Stories from Tuesday, June 13, 2017

While 15 years have passed since Amber Mock’s death, her sense of adventure and fun lives on through her family and friends. On Friday, the Mock family gathered at the river’s edge at Kings River Outfitters for the annual Amber Float. The trip is held on June 9, the date of Amber’s car crash, every year as a way for the family and friends to get together and celebrate Amber’s life...

Green Forest Mayor Charles Reece told the Eastern Carroll County Ambulance District Commission on Monday that his city may directly hire an ambulance company to provide service in Green Forest. “I got a call today from Tyson’s,” Reece told the commission. “They’re panicking, so if I have to I will, as a city, hire an ambulance service.”...

The Berryville School Board voted at a special meeting Monday to hire Joey Curtis as high school assistant principal. Curtis is currently the junior high boys basketball coach, head coach of senior high boys soccer and a physical education and health teacher. He will replace Donnel Armstrong, who is the new high school principal...

Carroll County residents who felt a little shaky over the weekend weren’t imagining things. The United States Geological Survey reported a pair of relatively small earthquakes in north Arkansas on Sunday. The first, measuring 3.6 on the Richter magnitude scale, occurred at 7:40 a.m. Sunday. The USGS reported that the earthquake’s epicenter was 19.9 miles northeast of Harrison. Residents in Carroll County reported feeling the quake...

Citing a lifelong love for Arkansas and its people, Gary Morris of Springdale has announced his candidacy for the District 97 seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives. The district covers portions of Carroll, Madison and Washington counties. “Between my wife Carolyn (Ames) and me, we have family roots that go back well over a century in Eureka Springs, Grandview, plus the White River area of Washington County,” Morris said in a news release. ...

State Rep. Bob Ballinger has announced that he is a Republican candidate for State Senate District 5.  The district includes all of Madison County and parts of Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Sebastian, and Washington counties.  “During my time as state representative I’ve worked to reform our tax code, limit government spending, and protect family values,” Ballinger said in a news release announcing his candidacy.  “As a state senator, I will continue working with Gov. ...

As of Monday, it’s been a year since the shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. It is the worst mass shooting in American history, with 50 dead and more than 50 injured. It’s no secret that we have a problem with madmen having access to guns in our country, but this column isn’t about that. This column is dedicated to those 50 lives we lost last year...

Opera in the Ozarks is kicking off its new season with a new rehearsal space, innovative performances and professional opera students. The students discussed what they are looking forward to this season, examining some of the personal challenges they face...

Many tourists pass through Carroll County each year, but last week a unique traveler passed through the area. Andy Chang, a resident of California and native of Korea, is on a mission to ride his bicycle from coast to coast. His adventure began the first week of March in Santa Monica, Calif...

The Holiday Island Elks Lodge 1042 will hold a barbecue on Saturday, July 8, as a fundraiser for its drug awareness program. The barbecue will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Cornerstone Bank parking lot near the Holiday Island entrance. The cost is $5 for a burger or a brat, chips and a soft drink or ice tea...

The Berryville Lady Bobcat and Green Forest Lady Tiger basketball teams are finding ways to improve throughout the summer. Berryville recently attended a camp in Fayetteville where Lincoln, Elkins, Springdale Har-Ber, Prairie Grove, West Fork and Shiloh Christian were also there. The Lady Bobcats went 6-0. Coach Daniel Cornelison was proud of the way Berryville played...

The 2017 Carroll County baseball season championship is this weekend at A.L. Carter Field. There is a rookies division, minors division and majors division. Brandon Stone, who coaches his two sons in the 7- and 8-year-old rookie division, is looking forward to Saturday's year-end tournament...

Berryville football coach Doug Shott has a limited amount of time to practice with the team over the summer, but he is attempting to make the most out of it. "We have clinic the third week of this month and then dead week is the next two weeks," Shott said. "We had yesterday's 7-on-7 camp in Harrison and then we will go back to Harrison for a team camp on July 11. And then we will go to Branson on the 19th and 20th."...

I'm sure there are some of you out there who believe in the Madden cover curse or the Sports Illustrated front page jinx. I officially started the Loftis editorial curse last year by prematurely crowning the Golden State Warriors as NBA champions when they took what seemed like a commanding 2-0 series lead. Instead, the Cleveland Cavaliers came back to defeat the Warriors, including winning games six and seven at Golden State to close out the series...