Stories from Friday, June 3, 2016

Berryville residents and other interested persons are invited to a public meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 21, at Berryville City Hall to discuss and identify the city's parks and recreation needs. Mayor Tim McKinney said the public meeting is one step in the application process for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism Outdoor Recreation Grant Program. ...

Berryville school administrators David Gilmore and John McClellan will be switching buildings for the next school year. The Berryville School Board named Gilmore principal of the high school principal at it April 18 meeting and named McClellan the middle school principal at its May 16 meeting...

Berryville resident James Scarlett had no idea what he was walking into when he returned to his house May 16 after recuperating from back surgery in Little Rock. Upon opening the door, he said he felt like he was stepping into a new home. The kitchen wall and ceiling had been rebuilt, and the bathroom had been remodeled. The floors had new carpet and linoleum. There was a new refrigerator and stove in the kitchen and new furniture in the living room...

The Rat Race 5K in Green Forest is running on four years. The annual event is the city's way of honoring the sacrifice and legacy of Tommy Ratzlaff, a Green Forest native who gave his life while serving overseas as a U.S. Navy SEAL. Julie Adams, Ratzlaff's sister, said Ratzlaff enlisted in the U.S. ...

The Opera in the Ozarks season is a short two weeks away and the singers are hard at work preparing for their roles. Caroline Nielson and Yazid Pierce-Gray are rehearsing their roles in 'Albert Herring,' a comic opera performed in English. (Photo by David Bell/Carroll County News)

Berryville Middle School will participate in a new technology grant as a control group over the next few years, giving students greater access to technology in the classroom. Berryville was one of 15 Arkansas school districts selected to participate in a new "enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies (eMINTS)" Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of Education...

Green Forest Elementary School has received a $6,000 grant from the Laura Bush Foundation to update its library. Bush, the former first lady, announced May 16 that the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries would distribute more than $831,000 to 130 school libraries from 30 states across the country this year...

Berryville residents can officially sign up for rural water service beginning next week. The first sign-up day will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, June 6, at the Berryville Fire Department. Maps will be available so residents can see if they live in the areas covered by the Berryville Water Project...

Curtis Mayfield, who would have celebrated his 74th birthday this weekend, wrote a rarity of a song most everyone in North America has heard: "People Get Ready." By rarity, I mean its message, not its repetition, as it has been covered by everyone from Rod Stewart to the Neville Brothers (though my personal favorite is Eva Cassidy's version)...

Tyler Drew Fry, a Green Forest native, recently graduated summa cum laude from Baylor University with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering.

Thelma H. Ponce Gonzalez of Green Forest has been named to the Deans List for the spring 2016 semester at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Mo. The list recognizes full-time student who earned a grade point average of 3.75 or above on a 4.0 scale while enrolled in 12 or more hours of credit courses...

The picture made at Center and Spring Streets, shown in Tuesday's Midweek edition, was made sometime between 1925 and 1989. That's because during that time there was no building there. The original Flat-Iron building was constructed in 1880, but 10 years later it burned, along with several other nearby buildings. The second Flat-Iron was build shortly after the demise of the original. It too burned and the lot lay fallow until the current building was built in 1989. In the 1900s there was a saloon, business offices and a lodge hall in the Flat-Iron. Today are retail shops on the lower level and luxury accommodations on the upper levels. (Photo by David Bell/Carroll County News)