Monticello Live

Jay Dyson invited Meagan Wilson (a senior at UAM) to watch the Christmas Parade at the Monticello Town Square.

She was surprised when Jay “won” the chance to introduce the 4 guest judges.

Meagan was even more surprised when Jay proposed to her in front of the hundreds of onlookers.  She said “yes.”

The event made statewide news, and the video was viewed over 2,100 times.

Click here for the full story from January.  The video comes in at #23 for the year.

The festival was postponed, and not re-scheduled during 2011.

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Mandy Moss, reporter, and Joe Burgess, the "MonticelloLive Guy"

The Business of the Year Award is given to a business that strives everyday to provide outstanding community service while developing a quality product that attracts a wide range of customers. MonticelloLive is pleased and honored to accept the title of MEDC/Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year for 2011.

After purchasing MonticelloLive only 4 years ago, owner Joe Burgess has transformed a small, local website into a news site that, in the past 12 months, has had more than 2.7 million page views. In the past two months alone, MLive has also been linked on state-level news websites 3 times for its coverage of important local stories.  The business has been mentioned in Arkansas Business twice, and in Arkansas Times once

Burgess’ entertaining acceptance speech ranged from stand-up comedian to lay-preacher, as he took the opportunity to thank his sponsors, employees, and readers, but most of all, he took time to say, “I want to thank the Lord.”

Glen Dabney and the EFS Geo-Technologies staff

EFS Technologies was established over 20 years ago in Monticello and has experienced significant growth in recent years. The company provides a career path and opportunities for UAM students in the technology field in hopes that they will remain here after graduating. The presence of such industry in Monticello also allows for the recruitment of other technology-based employers to come to the area.

Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, EFS Geo-Technologies mapped 1.5 million acres of damaged forest lands with their Ariel GPS Systems. In 2010 the company collected imagery data on over 10 million acres of land area.

“Those are pretty impressive numbers, I don’t care who you are.” – MEDC Executive Director Nita McDaniel

Monteen McCoy was named as this year’s Woman of the Year. Mrs. McCoy has been married for 60 years and at the age of 87 years old, she says she looks forward to serving her community for many more years.

Mrs. McCoy is a retired public school teacher and was awarded Volunteer of the Year at Drew Memorial Hospital after many years of service and has accumulated 5,917 volunteer hours at the hospital. She leads an effort to provide hand crocheted newborn caps for each baby born in the hospital. These are but a small portion of the many contributions Monteen McCoy has made, and continues to make, to Drew County.

Richard Akin was honored as Man of the Year, largely in part to his passion for keeping the Monticello Square functional and beautiful. He has seen to keeping the downtown area kept uniform and allowed business to continue there as it has since it was first constructed.

Mr. Akin said, “When I was a kid, going to Monticello meant going to the square,” as he explained what drives his passion to continue renovating the buildings.

His most recent project, commonly referred to as “The McKiever Building,” is moving along very quickly. Upstairs there will now be two apartments and downstairs will be home to a sandwich shop.

UAM Rookie of the Year – Dr. Laura Evans
UAM Teacher of the Year – James Crow
Drew Central Teacher of the Year – Sheila Hall Gardner
MHS Teacher of the Year – Kim Wilson

The Monticello Teacher of the Year Award was presented to Mrs. Kim Wilson, the visual arts teacher at MHS. Mrs. Wilson was also just pronounced as State Teacher of the Year. She has been teaching for 16 years and has her Bachelor’s Degree from Winthrop University in South Carolina and Trinity College in Vermont. She has Master’s Degrees from both Kent State University in Ohio and University of Arkansas in Monticello.

Drew Central Teacher of the Year was awarded to Mrs. Sheila Gardner. She is in her 33rd year of education and received a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Arkansas in Monticello and a Master’s Degree in Library Science from UCA. She began her teaching career in a rural school that was located at Selma. She taught 4th grade and only had 10 students in her classroom. She began teaching at Drew Central Elementary in 1980 and has remained at the school district since. She is currently the Middle School’s librarian. In 2007 Mrs. Gardner was named Outstanding Educator by the Drew Central School Board.

Dr. Laura Evans was named Rookie of the Year for UAM. She received her Doctorate or Philosophy Degree from UAMS. Her research has a major focus on health promotion and disease prevention, women’s health, and was a Project Director for two National Institute of Nursing Research grants. Recently Dr. Evans completed a quantitative study for rural black women in southeast Arkansas and plans to follow up with an intervention study.

UAM Teacher of the Year was awarded to assistant professor of nursing, James Crow.

The Monticello-Drew County Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations for 2011 Man of the Year and Woman of the Year.

The winners will be announced on December 13, at the annual Chamber/MEDC Awards Banquet.

