Stories from Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District Manager Dennis Kelly presented the district's Board of Commissioners with a golf operations tracking chart at the board's June 22 meeting, outlining a restructuring of departments and redirecting labor, as needed, during winter months. It proposed the creation of a new compensated golf director position to oversee both the pro shop and maintenance departments...

Three leadership positions at Mercy Hospital in Berryville have been eliminated as part of a company-wide reduction in force by Mercy Health, the company confirmed in a statement Friday afternoon. Mercy Berryville President Kristy Estrem, Vice President of Patient Care Services Michele Gann and Director of Guest Services Tammy Hipps all were released from their duties, although the company statement did not identify them by name...

"You get a free T-shirt to go along with it!" 12-year-old Samantha Witherby says. Witherby quickly lists off other reasons why she enjoys the Berryville Community Center's Summer Youth Program. She gets to play games with her friends, swim in the city pool and play volleyball or kickball at open gym every day...

By Alana Cook and Scott Loftis CarrollCountyNews@cox-internet.com In a landmark decision last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples can marry nationwide. By Monday afternoon, seven same-sex couples had taken their vows in Eureka Springs...

A Berryville man was arrested Saturday after an alleged crime spree including allegations of kidnapping, assault, terroristic threats, theft and drug charges. According to the Carroll County Detention Center intake log, 30-year-old Jeffrey Matlock was booked on charges of robbery, kidnapping, theft, aggravated assault, possession of a controlled substance, possession of firearms by a certain person, fleeing and possession...

The serious runners were at the front for the start of the 3rd Annual Rat Race, a 5K run held Saturday at Tiger Stadium in Green Forest. The Rat Race honors Thomas A. Ratzlaff, a Navy SEAL who was killed in action on Aug. 6, 2011. See more coverage in Sports on Page 8. (Photo by David Bell/Carroll County News)...

The Crescent Hotel was built in 1886, so this photograph is obviously after that date. But in this picture Spring Street was still dirt, there weren't a huge number of trees on the hillside, and many of the houses were little more than cabins. Regardless, folks flocked to Eureka Springs to 'take the waters.'...

On June 6, a semi-truck struck David Stettenbenz's motorcycle near the intersection of Highway 62 and Rock House Road in Eureka Springs, killing Stettenbenz immediately. A police report from the Eureka Springs Police Department notes that the driver of the semi-truck, Basheer Dalati, reported traveling toward Eureka Springs and not noticing the sharp right-hand corner until he was turning. Dalati was driving 45 mph, the report notes...

I support same-sex marriage. I also support your right to fly the rebel flag. Those two positions might seem contrary to one another, but not to my way of thinking. As everyone likely knows by now, same-sex marriage became legal across the United States when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a split decision last Friday. By a margin of 5-4, the court ruled that same-sex couples should have the legal right to marry, the same as their heterosexual counterparts...

When my mom moved me to my nana's house during my senior year of high school, I was upset. I felt I was being uprooted from my home and knew that my mom was in financial trouble. Everything in my life suddenly felt in transition; I would be attending college the next year and felt I no longer had a home. I was also 17 years old, which entails its own special kind of turmoil...

You don't have to win first place to be successful. For Kyle Rains, a sophomore at Eureka Springs High School, that is certainly true. Rains competed in masonry at the national SkillsUSA conference in Louisville, Ky., last weekend and placed 26th out of 32 high school competitors. Saying he was one of the youngest competitors there, Rains noted that this trip marked a couple of firsts for him...

Two Carroll County students have been named to the Dean's List for the spring 2015 semester at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. Mary Holman, a first-year law student from Berryville, and Will Mullen, a second-year law student from Green Forest, were named to the Dean's List...

Adam Noble, a graduate of Berryville High School, has been named to the President's List for the Spring 2015 semester at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn. To quality for the president's list, students must maintain a 4.0 grade-point average for the semester...