Monticello Live

Commercial Bank & Trust is proud to announce a strategic initiative to unify sister bank, First State Bank of Warren, into the Commercial Bank operation effective June 24, 2024. Given the proximity of locations, unifying as one bank under the Commercial Bank charter will aid customer access and convenience. Customers will have access to a total of eight banking offices and nine ATMs in the southeast Arkansas communities of Monticello, Warren, Hermitage and Hampton.

Both Banks were purchased by Bennie Ryburn, Sr., more than 50-years ago, and have operated as separate and distinct banks since that time. Todd Smith, president of Commercial Bank and First State Bank of Warren was asked about the reason for the change and described it this way, ‘Joining the two banks together will remove back-office redundancies and allow us to offer greater convenience, and better products and services such as enhanced technology for customers. It will also allow our staff to spend more time with customers and less on administrative duties that act as a barrier to service. It’s a win-win for the communities we serve because no staffing, philanthropic-giving or community development will be reduced. We will eliminate the structural red tape of operating with two names.’ (more…)

A new Dollar General store is being built in Wilmar, with groundwork starting to take place, now. (more…)

The Mayors Office hosted an eclipse planning meeting Monday where local City and County officials, first responders, School Resource Officers and UAM staff discussed preparations for the upcoming April 8 Eclipse event.

The meeting coordinated and addressed all local vital services and potential issues locally that could occur, such as diminished cellular phone service that could occur due to the large number of people videoing the event statewide and the expected increase in traffic to and from the park of totality in Central Arkansas.

“We expect travelers passing through Monticello in route to the event and coming from the event. We want to make sure that we do our part to ensure increased traffic, anticipate increased purchases of fuel by those travelers and other areas that could affect our town are covered”. (more…)

Delta Data Mining, on Cherry Street,  are removing the east-most unit as it’s out of date.

They are also using this time to perform standard maintenance on transformers.

Their original plan was to complete this work in Jan, but the cold temps froze the ground making work impossible.

“While this doesn’t change any of our capacity or equipment running, we should be overall running everything a bit lighter, ahead of the coming summer months.”-  DDM.

After nine years in business, since opening their Monticello store in January, 2015, Family Dollar is closing, after they sell their current stock.

Photo courtesy of Bennie Ryburn.

Photo courtesy of Bennie Ryburn

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Every Correct Craft boat and engine company won the 2023 Marine Industry Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) Award, highlighting their dedication to excellent customer service. The awards were announced at the 2024 Discover Boating® Miami International Boat Show® Industry Breakfast. (more…)

During Friday mornings, power outage, approximately an hour before opening time, Brian Smith, owner of the Prescription Pad Pharmacy on Highway 425 south, is shown firing up generators so that he can operate his computers to take care of his customers medication needs.

Locally owned businesses, taking care of local residents. That’s what makes Monticello, Monticello.