A Day in the Life of NW Arkansas

It was an unusually cold October morning as the sun peeked over Mount Sequoyah and burned the haze out of the valley that cradles Fayetteville.

Cars clogged Interstate 540 transporting thousands of people to jobs in Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville.

To most people, Oct. 15, 2002, was an average mid-month Tuesday. And for that very reason, we chose that day to provide readers with a 24-hour snapshot of an average day in the life of Northwest Arkansas.

Because the devil is in the details, this report primarily contains statistics from various local industries and businesses regarding events that occured on Oct. 15. It is by no means comprehensive but merely intended to serve as a glimpse at what’s going on in the Benton and Washington Counties.

Mid-month weekdays are traditionally slower for business than early or late month days or most any Monday or Friday, for instance. So our stats probably show a little slower-than-usual results, particularly for things such as retail sales, food and alcohol sales and arrests, which peak on the weekends.

But we deployed our entire staff for the day, took as many notes as possible and compiled the following information in an effort to remind us all just how busy our little world can get.

Oct. 15 began with national news that the “suburban sniper” had shot and killed a woman outside a Home Depot in Falls Church, Va. It was the ninth slaying by the now-captured pair of snipers.

But the economy was looking up on Oct. 15. The Dow Jones industrials recorded their seventh biggest point gain ever — 378 points — and lumbered above the 8,000 mark thanks to upbeat earnings reports from Citigroup, General Motors and Johnson & Johnson.

Locally, Whirlpool announced that it would invest $40 million in its Fort Smith plant and create 700 jobs there. J.B. Hunt Transport Services announced that earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 30 were up 273 percent to $16.8 million. And Wal-Mart said it plans to get into the DVD-rental business, giving Netflix some serious competition.

Also on Oct. 15:

n The Arkansas Department of Education released a list of 47 “underperforming” schools, but none of them was in Northwest Arkansas.

n The Fayetteville City Council awarded a $222,388 contract to Burcher, Willis and Ratliff Corp. of Kansas City to do a comprehensive traffic study.

n The Benton County Quorum Court received $71.4 million in budget requests for 2003.

n John Gilliam, owner of Ozark Brewing Co., resigned from the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotions Commission.

n Fayetteville won the top award in the America In Bloom contest for cities with populations of 50,000 to 100,000.

n One homeless man stabbed another in an altercation over a coat outside Seven Hills Homeless Shelter in Fayetteville.

But those events were only a smidgen of what, in no particular order, happened that day:

128 margaritas were served at Jose’s Mexican Restaurant.

1,900 University of Arkansas students attended class in Old Main.

260,000 Cornish hens were processed at Tyson’s Randall Road Plant.

9,851 people entered the Northwest Arkansas Mall.

34 degrees separated the high temperature of 64 and the low of 30 reported in Fayetteville.

3,956,148 gallons of effluent were released into Osage Creek by the Rogers wastewater treatment plant. Luanne Diffin, manager of the Rogers treatment plant, turned 52 on Oct. 15.

150 espressos were sold at Arsaga’s Bakery on Block Avenue in Fayetteville.

26 people were admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital in Rogers.

$659,964,285 worth of merchandise was sold by Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. worldwide (based on $18.48 billion in sales for the month of October).

7,547 students boarded the UA’s Razorback Transit buses.

150 people rode the Fayetteville Trolley bus.

400 pounds of animal waste, 17.2 tons of food waste and 10.22 tons of green waste was taken in for composting at the EarthCare compost facility near Lincoln.

17 minutes were used by the Bentonville Planning Commission to approve eight items on their agenda. In addition to the six planning commissioners, three city staff members, two reporters and four regular citizens attended the meeting.

$35,463.26 was made by J.B. Hunt Chairman Wayne Garrison (estimated from his annual salary of $11.1 million and assuming a six-day work week). Using the same methodology, Lee Scott, president and CEO of the largest company in the world (Wal-Mart) only made $33,865.81 of his $10.6 million total compensation.

