CASH — Junior Bates sits on a bench in front of Vicki’s Store in Cash on sunny afternoons and counts the cars that pass through the nearby four-way stop.
A year ago, it wasn’t that daunting. Maybe 50 to 75 cars would crawl to a stop at Arkansas 226 and Arkansas 18 in an hour’s time.
Today, though, Bates can easily count 100 cars in less then 30 minutes.
“It’s getting worse, I think,” said the 77-year-old Bates. “They keep coming.”
Since last December, when the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department opened about 20 more milesof four-lane U.S. 67 - from Newport north to Swifton - it created a shortcut for motorists heading from northeast Arkansas to Little Rock and back. Travelers now take Arkansas 226 from Jonesboro to U.S. 67. In the past, they would usually take U.S. 49 from Jonesboro to Waldenburg and then Arkansas 14 to U.S. 67 near Newport.
Cash, a small farming community of 294, is about 15miles west of Jonesboro and three miles east of U.S. 67.
Travelers now make an endless stream through the town.
And there’s also the lost souls who end up in Cash seeking directions elsewhere.
“U.S. 67 just ends there,” said Cash post office relief postmaster Lisa Stepp, referring to where the divided four-lane highway stops. “They end up here asking how to get to ‘old 67’ and to Pocahontas and Corning and St. Louis.
“I’m not very good with directions,” Stepp said. “I just hand them a map.”
Life has changed for the residents of the town named at the turn of the century for its cash-rich farming operations.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of traffic,” said Mayor Leroy Burden. “But our Police Department can handle it. He can give out tickets and slow things down.”
Bates said he’s seen a handful of accidents - mostly fender benders - while on his vigil at the intersection.
According to the Highway Department, about 3,500 cars passed through Cash each day in 2008. Now, a year after the extension of U.S. 67 to the west, 6,400 motorists drive through the town.
The Highway Department hopes to build a bypass just to the south of Cash, but that would take at least five years to complete.
“That’ll be good for us, but bad for them,” said Jerry Bishop, pointing south of his home on Arkansas 226 to where a handful of people live and near where the proposed bypass will go.
Conversation is difficult at Bishop’s home, let alone sleep.
Bishop has lived in the house about 1,000 yards from the four-way stop sign his entire life.
“You can’t go outside and talk on the cell phone,” said Melinda Bishop, his daughter-in-law, who lives about 500 yards from the intersection. “There’s too much truck noise.”
Jerry Bishop has tried to get police to slow traffic down by his home, asking them to drop the speed limit from 45 mph to 35 mph. So far, that request has not been granted, he said.
“When the trucks come past that stop sign, they hammer it,” he said.
A tractor-trailer roared past, punctuating his thoughts.
“At night, you can’t sleep,” he said. “The big trucks use their jake brakes when they pass my house to make the stop. It’s loudand it keeps me awake.”
But with the noise comes money, Burden, the mayor, said. And as long as the Highway Department maintains the roads, he’s happy.
“Some are stopping in our town and buying things,” he said. “As long as they keep up the repair, that’s a good thing. It’ll be gone someday. We might as well take advantage of it.”
Business at Vicki’s Store, just north of the intersection, is brisk.
“Everybody stops in here and asks for directions,” said Christina Webb, a cashier at the small grocery store.
“We get people from California, Oklahoma, New Mexico - everywhere,” she said. “They all get lost. They come here. They always need drinksand to use the bathroom.”
Bates, who visits the store daily to talk with friends and sit at a small folding table near the front, reflected on the change in his town.
“It’s different,” he said. “But it’s on this end of town and I don’t think it affects those in the north part of town.
“We sit here and watch the cars,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 11/26/2010