Tough times

Brian Chism, a mail handler for the U.S. Postal Service for 10 years, places first-class mail into bins while sorting mail at the sorting facility in south Fayetteville. The U.S. Postal Service is considering the closure of the regional sorting facility in Fayetteville in an effort to save money. The change would relocate the work of sorting mail for Northwest Arkansas to the service's Little Rock facility, moving or eliminating several jobs in town.

There is discussion about whether or not the closure of the local facility would save as much money as the postal service suggests it would, but no one seems to be debating the loss in jobs or the change in the level of service for mail patrons in the corner of the state if the planned closure goes through. A letter sent to a neighbor might take two or even three days to be delivered. Yet, more poignant is the loss of so many local jobs.

Big mess

Officials with the Washington County Sheriff's Office  search Friday for evidence while investigating a reported assault at a house on Washington County 291 south of Cane Hill.

By the time I left the scene, it was becoming apparent that the underage caller, who had claimed that a man in a ski mask had attempted to assault her, had possibly made up the whole incident.

No faces

Don Glover, corrections officer with the Northwest Arkansas Department of Community Corrections, right, uses a shovel while helping residents at the Northwest Arkansas Community Corrections Center in Fayetteville to plant 1,300 daffodil bulbs at the Willard Walker Hospice Home in Fayetteville. The bulbs were donated by Brent and Becky's Bulbs to Fayetteville in Bloom which is working on its second planting of bulbs of the season at the facility.

The donation of the bulbs and the work being done at the hospice home made it important for me to get a photograph of the planting process. The only catch was, I couldn't show any of the residents' faces or show their name badges so they could be identified. This comes up quite often, something that I understandably had to reassure the officials at the detention facility of. I am hopeful that they will contact me in the future with what they are doing now that they know they can trust me not to make the mistake of taking a photograph that allows one of their residents to be identified.

Road work ahead

Workers from Nabholz Construction Services in Rogers and the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department work to construct a barricade to close the northbound, outside lane of North Crossover Road in Fayetteville in preparation for upcoming improvements to the state highway and the drainage structures that run alongside it. The $12.6 million project will widen the highway to four lanes with a raised center median between Old Wire Road and Birdie Lane and is expected to take eight months to complete. This is the first stage of a plan to improve and widen 2.2 miles of the highway between Mission and Joyce boulevards.

Whenever a project promises a lane or road closure to a roadway, we try to do our best to let everyone know about it. We've written about this several times, but we thought we would use a little bit of space that we have in print in tomorrow's edition and the gallery on the website to let everyone know this is going on. Eight months of two-lane traffic on a busy highway is going to take some getting used to for some drivers. Crossover is a popular way to avoid the traffic on North College Avenue that now has a bit of a bottle-neck.

College trees

Cody Templeton, left, Randy Moore and Bob Miller, all workers with the city of Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Division, inspect a tree planted along North College Avenue before crews begin working to replace dead and damaged trees between Dickson and Maple streets. Crews will close the outside lanes of College Avenue from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. while working. The inside lanes will remain open and all lanes will open outside work hours. Officials with the city expect the work to be completed Wednesday.

Often are the comments from longtime Fayetteville residents about the sugar maples that once divided the portion of North College Avenue where crews are working. From the postcard that most point to as proof of their beauty, they were stunning. They were reportedly taken out to establish a turning lane along the busy state highway as the area grew. That turn lane has been replaced in small sections with a median that features trees. Crews also added trees in containers within the sidewalks to make what could be a beautiful experience for drivers and pedestrians.

The difficulty has been in keeping the trees alive, and city crews are once again working to replace the trees that have been damaged by weather or traffic and once that have died in the past few years. The lane closures are enough of an inconvenience to alert our readers, but we wanted to explain the reason behind them as well.

Jet

Jet, left, and his friend, Nikki, pose with Chaddie Platt at Platt's business, Dog Party USA in Tontitown. Jet was found seven months after escaping from Fayetteville Animal Services staff while on an outing at the Fayetteville square. He recognized Nikki from his time with her at Wedington Animal Hospital after he was rescued from an animal hoarder, allowing him to be recaptured and placed into foster care at Dog Party USA.

