Any presidential election year draws a lot of attention, but with this year’s especially bitter fight between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, mixed with concerns about voting during the pandemic, there are a lot of questions from voters. Ahead of the November election, I hosted the latest edition of Issues That Matter, a periodic series hosted by KUAR, the Central Arkansas Library System and the League of Women Voters. Previous forums have been held in-person at libraries, but given the pandemic, for the first time this one was done virtually.
This forum was focused on ballot questions to be decided by voters. There were initially six questions to be put before voters, but one was knocked off the ballot by the Arkansas Supreme Court just hours before we held the program. Two others were also disqualified. The three proposals left for Arkansas voters to consider are:
Issue 1: Continues a 0.5 percent sales tax for transportation
Issue 2: Changes term limits to twelve consecutive years for state legislators with the opportunity to return after a four-year break
Issue 3: Changes initiative process and legislative referral requirements
Also featured was a member of the Pulaski County Election Commission who spoke about concerns from voters about getting absentee ballots and safety while voting at in-person polling locations.
The Issues That Matter program was streamed live on Facebook on Sept. 17, and we took questions from viewers. The forum was also broadcast on KUAR this past week.
Buford Suffridge, president of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society, in front of the depot on August 3, as work to replace the roof was underway. Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Michael Hibblen.
(Aug. 24, 2020) – Another major step has been accomplished in a project to preserve the century-old Rock Island Railroad depot in Perry, Arkansas. On Monday, August 3, a roofing crew spent a sweltering day ripping off layers of old shingles and putting new shingles in place. Replacing the roof was a key priority as we wanted to make sure that after three years of planning and work, which included moving the depot, building a new foundation and making structural repairs, water damage wouldn’t cause any additional deterioration.
The next step in the restoration process is to nominate the depot to the National Register of Historic Places, which – if approved – would allow the project to qualify for matching grant funds. Rachel Patton, executive director of Preserve Arkansas, is working to prepare a draft nomination by a Sept. 4 deadline so that it can be considered during the December meeting of the State Review Board for Historic Preservation.
Recent fundraising hadn’t generated enough to cover the cost of roofing materials, so Buford Suffridge, president of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society, says its members voted to provide about $5,000 the group had in its funds to cover the cost of materials. R&A Roofing of Houston, Arkansas, run by brothers Randy Wood and Raymond Wood, donated labor to replace the roof. Weiss Do It Best Lumber in Perryville also donated $500 in supplies. In-kind donations like that have been great as the project has progressed.
A worker picks through the discarded old roofing shingles that had been tossed on the ground below.
Underneath the mostly rotted old shingles were the original pressed metal shingles from when the depot was constructed. While it would have been great to have kept the metal shingles on the roof, they would not have effectively protected the structure. But we saved many of the original shingles to eventually display inside the depot when it becomes a community meeting place and museum.
Once the old shingles were off, Suffridge walked around the depot assessing the original wood underneath which was fully exposed for the first time. We had previously been limited to what could be seen looking up at the ceiling inside the depot.
“The decking was in remarkably good shape, probably due to the fact that it was old growth timber. The growth rings were so close together,” he said, referencing the virgin pine timber that likely grew over hundreds of years and would have been used at the time of the depot’s construction.
“I looked at one board that they had cut off and thrown down on the ground and the growth rings were so close on that pine board you couldn’t even count them.”
Suffridge shows a piece of the original virgin pine timber that was used in the depot’s construction.
The wood is especially strong and that’s likely why the depot, despite decades of neglect, remains in relatively good condition. Suffridge speculates the lumber came from one of two big sawmills that were located along the track in the nearly town of Bigelow.
After removing shingles, the roofing underlayment was rolled over the surface of the wood which will help protect it from water. Workers then began putting on the shingles.
After removing the old shingles, workers begin unrolling the underlayment on the west side of the Perry depot.
Some rotted rafters had been replaced in the ceiling earlier in the year, primarily along the north side of the depot where the overhang had been trimmed off to build a locomotive servicing shop directly behind it in the mid-1980s. The full width of the overhang was restored in April.
By 6:30 that evening, the roofing crew had completed the job and was cleaning up. There are so many historical elements of the depot, but names and dates written by former employees in the ceiling and walls of the freight room is one component we especially want to protect.
Suffridge called it a relief to finally be at a point where the depot is safe until we eventually raise more money for its restoration.
“Now at least we know the inside of the depot is protected from the rain and we won’t be getting any damage to the writings that are on the inside of it like we were concerned about,” he said.
Workers steadily progressed laying shingles toward the east side of the depot.
Rachel Patton with Preserve Arkansas had first reached out to me in 2017, shortly after my book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas had been released. She told me of the idea to move the depot to keep it from being demolished by the shortline Little Rock & Western Railway, which acquired that stretch of former Rock Island track. Most recently, she had been waiting for work to replace the roof to be completed before moving forward with the application process to get the national designation.
“I was waiting for them to get as much of it done as they could,” Patton said, “to where the building’s appearance got to where it would be whenever it was considered for the National Register. So, I’m glad that they got the roof done when they did.”
