The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas
Fire Chief Annouces Retirement
By Skip Descant
THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville Fire Chief Tony Johnson says he plans to retire in mid-October. It was a surprise announcement to the Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday.
"It has been an honor to have served the citizens of Fayetteville," Johnson said in brief unscheduled remarks at the start of the city council meeting.
Johnson's announcement comes less than two weeks after two Fire Department employees were fired. The city has remained quiet regarding why David P. Williams, a battalion chief and Elizabeth Mann, a financial analyst for the department were terminated. The city has refused to release complete personnel records for the two employees, citing the need for a thorough attorney general opinion, regarding whether those records are subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Johnson submitted a letter to Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan, requesting retirement, said Lindsley Smith, Jordan's communication director.
"And he (Jordan) said he wanted to think about it over the weekend," Smith said of Jordan's response, speaking after Tuesday night's meeting.
The move to fire Williams and Mann, and then the chief's decision to retire, are likely not autonomous issues.
"They were events that were taking place and then he said he'd retire," Lindsley remarked. "Logic would be that these were events that were taking place, and those were matters that were discussed."
Smith would not elaborate on how the two incidents may be related, because a peripheral discussion could step into a personnel matters, which are generally off limits. Johnson was not available for questions after he made his announcement.
Also on Friday, the city was served with a discrimination complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The complaint was filed by a Fire Department employee, city officials confirmed.
Johnson, who has spent 37 years as a fireman, was hired four years ago. At the time, he was the retired fire chief of the Elkhart, Ind. Fire Department.
Johnson also served as a firefighter on an air base in southeast Asia for three years and spent one year in 1974 in Thailand.
Johnson's last day will be presiding over the annual Fire Department pancake breakfast fundraiser on Oct. 10 — four years to the day that he started.
"If you want further comment, you must buy a ticket to the pancake breakfast," Johnson said to a round of laughs in the council chamber.
Jordan and the council had only kind words for the chief.
"I've worked with you on committees. And I think the professionalism you've showed has been outstanding and I want to say that I appreciated it," Bobby Ferrell, a city councilman, told Johnson.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
An endangered cave crayfish could be in a cave beneath your home in Northwest Arkansas
Please click on image to ENLARGE view of tiny young cave crayfish on August 18, 2009. Another reason to avoid building on land known to be
Gray hairstreak butterfly on grass on August 18, 2009
Please click on image to enlarge view of tiniest variety of gray hairstreak butterfly on a tiny seed portion of grass hanging over the edge of a street near downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas. People who choose to "naturalize" their yards in accordance with a new Fayetteville ordinance would have lots of these this time of summer in Fayetteville. Yes, these are so small their color patterns aren't easy to see without a zoom lens, they are truly magnificent and are a better thing to see in one's yard than a mass of monoculture grass mowed near the ground.
Why hasn't the park department stopped mowing large areas of the city parks as the mayor suggested many months ago. The fuel and labor costs of mowing seriously hurt the park budget in a desperate time.
Why hasn't the park department stopped mowing large areas of the city parks as the mayor suggested many months ago. The fuel and labor costs of mowing seriously hurt the park budget in a desperate time.
Fire Chief Tony Johnson announces he will resign; sale-barn rezoning issue tabled until September 15
Fayetteville Fire Chief Tony Johnson tells Fayetteville City Council that he will resign in October.
Issue of rezoning Washington County Livestock Auction property to allow student apartments next to National Cemetery tabled until September 15 council meeting.
Issue of rezoning Washington County Livestock Auction property to allow student apartments next to National Cemetery tabled until September 15 council meeting.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Do we need another Hill Place-type development in our neighborhood? Next to our National Shrine?? Just imagine
John Lennon video singing Imagine
Please click on images to ENLARGE view of Dunn Avenue along the east edge of the Fayetteville National Cemetery as it would appear if student apartments were allowed to be built on the site of the former Washington County Livestock Auction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxLnIRVVwIM
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Please click on images to ENLARGE view of Dunn Avenue along the east edge of the Fayetteville National Cemetery as it would appear if student apartments were allowed to be built on the site of the former Washington County Livestock Auction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxLnIRVVwIM
g
An anonymous question in a Sunday night comment below can't be answered; maybe Jonah will tell us the answer
Please click on images to ENLARGE view of scenes from the Saturday, August 15, 2009, ice-cream social at Headquarters House in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
If you spot Jonah in the crowd, please tell us which person he is. Community-involved people wanted to know.
"Anonymous said...
Was Jonah there? It was his house.