Poor Jet. He's not really great with people, especially ones who he doesn't know. But he seemed really sweet. What a neat story.

The reshoot

Fayetteville junior quarterback Austin Allen and Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton are the Northwest Arkansas Media Big Six Player and Coach of the Year respectively in the wake of the Bulldogs' 29-28 overtime win over Bentonville in the Class 7A state championship game Dec. 3 in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

This is the second go-round for shooting this photograph. The first was shot in a similar fashion, but Allen and Patton were in street clothes. Though they looked good, my sports editor wanted them to be in uniform, matching the other players and coaches featured in the year-end features that we are running. It makes sense and I am glad that both Allen and Patton were nice enough to let me shoot this again.

I wince when I am asked to reshoot something. I fear the subject who has to once again stand for a photograph will think that the earlier photo "didn't come out." After so long doing this, I have lost my sense of humor with this question, and that's probably pride talking. That's a difficult thing to ignore sometimes.

Christmas and dUKe basketball

Kyle Adams, left, and his wife, Johneese, sing alongside their son, Mason and daughter, Alex, during a portion of a Christmas Eve service held in candlelight at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville.

Kyle is the head boys basketball coach at Fayetteville High School and has to be one of my favorite people in town. I was so glad to see that they were sitting in the spot in the church where it was best to shoot the candles and the crowd. This vantage let me stand on a step to get over the crowd a bit and allowed me to shoot diagonally across the people, giving me more candles in the shot. Short of having the devil himself or Mike Krzyzewski sitting in that spot, I would shot anyone who happened to be sitting in that spot because it was so nice a photo. It was so great to have coach Adams and his family sitting there. I hope he enjoyed it.

What I wouldn't give

Wylie McIntyre of Fayetteville reads a story to his sons Kaleb, 6, right, and Gavin, 2, in the children's wing of the Fayetteville Public Library. The library will be closed Saturday through Monday for the Christmas holiday, but will reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The library will host the Winter Break Movie Festival with 2 p.m. daily movie. Tuesday's movie is Cars 2 with Smurfs, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and Kung Fu Panda 2 planned for the remainder of the week.

When I take photos, especially of children, I do so as a 40-year-old person who has finally learned that time does pass, and no matter how much they might not want to, children do grow up and grow old. I imagine these boys grown up as I am now with a father who would then probably be in his 60s or maybe even his 70s. I then imagine all three remembering this day and the days like this day when they were small boys or a young father with small boys.

I like to shoot with an eye on how much this photo would mean to all of them and how it would let them remember, for a bit, that time. This approach finds itself in some small way in nearly every photograph that I make. It's a sort of mournful nostalgia that shapes my personality and my work that can be both difficult and useful.

It's him, it's really him!

Charlie Lewis, 7, center, and friend Addison Moore, 5, both of Fayetteville, wave to Santa Claus while waiting to visit with him and have their photograph made at the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville. Santa is available at Center Court today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a break from 3-4 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a break from 3 to 3:30 p.m.

I got there early with the hopes of having enough time to check in with Mr. Bishop at the mall office and still catch Santa as he walked through the mall to the mall's center court. I had images of star-struck kids as they watched Santa walk by, but all of the kids he passed failed to notice him; failed to notice a large man in a red suit and beard. Luckily, these two were waiting in line to have their photographs made and saw him right away.

For all the right reasons

Ashlee Andrews, a University of Arkansas student from McKinney, Texas, distributes cans of soup  at Leverett Elementary School in Fayetteville. "I am stuck here for work [over the holidays], so I thought I would help out. I was getting a little stir-crazy," Andrews said. The effort, now in its 25th year, provided bags of groceries and household items for 44 local families using donations from members of the community.

It was impressive to find a volunteer who had no tie to the school and who had decided to volunteer for the pure joy of volunteering. I think everyone thought I chose her because she is pretty — and she is — but she gave me such a great quote and was there for such a charming reason that I couldn't resist.

