Final moments of Mayor Lioneld Jordan's keynote address at Fayetteville National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2010 include powerful quotation from President Abraham Lincoln

Lioneld talks to vets at VA Hospital who fought many places

Aubrey james | MySpace Video

Lioneld Jordan ends speech at National Cemetery with great words

Aubrey james | MySpace Video

West Fork Cleanup and Watershed Celebration from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 5, 2010

Please click on image to enlarge view and see whole poster

Slide show of photos of elderberry flowers on May 27, 2010

Find more photos like this on elderberries.com

Our neighborhood fought the construction of apartments on the Washington County Livestock Auction land to protect our watershed from damage, protect homes along the Town Branch from flooding and to see that the cemetery would be able to grow on top of the hill, not in the wetland and without destroying more single-family homes along Hill Avenue

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE. Series below starts by showing a butterfly in the wooded wetland that still exists north of the National Cemetery property but also is targeted for addition to the National Cemetery if the sale-barn property isn't added instead. Preparing the hilltop portion of the sale-barn property on the east side of the cemetery would be much easier and much less environmentally destructive than continuing to dredge and fill wetland for gravesites. Sadly, the soil, both rich, dark, prairie topsoil and the clay beneath it that was dug out of the pictured area is being stored on the surface of the north portion of the sale-barn property. The temporary dirt-storage area has been leased by the Department of Veterans' Affairs or its contractors for this use. That land was pasture for cattle being held for livestock auctions until 2009. And it is seasonal wetland that historically displayed all the characteristic vegetation of typical prairie in this area. The dirt is being stored down to the overflow, riparian area of the Tanglewood Branch, which joins Spout Spring Branch only 200 yards to the east.

Above: yellow butterfly in wooded wetland area north of Fayetteville National Cemetery. Photo made this morning in the wooded area to the left side of the photo below.

Above: water being pumped from wetland dug out for future gravesites on Monday, May 17, 2010. Heavy rain previous two days left several feet of muddy water standing in the hole, which is serving as a stormwater detention pond while land about 200 feet to the southeast is being prepared for crypts.

Above: View downstream from 11th Street Bridge over Town Branch shows silt-laden water headed for Beaver Lake.



Above: Muddy water from National Cemetery northside wetland dig flows from pipe under Hill Avenue and directly from under 11th Street and is dumped into Town Branch on the downstream (south side).

Above: Upstream (north side of 11th Street bridge over Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River) showing clear flow a day after heavy rain.

Above: Topsoil and clay dug out of wetland 300 yards to the west to make way for additional National Cemetery gravesites is being stored on top of wetland along the Tanglewood Branch, which runs southeast along the edge of the Washington County Livestock Auction barn land in south Fayetteville, Arkansas.

On May 15, 2003, Town Branch neighbors spoke up in Fayetteville Planning Commission subdivision committee seeking to modify or stop apartment project planned for land that is now World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on image to go to Flickr site and view photo in various sizes or navigate to see more native iris photos. Native Louisiana iris information Iris brevicaulis www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/iris/dwarfwoodland/iris_cristata.shtmlIris cristata www.flickr.com/photos/7295307@N02/2379586481/ Wild iris on May 24, 2007

Mayor's town meeting tonight

  Tonight is the Mayor's Town Hall Meeting from 7:00-8:30 p.m. in the gym of Ridgeview Baptist Church, which is located at 1850 East Huntsville Road in Fayetteville. 

Each Town Hall Meeting is scheduled in a different Ward throughout the year, and this time the city-wide meeting will be held in Ward One. 

Everyone come on out to the Town Hall Meeting and bring your questions and comments on any topic. The Town Hall Meeting is an opportunity to learn more about your local government and ask questions about programs and policies of city government. 

Mayor Jordan will be joined by several city department heads who will be on hand to address citizen questions. Presentations will be made at the beginning of the meeting by City Finance Director Paul Becker who will provide a city budget update and a review of the HMR (Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant) tax; Parks and Recreation Director Connie Edmonston will discuss upcoming Park Programs; Sharon Crosson and Terry Gulley will provide an overview of the Parking Proposals for the Cultural & Entertainment Dickson Street Area, and Sustainability Director John Coleman will discuss the Eco-Logical Fayetteville program. 

As provided in each Mayor’s Town Hall Meeting, the last 30 minutes of the meeting will be devoted to questions from the audience.

So, come on out everyone—Monday, May 3rd, 7-8:30 p.m., in the gym of Ridgeview Baptist Church.