When things don't appear or seem the way they should, the best advice for an answer is usually to follow the money.
In the case of two poorly built bridges of Washington County, that's exactly the path state Sen. Uvalde Lindsey of Fayetteville was walking last week when he asked the state's Division of Legislative Audit to examine the financial aspects in this fiasco.
Let's see now, his request means investigations of these troubled bridges over county waters have now been sought from the state's auditors, the local prosecutor, the state's attorney general and the Highway and Transportation Department. Why stop there? Why not consider asking the folks at Game and Fish, the National Association of School Bus Drivers, the Corps of Engineers and perhaps even the joint Brooklyn Bridge and Golden Gate maintenance committees?
I've been told you can never have enough eyes on a public problem.
Please don't bother writing to lecture. That last sentence was written with the familiar tongue embedded in my left cheek.
With what's already been revealed about how poorly the Stonewall Bridge near Prairie Grove was being constructed, as well as inadequacies in the Harvey Dowell Bridge southeast of Fayetteville, it stands to reason that taxpayers deserve to know whether their money had been misspent in those projects.
The Stonewall Bridge, in early stages of construction, was quickly torn down last month after shoddy workmanship and technique were documented in a videotape by former County Assessor Jeff Williams.
The resulting rubble was removed and dumped somewhere rather than waiting for the quality of those materials to be investigated. That unacceptable fact is enough to make me want to locate the hurriedly demolished materials for testing. A news account by reporter Dan Holtmeyer says officials predict what's already been done at Stonewall is likely to add about $22,000 to the estimated cost of $400,000.
Lindsey is quoted saying the longer this matter remains unresolved, the larger the accompanying problems will fester and swell. He also rightly adds: "I don't see how you can do too much stuff to make sure the bridges are safe and restore public trust in the county road system."
Although no actual criminal wrongdoing has been shown in Washington County's flawed bridge construction, it would be naïve by all involved to ignore the ugly scandal involving criminal charges being filed against the former director and two supervisors of the Benton County Road department that unfolded during the past two years. Such things can, and do, happen.
Dan Short, chief of staff for County Judge Marilyn Edwards, was quoted saying he didn't believe fraud or abuse was involved in the way the bridges were constructed. He said Edwards has no objection to a state audit.
Lindsey said a thorough audit would investigate and determine whether the county's tax money was spent properly and if the numbers square. "Did they spend money on rebar, for instance, that didn't get installed?" he asked.
Of course this has opened the common-sense question of just how many bridges have been built in recent history and if any perhaps have similar problems to these two. When the issue is in the matter of bridge safety, such shortcomings cannot be overlooked or ignored.
Someone (perhaps several someones) surely needs to bridge the gaps of deeper questions swirling through this mess.
Praising St. Paul
On a positive note, a lot of folks in Northwest Arkansas are proud of the tiny St. Paul High School after the Alliance for Excellent Education honored it nationally on Digital Learning Day in Washington, D.C.
Not bad for a tiny Ozarks hamlet in Madison County where some streets remain dirt and the district's high school and junior high student population stands at about 115.
A story by Chris Berdick in the Hechinger Report explains in detail how the school's meteoric rise to national recognition began when Daisy Dyer Duerr, the principal, arrived in 2011 to discover 10 Macbooks still packed in boxes. It seems teachers to that point had never been trained in how to use those incredible technological resources. So they'd remained packed away.
But Duerr, who Berdick's account said ends her morning announcements with "No excuses, no limits," soon changed that.
She soon hired the community's adult computer educator, Sabra Eaton, who began showing the teachers the amazing things that could be accomplished in education with those Macbooks.
Duerr also bought iPads and sent them, with iTunes cards (that enabled them to acquire and master more apps), home with teachers for the summer. Their instructions were to learn and enjoy them. By the time fall rolled around, the entire student body was benefiting from such forward thinking, the story said.
Between 2010 and 2014 the literacy scores at St. Paul rose from 59 percent to 79 percent. In math, the percentages went from 54 percent to 88 percent. And the beat goes on. Way to go, Duerr and the educators of St. Paul, under the Huntsville District. You've done yourselves, your students and our state proud with such determination and drive to succeed.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 04/19/2015