Monticello Live

At Monticello Middle School, two female students related to school officials earlier this afternoon that they had seen “a guy” walking near the school with what looked like a gun in his hand. Officials immediately contacted local law enforcement, and with their help began a thorough search of the buildings in the school district.

The lockdown comes just a week after an incident at Drew Central Schools was determined to be a “childish prank.” Last month, a University of Arkansas at Monticello employee was arrested after making threatening comments and spitting on law enforcement officials.

The high school office related that everyone is “ok,” and that after a thorough search of the school, no weapons had been found. The students who reported seeing the individual were interviewed thoroughly and assisted officials by providing a description of the individual.

While police did find an individual meeting that description, no weapons were found, and the lockdown was lifted before school was dismissed. Officials will continue looking into the incident to ensure the safety of the students.

According to Assistant Superintendant Tommy Tyler, the principals of the schools had just completed a revision of the district’s crisis plan last week, and it allowed all officials to proceed smoothly through today’s incident.

“We were not going to take it lightly. The police responded great. We’re thankful,” said Tyler.

This swarm of bees was seen Sunday morning in the North Park shopping center, on a shrub just outside Alltel Telephone.

In another large media sale, Monticello radio stations KHBM, KGPQ, and KXSA owned by Community Radio Network were purchased recently by Pines Broadcasting Inc., owned by Jimmy and Gwen Sledge. The sales prices of the stations was $1.05 million, according to the broadcastingcable.com site. In a letter to advertisers and businesses, Jimmy Sledge stated, “We have retained all of the employees at the stations, and we appreciate your patience during this time of transition of ownership.”

Pines Broadcasting announced that it plans to provide more local news, weather, and sports, as well as offering six different music formats to listen to on the stations.

Four local ladies traveled to Tunica, Mississippi this past weekend (March 30-April 1) for the World Barrel Racing Production Classic Equine Race for the Cash III. Their winnings, (left to right in the photo) are:

• Kim Eubanks placed first in the 6D competition, and won $1000 and a Martin trophy saddle.
• Lisa Kilcrease placed sixth in the 4D competition, and won $500 and a trophy bronc halter.
• Melinda Loveless placed third in the 2D competition, and won $900 and a World Barrel Racing trophy jacket.

Also competing was Deanna Duncan.

Submitted by Shelley Smith 

It has been confirmed by MonticelloLive that Community Communications Company, better known as Cablevision, has been acquired by former general manager Bill Copeland.  Discussions have already begun on upgrades and the addition of new services.

Cablevision provides cable television to 27 South Arkansas communities and both cable television and high-speed Internet services in Monticello. Cablevision was founded in 1973 and was owned by the late Paul Q. Gardner, Jr. until his death in June 2006. His widow, Donna Gardner and sons, Chad Gardner and Paul (Chip) Q. Gardner III, assumed control of the company at that time.  Community Communications Company still remains the largest independently owned cable company in Arkansas.

An official press release has been promised by the new management, and MonticelloLive will publish it as soon as it’s released.

Monticello leaders of Twenty for the Future had a busy morning today as they met with four different congressional leaders in the span of four hours.

While Representative Marion Barry was unable to meet due to scheduling conflicts, the group from Monticello met with his chief of staff as well as with Congressmen Mike Ross, John Boozman, and Vic Snyder.

Bennie Ryburn III was the spokesman for the group in all meetings today as he shared Twenty’s eight-point priority list. The group received a positive welcome from the delegation, and the congressmen pledged their support in many of the projects.

Representative Mike Ross said, “It’s a done deal, as far as I’m concerned,” in reference to the need for a north-south connector from Highway 278 to Jordan Drive to alleviate traffic around the hospital and schools.

Representative John Boozman said, “We’ll help you in any way we can.”

Members of the Congressional delegation and their staff remarked consistently what a positive impact the Monticello group is able to make by having such a large group of concerned civic, business and educational leaders present to advocate the needs of the community.

MonticelloLive is proud to present you with the podcast from the group’s meeting with Representative Mike Ross today:

Pictures of Tuesday’s Washington activities can be found here.

The National Weather Service in Little Rock has confirmed that the tornado that touched down in the northern part of Drew County on Saturday was of F2 intensity. An F2 tornado is defined as a significant tornado with sustained winds of 113 to 157 miles per hour. 25 percent of tornadoes reported in the United States yearly fall within this category.

Crews from the National Weather Service were on the scene in Drew County on Monday to survey the damage and confirm whether the damage sustained was characteristic of a tornado or high velocity straight line winds. A tornado track was discovered that had a path length of 15 miles stretching from 4.5 miles north of Monticello to 3.5 miles southeast of Garrett Bridge in Lincoln county.

To put the scale of an F2 tornado in perspective, the tornado that struck Dumas Arkansas on Saturday has been classified as an F3 Tornado. National Weather Service officials stated on Monday that the people of Drew County are very “lucky.” The tornado struck a mostly rural area of the county damaging only a few homes and outlying buildings.

The tornado tracks in Drew and Desha County were eerily similar to the February 24, 2001 tornado outbreak.

After being devastated by one and possibly two tornadoes on Saturday, Dumas sought to begin the long cleanup and restoration process Sunday. Members of at least half a dozen churches and other organizations from Monticello headed to Dumas Sunday morning to lend their encouragement, tools, and labor to the relief effort.

More pictures of the Dumas tornado destruction and relief effort here. (If you have pictures that you’d like to submit, please do so at jeff [at] monticellolive.com.

Early reports coming out of Dumas indicate that a tornado touched down and left a path of destruction through the community. Volunteers from the Monticello Fire Department and other organizations left Monticello shortly after the line of severe weather passed through Drew County to lend assistance. Unconfirmed reports are that there many have been some fatalities in Dumas. Dumas is located in Desha County and has a population of 5238, as of the 2000 census.