Connie Edmonston
People love her parks
by
Lara Jo Hightower
|
Today at 1:00 a.m.
Connie Edmonston the former Fayetteville Parks and Recreation director retired July 9 after 35 years. She is photographed in Wilson park July 8, 2021 in Fayetteville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Spencer Tirey) We were going to make the world a better place, through recreation, says Connie Edmonston, retiring Fayetteville director of Parks and Recreation, reflecting on the plan she and her husband, Craig, had while in college. That was our goal.
There s little doubt she succeeded. She was asked to compile a list of milestones during her more than three-decade tenure in the Parks and Recreation department. These were not projects created totally by me – it takes a city to create an amazing parks system in which to live, work and play, she wrote at the top of the list. Successful initiatives include the purchases or donations of major parks including Finger, Gulley (as well as the Gulley Park 10-a
The Catholic church has brought formal charges against Monsignor Craig Harrison, even before completing an investigation into allegations of sexual impropriety with minors, after he refused to drop a defamation lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno and two of its officials.
Harrison had been warned in a letter Bishop Joseph Brennan sent Nov. 18 that if he did not drop the suit then canon law proceedings against him would commence within two weeks. The diocese declined to comment but Harrison s legal team confirmed Wednesday the proceedings are underway and that he now faces penalties potentially including excommunication.
Harrison s refusal to drop the lawsuit, one of three defamation suits he has pending in Kern County Superior court, may suggest he is more anxious to clear his name than he is hopeful that a church investigation opened earlier this year will ultimately allow him to return to work as a priest.