Baxter Bulletin from Mountain Home, Arkansas • 7

Friday, July 9. 1999 THE BAXTER BULLETIN. Mountain Home, Ark. Page 7A Rollback lawsuit on hold while attorneys file briefs FAYETTEVILLE (AP) A circuit judge has given lawyers 30 days to file briefs in a Washington County property tax lawsuit. A trial in the lawsuit ended Wednesday, and Circuit Judge Paul Danielson set the deadline for the briefs.

At issue is whether the county conducted a "comprehensive, countywide reappraisal" of real property then failed to roll back the millage rates as required by law and subsequently collected more tax money than it should have. County officials say they did not conduct a comprehensive reappraisal because some property was not reappraised. Property owners who filed the suit say the county did conduct a comprehensive reappraisal and should have rolled back the mill-age rates. Danielson, a Conway County judge on special assignment, could decide to Bend the case back to trial for arguments on whether damages should be paid to taxpayers and how much. The consolidated lawsuit began as three cases more than two years ago.

It alleges that taxing units in the county should have rolled back their millage rates as required by Amendment 59. The amendment requires a rollback when reappraisal results in an increase of more than 10 percent of the total property values in a taxing unit, such as school districts and cities. Washington County's three-year reappraisal project didn't include full reappraisals of all types of property. But the county's reappraisal project was certified as comprehensive and countywide by the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Department in November 1997 by the department's new director, John Allen, at the request of Fayetteville attorney David Nixon. Nixon represents county property owners in the lawsuit.

Larry Crane, now an employee with the attorney general's office, testified Wednesday that reappraisal projects in Saline and Garland counties were not certified when he was director of the Assessment Coordination Department because those counties didn't include agriculture property. Washington County didn't reappraise agriculture property in its three-year project, but attorneys representing county property owners argue that full reappraisals of all property wasn't necessary. AP Photo A helicopter and rescue vessels attend the Norwegian ferry Prinsesse Ragnhild, which caught fire early Thursday. More than 1,100 passengers were safely evacuated from the ferry which was en route to Oslo, Norway, from Kiel, Germany, when fire broke out below decks. The accident happened about 11 miles (17.5 kilometers) off the west coast of Sweden, in the Goteborg archipelago.

Hundreds rescued from burning ferry Stolen section of test expensive to replace PARAGOULD (AP) Taxpayers will have to pay more than $475,000 to replace a stolen math section of a General Education and Development test, according to Paragould police. Sgt. Ken Jackson said he recently received a copv of the expenses. They include $223,000 in salary expenses to develop one edition of the test, more than $30,000 in professional fees from consultants, writers, reviewers and editors, more the math portion of a GED test booklet at Cotton Boll Technical Institute's Paragould campus was first reported to police Nov. 19.

The theft was discovered by Cotton Boll officials Oct. 28 when the booklet was handed out for a test and the individual who received the booklet reported that the math portion of the test was missing, Jackson said. He said Cotton Boll's records indicated the test booklet had been last used Sept. 9. than $147,000 in printing related expenses, and more than $12,000 in delivery, freight and postage expenses.

Jackson said an arrest has not been made in the case, but the investigation is continuing. This is still under investigation, it's not going away," he said. "We had to have a breakdown of where the money was spent. We hope to make an arrest." The theft of eight pages from GOTEBORG, Sweden (AP) -The smell of acrid smoke and the sound of fire alarms woke passengers on an overnight ferry from Germany to Norway Thursday, when a fire below decks forced a pre-dawn evacuation of hundreds of tourists. A distress call from the Prinsesse Ragnhild went out at 2:13 a.m., within moments of the fire's detection, and the decision was quickly made to abandon the ferry, which had 1,167 passengers and 172 crew members on board.

The fire broke out either in evacuated the boat 11 miles off Sweden's coast. "I noticed the smell of smoke in the cabin and then the alarm sounded and then it was just a matter of getting dressed as fast as you could and take your most important things with you," Knut Gran of Norway told Norway state radio NRK. While passengers filed into lifeboats, another ferry and a smaller boat pulled alongside within a half hour, taking on 500 passengers. Twenty other vessels and six helicopters later joined the effort, rescuers said. the engine or machine room from causes still unknown.

A 70-year-old woman died hours later of heart failure in a hospital in this Swedish port city, where the ferry was towed, said Per Oertenvall, a physician. He refused to release her name or nationality, although news reports said she was Norwegian. Reported injuries were limited to three passengers treated for smoke inhalation in what experts praised as a textbook evacuation of the 670-foot-long ferry sailing from Kiel, Germany, to Oslo, Norway. The passengers Kitten survives fire at historic Bella Vista hotel hq mm mm (Bir Ms. Pitts took the kitten home because the hospital was busy with sick cats that day.

Ashley was so well behaved, Ms. Pitts thought she might keep the animal a bit longer. "Another one won't hurt," she said. She already had four cats, two Great Danes, and most recently took in three kittens whose mother had died. "You can tell she's never been owned by anybody," 6he said.

"She purrs nonstop. She's happy someone found her." Ms. Pitts has been putting Neosporin on the kitten's paws, and Ashley just recently began grooming herself again. "She doesn't like to walk around a lot," she said. "You can tell she wants to play, but she's not real sure yet." BELLA VISTA (AP) An apparent survivor of the Sunset Hotel fire has a new home.

At Char-lye Pitts' house, Ashley is recovering from fire-related injuries. The 10- to 12-week-old kitten was named for the black ashes stuck to her paws when she was found. Still, her whiskers are bent and burned and her paws are blistered and red. "A boy brought her in," said Ms. Pitts of the Sugar Creek Animal Hospital.

"Her paws were just The promised renovation of the 1920s hotel went up in smoke when the building burned to the ground in the suspicious fire July 1. The building had been empty for several years and no one was injured in the blaze. The hotel was on the National Register of Historic Places. si Ho 2 frorv STAY COOL! Specially Priced Air Conditioners 5,000 btu $229.95 btu $269.96 12,000 btu $369.95 18,000 btu $479.95 24,000 btu $689.95 J3XHP fci- 25.8 CU. FT.

ICE 4N WATER SIDE-BY-SIDE Temp-Assure Controls Adjustable Spillsaver Shelves Humidity Controlled Crisper Drawer Model SQD26V rT2Sf ill i -i -5 O00 Rebate Hj $104900 'zzr BCRI1 offers complete inpatient, outpatient, an home health rehabilitation services from highly skilled occupational and physical therapists, and speech pathologists. St) exercise your independence right here, close to home. a Baxter County Regional Hospital Mountain Home, Arkansas www baxleirrgkinat org.