Stories from Tuesday, February 24, 2009

New law allows council to fill vacant council seats with majority vote

HARRISON -- The board of directors of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Solid Waste Management District elected to not renew its administration services with Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District, and instead will do the work in-house. In what is described as a contentious meeting, Boone County Judge Mike Moore resigned as chairman of the district following the vote. The Northwest Arkansas Economic Development district is based in Harrison...

CARROLL COUNTY -- Another four families are set to build their own homes using sweat-equity in the coming months. They are among a growing group of area families realizing the American dream through the Mutual Self-Help Housing Program. A half-dozen homes have already been constructed in Carroll County under this program, and a dozen or so more have been built in surrounding counties...

GREEN FOREST -- The city council held a special meeting to consider another proposal for upgrades needed at the wastewater treatment plant. The council met at the depot Monday morning, to hear from representatives of Reid Engineering, Inc., a Virginia firm with extensive experience in designing wastewater treatment plants...

BERRYVILLE -- Those mountainous piles of limbs stacked throughout Berryville will soon be a thing of the past once a federally-approved pickup program gets underway. At a special city council meeting Monday morning, Mayor Tim McKinney announced that federal officials had called to say he was right, and he should accept the low bid from an Alabama firm that quoted $24 per cubic yard for limbs chipped and delivered to a city site...

EUREKA SPRINGS -- High school Principal David Childers told the school board at its meeting Thursday that the school will try "in-school suspension" (ISS) as an interim measure before kicking students out of school for infractions. He said he had obtained a copy of Berryville's ISS rules and asked his teachers for their feedback, which has been positive...

HOLIDAY ISLAND -- After much wrangling with the Holiday Island Planning Commission (HIPC), contractor Jim Duffy paid a past-due $400 fine and secured a permit to build a new house. Duffy owed the fine on incomplete work on a permit taken out in 2006 at 29 Lakeside Drive...

BERRYVILLE -- New to St. John's Hospital is Omnicell, an automated medication dispensing system that Tammy Hipps says is "wonderful for a facility of our size to have." Hipps, who is mission coordinator for St. John's, was excited to announce imple­­mentation of the system at the hospital, where four dispensing units are now in place...

HARTMAN -- The Eureka Springs Lady Highlanders led for three quarters of the 4-2A District Tournament championship game on Saturday but couldn't hold off Class 2A's No. 5-ranked Johnson County West Side Lady Rebels at the end and finished runnerups...

BERRYVILLE -- A tremendous effort against the Farmington Cardinals on Friday earned the Berryville Bobcats a 54-51 victory in the semifinals of the 1-4A District Tournament but left them out of gas for the championship game against the Huntsville Eagles on Saturday...

It amazes me to see how many basketball teams from our area of the state are ranked as one of the top five or six in their classifications. And not just our area, but from the conferences our county high schools play in. I would hate to coach girls in the 1-4A Conference unless my team was Shiloh Christian or Huntsville...

HARTMAN -- Seeding for the 4-2A District tournament didn't hold up in one regard Thursday night when the No. 3 seed Eureka Springs Lady Highlanders defeated the No. 2 seed Hartford girls 48-40 to advance to the championship game on Saturday night. It was right on for the senior boys matchup between No. 1 Hackett and No. 4 Eureka (19-14) as the Hornets rolled to a 44-25 win...

ERVIN B. RICHARDSON, of Harrison, died Friday, Feb. 20, 2009, at the age of 90, at North Arkansas Regional Medical Center. Arrangements are currently pending by Holt Memorial Chapel in Harrison, and a complete obituary will appear in Friday's Carroll County News...

JOHNITA ANDERSON, a resident of Berryville, was born Aug.1, 1967, in Carroll County, a daughter of John Charles and Lois Lovitta (Dorsey) Anderson. She died Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, in Springfield, Mo., at the age of 41. Johnita is survived by her mother, Lovitta Anderson of Berryville; one daughter, Nina Rupert of Berryville; three brothers, Terry Anderson of Berryville, Richard Anderson of Berryville, and Garry Sisco of Oak Grove; one sister, Sarah Ball of Berryville; several nieces and nephews; and a host of other relatives and friends.. ...

RONNIE BELL, a resident of Berryville, was born June 3, 1948, in Green Forest, a son of Finis and Bertha Mae (Fields) Bell. He died Monday, Feb. 16, 2009, in Springfield, Mo., at the age of 60. Ronnie was a lead over the supply department at Tyson Foods...

Justice Drake Tatum, age 3, of Green Forest, AR. died Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at his home. He was born April 6, 2005, in Springfield, Missouri. Justice spent the first 6 months of his life struggling to survive at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. ...