Stories from Friday, July 17, 2015

We have had a year unlike any other so far in sports. College football finally instituted a playoff system in its highest classification. We saw our first Triple Crown winner since 1978 and the United States won the Women's World Cup. Now, the chances of me jinxing what I am about to say are pretty high. After all, I was at a Kansas City Royals game a few years ago and watched Jeremy Guthrie take a no-hitter into the seventh inning. The moment I mentioned it, he gave up a home run...

There are a lot of little things that both Carroll County football coaches said they need to address. Considering they haven't been practicing as a team for more than two weeks, neither coach seems too surprised. With both teams still seven weeks from their first regular-season game, neither coach seems too worried...

As high school football season approaches and players prepare to take the field, coaches in Carroll County are making sure the fields themselves are ready as well. "With all of the rain we have been getting, we have been having to mow our field three, four times a week," Berryville athletic director John McClellan said...

Growing up on a farm in Oak Grove, Patti Finch always liked being around horses. Her dad was a chicken farmer, but her mom always made sure there was a horse for her to ride. As a result, the 2013 Berryville High School graduate began showing horses in high school, which led to an equestrian scholarship at William Woods University in Fulton, Mo...

In response to the national backlash against the Confederate battle flag, Arkansas lawmakers are discussing possible ways of changing the state's flag -- which has a star that represents the state's membership in the Confederacy -- and the owner of Twice Born custom T-shirt shop in Eureka Springs has drafted a design he thinks would fit the bill...

During the July 8 City Advertising and Promotions Commission meeting, CAPC Finance Director Rick Bright reported that year-to-date total collections through May were $480,632, an increase of 9 percent ($39,620) over collections through the first five months of 2014 ($441,012)...

"Control is an illusion, you infantile egomaniac." So said Nicole Kidman to Tom Cruise in the movie, "Days of Thunder." It was a fictional scene, of course, but I'm sure it's a mantra she repeated often over the course of their decade-long marriage...

A Eureka Springs man who was arrested in April 2014 after he allegedly told police that God instructed him to kidnap and rape the owner of a local business has been committed to the Arkansas State Hospital after a judge ruled that he was not mentally fit to stand trial...

The Eureka Springs City Council will hold a special meeting at 3 p.m. Friday to consider amending the anti-discrimination ordinance that was adopted by the council in February and ratified by the city's voters in a special election three months later...

In case you didn't recognize it, the structure going up in the Midweek "Then and Now" was the Christ of the Ozarks statue at the Great Passion Play. Here is a shot of the statue at an Easter sunrise service a few years ago. The iconic statue is still looking across the valley at Eureka Springs. (Photo by David Bell/Carroll County News)...

Renovating the Mercy Hospital-Berryville gift shop was just the first of many changes executed by the Mercy Auxiliary. The auxiliary, a volunteer group serving the community within the hospital, spearheaded a renovation of the gift shop earlier this year, finishing the project on Feb. 13. Auxiliary president Anita Spearman said the renovation was necessary for many reasons...

The Green Forest City Council approved purchases for the water, fire and police departments at its meeting Tuesday morning. The council agreed to spend $63,443.26 to replace one lift station pump and to repair another. Public works director Buddy Fry explained that the pumps have been damaged by all the heavy rains the past several months...

Green Forest's new city hall isn't just talk anymore. At the Green Forest City Council's meeting Tuesday morning, the council agreed to hire Modus Studio, a Fayetteville architecture firm, to build a new city hall building in the grassy area behind the current building...