Characterizing as “perplexing” the arguments made by the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, in defense of its efforts to condemn a 2-acre parcel of land for the Clinton Presidential Library, Pulaski County Chancery Court Chancellor Vann Smith denied a motion for summary judgment May 4 of a lawsuit filed by the parcel’s owner, Eugene Pfeifer III, in December. Smith agreed with Pfeifer that the city had made contradictory statements about the use of the land and recommended that the case go to trial, the May 6 Dallas Morning News reported.
Several weeks earlier, the state Supreme Court heard the case of anti-tax activist Nora Harris, who seeks to block Little Rock’s $16.5-million purchase of land for the Clinton library site with bond money it will repay through park user fees, according to the April 18 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
In an unrelated action, the General Services Administration signed a six-year lease, which will begin October 16, on a former Little Rock car-dealership building for storage of President Clinton’s presidential papers.
Posted May 22, 2000.