August 16, 2009 10:26 PM"
More than two years ago when The Iconoclast became Fayetteville's most active Web log, the question of Jonah vs Jonas came up and I never read a satisfactory documented explanation. Here is the blurb on the original owner of the house from http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net
Jonah, Jonas or whoever may be lurking in one of my photos but I can't spot him.
Headquarters House Museum
Located in the historic district of Fayetteville (Washington County), the Headquarters House Museum serves as the headquarters for the Washington County Historical Society. The museum offers daily house tours, walking tours of the gardens and grounds, and educational programs to teach local children about the history of Fayetteville. The Headquarters House Museum hosts the annual Heritage School during the summer months to promote awareness of past traditions and manners. It also provides numerous luncheons and receptions each year for visitors and guests.
Headquarters House was built in 1853 by Judge Jonas Tebbetts and his wife, Matilda Winlock Tebbetts. The house is one of the best examples of Greek Revival architecture still standing in Arkansas, containing fluted columns on the front porch and dentil trim on the eaves around the house and parlor fireplace. The four-acre property held numerous other buildings and an apple orchard behind the house.
Jonas March Tebbetts was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, around 1820 and was educated at the Western University of Pittsburgh, where he eventually became a professor. He left his job there and made his way out west as a teacher and steamboat worker. By 1839, he reached the Arkansas frontier, where he studied law. Tebbetts married Matilda Winlock, a Kentucky-born student attending the Fayetteville Female Seminary. In 1853, they built their home in Fayetteville. Tebbetts became a popular leader of the town, but as threat of war approached, he “made himself notorious” as a staunch Union supporter. In March 1862, he was arrested by Confederate general Ben McCulloch and detained at Fort Smith (Sebastian County), but he was released after the death of General McCulloch at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Tebbetts returned to Fayetteville, but when he was warned of a plot to kill him, he escaped behind the Union lines in Missouri. In the fall of 1862, he returned to get his wife and children. The Tebbetts family never again lived in the house, which was occupied by the Yeater family until the Union army took control of it in early 1863.
Tebbetts’s house served as headquarters to both the Union and the Confederate armies during their respective times of occupation of Fayetteville. Even though the house sustained some serious damage during the Action at Fayetteville on April 18, 1863, it was returned to its original grandeur by the numerous owners who bought the house in the years following the Civil War. Each owner stayed true to the original Greek Revival style in which the house was built. In 1967, the house was turned over to the Washington County Historical Society by Paris Green to operate as a historic house museum. The museum contains many period pieces in its exhibits, including Victorian-style furniture, a doll collection, a silver tea service that belonged to the Tebbetts family, and the museum’s famous “Hollywood desk,” on which Gregory Peck signed the Emancipation Proclamation during his role as Abraham Lincoln in the CBS television miniseries The Blue and the Gray. The name was changed to Headquarters House Museum to commemorate its service to both armies during the Civil War.
For additional information:
Campbell, William S. One Hundred Years of Fayetteville, 1828–1928. Fayetteville, AR: Washington County Historical Society, 1977.
Hendricks, Nancy. “Spirits of the Past Live Again at Headquarters House.” Flashback 53 (Summer 2003): 97–125.
Mahan, Russell L. Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the Civil War 1860–1865. Bountiful, UT: Historical Byways, 2003.
The Journal of Marian Tebbetts Banes. Fayetteville, AR: Washington County Historical Society, 1977.
Washington County Historical Society. http://www.washcohistoricalsociety.org/ (accessed January 29, 2007).
Lonnie Strange
Washington County Historical Society
Last Updated 6/3/2008
If you spot Jonah in the crowd, please tell us which person he is. Community-involved people wanted to know.
"Anonymous said...
Was Jonah there? It was his house.
August 16, 2009 10:26 PM"
More than two years ago when The Iconoclast became Fayetteville's most active Web log, the question of Jonah vs Jonas came up and I never read a satisfactory documented explanation. Here is the blurb on the original owner of the house from http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net
Jonah, Jonas or whoever may be lurking in one of my photos but I can't spot him.
Headquarters House Museum
Located in the historic district of Fayetteville (Washington County), the Headquarters House Museum serves as the headquarters for the Washington County Historical Society. The museum offers daily house tours, walking tours of the gardens and grounds, and educational programs to teach local children about the history of Fayetteville. The Headquarters House Museum hosts the annual Heritage School during the summer months to promote awareness of past traditions and manners. It also provides numerous luncheons and receptions each year for visitors and guests.
