The Road Not Taken

From the Monday, September 8, 2008 edition of the Arkansas Democrat~Gazette...

"POCAHONTAS — A wing at the Black River Technical College’s police academy once slated to become a satellite testing facility for the state Crime Laboratory now acts only as extra storage space for the school."

Read the full story here.

I was one of two chemists hired by the lab in 1998 to staff the facility that was being built in Pocahontas when it opened.

My family and I made several trips to the Pocahontas area in anticipation of the move. Jenefer and I were both excited about the possibility. Land prices in the area were very affordable at that time. It was a beautiful area with the Ozark foothills started to rise on the west side of the Black River. The hunting, fishing, and outdoor possibilities were tremendous.

The part of the story that the Democrat~Gazette glosses over is why the lab never was opened. The article states that "budget constraints stopped the project." I guess that's one way to put it. But the reason the lab had been constructed and was expected to be further funded was because of the political clout of then President Pro Tempore of the Arkansas Senate, Nick Wilson, who just so happened to hail from Pocahontas.

But before the funding could be procured Mr. Wilson fell afoul of the Feds. He subsequently pled guilty and received a 70 month sentence to be served at a "Club Fed" facility at Eglin Air Force Base Prison Camp in Pensacola Florida.

So ten years down the line I find myself writing from Texarkana and not Pocahontas.