A Little Rock & Western crossing signal is in the foreground as workers attach shingles to the depot.
She has been providing guidance as the project has progressed on how to do things in a way so that the depot maintains its historical integrity. A key part of that involved keeping the depot along the tracks. The current property is adjacent to where the depot had been. The current piece of land had at one time been owned by the Rock Island and housed a water tank for steam engines. Today it’s owned by the City of Perry, which has a water pump there.
The application for the National Register of Historic Places is very comprehensive, Patton said, and includes two lengthy narrative sections. The first involves an architectural description, detailing what the building looks like, why it is architecturally significant and describes all of the exterior and interior features. Then there is a narrative description on the history of the building, including the history of the community. In this instance, the two are intertwined as Perry was created when the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad laid this stretch of track in 1898, which within a few years would be taken over by the Rock Island in a hostile takeover.
How likely is it that we succeed in getting the Perry Depot on the National Register?
“I think we have really good odds,” Patton said.
The depot has been determined eligible for the National Register by the staff at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. National Register and Survey Coordinator Ralph Wilcox has followed the Perry Depot project closely, and we have consulted with him to ensure the depot would remain eligible in its new location.
Last year, the project received a nearly $10,000 grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Division of Rural Services to create a meeting place and museum inside the depot. In April 2020, we received permission to reallocate about $1,900 in remaining grant funds for emergency repairs to the roof decking and eaves. These funds were all spent before the deadline in mid-May.
If we can get the depot on the National Register of Historic Places, that will open the door for more grant money, but most will require matching donations.
The crew from R&A Roofing nears completion of the new roof for the Perry depot.
“It is remarkable because it has been such a big effort on the part of the (Perry County) Historical Society and many local folks around Perry County who have contributed to the effort,” Patton said. “So it really is just a remarkable community effort that the depot is being restored and I think everybody’s really excited to see it’ll be back in use as a community center for the area and I think it’s really important to them and the whole town of Perry wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the railroad.”
Beyond those who I’ve mentioned so far, there are a lot of people to thank for getting us to this point. Jimmy Middleton has been a liaison to many of the companies who have helped. Beverly Doremus, treasurer of the nonprofit Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society has kept the bills paid. Eva Coffman at Perry City Hall has also been a big help as the city provided the land and assumed ownership of the depot.
Then of course are the many people who have made donations of all size to help this project progress. Online donations can be made through our Go Fund Me account or checks can be sent to the address below. Checks should be made to the Perry County Historical Museum, which is part of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society.
Perry County Historical Museum
P.O. Box 1128
Perryville, AR 72126
On Sunday, August 9, railroad historian Bill Pollard, who had extensively photographed the Perry depot and been inside it many times over the last half-century, got to step inside the building in its new location. He and his wife Sharon joined Buford and Lynda Suffridge, myself and girlfriend Laura Bridges, to take a look at the interior of the depot at this point. No work has been done inside except for repairs to rafters and floor joists.
There’s no electricity connected to the depot right now, so we were limited to light coming in from the outside. Walking through, we envisioned the next steps that can be done during the restoration.
(Left to right) Buford Suffridge, Sharon Pollard, Laura Bridges, Lynda Suffridge and Bill Pollard inside the freight room of the depot on August 9, 2020.
Cheap paneling that was added in the telegrapher’s office, probably the 1950s, is peeling off, exposing the original wall. That has opened up what was the ticket counter to the colored waiting room. There’s also a lowered ceiling that was added in the office at some point that can be removed. The main waiting room still looks quite exquisite, painted blue and white, the final colors for the Rock Island before it was shut down in 1980.
At some point, once the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided and it’s safe to allow people inside, we hope to host an open house to let those who have expressed interest and support for the project, get a closer look. A timeline for finishing the restoration is unknown and dependent on a whole host of factors. Eventually, I’m confident the depot will be a charming place to hold community events, while also serving as a museum telling the story of the community and its former role as part of a major rail network.
You can read previous posts about the project at the link below:
Today the death toll from COVID-19 in Arkansas reached 100. It has been about nine weeks since the novel coronavirus arrived in the state, with the first positive case reported on March 11. The virus would spread rapidly, with the state Department of Health now reporting more than 4,800 positive cases. While Arkansas hasn’t been impacted as bad as some parts of the country, it has still been grim reporting on the ever-increasing numbers.
Life would change drastically soon after the first case in the state, with schools, restaurants and other businesses ordered to close, though Gov. Asa Hutchinson drew some controversy for never issuing a shelter-in-place order as governors of most other states had done. For a while I reported daily on the outbreak, starting with a special report on KUAR shortly after the announcement of the first case. In the weeks that followed, I anchored the station’s live broadcasts of Hutchinson’s daily press briefings.
I was a panelist on the Arkansas PBS program Arkansas Week on March 20 to discuss steps that had been taken at that point and impacts of the closings. I was in the TV studio for the program, which can be watched here, but soon Arkansas Week, like so many other programs, would shift to hosts and others taking part remotely.
At my home office in Little Rock on April 7. There are definite pluses and minuses to working from home.
