LITTLE ROCK — Alpena, population 392, will have three state senators for the next decade.
The Arkansas Board of Apportionment split the Ozark mountain town among three Senate districts when it voted Friday to adopt new redistricting boundaries.
“I looked at those maps, and I can’t tell diddly squat,” said Alpena Mayor Bobbie Bailey. “But it looks like they’re trying to put Alpena out in no man’s land.”
The fragmenting of Alpena was done by accident, said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe.
“That was absolutely not intentional on our part,” De-Cample said. “We have nothing against the good folks of Alpena. But the lines have to go somewhere. That’s a unique situation for a town that small. Sometimes we’re able to catch things likethat. Sometimes they slip through.”
DeCample said the governor’s office was unaware of the situation involving Alpena until informed of it by a reporter Friday afternoon.
“I think if we had gotten feedback from Alpena that it was something they were really worried about, [the district lines] would have been something we could have moved,” he said.
Bailey, 76, said she hadn’t contacted the governor’s office because she couldn’t tell from maps published in the Harrison Daily Times exactly where the boundary went in relation to Alpena.
When asked if she had seen the maps on the apportionment board’s website, arkansasredistricting.org, Bailey said she hadn’t.
“That’s a bunch of nonsense,” she said, referring to the Internet. “I pick up my e-mail, and I’m lucky to get that done. I don’t know about [the Internet]. Maybe it’s time I started knowing.”
Bailey has been mayor of Alpena for 17 years.
Public meetings have been held on redistricting since May, but the nearest one to Alpena was in Fayetteville, 60 miles to the east.
The Apportionment Board adopted maps drafted by the governor’s office. The board consists of Beebe, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Secretary of State Mark Martin. Senate and House lines are redrawn after each decennial census to take into account any population shifts.
Two of the three members on the Apportionment Board - Beebe and McDaniel - are Democrats. Martin is a Republican.
DeCample said the board followed common boundaries in drafting the maps. Those boundaries include county lines and major highways. Alpena straddles the Boone-Carroll county line and is at the intersection of two major highways, U.S. 412 and U.S. 62. The new Senate boundaries follow the county line and U.S. 62 through Alpena.
On the basis of the boundaries described to her Friday, Bailey said, Alpena has about 16 residents who live in the new Senate District 5. Another 45 Alpena residents will be in District 16 and the rest in District 17, she indicated.
At first, Bailey joked about the situation, saying she’ll have three senators to help her get things done.
DeCample echoed that.
“You’ve got a small rural town with three state senators on call,” he said.
But after Bailey thought about it, she said it would make things more difficult.
“I really do believe it would complicate matters,” she said. “That means I’d have to write three different letters and ask for help from three different people. ...
“It looks like they’re going to really mess us up doing this. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be much fun. As little as we are, my gracious.”
Bailey said the population of Alpena increased from 371 to 392 over the past decade. The Census Bureau lists 392 as the 2010 population.
The new House district lines also divide Alpena, but only into two districts, 83 and 98. So five people in the Legislature will be representing Alpena.
Arkansas has 35 senators and 100 members of the House of Representatives.
David Hoover, a member of the Carroll County Election Commission and the county’s Republican chairman, said he’s concerned about confusion at election time. For the past 10 years, Carroll County was wholly within Senate District 2 and House District 91. Those districts also extended into Boone County, keeping Alpena whole.
For the next decade, Carroll County will be divided among two Senate districts and three House districts.
Elections will be challenging, he said. “We’re going to have to really be attentive to the lines and where the lines are drawn. And we’re going to have to have numerous ballot faces,” he said.
Election workers may have to help voters determine which Senate and House districts they live in, he said.
“The state representative districts forked Carroll County in three ways,” said state Rep. Bryan King, R-Green Forest. “I think it’s a terrible thing. I think it’s a slap in the face to Carroll County. They should be drawn on geographic boundaries not trying to split everything up forpolitical benefit.”
King, who represents District 91, can’t seek re-election to the House next year because of term limits. King said he hasn’t decided if he will run for a different office.
The maps become effective Aug. 29. DeCample said there are no plans to change the maps before that date.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 07/30/2011