Registration open for 2020 marathon
Registration for the 2020 Little Rock Marathon opened Friday.
The city's 18th annual marathon weekend, which boasts running events ranging from a children's mile to the titular 26.2-mile race, will take place from Feb. 28 to March 1. Registration and other details are available at littlerockmarathon.com.
Officials anticipate that race spots will sell out by the end of the year. If spots are still available, registration will continue online through 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 21.
The events are sponsored by organizations including Baptist Health, the Hatcher Agency and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Grant funds events at library system
The Central Arkansas Library System has received a $14,900 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to host special guests including The Things They Carried author Tim O'Brien in 2020.
The system is one of 78 nonprofit organizations to receive the grant, CALS said in a news release last week.
The program, NEA Big Read, is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest that seeks to showcase a diverse range of titles to inspire "conversation and discovery." The NEA Big Read: CALS events will take place between March 16 and April 26.
Mark Christ, CALS adult programming coordinator, said the system hoped that additional partners would join CALS before the event begins.
"We are very excited to host Tim O'Brien and to explore his classic The Things They Carried throughout the library system and beyond," he said. "As an institution, we strive to improve literacy and encourage the exchange of ideas, social engagement and cultural expression."
In addition to a lecture from O'Brien, events on deck include book clubs, readings, exhibits, a film and documentary series, panel discussions, dramatic readings, poetry performances and Vietnam veteran oral history recordings.
City Hall cuts down vets memorial tree
A tree located at the southeast corner of the City Hall grounds that was planted to honor Arkansas veterans in 1991 has been removed due to illness.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in 1991 that the tree was planted on Veterans Day that year "in honor of all Arkansas veterans." The event was coordinated by an Arkansas chapter of a Vietnam veterans' group.
The newspaper's account states that a list bearing the names of more than 600 Arkansans who fought and died in the Vietnam War was buried beneath the tree.
City spokesman Lamor Williams said the city's urban forestry division recommended the tree's removal due to its increased production of pine cones, which is a sign of the last stages of life of a tree. Had it not been removed, the tree could have fallen or caused other damage at the busy intersection of West Markham Street and Broadway, Williams said in an email.
Williams said there were no markers or records indicating that the tree was planted as a veterans' memorial.
Metro on 06/16/2019