Headquarters House was built in 1853 by Judge Jonas Tebbetts and his wife, Matilda Winlock Tebbetts. The house is one of the best examples of Greek Revival architecture still standing in Arkansas, containing fluted columns on the front porch and dentil trim on the eaves around the house and parlor fireplace. The four-acre property held numerous other buildings and an apple orchard behind the house.
Jonas March Tebbetts was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, around 1820 and was educated at the Western University of Pittsburgh, where he eventually became a professor. He left his job there and made his way out west as a teacher and steamboat worker. By 1839, he reached the Arkansas frontier, where he studied law. Tebbetts married Matilda Winlock, a Kentucky-born student attending the Fayetteville Female Seminary. In 1853, they built their home in Fayetteville. Tebbetts became a popular leader of the town, but as threat of war approached, he “made himself notorious” as a staunch Union supporter. In March 1862, he was arrested by Confederate general Ben McCulloch and detained at Fort Smith (Sebastian County), but he was released after the death of General McCulloch at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Tebbetts returned to Fayetteville, but when he was warned of a plot to kill him, he escaped behind the Union lines in Missouri. In the fall of 1862, he returned to get his wife and children. The Tebbetts family never again lived in the house, which was occupied by the Yeater family until the Union army took control of it in early 1863.
Tebbetts’s house served as headquarters to both the Union and the Confederate armies during their respective times of occupation of Fayetteville. Even though the house sustained some serious damage during the Action at Fayetteville on April 18, 1863, it was returned to its original grandeur by the numerous owners who bought the house in the years following the Civil War. Each owner stayed true to the original Greek Revival style in which the house was built. In 1967, the house was turned over to the Washington County Historical Society by Paris Green to operate as a historic house museum. The museum contains many period pieces in its exhibits, including Victorian-style furniture, a doll collection, a silver tea service that belonged to the Tebbetts family, and the museum’s famous “Hollywood desk,” on which Gregory Peck signed the Emancipation Proclamation during his role as Abraham Lincoln in the CBS television miniseries The Blue and the Gray. The name was changed to Headquarters House Museum to commemorate its service to both armies during the Civil War.
For additional information:
Campbell, William S. One Hundred Years of Fayetteville, 1828–1928. Fayetteville, AR: Washington County Historical Society, 1977.
Hendricks, Nancy. “Spirits of the Past Live Again at Headquarters House.” Flashback 53 (Summer 2003): 97–125.
Mahan, Russell L. Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the Civil War 1860–1865. Bountiful, UT: Historical Byways, 2003.
The Journal of Marian Tebbetts Banes. Fayetteville, AR: Washington County Historical Society, 1977.
Washington County Historical Society. http://www.washcohistoricalsociety.org/ (accessed January 29, 2007).
Lonnie Strange
Washington County Historical Society
Last Updated 6/3/2008
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Colorful examples of what saving prairies will protect
Please click on images to ENLARGE view of wildflowers just west of World Peace Wetland Prairie on August 16, 2009.
Carbon Caps Task Force to meet at 1:30 p.m. today, August 16, 2009, at OMNI's office in the usual place on Maple Avenue
Dear CCTF,
We will be having a meeting this Sunday, August 16th, at 1:30 PM in the UCM down under area, OMNI's usual, though now only temporary, abode. Please come if you are able.
Attached, you will find the meeting's agenda.
We will discuss CCTF's direction, with a heavy focus on action, and then delegate the concrete (or, more appropriately, green) tasks that arise from our discussion. Join in guiding our city and nation's future!
Hope to see you there!
Ryan Bancroft
(479) 799-9065
rpbancroft@gmail.com
We will be having a meeting this Sunday, August 16th, at 1:30 PM in the UCM down under area, OMNI's usual, though now only temporary, abode. Please come if you are able.
Attached, you will find the meeting's agenda.
We will discuss CCTF's direction, with a heavy focus on action, and then delegate the concrete (or, more appropriately, green) tasks that arise from our discussion. Join in guiding our city and nation's future!
Hope to see you there!
Ryan Bancroft
(479) 799-9065
rpbancroft@gmail.com
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Faces from the Ice Cream social on August 15, 2009
Please click on images to ENLARGE views from Washington County Historical Society's 2009 annual ice-cream social.
Please click on images to ENLARGE views of people at Saturday's Ice Cream social.
Please click on images to ENLARGE views of people at Saturday's Ice Cream social.
I hope the ice cream social is enough to cool me off
Spent four hours on my neighborhood prairies collecting photos and now going to the annual ice cream social across Dickson Street from the county courthouse at the Washington County Historical Society building. This is a fund-raiser one should never miss! It began at 4 p.m. and ends at 7 p.m.
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