Celebrity

Billy Thompson, left, laughs with Cpl. Mark Laird of the Fayetteville Police Department as Laird delivers a Christmas gift and helps to deliver his daily meal from Fayetteville Meals on Wheels. The gifts were donated by the Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center members, the city of Fayetteville Community Resources Division, city employees and members of the Fayetteville Fraternal Order of Police.

We heard about the city employees donating gifts to the folks who receive meals from the local Meals on Wheels affiliate and thought it would make a good photograph. It's good to give credit where it is due, and the folks at the police department and the rest of the city came up with a great idea to help people this year. The tough part was going to be working with a resident to get a photograph. I can understand if a person did not want their photograph made, especially when we come knocking on their door unannounced. I was so glad to meet Mr. Thompson and to see how thrilled he was to have his photograph made for the paper.

Tough crowd

Jan Davidson, a volunteer and member of the Fayetteville High School Parent-Teacher Organization, left, and Ashley Seat, a University of Arkansas junior and volunteer, work to fill bags of household items for donation through the Fayetteville Public Schools Safety Net program.

A room full of women working to put household items in grocery bags for the needy would, at first, seem like an easy assignment. One would expect to simply watch and make photographs of them as they worked in a small area of space. Easy stuff, right? Not really.

Of the four women who were there when I got there, one told me before even introducing herself that she didn't want to be photographed as she motioned to herself and what she was wearing. A second woman hid in the corner while the other two worked. Of the two who were left, one happened to have hair that fell into her face as she worked, making it difficult to shoot a usable photo of her. That left me with one volunteer to shoot, and she was not happy about being photographed either. I got only one photo before the whole thing crumbled. With more time, I might have gotten a photo that was very complimentary of her than this particular photo happens to be, though that truly isn't the reason that I was there. Yet, with only one photo to choose from, I had to use it whether it made her look good or not.

The irony is that these are very pretty ladies who were dressed appropriately for the work they were doing. They were working in a cold and dirty former kindergarten classroom to make sure people in need in our community receive items that they require. There is nothing more attractive than that.

Lighting up Dixie

Junior McCratic of Lincoln turns out his horse, Dixie, to a pasture in front of his home along West Pridemore Drive after covering her in holiday lights.

The McCratic's lighting display for the holidays is something to behold. We are doing a story about the many big, private displays in the area and their house and yard qualify for a photograph even before you add Dixie. But seeing how she pranced around the pasture for the cars that were passing along Pridemore Drive in her lighted blanket was worth the trip.

Ouch

Central Arkansas Christian's Jared Clasen, top, and Fayetteville's Jaxon Nolen wrestle during the Fayetteville Classic at Fayetteville High School.

Not that there was ever any doubt, but this sport simply is not for me. That looks like no fun for a man with the shoulders and knees of a 95-year-old.

Fuzzy's, Fat Toney's and The Red Hibiscus

Workers collect unbroken concrete blocks after buildings that once housed Munchies and Tony C's Bar and Grill were razed as a part of the state's plans to improve Garland Avenue.

These buildings were home to Fuzzy's, The Red Hibiscus, and Fat Toney's Barbecue when I got to town in 1993. Fuzzy's was home to the coldest beer in town, without a doubt. We did a story once and brought along a thermometer and tested it. The cheeseburgers were great, but I enjoyed the playbills the most. It was home to the theater-types in town in some way or another. Your waiter, more often than not, was an actor of some sort and the walls were lined with playbills from years of community theater productions. The Red Hibiscus was a flower shop in what is the building still standing in the photograph where I bought many flowers for girlfriends along the way. It was where I went on the days before Mothers Day or St. Valentine's Day to get photos of folks working to make flower arrangements. Finally, Fat Toney's, now the rubble that the workers are sifting through, was home to decent barbecue and, well, Fat Toney. He was an ardent supporter of the Razorback Marching Band, but ran into a bit of money trouble by the late 1990s.

