vote on a proposal after a public hearing for an additional $50 million.
The city isn't liable for paying off the bonds but does hold the title for the 800 acres that were recently annexed into city limits at the Little Rock Port Authority. Because the city technically owns the property, the land is tax exempt.
However, the company is obligated under a "payment in lieu of taxes agreement" to pay Little Rock 35 percent of what would have been charged each year for property taxes if Welspun owned the land.
Office seekers told to watch their signs
Little Rock is sending its judicial candidates and state-office seekers a reminder this week that they can't stake their signs on public rights of way.
Assistant City Manager Bryan Day said residents have complained both to his office and the city's 311 hot line about political signs improperly placed in city rights of way. Public works employees removed about 20 signs for various races that were in the way of a city-contracted mower working along Chenal Parkway.Signs also have been removed from War Memorial Park.
"We're not responding to any specific complaint against any specific candidate," Day said, adding that the city has problems with signs every election.
City code bans political signs on public rights of way and requires signs to be more than eight feet from the curb or edge of pavement. City ordinance also limits property owners to having no more than one sign per candidate on their land.
Signs that public works employees remove are stored at the city's operations building, 3313 J.E. Davis Drive, where candidates can retrieve them.
Day said the city likely would mail reminders this fall, too.
Arkansas, Pages 29 on 05/18/2008