Monticello Live

At a recent City Council meeting, 4 members were chosen to serve on the “fire dept. location committee”.  Those city council members were, Carolyn Brown, Raymond Hubbard, Sherrie Gillespie, and Beverly Hudson.

They, along with Mayor Joe Rogers and fire Chief Steven Faulkner toured Fire Station #3, which is located on Commerce Road, near Airport Road, and then looked at the W. C. Whaley site, a city owned lot at Patton and Edgewood (located behind Oakland Cemetary), and two privately owned parcels on N. Hyatt Street. (more…)

Monticello’s Hyatt Field and Cotton Boll Stadium are back in business, following repairs to the base of the stadium lighting fixtures.

Monticello School superintendent Bobby Harper told MonticelloLive that Hyatt Field’s poles have had the welding operation completed, and have been inspected by certified welding inspectors, and that the field is back in service.

Starko Inc. had been contracted to weld 4 inch by 12 inch gussett plates to the base of the 4 light poles at Hyatt Field, with 12 gussetts being attached to each pole.  That began Friday, and continued Saturday and Sunday, until the task was completed.

The next game to be played at Hyatt Field will be Friday night as the Billies take on Little Rock McClellan. (more…)

The Quorum Court unanimously approved the Hospital Board’s request to borrow $14 million to fund the Hospitals building modernization plan. Construction could start within the next 15 months.

With the approval of the loan application; Phase I of the modernization will be to build and construct an Allied Health building containing services such as a sleep center, physical therapy, and an outpatient psychiatric program.

Additional services can be added to the building such as chemotherapy and radiation treatment programs and outpatient clinics. Phase II of the program will be the addition of 41 all private rooms replacing the current medical/surgical rooms.

Click on the “cloverleaf” on the bottom of the video screen, to enlarge it to full screen view.

Drew County, Monticello, AR Fair Parade, 2009 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

I was thinking the other day  about how everyone seems to want a “Business Card”. Many of us have one, serving to identify us, by providing our name, title, e-mail address and phone number, as a way to “connect” with us. (more…)

The winners of the Ms. Drew County Pageant, held Saturday night are…..

Winner Meggan LaMarche
1st Runner-up Lou Lambert
2nd Runner-up Amanda Nall
Interview Lou Lambert
Photogenic Meggan LaMarche
Congeniality Amanda Nall

Monticello Fire Dept., Monticello Police Dept., and Drew County Sheriff’s Dept are at the local Walmart today raising funds for Special Olympics.

Boots and Badges will be going on until 5 p.m. this afternoon.  All proceeds go to help support Special Olympics.

The winners in the Drew County Fair Parade are……..

(more…)

Ann Hartness, age 36 of Monticello, was charged with DWI by the Monticello Police Dept. on Wednesday, Sept 16, following a 1 vehicle accident at the intersection of Patton and Edgewood.

Tuesday evening, September 22, between 7-8 p.m., Hartness was involved in another single vehicle wreck, this time on Barkada Road, just outside of the Monticello city limits, and was charged with DWI II by the Drew County Sheriff’s Dept.

The Ford Freestyle was towed Patton by Rod’s Wrecker, and from Barkada by Tommy’s Wrecker.

Hartness’ vehicle was also towed on Saturday, August 1 by J.A. Goad Towing., following another accident on Jefferson Street.

Petite Miss, ages 12 & 13
Charlee Carter-winner
Kellie Moore-1st runner up
Laurel Beal-2nd runner up & Photogenic

Junior Miss, ages 14-15
Carol Anne Scogins-winner & photogenic
Dallas Tacker-1st runner up

Winners at the Drew County Fair Talent Show Tuesday night were…… (more…)

The Monticello School board met Tuesday afternoon and approved a recommendation to perform a repair procedure to the defective light poles, located at Hyatt Field. (more…)

Options, Inc. has been told by their landlord, “Move out of the house you have been housing victims of domestic violence in for twenty years, or buy it.” We need YOUR HELP, we have no money to buy a house. If we are forced to move out we have no place to go, victims will have no place where they will be safe from the violence. Options, Inc is the only victim service agency in the 10th Judicial District, Ashley, Bradley, Chicot, Desha, and Drew Counties that provides emergency shelter, twenty-four hour crisis intervention, twenty-four hours hot-line, and shelter accessibility twenty-four hours seven days a week. (more…)

Drivers on the UAM campus will notice that some streets have been closed to traffic, as of Friday night.

The 2 sections of roadway adjoining the UAM stadium blocked off are; from the stop sign next to Royer Hall and the stadium, to the stop sign next to the agri dept; and from the stop sign by the old swimming pool to the stop sign between the administration building and the stadium.

