A Lesson In Profanity Springdale Council Meeting Interrupted When Outburst Leads To Brief Arrest

(From For the Record, Thursday, April 18, 1996:) Springdale Town Councilman Dan Hite is an ally of former mayor Ray Turner, not Marshal Jerry Taylor as stated in a story Wednesday.

Councilman Dan Hite was briefly arrested and lectured on profanity when something hit the fan at Monday night’s Springdale Town Council meeting.

Hite said Marshal Jerry Taylor and Mayor Ernie Gehrke told him a few off-color remarks might be tolerated, but “I couldn’t use the Lord’s name in vain.” That was about the size of it, Taylor and Gehrke agreed.

The marshal and the mayor said Hite was arrested for disorderly conduct after an angry outburst in which he swore and threw papers across the council chamber. But Hite claims he was arrested because he wouldn’t sign the papers - sewer permits for Jerry and Lela Taylor’s trailer court.

Hite, who is the town sewer inspector, said he refused to sign the permits because some required work hadn’t been completed and because one of the trailers encroaches almost 3 feet into a street right-of-way.

Council members instructed him Monday to go ahead and sign the permits on grounds the problems are unrelated to the work covered by the permits.

Hite said he was just about to sign the permits when a citizen blamed the sewer dispute on a long and bitter rivalry that has divided Springdale leaders.

“I just lost it when he shot off his mouth, blaming the past administration for all of Jerry’s (Taylor) problems,” Hite said. “I just saw white when he did that.”

Hite is an ally of former Mayor Ray Turner, whom Gehrke unseated in November 1993.

That election focused on Gehrke’s support for Taylor as marshal. So did the November 1995 election, which finally gave Gehrke the upper hand and left Hite as the only Taylor supporter on the council.

Told to cool off or go to jail, Hite returned to the meeting and signed the permits - “so I guess I was unarrested.

“I guess you either sign it or you’re arrested,” he grumped.

But Taylor and Gehrke said Hite’s uncivil behavior was the only issue. There was no need to pressure Hite to sign the permits, Gehrke said, noting the mayor has the ultimate authority.

“If he hadn’t signed it, I was going to sign it,” Gehrke said.

, DataTimes