60,000 meals were served at the 138 Taco Bell and KFC restaurants owned by K-Mac Enterprises of Fort Smith.

2 suits were sold at Dillard’s department store in Fayetteville.

34 T-shirts were sold at Houndstooth Clothing Co.’s two Fayetteville locations.

12 cases of apple butter, 30 bushels of apples and 151 gallons of cider were sold at Appletown in Lincoln.

27 packages of condoms were sold by Condom Sense on Dickson Street, eclipsed slightly by the 28 “personal love devices” the store sold the same day.

17,500 packages were delivered by United Parcel Service (through the company’s Springdale location)

$5.6 million was processed by First National Bank of Springdale in 3,299 transactions through the Federal Reserve’s automated clearing house.

5,000 aluminum connectors were greased by clients at Abilities Unlimited for a local electrical materials manufacturer.

1,024 beers were served at Grub’s Bar & Grill in Fayetteville.

1,226 feet of privacy fence were laid by Quality Fencing & Decking of Johnson.

18,000 8x8x16 stretcher blocks (cinder blocks) were produced at Basic Block Group in Springdale.

85 rounds of golf were played at Stonebridge Meadows.

0 deer were killed by bow hunters that checked in at Jack’s Pawn checkpoint in Fayetteville.

92 beers were sold at Chuckles Restaurant in Springdale.

10 emergency runs were done by the Springdale Fire Department.

11 tour/cruise packages were booked by Around the World Travel in Springdale.

25 massages were given at Nu-U Day Spa in Fayetteville.

10 vehicles were sold by Bob Maloney Ford-Lincoln-Mercury.

380 games were bowled at Springdale Bowl.

605 houses were on the market through Lindsey & Associates’ Fayetteville and Rogers offices, including 15 new listings through the Fayetteville office.

489 miles were logged by Premium Brands trucks delivering Miller beer products across Northwest Arkansas.

45 songs were sung by Fayetteville musician Jed Clampit during a performance at the Old Dillon Inn in Silverthorne, Colo.

2,524 shipments were handled by the 12 Arkansas terminals of ABF Freight System Inc. of Fort Smith.

15 girls in Junior Girl Scout Troop 353 from Vandergriff Elementary School attended a field trip to the Fayetteville Animal Shelter where they donated 10 pounds of cat food and 77 pounds of dog food.

40 telephone calls were fielded by Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody.

8.8 million gallons of treated wastewater, known as effluent, were released by the Fayetteville wastewater treatment plant, with 3.04 million gallons going to Mudd Creek and 5.76 million gallons to the White River.

123 packages, mostly from vendors to Wal-Mart, were shipped through Mail Boxes Etc. in Bentonville. The franchise, which averages 145 shipments per day, is the second-busiest franchise companywide. The Mail Boxes Etc. in Hollywood, Calif., is the busiest.

12.6 million gallons of effluent from the Springdale wastewater treatment plant were released into Spring Creek, a tributary of Osage Creek and, subsequently, the Illinois River.

48 people were housed overnight at the Salvation Army in Fayetteville.

560 concrete blocks were laid at the Pilot Plant expansion project at University Farms on the University of Arkansas campus.

1,877,045 kilowatts of electricity were used by Ozarks Electric Cooperative’s 42,105 customers in Arkansas.

3,332,286 kilowatts of electricity were used by Carroll Electric customers. Carroll Electric serves 9,326 customers in northern Arkansas and three Missouri counties. The company serves 39,661 customers from its Bentonville office.

681 bottles of Tawanee Water Co. of Gravette were delivered in Benton and Washington counties. Each bottle contains 5 gallons of spring water.

28 passengers left on the eight commercial bus routes from the Fayetteville bus depot on South School Street.

37 people attended the Rogers Planning Commission meeting, including four commissioners, eight city employees, one city council member, one candidate for city council, three members of the press and 20 members of the public. All seven items on the agenda were approved.

