O Master of All Things Paved: We have recently taken on another home improvement project in our money pit in downtown Little Rock. This means we make numerous trips to the big box home improvement stores north of the river. One exit we take repeatedly is Springhill off Interstate 40 eastbound. The exit ramp looks and feels just a bit better than the finest gravel road. Does the Highway Department have plans to improve or repair this exit? -- Bluegrass Bill
Dear Blue: We're delighted to ask Deric Wyatt, district engineer for District 6 of the Arkansas Department of Transportation. This is his first appearance in this space.
Wyatt tells us his district is developing plans for a pavement preservation project on I-40 in this area, which would include repairs to the Springhill exit ramp. Such plans are in the early stages, funding not yet allocated.
Meanwhile, he said, repairs will be made by maintenance crews.
Dear Mahatma: Which agency oversees temporary plates on vehicles? Why are there temporary plates? I have seen some up to and over a year old. -- Outdated
Dear Outdated: Auto dealers put temp plates on vehicles, a system overseen by the Department of Finance & Administration. As we all know as taxpayers, DF&A collects taxes on the sale of vehicles.
Purchasers have 30 days in which to pay their sales tax and register their new vehicles. It's the job of law enforcement to stop, warn or ticket drivers whose temp plates are expired.
Our impression is that expired temp plates are a low priority for law enforcement, what with speeders, drunkards and red-light runners. Read the police beat every day. Much of it reports on police stopping drivers who have guns and drugs in their vehicles.
Expired temp plates? As if.
On the other hand, not much over the umpteen years of this column has riled up readers like expired temp plates. Good people -- those who pay their taxes on time -- get aggravated at those who do not.
Sadly, we were recently informed of a nice lady whose vehicle was clobbered in a parking lot by a chump in a car with a temp license that was more than a year old. Adding insult to injury, the chump drove off.
Someday, we fervently hope, the universe will get even with this guy.
Dear Mahatma: My sister-in-law sent me something she saw in the newspaper. Cool!
However, my truck is a BIG RED FORD F150! Not a Chevy. -- Cherie
Dear Cherie: Thank you for making mention of a vanity plate in last week's column. The plate -- TRKCRZY -- was inaccurately described as being on a red Chevrolet Silverado.
It was, as you say, an F-150.
Someone please find a sword so that we may fall on it.
Loyalties are strong for truck brands. Ours is a GMC. We love it, and recently urged our brother-in-law to buy one. Naturally, he didn't.
To err is us; to forgive divine.
Fjfellone@gmail.com