Nomination forms are available at the Chamber or by calling 367-6741.

City of Monticello employees are show preparing the “new” Town Square with the “new” Christmas decoration purchases last year.

The annual “Carols of Christmas” parade will be held on November 29.  Contact the Chamber of Commerce at 367-6741 to enter you church, club, or organization’s float in the parade.

The Chamber of Commerce held a Ribbon Cutting cermony,Friday, at Mosquito Beach Emporium.

Mosquito Beach Emporium is a gift shop,located behind Ray’s on Highway 278 West.

The MEDC and the Chamber of Commerce hosted the dedication ceremonies for the Ridgeway Monticello and the Downtown Civic Center, Tues afternoon.

Ridgeway tours  led into the ceremony at the fully renovated hotel, where around 100 people attended.

The Downtown Civic Center dedication followed, and had an estimated 75 present.

Cablevisin’s “Hometown Monticello” program on Channel 19 will include a special video segment of the Ridgeway Monticello dedication event, repeating from Sunday at 5 pm, until Monday at 7 am, this weekend.

The most recent winner of the “Yard of the Month” is the home of Major and DeAnna Blissett.

The Blissetts live at the intersection of Old HWY 35 West and Wake Robin.

Their hard work earned their home the recognition, as selected by the Town and County Garden Club, and presented by the Chamber of Commerce.

They were presented the yard sign recognizing their accomplishment, Friday, by Glenda Nichols, of the Chamber of Commerce.

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The Chamber of Commerce board voted, Monday, to postpone indefinitely the annual Rhythm & Roots Festival, planned for October.

The board will instead focus on other tourism opportunities and events to increase the number of visitors enjoying Monticello’s events and activities.

The lack of chamber funds, based on last year’s festival expenses seems to the be primary reason for the cancellation of the annual community festival.

Volunteers from the Monticello-Drew County Chamber of Commerce recently presented PowerPoint presentations to twelve Drew County 8th-grade classrooms.

Arkansas Scholars is a program of the Arkansas Business & Education Alliance and is designed to motivate high school students to work harder, make better grades and continue their education beyond high school.

To meet the requirements for the program a student must;
*Earn semester grades of “C” or above in all courses
*Achieve 95% or better attendance record (averaged over four years)
*Finish high school in 8 consecutive semesters
*Complete the balance of the state mandated high school graduation requirements (Smart Core).

Photo taken in Mrs. Touchstone’s science room at Monticello Middle School.

At the recent Arkansas Delta Byways Awards Banquet held in Forrest City, Arkansas, two Drew Countians fared well.

State Representative Sheilla Lampkin was named Outstanding Member of Delta Byways for 2010. Arkansas Game and Fish officer Scott Lane was named a finalist for the Tourism Support Award. Standing with Mr. Lane is wife, Paula, a teacher at MMS. 

Arkansas Delta Byways is a tourism promotion association serving 15 counties in eastern Arkansas on/near the Mississippi River Delta

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

The Drew County Business of the Year award was presented to the Drew County Developmentally Disabilities Council, Tuesday night at the MEDC/Chamber of Commerce banquet.

The DCDD operates several facilities in Drew and surrounding counties; has 275 employees;, and has a $4,p00,000 annual payroll.

This week’s One Monticello Life tells of the beginning and growth of the Drew County Developmental Disabilities Council, and their organizations.

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P.Q. Gardner and DeAnna Doherty

Drew County Developmentally Disabled, including Sesame School, The Other Way, and other operations in surrounding couties.

The Marketplace

Monticello Schools, Emily White

Drew Central Schools, Alan Goodding

UAMonticello, Jim Edson

James & Rene Knowles family, of Possum Valley.

Click here for the feature article that MonticelloLive posted when James & Rene were announced as the Drew County Farm Family of the Year, in July.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Tuesday night the Chamber of Commerce and MEDC held their annual awards banquet, at the UAM University Center.

The winners are:

Monticello teacher of the year; Jennifer Touchstone, MMS science teacher, also awarded regional teacher of the year.

Drew Central teacher of the year;  Rose Ann Adcock, DCMS 6th grade teacher.

Industry of the year: UAM.  “UAM’s impact includes millions of dollars into the local economy.  More than buildings and books,” quoted from Truman Hamilton during the presentation.

Business of the year; Head of the Class Child Care and Learning Center, Sherrie and Shay Gillespie-10 years with 40 employees now.

Woman of the year;  Betty Lindsey, president of Drew Memorial Hospital auxiliary-recruited 12 new auxiliary members in last 2 years. Awarded state “auxiliary member of the year”.

Man of the year; Drew County Judge Damon Lampkin.

 

 

Drew County Farm Family of the Year; Jeremy & Michael Oltmann families.