93 rolls of film were developed at Collier Drug Store on Dickson Street.

195 books were circulated at the McNair Middle School library, which is about 100 books shy of most average days’ circulation. A book fair deterred some of the regular library business. An estimated $1,700 was raised during the book fair to benefit the library.

9 tickets were sold by the Fiesta Square 16 Theater for “Rules of Attraction,” rated R, and one ticket was sold for “Lilo and Stitch,” rated PG, for the 7 p.m. shows.

54 people graduated from the Washington County Drug Court during a ceremony at the Walton Arts Center. Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Director, was the keynote speaker.

0 business licenses were sold by the city of Rogers.

806.71 tons of waste were collected at Waste Management’s Tontitown landfill.

537,892 E-mail messages were processed by Fayetteville’s Arkansas.Net, the largest Internet service provider in Arkansas. Of those, 319,260 were determined by the company to be SPAM mail and were intercepted or “eradicated.”

Seven tons of hay and 4,000 pounds of feed were used to fatten 1,100 head of cattle at Jac’s Ranch in Pea Ridge, a cattle operation run by the family of early Wal-Mart Stores Inc. investor Jack Shewmaker.

1,761 books were checked out and renewed at the Fayetteville Public Library, compared with 1,732 at the Rogers Public Library. A total of $141.35 in late fees was paid at the Fayetteville library, and Rogers had 106 items that were overdue.

81 residential mortgage loans totaling $9 million were approved by Arvest Bank Group Inc. on Oct. 15 bankwide, 75 percent of which was for loans in Benton and Washington County.

3,612,343 miles were driven by J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. drivers who manned about 11,000 tractors on the road.

1,223 pieces of pepperoni were used by Dadoo’s Pizzeria on West Avenue in Fayetteville on pizzas served that day.

10,000 tons of freight were hauled by the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad in Springdale. That included 2,800 tons of sand; 2,200 tons of plastic, lumber, paper and flour; and 4,000 tons of corn and soy.

305 people phoned the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad to ask if the leaves in Northwest Arkansas had changed colors yet. Most of the company’s passenger train business comes from out-of-state tourists.

10 gallons of fuel were sold by Prairie Creek Marina despite the cool weather. During a Fourth of July weekend, the marina sells about 6,000 gallons of fuel.

1,259,736,100 gallons of water were released from Beaver Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

256 securities trades were made through the Rogers Merrill Lynch office.

3,225 people were unemployed during October, or an estimated gross average of 104.3 per day in the two-county area. Of course, that’s a moving target as people gain and lose jobs on a daily basis. At the same time, the civilian labor force was 167,975 for the month and the number of employed workers was 164,750.

0.27 parts per million was the reported phosphorus level in the Illinois River near the Oklahoma state line at Watts, Okla. Water-quality standards adopted this year by Oklahoma limit phosphorus to 0.037 ppm for the state’s scenic rivers, including the Illinois.

187 people visited the Pea Ridge National Military Park in Pea Ridge. On nice weekend days, the park averages about 300 visitors per day.

24 cases were heard before Washington County Judge Stacey Zimmerman’s juvenile court.

820 trucks were weighed at the two I-540 weigh stations in Springdale during the 16 hours in which those posts monitor traffic. The average truck weight was about 40,000 pounds.

1,608 people boarded airplanes for flights at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill.

34,387 running feet of lumber was sold by Lowe’s home improvement store in Rogers.

16 dogs and six cats were taken in by the Fayetteville Animal Shelter. The shelter also euthanized 23 cats, adopted out three puppies and had two adult dogs reclaimed by their owners. City animal control officers had 34 calls for service, including two from Fayetteville businesses concerning problems with a squirrel in a building and a raccoon wreaking havoc. Only one complaint came in about barking dogs.

196 fillets were served at Herman’s Ribhouse.