July 1996

A BOUT WITH THE GREEN PLASTIC DEVIL Date: 07-03-96 Category: EDITORIAL Page: 9B Meredith Oakley It doesn't take much to discourage me from working in the yard, as any of my long-suffering neighbors can tell you. But I do fret about it. I'd like a well-manicured lawn, and if my yard had grass instead of weeds and there was a working lawn mower that didn't require a 1 00-foot electric cord to operate, perhaps I'd tackle the dreadful job with gusto. Not to the point of hitting the ground mowing and trimming two or three times a week, as do the folks with more leisure time, but with somewhat more frequency than you'd get now without a shotgun blast to my feet. Envying as I do the lush green grass and neatly trimmed hedges of other properties, I'd like to make a better contribution toward a more beautiful street than merely sneaking out at night with a pair of scissors to lop the tops off the fast-growing stalks in the yard. Hey, I'm big on Little Rock, too. Besides, it keeps the City Beautiful Yard Patrol off my case. I fret almost as much about the City Beautiful Yard Patrol as I do about the Big Green Monster Brigade. The length of time between yard mowings is nothing compared to how long I can postpone wheeling my jolly green giant out to the curb. So fearful am I of missing a curfew--in Little Rock, the garbage cans have curfews--that I'11 hem and haw for weeks at a time, rearranging my gift-wrapped garbage--in Little Rock, garbage must be gift-wrapped--until not a single square inch of free space remains. Only then, when not so much as a Kleenex tissue will fit inside a plastic bag, do I go into action. Slow-motion action, because a stuffed-to-capacity Big Green Monster weighs a ton. I try diligently to wheel the emptied trash bin away from the street before curfew, because if I don't--if I get distracted by, say, a wayward two-foot weed that wasn't there that morning when I pulled out of the driveway and forget to remove the monster--invariably I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, fearful that the Big Green Monster Brigade will come and impound my sidewalk. Or the section of street in front of it, which is where most empty Big Green Monsters end up in my neighborhood. "It'd be just like those #*!%&! ! to take the concrete and leave the weeds," I mutter as I stumble out of bed, pull on the robe and the shoes, and totter into the night to remove my green plastic nemesis to a suitable--read "out of sight"--location. It wouldn't do for a high-profile member of this newspaper's staff to get run in for premeditated littering in the first degree, which I think is a hanging offense. If that happened, the city attorney might take a look at the top of my desk--rather, try to find the top of my desk--and really throw the book at me. To tell you the truth, though. for all my civic-mindedness, not to mention my fear of arrest, I'm getting kind of tired of tripping in the dark and falling into the rose bush on these midnight strolls from the front yard to the back with my Big Green Monster, which is almost as unwieldy empty as it is full. There's got to be a better way. And I think I've found it. I'm not getting any younger, and neither is my memory, so I've got to compensate. I'm going to make a dust cover for my Big Green Monster, and then on those nights when I frantically awake and realize that it's out after curfew, instead of trying to haul it through the maze of a weed-tangled yard, I'm going to slip out to the curb and cover it up. For a pattern, I'm thinking in terms of the "I'm Big on Little Rock" logo with lots of red and yellow stripes. I hope it doesn't have a copyright. On the other hand, maybe I'd better not. It might require a sign permit or a rezoning or something. OK, so I won't use "I'm Big on Little Rock" on the dust cover, I'll just use the "I'm Big on Little Rock" pattern. Then I can make my sentiments known to our hard-working, longsuffering Department of Street, Curb and Yard Law Enforcement without running afoul of the sign code. You know, I think I'm onto something here, something much bigger than merely beautifying my short stretch of the landscape. This could be a whole project, a veritable mission, for the City Beautiful Commission not unlike those Best Decorated House at Christmas time awards they used to give out before Jennings Osborne's enthusiasm put the quietus to the contest. Imagine, a Decorate Your Can contest! I mentioned this to a friend who was quite taken with the idea. She's not much for sewing anything, let alone something as complex as a Paul Bunyan-size dust cover, but she suggested putting a stem on her Big Green Monster and calling it an apple. I think the City Beautiful Commission fathers would bite--er, buy it. Then she mentioned my idea to one of her neighbors who, alas, has not a great and mighty Big Green Monster but a short, squat, unassuming brown one. But the neighbor wasn't discouraged, suggesting that a couple of eye-shaped pieces of cardboard would make for a nice Cookie Monster effect. What an idea! It might cost the city a few bucks in fines--well, maybe more than a few--but think of the positive side. Why, this could bring families--nay, entire neighborhoods-together. We could have sewing bees and can-decorating parties and can-can dancing in the streets. I'm telling you, this could be something big. Associate Editor Meredith Oakley's column appears every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