KUAR also had to scale back how many people were coming into the station, so I, like most of the staff, began working from home. Only our local Morning Edition and All Things Considered anchors are in the station regularly. The afternoon anchor has also started handling the broadcasts of the governor’s daily briefings.
20 years ago, I also would broadcast from home while working as a Miami-based reporter for CBS News Radio, so it wasn’t that strange to again be writing and voicing reports from home. What I have missed, however, is the comradery of the newsroom, as well as getting out to cover stories in-person.
When the governor and health officials started encouraging people to avoid being out in public, my news staff and I adjusted to monitoring press conferences and meetings online or recording phone interviews using an app. What’s lacking are details that a reporter can only pick up while being where news is happening. There’s also not the same ability to interact with people and ask questions to be sure I’m completely understanding something I’m covering.
As news director of KUAR, it’s very different to oversee my staff and plan coverage remotely, using shared documents to determine assignments and relying more heavily on emails and texts. I’m very proud of the job we’ve done covering the many aspects of the outbreak, which I feel has reached the level of being a public service.
An enterprise story I poured a lot of effort into was a two-part report on the Arkansas Department of Education’s Alternative Methods of Instruction program (AMI), which was originally intended to be a short-term solution for students during situations like snow days. But with schools closed, the program was expanded in a unique way that involved Arkansas PBS broadcasting five hours of programming a day with the state’s five most recently-named teachers of the year hosting some of the segments.
AUDIO: Hear both reports on the AMI program, broadcast on May 4 and May 5, 2020.
I interviewed five people involved in creating the AMI program and got outside opinions on its effectiveness from two people in higher education. I was pleased that several education groups posted and discussed the story on social media. Also, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting shared a link on its Twitter feed.
.@kuarpublicradio covered how @ArkansasPBS stepped up to help the state expand its remote learning program to meet new distance learning demands. Learn how they brought all their resources to bear, drawing from the success of other #pubmedia stations. https://t.co/fjJ9Y5xTyc
Because it’s still not considered safe to bring large crowds together, traditional high school and college graduation ceremonies had to be cancelled, postponed or moved online. One extreme disappointment for me was that I had been invited to give a graduation speech last week to the Little Rock School District’s Accelerated Learning Center. It was created in 1998 as an alternative school for students considered at risk of dropping out.
It’s located at the Metropolitan Career and Technical Center, which 32 years ago was where I took a radio broadcasting class while a junior in high school. It was taught by Bob Gay, a veteran broadcaster who instilled exactly how radio stations operated and very effectively prepared me for a career in broadcasting.
An invitation to be the ACC graduation speaker on May 12, 2019, which unfortunately was cancelled because of the pandemic.
While later college courses refined my skills, especially about journalism, I still feel like I got more real-world knowledge from that class. It enabled me to get my first radio job six months into the class and begin getting some experience.
I was proud to have been asked to speak at the graduation, but the May 12 event was cancelled. Maybe I’ll get the chance to deliver a speech next year.
Part of what was important to me is a past connection between the school and where I work today. When the school district was planning the vocational high school, the decision was made to include an FM station to train students in broadcasting. According to Wikipedia, KLRE-FM 90.5 hit the air in February 1973. For the first several years it was a mostly student-run station, on the air from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
In 1977, the Friends of KLRE was formed to provide additional support and help make it a more serious operation, which would broadcast from early mornings until late at night, including classical music and fine arts programming.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock had wanted to create a public radio station to air NPR programming, but lost a fight with the community activist group ACORN for the FM frequency 88.3. So UALR approached the school district about partnering in the operations of KLRE. In 1983, the station was allowed to increase its power to the current 40,000 watts and soon added NPR programming.
The university eventually succeeded in getting its own station, with KUAR-FM 89.1 hitting the air on Sept. 16, 1986. Both simulcasted for a while until KUAR became primarily a news and jazz station and KLRE was all classical. By the time I started my high school radio class at Metropolitan in August 1988, the stations were operated out of Stabler Hall at UALR. The former KLRE studios were used for my class.
I would have enjoyed returning to the place where public broadcasting in Little Rock began and speaking with the students. I had made some notes about points I wanted get across about pursing their interests and goals in life, but never drafted a speech as it was looking unlikely the graduation ceremony would be held. But maybe this pandemic won’t have society quite as locked down at this time next year and I’ll get an invitation to speak again.
On the web since 2002, this is the online home of broadcasting news veteran Michael Hibblen. I've worked for newspapers, radio and TV stations around the country, with this website telling the story of my career, including audio, photos and videos. Also featured are various interests I've researched, primarily about radio and railroads. Today I'm Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, overseeing production of the program "Arkansas Week" and the streaming of events on the Arkansas Citizens Access Network.
My Book
Released by Arcadia Publishing in 2017, Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas delves into the history of the railroad which once had a huge footprint in Arkansas, as well as other states in the middle of the U.S. The book features historic photos and tells the story of the Rock Island, which was shut down in March 1980. READ MORE
For 13 years, from May 2009 to December 2022, I worked for NPR station KUAR-FM 89.1 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That included 10 years as News Director while continuing to anchor and report. You can read and hear reports from that time on Little Rock Public Radio's website.
