Stories from Thursday, May 1, 2003

by David McNeal It's recognition time for spring sports here in our little corner of the world, and boy, is the platter full as May approaches. Berryville, Eureka Springs, and Green Forest schools all have awards programs planned for students in athletics and academics. But boy, do they do them in different ways...

FLIPPIN ---- Green Forest's soccer Tigers pounded the Flippin Bobcats 9-0 at Flippin's Hickey Park field last Friday, lifting the Tigers' season record to 8-2-1, with seven shut-out wins. Realizing Flippin's weak record ---- they haven't won a match all season ---- Tiger Coach Marc McCutcheon started Green Forest's bench. For 22 minutes the game was scoreless as Flippin worked against Green Forest's reserves...

Coach Hassell Bell's small but hard-working junior high girls' squad put together a great effort at the 1AA District Track Meet last Friday, but didn't have the numbers to overcome the Elkins Lady Elks, who won the district title. Elkins scored 126-1/2 points, with Eureka Springs tallying 99. Cedarville was third with 90-1/2 points, so it was real close...

Coach Barry Hardin's Bobcat baseball team put together one of its best games of the season on Saturday and defeated the West Fork Tigers 6-3 in the regional tournament in Greenland. The win earned the Bobcats (16-12) a berth in the Class AAA State Baseball tournament, to be held Saturday, May 3, and Monday, May 5, at the Mills University Studies school in Little Rock...

Week of April 21 5:35 p.m. ---- Police were dispatched to an East Main Street location to investigate a 911 call. Everything was okay. 6:20 p.m. ---- Police were dispatched to an East Pine Street location to investigate a possible domestic disturbance. It was verbal only...

Week of April 21 April 21 1:17 a.m. ---- Medical assist on Hubbert Street. 8:45 a.m. ---- Report taken on runaway juvenile. Juvenile located the next day. 10 a.m. ---- Suspicious vehicle checked and logged on Saunders Heights. 6:13 p.m. ---- Kids climbing trees on private property on North Springfield. Gone on arrival...

Week of April 21 April 21 10:31 a.m.-- Officer retrieved bicycle that had been at business for about two weeks. 10:37 a.m.-- Subject reported a city construction vehicle was in her rental parking spot and refused to move. Officer assigned complainant different parking space...

Bonnie Ree Phillips Usrey, 90, of Berryville, died Thursday evening, April 24, 2003, in Berryville, Arkansas. She was born February 14, 1913, at Osage to James and Arey Simson (Seeten) Phillips. Mrs. Usrey was a homemaker and an avid gardener. She was a devoted Christian...

ILENE ROBINETTE, a resident of Green Forest, Arkansas, was born December 10, 1922, in Carroll County, Arkansas, the daughter of Charley and Floris (Sooter) Butler. She died Tuesday (April 22, 2003) in Berryville, Arkansas, at the age of 80. Mrs. Robinette was a line worker at Tyson Foods. She was of the Baptist Faith...

Maletta Marion Kamrath, 81, of Washburn, Mo., died Sunday, April 20, 2003, at her home. She was born Jan. 11, 1922, in Red Wing, Minn., to Edward and Gladys (Carlin) Gruhlke. In November 1941, in Bear Valley, Minn., she married Walter Fredrick Karl Kamrath. He preceded her in death in November 1976. She was also preceded by her parents; two sons, John and Ernest; a daughter, Margo; and three sisters, Leila, Myrna, and Catherine...

MARY BETH BUXTON was born January 23, 1944, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Elizabeth V. and Frederick Arthur (Sooter) Buxton. During the last four years of Mary Beth's life, she lived at the Eureka Springs Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Mary Beth died on Wednesday, April 22, 2003. ...

For all the Arkansas General Assembly got wrong during its tumultuous three-month gathering, it got at least one thing right -- it voted to extend term limits for both state house and senate seats. Since term limits were enacted in Arkansas in 1992 (taking effect in 1998 for the house and in 2000 for the senate) it's been apparent to us that the ability of the bodies to do their business has been eroded -- eroded by single-issue newbies who have no clue as to the functions of the state's agencies or of their own duties to fulfill mandates of the federal government. ...

Two local women were seriously injured when the 1989 Jeep they were riding in left the road and overturned on Highway 62 near the Kings River Bridge Saturday night. The driver, Mary Jess Clark, proprietor of Notions, Potions and Lotions in Berryville, was air-lifted to St. John's Medical Center in Springfield. She was listed in fair condition Monday in the neuro-trauma center of the hospital, according to a spokeswoman...

GREEN FOREST ---- Jennifer Bassett, hired by the school district to head up the volleyball program, will be on the job before her contract begins in August. School Board members voted to pay Bassett $100 a day, up to 10 days, to have her on campus from May 12 through May 23, to "get to know the kids, get the program up, and set up summer camps," said Superintendent Dr. Larry Bennett...

As state legislators prepare for a special session called by Gov. Mike Huckabee last week, many are hoping that the meetings will be a lot more productive than the regular session. The regular session of the 84th General Assembly was the first one in state history to end without approving a budget...