80 and counting

Baltazar Baguio, owner of Expert Sheet Metal and Roofing LLC. in Farmington, works to remove shingles from the roof of the Galloway Cafeteria on the campus of the Mount Sequoyah Retreat and Conference Center in Fayetteville. The center is one of three nonprofit organizations, including the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, that received money through the city's Community Revolving Loan Fund earlier this year. The loans are intended to make buildings associated with each organization more energy efficient. The city used $220,000 in federal stimulus funds to create the revolving loan program. The Mount Sequoyah center was loaned approximately $160,000 to add a new Energy Star-certified roof at the cafeteria, which was built in 1964. New heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are also being installed in the center's administrative offices and the Bailey Center, where various gatherings and group meetings are held. If the program works out as expected, the nonprofit groups will pay back the loans at a 1 percent interest rate over a 10-year period with savings they're expecting to see on their utility bills.

I had fun seeing Baltazar again. He's a real daredevil and very accomplished as a roofer. I also had fun getting up on the roof because it gave me a good photograph instead of having to shoot from the ground. Even better, however, is how easily it was to get my car in the photo since I was overlooking the parking lot. That makes an even 80.

End of an era

Workers remove roofing material from the southwest corner of the former Washington County Livestock Auction building as work continues to raze the building. North Carolina-based Campus Crest LLC has plans to construct ten apartment buildings, a clubhouse, swimming pool, parking lot and a pavilion on the site.

Seeing the Washington County Livestock Auction building come down marks the end of an era that saw raising cattle as the county's top money-maker. It also means no more Thursday morning peanut butter pie at the diner that operated at the sale barn.

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

Fayetteville High School senior Brad Culp, center, celebrates with friends during a surprise pep rally and celebration for the school's football team which won the state championship Dec. 3 with a win over heavily favored Bentonville in War Memorial Stadium. The players met at the school's field house for a photograph and were told that the photographer had failed to come and then taken to the gymnasium where the student body was assembled.

I was glad to hear that the coaches had told the players that the photographer who had not shown up was from a competing publication instead of from the newspaper, which was the initial plan. Not show? Me?

I passed several players as they were leaving the school to go to the field house who probably would have said, "We saw Shupe. He was headed to the gym."

More photos here.

Long time

Opal Merhige, chef for Lean Green Cuisine in Fayetteville, prepares food Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, for patrons for the coming week. The business is at the center of a struggle with Nestle Foods which owns the Lean Cuisine line of food and wants the local business to change its name.

I haven't seen Opal in a very long time. She was once, among other things, a belly dancer in a local dance troupe that danced at a lot of local events. My mother danced as well and made costumes for several friends who also danced. Opal was a very talented dancer, and was in several photos that I took since she danced at the front of the group. I was amazed that I remembered her so out of context. That's not always easy for me to do.

Wreaths Across America

Pepito Estrada, 15, of Boy Scouts of America Troop 450 in Bentonville, lays a holiday wreath at the gravestone of a U.S. military veteran during the annual Wreaths Across America ceremony at the Fayetteville National Cemetery.

It's a stunning sight to see all of the holiday wreaths laying in front of all of the gravestones. It's a sight that, through a photograph on the Internet, led to the enormous growth of this event from a small effort at Arlington National Cemetery to a nationwide event.

Santa!

Portia Hugh, 4, right, smiles as she prepares to speak to Santa Claus alongside her mother, Briawna Hugh, and sister, Teya, 18 months, during the annual Cookies with Santa event at Elza R. Tucker School in Lowell. The event featured cookies and photographs with Santa Claus and silent auction items and is a fundraiser for the Elza Tucker PTO.

I have to admit, even I giggled a bit when Santa walked in.

Good works

Mark Wilburn, assistant principal and sponsor of the St. Joseph Catholic School Middle School Ambassadors, right, helps students, from left, Shiloh Bemis, 13, Peter Kieklak, 12, and Nikos Klenakis, 11, as the group works to rake leaves and decorate for the holidays at the home of former St. Joseph organist Larry Pereira and his wife, Rita, in Fayetteville. This is the second year for the honors and service-learning group to work at the home.

They say doing good works is the result of being a Christian, and not the other way around. These kids proved that with the work they did for the Pereiras.