Royer Hall, a residential dorm facility is also being closed down as a safety measure, as explained in a press release from UAM, posted below.

Access to the UAM campus must now be made from the HWY 425 entrance, in front of Drew Central.  (more…)

The SeaArk Companies (formerly MonArk Boat Company) Mark 50 Years of Boat Building with an open house at SeaArk, today, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Zach McClendon, Jr. of Monticello, Arkansas will celebrate being in the boat building business for 50 consecutive years this September. McClendon, along with his father, Zach McClendon, Sr. and another local businessman, Norris Judkins started MonArk Boat Company in May of 1958 building small aluminum jon boats using a shear and break press provided by Judkins. The company incorporated the next year, in August of 1959.

MonArk Boat Company eventually grew to include a large recreational division that included both aluminum and fiberglass boats and manufactured a wide range of products including Ski Boats, Pontoons, Houseboats, Sail Boats, Canoes, and Bass Boats in addition to the basic jon boat that is still built today. At the height of the recreation business the company was building approximately 15,000 boats per year and had over 300 dealers throughout the United States. (more…)

Monticello School Superintendent Bobby Harper told the school board at Tuesday night’s meeting that the 4 light poles over Hyatt Field have been recalled by their manufacturer, which has now reportedly filed for bankruptcy and is no longer in business.

The school district’s architect recently contacted the school to tell them that the poles are being recalled because of welds around the base of the poles, where the poles are attached to a concrete base, which are deteriorating in some cases of poles produced by Whitco, mainly in Texas, but not exclusively in Texas.

The Searcy school district has 20 poles like this; 4 of them are defective; forcing Searcy to cancel their home football games for the season. (more…)

Soon after the terrorists crashed the planes into the Twin Towers in New York City, and most Americans realized that we were not as safe as we all thought we were, country singer Alan Jackson released a song that summed up how a lot of people felt, and how they reacted.

The song asked, “Where were you?” on that September 11 morning, 2001.

As we stop and remember where we were that September morning, let’s also remember the Americans that lost their lives that day, and the families that were left behind.

Everyone is welcome to join in, and remember where you were, and what you did that morning,

Members of the Drew Central High School Pirates football team attended the Drew Central school board meeting Thursday night, and presented the game ball from Friday night’s victory over Dermott to board member Mike Pennington.

Pennington made a substantial financial contribution to the building of the stadium, which has been named Pennington Stadium, in his honor.

The Game Ball was autographed by the team, and is marked as “1st win at Pennington Stadium.”

(more…)

The Monticello Billies will take on the Warren Lumberjacks Friday Night at Hyatt Field in Monticello and all of Arkansas will be watching, on Channel 7 Friday evening & Channel 11 Saturday morning (during the Hooten’s Highlights). (more…)

Click to Enlarge.

The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department held a Public Hearing Tuesday evening at the Sadie Johnson Community Center, to allow public input, as well as answer some questions about the proposed plans for a bypass of Monticello for the future I-69.

Approximately 90 area residents attended the informational meeting, to ask questions about their land, houses, and community.  I was able to go through the process of question and answers with a couple who are losing their home of 12 years to the new roadway, as they visited with one of the approximately 9 AHTD representatives who were present for the forum, representing different departments of the AHTD.

The official name of the “Monticello Bypass” is known as “job 020471″, and will begin near the “dead man’s curve” area of HWY 278 East, and continue to it’s end, on HWY 425 South, near the Drew Central Bus Shop.

AHTD brought to the meeting 3 16 foot long maps, showing in great detail the exact area, down to storage sheds, that will be directly affected by the construction.

Interchanges will be built at the 278 East and HWY 425 connection points, as well as it’s crossing with HWY 35 South/HWY 35 East.

3 overpasses will be built where the new roadway comes into the Old Deane Road, Old Troy Road, and Midway Route areas of construction.

The 8.6 mile project will also be raised over the crossing of the Arkansas Midland Railroad.

The project could begin as early as acquiring properties with the next year, and beginning the bid process for construction in the Fall of 2010.  The project will begin as a 2 lane highway, and will be expanded into a 4 lane divided roadway in the future. (more…)

These photos, taken Tuesday night, show recent improvements at the Drew County Fairgrounds, including where the destroyed building was that housed the cattle barn and old auditorium has been removed.

The newly graded parking lot should be ready to provide better service, with drainage flowing in 2 directions.

The commercial and exhibit buildings are still out of service, and bids are being taken to provide for their repairs.  They should be back in service by the 2010 fair.