Looking back: 2008 quite the year
By Jeremy Peppas / Staff Writer / jpeppas@nlrtimes.com
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 11:12 AM CST
What a year 2008 was.
So on the first day of 2009, let’s take a look back.
It was a 12-month period in which a much-discussed one-cent sales tax proposal doesn’t even make the cut for the 10 biggest stories of the year. A Times investigation into odd loan practices that exposed a local scandal didn’t make the honorable mention list.
In December, the Times ran a list of what the staff considered the biggest stories of the year. The list contained 23 different stories and e-mail ballots were asked for.
One reader e-mailed to say that the North Shore business park development was the biggest story in North Little Rock.
Two major employers — the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and Garver Engineering — moved from Little Rock to the North Shore to new headquarters.
They joined the Arkansas Surgical Hospital as notable tenants on the property. Observers say more development can be expected in 2009.
The North Shore Business Park is a story worth watching but it comes in our list of Top 10 stories at No. 2.
The biggest story though was mentioned in another e-mail from a reader who wrote, “well, it has to be the Mayor. What else could it be?”
And he is right.
The biggest story of 2008 in North Little Rock was the campaign and eventual election of Patrick Hays to his sixth term as mayor.
While they were listed on the ballot as two different stories, we combined the campaign and election as one on our final list.
Hays was first elected in 1988 when he defeated incumbent NLR Mayor Terry Hartwick; Hays wasn’t seriously challenged in the next four re-election bids. But in 2008, Walter “Bubba” Lloyd Jr. and two others threw their hats into the ring. Bill Laman and Michelle McLelland also were on the ballot.
Lloyd almost immediately earned the endorsement of the police and fire unions. Union members were vocal and public with their support.
Hays, 61, went on to win the race with nearly 55 percent of the vote in the four-way race.
The story rumbled on after the election when Hays filed a police report against Lloyd. Hays said he had been threatened while out campaigning. Hays acknowledged that it was his word against Lloyd’s, but “I felt my word was good enough.”
As for Lloyd, he didn’t return phone calls from The Times about the incident and said at a public meeting that he never intended speaking to the newspaper again. Once a regular at City Council meetings, he hasn’t been at a meeting since the November election.
It was the most expensive campaign in the city’s history as Hays and Lloyd raised nearly a quarter-million dollars and spent a large chunk of that. Lloyd’s fundraising was largely in the form of a personal loan to himself.
While last year’s top two stories have been covered, what about the rest?
Coming in at No. 10 was Bill and Hillary Clinton both making campaign stops in North Little Rock. Former President Clinton’s appearance downtown, along with other leading state politicians, was the largest assemblage of political star power the city has seen this century, and maybe the last century as well.
Next up at No. 9 was Dickey-Stephens Park, as the baseball stadium had record-setting attendance of 377,997 in its second year, during which Arkansas Travelers fans watched an erratic team get hot in the playoffs and go on to win the 2008 Texas League championship.
No. 8 was the Four-State RV Rally held in August at the city’s new downtown RV Park. The park originally drew some opposition, but the rally appeared to be a hit with those in attendance.
With Alderman Olen Thomas stepping down after 28 years, it was expected that a newcomer would join the incoming City Council. What wasn’t expected was two incumbent aldermen, Neil Bryant and John Parker, losing their seats to political newcomers. Beth White beat Bryant in the Ward 1 race, while Parker lost in a runoff to Sam Baggett. Maurice Taylor won the race to replace Thomas and the council is now more diverse. Those aldermanic elections make the list at No. 7.
No. 6 was the Levy Wal-Mart closing after decades at its location; as the new year started, the building was still vacant. Wal-Mart opened a supercenter on the other side of the city line in Sherwood, while another supercenter store was built on Maumelle Boulevard.
Levy, with its population of more than 12,000, is one of the most densely populated portions of Arkansas not served with its own Wal-Mart store.
A sports story makes the cut at No. 5 as the NCAA played its first- and second-round games at Alltel Arena for the first time. The men’s basketball tournament brought in teams from around the country and was nationally televised on CBS. The event was well-attended as the University of Memphis, a No. 1 seed and eventual national runner-up, played two games here.
The weather comes in at No. 4, as the most notable event was the tornado that ripped through the North Little Rock airport in March, but summer flooding along the Arkansas River also caused numerous problems in the city.
Former state Rep. Dwayne Dobbins was the story that just kept giving and comes in at No. 3. The story isn’t complete without mentioning the eventual election of Richard Carroll to Dobbins’ old seat. Carroll became the first Green Party candidate to win a legislative race in Arkansas.
2008’s Top 10
1. Patrick Hays wins sixth term, as mayor of North Little Rock with race for mayor gets personal between Patrick Hays and Bubba Lloyd.
2. Development along North Shore Business Park increases.
3. Dwayne Dobbins, the story that just kept giving; with Richard Carroll wins Green Party seat.
4. Airport hit by tornado in March.
5. Alltel Arena hosts first and second round of NCAA men’s basketball tournament in March.
6. Levy Wal-Mart closes.
7. Three new aldermen elected to the City Council.
8. Four-State RV rally hits town as new RV Park along river.
9. Dickey-Stephens Park has record attendance with Travs win Texas League championship.
10. Clintons makes multiple North Little Rock appearances.
The next five
Four workers die in Arkansas River bridge accident;
Proposed penny sales tax is defeated;
Park Hill fire station stays open; city makes plans to build 11th station;
39th Brigade leaves for Iraq; and
North Little Rock High School claims state Class 7A girls softball title.
Special mention
As 2008 ended, more news was happening. The city had two late-December developments. One was the proposed hotel development for downtown that involved a plan for sending school money to a private developer to build a parking deck in conjunction with a hotel and convention center space.
The other was a cryptic announcement about the former Rank Video building and that an unnamed auto assembly company was considering spending $100 million dollars to convert the facility to its purposes.
Hays said that North Little Rock was one of two finalists and that, if the company did come to town, it would employ more than 500 at the facility.