Alley cats

Pedestrians walk past an unnamed alley off West Dickson Street in Fayetteville. The City Council is discussing naming the city-owned alley to ensure timely emergency response to the area.

There has been a groundswell of support of a Harry Potter-inspired name, but having never read the books, it was totally lost on me. There is also support for naming it Shipley Alley, given its proximity to the former Shipley Baking Company's building.

Bulldog Angel Tree

Fayetteville High School basketball players, from left, Jawan Smith, L.J. McLaughlin, Tyler McCullough and Manuale Watkins shop at the Northwest Arkansas Mall for a student in the Bulldog Angel Tree program, a group of Fayetteville Public Schools students who are identified by officials in the district as having pronounced needs or are homeless. The basketball team, now in its ninth year of shopping for a needy student, bought items for four students with funding provided by the team's booster club, players and their families.

To see the list that the district provided and see that, in this case, under 'wants' was written 'a coat' was just humbling.

Pearl Harbor Day

John Haveman, a member of the Honor Guard of Bella Vista, reflects while holding the U.S. flag as he takes part in a moment of prayer during a ceremony in Riordan Hall in Bella Vista marking the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that sparked the U.S. involvement in World War II. The event featured several veteran groups from the area, a performance by the Jack Mitchell Band and a presentation by Bella Vista Mayor Frank Anderson.

My grandfather spent time as a corpsman at Pearl Harbor while he was in the Navy, so I was really excited about this assignment. My GPS unit had a hard time finding Riordan Hall for some reason, and I was worried I would be late, but I found it once I started following all the cars. It was great to see so many people come out for this.

Backstage

Cecile Bowen, 12, left, gets some help with her makeup for her character, Imogene Herdman, from backstage coordinator Kathi Blundell as they prepare for a dress rehearsal for "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale. The play, now in its 18th consecutive year, features more than 70 actors and runs Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. For information about the show or to purchase tickets, call the center at 751-5441.

There is always more going on backstage than on the stage for us to photograph. I love the mirror and the little girl watching Cecile have her makeup applied. She watched everything Cecile did. Remember how it felt to watch the 'big' boys or girls when you were small?

I stand corrected

A group of participants in a candlelight vigil sponsored by HIV Arkansas at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville join together around candles arranged into the number 30 to represent the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Normally, when an event organizer tells me that they plan to do something or another to because they want to take a photograph of it for themselves and suggests that I hang around, I don't hold out much hope. I stay nearly every time just to see what happens and more often than not, what materializes is a group photo that I don't end up using. This time, the photo that they had planned made for a very good photo for me. I really like it.

Stunner

Fayetteville players and coaches rush onto the field after the Bulldogs' defeated Bentonville, 29-28, in overtime to win the Class 7A state championship in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

Most considered this a blowout barely worth actually playing. "Go ahead and mail the trophy to Bentonville and save us the trouble of driving all the way to Little Rock," is what we were all thinking to be quite honest. Yet, instead of the expected blowout, we watched what had to be the greatest state championship football game ever played in Arkansas. What a great high school game.

More photos here.

Buzz saw

Farmington quarterback Deon Clay, right, reaches to fend off Malvern defensive lineman Isaac Wright during the first half of the Cardinals' 49-25 loss in the Class 4A semifinal game at Claude Mann Stadium in Malvern.

Malvern is a town about half hour south of Little Rock. Since I was going to be in Little Rock for the 7A state championship game against Bentonville and Fayetteville Saturday, I tagged along with our writers to shoot the Farmington's game in Malvern.

Spreading

Fayetteville High School juniors Will Price, left, and Sam Goll work to assemble a cardboard box to be used as a shelter during the annual Homeless Vigil sponsored by the Fayetteville High School Student Council at Fayetteville High. Students, with the hope of raising more than $23,000 to support the district's homeless program that lends support to homeless students in the district, will sleep outside the school until their goal is met.

While I was there, two students from Springdale High School approached the StuCo sponsor, Vance Arnold, asking how they should go about organizing a similar vigil at their school. This event has raised a lot of money for the district's homeless program, but its effect is even greater if it creates a similar event in another city. Pretty amazing.