Monticello Live

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Monticello’s  annual Weevil Welcome event was held Tuesday night, with 300-350 local folks attending.

The celebration recognizes the appreciation that Monticello has for the University, its staff, and its students.

The Chamber of Commerce organizes the event.  The set up and cooking is done by City of Monticello employees.  The meal was served by the UAM Cotton Blossoms basketball team.  Prizes were donated by dozens of local businesses.

Mrs. Addie Washington of Maria Place was this month’s recipient of the Chamber of Commerce Yard of the Month award, selected by the Town and Country Garden Club.

Mrs. Washington was notified of the award on her 85th birthday. Mrs. Washington stated that her daughter, Joyce Darrough, who also shares the same birth date, does most of the gardening now. Mrs. Washington’s daughters, Mrs. Hazelene McCray, not pictured, and Ms. Darrough, were both present for the award presentation, by Glenda Nichols of the Chamber.

Ken and Brenda Kendrick were recognized as the Monticello “Yard of the Month”.

The award is presented by the Chamber of Commerce, and selected by the Town & Country Garden Club.

 The complimented Bill’s Lawn Care and Ed’s Produce for their assistance n the yard’s appearance.

The Saline River chapter of the Friends of the NRA recently joined the Monticello / Drew County Chamber of Commerce.

The welcoming ceremony, showing them becoming more active in the Drew County area, was held at Donaldson Gun Shop, on Westgate Drive.

For more Information, their upcoming banquet flyer (attached) has their contact information.

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MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

The winning floats from the Chamber of Commerce Carols of Christmas Parade are……

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This month’s Yard of the Month honor goes Linda and Grady Tabor, at the corner of Country Club Lane and Old Hwy 35 West, for their work to beautify their front, side and back yard area.

Congratulations for a job well done.

The award is chosen by the Town & Country Garden Club and presented by the Monticello / Drew County Chamber of Commerce.

Mike and Mildred McGinnis were awarded the Yard of the Month honor for the work they’ve done at their Glenwood Drive home.

Glenda Nichols of the Chamber of Commerce made the presentation, Friday, which was decided by the Town & Country Garden Club.

Mike and Mildred want to express their appreciation to Fuller’s Lawn & Garden and Joe Bonfanti, for their assistance in achieving this honor

To nominate someone for Yard of the Month, call the Chamber at 367-6741.

Laura and Jerry Smith, of Falls Drive, were chosen by the Town & County Garden Club to have earned the June Yard of the Month.

Shown with Mrs. Laura is Glenda Nichols, of the Chamber of Commerce.  Shown with Mr. Jerry is the couple’s granddaughter.

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 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 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.