HOUSE HUNTERS
Searching for some unique Arkansas real estate? You are soooo in luck because two properties with interesting back stories have recently hit the market.
The gated estate at 3700 Avondale Road, on Lake No. 1 in North Little Rock, was once owned by John M. Rogers, the archivist and sports memorabilia dealer who was sentenced in Chicago in 2017 to 12 years in prison for wire fraud. It's the more expensive of the pair.
Built in 2012, it's listed for $1,695,000 and for that you get -- deep breath -- a 12,262-square-foot house with five bedrooms, six full baths, two half baths, a library, two private docks, saltwater pool, outdoor kitchen and veranda, two laundry rooms, indoor basketball court, batting cage, a safe room, theater, wine cellar, gym, sauna and plenty of other stuff that would make you never want to leave.
You'd have to go to work eventually, though, because the calculator at realtor.com figures that a 30-year fixed mortgage on $1,695,000 with a $339,000 down payment at 4.182 percent interest would result in -- ummm, carry the 3, minus the 7 -- an estimated monthly payment of $6,617, not including taxes and insurance.
On the more modest side, there's the 1,852-square-foot, three-bed, three-bath Greers Ferry Lake summer home of actor William Forsythe (Raising Arizona, The Man in the High Castle, many more) at 1760 Burnt Ridge Road near Clinton. Built in 1974, it sits on a 13-acre lakefront lot and is listed for $295,000.
And as the owner of a longtime Hollywood actor's former digs, you'd win pretty much every Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game ever.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Jess Setzler.
Name ring a bell?
No?
OK. But if you watch AETN you've likely seen his work.
The 66-year-old has been with the public television network since 1977 working as an artist, designer, photographer and more. He's designed sets for shows like Arkansas Week and AETN Presents and created print ads and posters for the network. Away from AETN, he's made album art for bands like The Frontier Circus and The Rockin' Guys and whimsical eggs for the annual Youth Home Eggshibition fundraiser.
Last week, The Conway Alliance for the Arts gave Setzler the Faulkner County Library Lifetime Achievement Award.
"When I first heard about it, I thought it was a spam email," he says from his AETN office, where he is the assistant director of marketing and engagement.
Not so, says Danny Grace of The Frontier Circus, who nominated Setzler.
"He's so talented. He can do just about anything. He's a good guitar player, and he whups us to death on the golf course."
That lifetime achievement award doesn't mean Setzler is done making cool stuff.
"I'm not ready to roll over yet," he says.
email sclancy@arkansasonline.com
SundayMonday on 04/07/2019