Rural Flippin man arrested on child endangerment charges
A rural Flippin man is in the Marion County Jail accused of neglecting three children in his residence. According to Marion County Sheriff Clinton Evans, 44-year-old Theodore Lamkin, Jr., was arrested Friday three felony counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor. His bond is set at $25,000.
Lamkin’s arrest stems from an investigation by the Department of Human Services. Sheriff Evans says DHS personnel responded to Lamkin’s residence on Lamkin Lane in mid-January and observed three children appearing to be in severe neglect, and the severity of one child’s condition led to the child being transported to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock for further treatment. The other two children were removed from the residence.
DHS contacted the Marion County Sheriff’s Office on February 8th. During the investigation, an arrest warrant for Lamkin was granted by the Marion County District Court. After attempts to contact him were unsuccessful, a search warrant was issued for the sheriff’s office to enter the residence and take him into custody.
As deputies entered Lamkin’s residence on Friday, he was pointing a .22 caliber rifle to his mouth threatening suicide. Sheriff Evans reports he entered the bathroom while talking with Lamkin, and as the suspect lowered the weapon, the sheriff tackled him in the bath tub. As Lamkin was being subdued, one round was fired into the ceiling, and another round went through the wall and outside. A taser was eventually deployed, and Lamkin was taken into custody without further incident. He was transported to Baxter Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries and later transported to the Marion County Jail.
Lamkin is currently awaiting his first appearance in Marion County Circuit Court.
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BRMC receives first community paramedic license in Arkansas
Friday marked a milestone in the history of Baxter Regional Medical Center when the first Community Paramedic License was presented to the hospital’s community paramedic program by officials with the Arkansas Department of Health.
Legislation to create the act which crated the program of licensure of community paramedics was introduced by State Representative Scott Baltz from Pocahontas in 2015 and signed into law by Governor Asa Hutchinson.
The program was started in March of 2013, according to Dan Snyder community paramedics coordinator at the hospital. He says the program is designed to provide free services to patients discharged from the hospital who don’t qualify for homehealth or other services they get from the emergency room. One of the goals, he says was to reduce patients returning to the hospital.
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Snyder says they have seen over 700 patients since the program started with only 4.5 percent of them returning to the hospital.
Barney Larry, Executive Director of the Hospital and Foundation and BRMC Vice President of Business Development says the community paramedic program has had a significant impact on the hospital.
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Receiving the certifications at Friday’s event were BRMC Community Paramedics Snyder and Gerald Cantrell. Attending the ceremony were hospital officials, board members, community leaders and local state legislators State Representative Nelda Speaks, State Senator Scott Flippo and Baltz, who was honored by Larry, for presenting the legislation. Also attending was Dr. James Bledsoe from the state department of health and his wife, State Senator Cecile Bledsoe.
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Two Yellville residents arrested in connection with theft investigation
Two Yellville residents, 39-year-old Matthew Dean Stephenson and 51-year-old Robert James Cobb were arrested recently stemming from an investigation into multiple burglaries throughout Baxter, Marion and Boone counties. Stephenson is being held on a $150,000 bond and Cobb’s bond is $10,000.
According to Marion County Sheriff Clinton Evans, Stephenson was arrested on multiple felony charges including three counts of residential burglary, two counts of theft of property, possession of methamphetamine with purpose to deliver, breaking or entering and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Cobb faces felony charges of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and misdemeanor theft by receiving.
A juvenile, who had been missing for 11 days from Yellville, was found with Stephenson during his arrest and turned over to juvenile services. Stephenson also faces charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Sheriff Evans says three trailer loads of property were recovered from a residence south of Yellville allegedly related to the crimes. Some of the property has been identified as stolen from residences in Baxter and Marion County as well as property reported stolen from as far away as Texas.
The stolen property will be available for public viewing on Thursday from 1:00 in the afternoon until 6:00 in the evening. Those wishing to inquire about the stolen items need to stop by the Sheriff’s Office at 491 Highway 62 West in Yellville for further instruction.
Sheriff Evans says he hopes the recovery of the stolen property will help identify any other victims of the alleged theft ring.
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County payroll outsourcing still up in the air
The Baxter County Personnel Committee met Wednesday to discuss several issues including how the County will handle payroll functions currently under the office of County and Circuit Clerk Canda Reese. In December’s meeting of the Quorum Court, two different proposals emerged for handling the placement of a staff member who would be in charge of Human Resource duties for the county and whether payroll functions would be kept in-house or outsourced.
County Judge Mickey Pendergrass proposed that the HR staffer be under his office and that payroll functions be outsourced at an estimated cost of slightly more than $35,000. County Clerk Canda Reese presented a counter proposal to the Court’s Budget Committee on November 21st, 2016 that the HR position be included in her office and the current in-house payroll located in her office be kept as it is.
In the December meeting Justice Bill Lucas, then chairman of the Personnel Committee and elected to take the same position this year, said his group had approved the HR position during a meeting on November 2nd, but had not fully addressed “chain of command” issues for the HR position and whether the in-house payroll operation would be moved or remain as is.
In Wednesday’s meeting Reese proposed the issue be dealt with immediately due to her concerns for the employee currently handling payroll and what would happen if those duties were taken away. Judge Pendergrass said the discussion was a moot point because the issue was a budget decision under his authority and not a personnel issue. He said when the Quorum Court approved the budget for 2017, they approved the $35,000 to be outsourced. He also said the employee Reese is concerned with has also been approved under the same budget. The position was not in jeopardy however duties could change.
Justice Lucas says the Quorum Court knew they were approving an HR position, currently filled by Ryan Robb, in December when they passed the budget however, he wasn’t sure they were fully aware they were approving the outsourcing. He said he wasn’t sure Pendergrass had the authority to make such a move without the court’s approval.
Pendergrass quoted Arkansas state code as evidence he had such authority and the HR position should be under his office.
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It was eventually agreed the matter would be tabled for 60 days, at the most, to give Robb, Reese and Pendergrass time to reach a conclusion.
In other committee news Robb says during the 60 day time frame he is working on evaluating the Personnel Policy Manual to add HR verbage and responsibilities. His HR experience has been industrial in nature, so he is reaching out to other counties and Quorum Court members for input.
Robb said the first thing he wanted to do was to strike asking the date of birth and social security number from the online Baxter County employment application. He said the question could open a potential lawsuit for the County. The committee agreed to white the question out until the legality is figured out.
Robb will put together a rough draft of the revisions and present them to the Personnel Committee when finished.
The committee also heard a proposal from County Collector Teresa Smith
asking for approval to designate Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a county holiday. She says Baxter County is the only County in the state which doesn’t take that day off. According to Smith, there are problems trying to reach other counties when they are closed during the holiday. She and her staff is unable to check if an individual has back taxes due in another county, creating a customer service issue.
Judge Pendergrass says the decision was made, some time ago, between taking Martin Luther King Jr. Day or President’s Day off. He said it could
create some minor payroll issues. The committee requested he look into the issues and decided to incorporate the holiday into the personnel manual if it was feasible.
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Twin Lakes Area hits record highs twice in a week
The Twin Lakes Area saw weather for the record books twice in a five-period.
The afternoon of February 7th, temperatures topped out at 77 degrees, breaking the previous record of 75 degrees set in 1943. The average high for the seventh until the ninth of February is 48 degress, with an average low of 26 for the same time period. The lowest temperature for the seventh was 0 degrees set in 1982.
The following Saturday, February 11th, The temperature climbed up to 82 degrees Saturday afternoon at KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot, edging out the previous mark of 81 degrees set on the same day in 1961. The record low was two degrees in 1988. The average high and low are 49 and 27.
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