WARNING: One of my pottymouth rants ahead.

First of all, I've got to tell you that I don't live within the city limits of Helena-West Helena, AR (thank God!), but it's the closest town of any size to us, so it's where we have go to shop, do our banking, and other stuff you need to visit a town for. What goes on there has a lot of effect on our lives out here in the county. Here's the deal,

Mayor J. Valley of Helena-West Helena, AR, during one of his lightening bolt whiffs of self-righteous, self-serving, wisdom, decided he was tired of hearing complaints about the housing conditions of the stray dogs collected by the city so he gives the order for them to be taken out and released in the St. Francis National Forrest which is out in the county. (near the swimming and boat ramp area).

When you view the video about his newsworthy actions, be on the look out for the lady who's standing on one of the city streets, many of those buildings on that street are empty and there are empty buildings all over the city, some of which might become suitable for renovation to become a shelter for those poor abandoned animals.

If you click to view one of the Mayor's blogs/websites, you'll see that he posted a slide show of the stray animal facilities in Forrest City, AR. (I don't quite understand why he did this, due to this being a city located along Interstate 40, and who's major income from tax revenues comes from travelers from across the U.S., which in no way compares to the lack of tax revenues Helena-West Helena will always have, (even though their sales tax rate is among the highest in the U.S.) Is Mayor Valley suggesting that his city should build such a facility? Are there funds left over for such a facility after the generous pay raise he asked for, and received, recently? If there are funds, is he willing to allow a facility to be built with them?

Hell yes the conditions these animals were being kept in were horrible, the cages were dirty, the animal's water was dirty. But, according to the Mayor, there were only about 13 animals in all, so WHY were the conditions so miserable? Seems to me, one person, spending an hour or so a day, could have cleaned the cages and made sure there was fresh food and water for these poor pups until arrangements could be made to better house them. (and by the way, the local Wal Mart donates all their food).

Anyway, I'm gonna let you folks click the links and read about all this for yourselves. It's sad, it's horrible, the man's an idiot and he deserves whatever he gets. I just hope he gets it in spades!

State Seizes City Payroll Records

You may be wondering why I feel such deep concern over the goins on over in the nearby city of Helena-West Helena, beings that I live out in the country and all, but the fact of the matter is, it's the closest place to do much of our shopping.
I have made the decision to drive the same mileage north to another small town, in another county, to buy groceries once this EXTRA sales tax goes into effect but it'll mean driving an extra 14 miles or so, to yet another small town, to be able to shop for clothes and that sort of stuff.

Gas being what it is makes the longer drive a more difficult one, but I reckon I'll be doing it. It's the principle of the thing, you know? You can't help folks who are helping themselves to funds that don't belong to them!

Hear that All Ye in government in the City of Helena-West Helena?

This little article from The Daily World only reinforces my decisions.

Arkansas State Police served a search warrant on the city of Helena-West Helena Thursday and seized a hard drive from one of the city's computers.

Mayor James Valley stated that state trooper Dell Arnold aided state legislative auditors as they secured the electronic media dealing with payroll records for 2006 and 2007.

Valley said that Phillips County Judge Harvey Yates signed the warrant and state auditors left a receipt with the city's offices detailing what hardware was confiscated.

Valley said the auditors made a copy of the hard drive, took the device and installed a new one with the information copied on the disk so the city could continue to function.

Valley reported that the auditors wanted to restore some information that had been lost as the result of a recent computer crash.

"They want to see if they can restore the records that were lost through the recent hard drive crash," said Valley in a telephone interview.

The state will try torecover the data by utilizing a forensic data recovery program.

Valley said the state served the warrant and collected the hard drive in an attempt to gain a better log of records.

"They want to get a full and complete accounting of the records. They do this to protect the state audit and city and to clear the city of any wrongdoing. This does not implicate anyone," said Valley.

The legislative auditors have reported that they have been in city offices numerous times, trying to audit the city records only to be turned away because of record keeping issues, such as the crash of various computers.

"Typically, when a server crashes the information is gone," said Valley.

He reported that the city had entered data that at a later date could not be retrieved. He also reported that some employee's salary totals were incorrect in the system. He said one employee total showed the individual earning more than $40,000 over a six-month period.

No backups and a state seizure and it does not implicate anyone? I reckon Mayor Valley will be quite surprised to discover that there are ways to salvage the information from a crashed hard drive. I wonder how he'll explain away all that? If the folks responsible for keeping the financial records don't have enough damned sense to do a simple back up of important information, seems to me they need to be doing some firing around that place and hire some people who are actually capable of doing the job right. Don't ya think?

Helena-West Helena, Arkansas

Well, they finally did it. The citizens of the newly combined towns of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas have put themselves at the at the top of the heap in one area. They now have the highest sales tax in the state and probably one of the highest in the whole danged U.S. of A. Shoppers around here will soon be shelling out a full 10% for their purchases.

It doesn't help much that our state sales tax on groceries is supposed to be lowered from the current 6% down to 3% some time in July when the greedy city government over there is going to tack on their 2% to add 2/3rds of it right back. Did I fail to mention the 2% sales tax the county already collects which was supposedly a temporary thing back when it was desperately needed (so they said).

I might also mention that the increase in sales tax won't affect nearly half as many of the citizens as it might in other places since I suspect at least that many are purchasing their groceries tax free already. This would be due to the fact that food stamp purchases aren't taxable at all. The percentage around here (and there) who actually pay the majority of the taxes can't keep taking on the whole load and that percentage grows smaller every day when folks finally get enough of the thieving politicians around these parts and head for a better place to hang their hats.

There hasn't been a reliable audit of the finances of the combined cities in a great while due to the fact that the books are in such terrible shape that the auditors can't make sense of it all. They have the highest water bills and the poorest quality of water in the delta. Businesses have been closing their doors right and left for many years now and the likelihood of new ones coming to the area are slim and none since a great many of the available work force won't work cause it'll mess up their government checks.

In the '60s, Helena was a bustling town, and West Helena was growing by leaps and bounds. But industries gradually pulled out, and when Wal-Mart came to West Helena, it sealed the fate of the local stores, none of which were willing to change their business practices to compete with Wal-Mart. Many blame the casinos but the town was already dead before the casino went up across the river.

A stroll around the, now combined incorporated, city of Helena-West Helena, doesn't offer the sights and sounds that it once did because there aren't as many sights and sounds to be had. Walk down Cherry Street and the first thing you'd notice is all the empty and abandoned old buildings. If it weren't for the country court house being there, I reckon they could close all the doors.

Of course there are rumors and plans bouncing around to make the area as profitable as Beale Street is, in Memphis. Sure the Blues Fest held every October brings the tourist in by the droves for 3 or 4 days. And the Wild Hog Fest in April increases the population by a few thousand for a few days. I reckon this increase in sales taxes will be the final straw. I see more FOR SALE signs going up every time to go to town.