Our Town

Little Rock notebook

Lakeport director to give slavery talk

Lakeport Plantation's on-site director will describe new findings on the history of slavery at the antebellum home during a lunchtime lecture Wednesday.

Blake Wintory, who manages the Arkansas State University facility, is this month's speaker for the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies' Legacies & Lunch series.

Wintory's presentation -- free and open to the public -- is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m in the Darragh Center of the Central Arkansas Library System's main library, 100 S. Rock St.

Attendees are invited to take a sack lunch to the event. Drinks and dessert will be provided.

Built in 1859, the plantation home sits on the river in Chicot County just south of U.S. 278, which connects Lake Village and Greenville, Miss.

The Sam Epstein Angel family donated the home to ASU in 2001, and the university opened it to the public in 2007.

Lakeport tours this summer run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

City calls for input on $40M spending

Little Rock officials have begun taking suggestions for how to spend more than $40 million on public projects over a three-year period beginning in 2019.

City Manager Bruce Moore said roughly $6 million in sales tax and bond proceeds will be available for each of the city's seven wards, compared with $8 million per ward in the first phase.

The projects will be the third phase connected to a sales tax increase of three-eighths of a percentage point that voters dedicated to capital improvements in a 2011 election, as well as a 2012 vote to extend general-obligation bonds backed by property tax revenue.

Little Rock will accept recommendations through Sept. 30. A form is posted on the city's Public Works Department Web page. The projects can include infrastructure like streets, sidewalks and drainage.

Officials will comb through suggestions and then host ward meetings in early 2018.

Moore said the goal is to adopt the projects by next summer to allow time for engineering before the money becomes available in 2019.

Police chief hosts community chats

Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner will discuss 2016 crime statistics and community initiatives and answer questions Thursday at his second community meeting of the summer.

Chat with the Chief begins at 6 p.m. at Hall High School, 6700 H St.

Buckner will host five other meetings by early August:

• 6:30 p.m., July 14 at Greater Second Baptist Church, 5615 Geyer Springs Road.

• 6 p.m., July 17 at West Central Sports Complex, 4521 John Barrow Road.

• 6:30 p.m., July 21 at South End Community Center, 2701 Main St.

• 6:30 p.m., July 24 at Josephine Pankey Center, 13700 Cantrell Road.

• 6:30 p.m., Aug. 7 at Southwest Community Center, 6401 Baseline Road.

City board delays meeting by 1 day

The Little Rock Board of Directors will meet Wednesday, rather than Tuesday, because of the Independence Day holiday.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at City Hall, 500 W. Markham St., Little Rock, just west of Broadway.

Metro on 07/02/2017

Upcoming Events