Church hosts 33rd fish fry fundraiser
Tickets are on sale for the 33rd annual Friendly Chapel Fish Fry at Verizon Arena, an event that has drawn thousands in previous years.
The all-you-can-eat "fish and fowl" dinner and community event is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at Verizon Arena. The menu will include fish, chicken, rice, beans, french fries, slaw, bread, pickles, onions, tea and lemonade, according to event details.
Individual tickets are $15 each. Books of 10 tickets sell for $120. Children's tickets will be $6 at the door. For tickets, call 501-371-0912.
All proceeds benefit Brother Paul's Soup Kitchen at the Friendly Chapel of the Nazarene, 116 S. Pine St., North Little Rock, to provide meals for local adults and children in need during the next year.
The dinner began as a fund-raiser in 1987. More information is available by visiting friendlychapel.org.
City property sale stalled by railroad
Closing remains on hold for the city selling property in the vicinity of North Buckeye Street and East Fifth Street to Bruce Oakley Inc., but could happen soon, Mayor Joe Smith said last week.
The North Little Rock City Council approved in February a proposal to sell 11 city parcels to the distribution and transportation company for $1.1 million to aid the North Little Rock company's expansion.
The sale hasn't yet gone through because Union Pacific Railroad tracks on that property includes a railroad easement that the railroad would need to release before the sale could close, Smith has said.
With Union Pacific executives meeting Oct. 8 about that easement and another in Little Rock, Smith said he "anticipates that to be released Oct. 8."
The city's proceeds from the sale were also to be included as a down payment on planned improvements at the North Little Rock Municipal Airport, 8200 Remount Road, now on hold over bond issue questions.
Smith has previously said that without the release of the easement the sale could fail, which would also hamper the airport improvement plans.
Parking lot funds approved by city
The North Little Rock City Council last week approved adding another $47,430 to the construction of a parking lot for the First Orion office building that was already budgeted at $940,000.
The parking lot is to be primarily for office parking but also available for public parking, with 150 parking spaces total.
The cost of the parking lot includes fencing, lighting and underground water retention and irrigation work, city Chief of Staff Danny Bradley said.
The $17 million, five-story First Orion building is under construction directly behind the city-owned, $5.36 million Argenta Plaza, 510 Main St.
City's spokesman to leave position
Nathan Hamilton, North Little Rock's communications director for Mayor Joe Smith since 2013, is leaving city government Oct. 18, Hamilton said in a letter to the mayor that was shared with the city council last week.
Hamilton, 43, wrote that he is leaving to devote the time necessary to his law school work and a family business started this year.
Hamilton is scheduled to graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law in May and take his bar exam this summer. He and his wife, Stacy Johnson Hamilton, last year purchased the 1898 Queen Anne Victorian-styled Baker House, a former bed-and-breakfast, 501 Main St. (formerly 109 W. Fifth St.) in North Little Rock, and opened it as a hotel this spring.
Metro on 09/29/2019