FIRST DAY IN JOB JUST GLITCHY BY COM PARISON Date: 07-17-96 Category: NEWS Page: 1A RACHEL O'NEAL, Dcmocrat-Gazette Capitol Bureau When Gov. Mike Huckabee's staff arrived for work Tuesday, they didn't know the numbers to the telephones and didn't have the password to activate the computer system. But they did have at least 10 boxes of doughnuts -- supplied by Little Rock businessman Jennings Osborne -- and a sense of excitement about being part of the new administration. "I think our people are very pumped, very excited," Huckabee said. "I was surprised that there's any adrenaline left after yesterday. But it seems they've come to work with a real sense of mission and a real sense of dedication to the job." The new governor's staff unquestionably had a long day Monday, filled with chaos and questions about whether Huckabee would even become governor. The tension finally ended when Gov. Jim Guy Tucker withdrew his refusal to leave offce and Huckabee was sworn in as governor. Tuesday's problems were far less serious than those that cropped up Monday. Those first-day questions, Huckabee said, range from "Where's my desk?" "What chair do I sit in?" "Where's my offfice?" and "How do I work this doggone phone and computer?" But overall, Huckabee said the staffhad a relatively "smooth first day." Before many of the employees arrived at work, Tucker's name had been scraped off the offce door and replaced with Huckabee's name. The keys to the offce were turned over to the new administration shortly after Huckabee took the oath of off'ce. Inside the governor's offce, the governor's receptionist, Angela Watson, was keeping track of names of new employees and where they will work. "We don't even know the phone numbers, but we're learning as we go, minute by minute," said Rex Nelson, director of policy and communications. Nelson said no one on his staffknows how to operate the computer system. He said he hopes that members of Tucker's administration who now are working for Huckabee can help the staff learn to operate the equipment. "We'll learn," Nelson said. "I think we did a pretty good job from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. yesterday and I can't imagine anything that would top those circumstances." Huckabee was acting governor for four hours Monday while Tucker tried to hang on to the off'ce. During that time, Huckabee's staffthrew together last-minute news conferences, met with legislators, rewrote speeches and answered hundreds of questions from concerned Arkansans. While everyone -- including Huckabee -- couldn't resist rehashing the events of Monday, things were much calmer Tuesday in the state Capitol. Nelson and other members of Huckabee's executive staff moved into their new offces and chatted with constituents. Former Rep. Jim Von Gremp, R-Springdale, is Huckabee's director of government operations. He announced shortly after Huckabee was sworn in that he would resign his House District 2 seat to go to work for the governor. Former state Rep. Dick Barclay, R-Rogers, is a third member of Huckabee's senior level team, serving as director of legislative affairs and budget. Huckabee spent his first night as governor with his family at the Excelsior Hotel. On Tuesday morning, Huckabee got up early and went to the Governor's Mansion for a security meeting with the Arkansas State Police. The Huckabees spent part of their day Tuesday moving into the mansion, Nelson said.

TIME FINALLY COMES FOR A GRAND OLD PARTY Date: 07-21-96 Category: HIGH PROFILE Page: 8D PHYLLIS D. BRANDON, Democrat-Gazette High Profile Editor Standing between the American and Arkansas flags, Janet and Gov. Mike Huckabee greeted friends Monday evening in the Exhibition Hall of Robinson Center. In a line that wrapped around the room, more than 2,000 friends from around the state waited patiently to offer their congratulations. After a prayer by Beth Anne Rankin and the National Anthem sung by Carla Easter of Magnolia, the Huckabees entered the room accompanied by their children, John Mark, David and Sarah. Just a little more than an hour earlier Huckabee had taken the oath of of fice at the state Capitol. "I'm really amazed you're still here," the new governor said, calling the day unique and sometimes embarrassing for the state. "You make us so proud to be Arkansans." Among the Huckabees' crowd were some of the active members of the Republican Party including Gay and former Gov. Frank White, Mary Lynn and Sheffield Nelson, Martha and Carl Rosenbaum, Ada Mills of Clarksville, Doody and Sen. Jim Keet, Bob Dole state chairman Ruth and Dr. T.J. Whitaker of Cedarville, Loree and Bob Leslie of Conway, Mitzi and Jennings Osborne, Bob Lowry, Ron Fuller and Tom Prince. Del Boyette, executive director of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, along with Kay Stebbins, Gray Swoope and Tom Steves were also in the line. Beth Ward and Dr. Charlie Haynie, Bill Butler, Bill Lamb and Em and Dr. Wade Smith were also among the throng. With iced tea and pink punch, those who had had a long day had finger sandwiches, crudites, chicken wings, sliced fruit and a choice of cakes. Four sheet cakes prepared by Silvek's Bakery included an Italian cream decorated in red, white and blue that had "Governor Mike Huckabee" spelled out in icing; a chocolate mousse cake topped with a large Arkansas seal; a Brown Derby iced in white with icing outlining the state Capitol; and another Italian cream wishing "best of luck" to members of the Huckabee family and listing their names.

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