Monticello Live

Senator Jimmy Jeffress (right) presents a Senate citation to Michael Binns, Sr., in recognition of his retirement after 35 years of teaching music.

Binns conducted concert choir recitals, taught hundreds of students to sight read music and was named Arkansas Senior High School Choir Director of the Year five times.

Hundreds of his choir students have been named All Region for Southeast Arkansas.

U.S. Representative Mike Ross met with representatives of Drew County’s “Twenty for the Future” group in his Washington, D.C., office Wednesday, during their visit to the nation’s capital to meet with federal legislators.

Ross, as well as our other elected Washington delegation members, met with the group to discuss Monticello and Drew County’s economic challenges and needs and how best to facilitate economic growth in the region.

Items on the agenda to be covered included:
University of Arkansas at Monticello, for funding of projects for the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, the School of Nursing, and to replace the university’s current phone system.
Drew Memorial Hospital intended to request funding for an electronic medical records system, a nurse call system, a digital mammogram machine, a 64-slice tomography scanner, and a telemetry system for the E.R.
The City of Monticello planned to point out the  benefits of a potential Monticello community center.
Other topics to be discussed were: I-530, the Southeast Arkansas Regional Library to build a new library the local Intermodal Facility, and nearby Yellow Bend Port.

Meeting were held Wednesday, and the group is returning to Monticello, today.

Just before noon Monday, the driver of the vehicle shown here was attempting to park outside of Western Sizzlin’, and reportedly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal of the car.

The car then crashed through the wall and window of the restaurant, injuring 3 customers while they were eating their lunch.

Two of the injured customers were taken by ambulance to Drew Memorial; the third was being transported by personal vehicle.

Monticello police, fire & rescue, Drew County sheriff’s deputies, and Arkansas State Police responded to the scene.

U.S. Representative Mike Ross stands with Rev. D.J. Buffington, Pastor of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Monticello, outside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on February 4, 2010.

Rev. Buffington was Ross’s guest at the National Prayer Breakfast held annually on the first Thursday of February each year in Washington, D.C.

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Photos by Shelley Smith,  Becky Phillips, and others.

HAPPY 28th ANNIVERSARY to Brenda and Ronny Reed.

From your little sister,

PS WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Between 9:30-10 p.m., Tuesday evening, as many North and South Gabbert Street residents were getting ready for quiet night’s rest, police lights and sirens caught everyone’s attention, not once, but twice, as a police chase that began in McGehee, after a reported domestic disturbance, headed toward Lincoln County, and then turned south, traveling down HWY 83, North Gabbert Street,  and South Gabbert Street, before the driver hit a dead end and reversed, traveling back north on South Gabbert and North Gabbert, then east on Oakland, north on Cooper, and finally gave up at the end of East Calhoun Street

The pursuit, which started with McGehee police, grew to include Arkansas State Police Troop E and Troop F patrol units, as well as Drew County deputies and Monticello police officers.

At the dead end of Calhoun Street, the suspect stopped the car, and officers quickly took  the driver and female passenger out of the vehicle, and placed them under arrest. (more…)

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